Chapter 34

After the crew stole the gold from the island, and escaped the island on the Merry, the crew began to relax as they sail the white seas towards the exit at the east end.

Rose grins in satisfaction of the arc finally reaching its completion as she jumps off the crow's nest and cushions her fall with a gust of wind. Once her feet touch the deck, she sees that Conis and her father are catching up to them on a small crow boat.

Nami grins at the guests as she waves over to them. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"We came to see you off, and help you go down to the blue sea safely." Conis says as her dad pilots the ship, so that they're sailing right next to them.

Robin walks up to the railing and looks over their companions curiously. "How can you help us?"

"You'll find out right now. We're almost at the exit." Conis points ahead to show that she's right, for they're going to be approaching a large, majestic gate that says 'Cloud End' at the top.

Zoro raises an eyebrow at the seemingly easy exit. "So this path just takes us down?"

Conis nods as her boat stops moving. "This is as far as we can go. Good luck!"

"Thanks for all your help!" Nami says as she waves them off.

"Until we meet again!" Sanji says as he waves at them with the others.

Pagaya sees that the crew's sails are open and calls out to them. "I'M SORRY, BUT YOU SHOULD CLOSE YOUR SAILS!"

"THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!" Rose yells back as she flies up to close the sails.

"We should put the gold away too!" Chopper says as he goes into heavy point to carry some of the gold inside while Zoro and Luffy help him take in the rest.

As the wind girl finishes tying up the sails, she sees what's ahead just as the crew is about to pass the gate. When she remembers what's about to come, she chuckles to herself as she sits in the crow's nest and grabs onto the edge. "You guys might want to hang onto something!"

The others stare up at the cautious seventeen year old in confusion, just when the guys come back outside, before they all look ahead to find that they're about to fall off the edge of the cloud.

Every last one of them, except for Robin and Rose, drop their jaws in horror of the sight of the world below them just before they free fall to the blue sea.

Conis giggles at the terrified shrieks from most of the pirates as she grabs a whistle. "Time to help out, balloon octopus!"

She blows the whistle so loud that it can be heard throughout the depths of the white sea. Once the shrill sound was finished, a giant pink and purple octopus jumps out of the water, just above the ship.

Nami, Usopp, and Chopper scream in fright of the sea creature while the others, except for Rose, get ready for a fight. However, before they could do anything, they collapse on their faces because the ship's falling slowed down exponentially.

Rose chuckles at the catch from her spot in the crow's nest, as she lifts her head to find that the giant octopus caught them and is using its body like a parachute by gathering enough air to give the Merry a gentle descent.

Knowing that they're safe, she allows herself a moment to relax and take in the breathtaking view of the world around them from their place in the clear afternoon sky. "I freaking love this place..."

Luffy laughs at the catch as he looks at all the giant tentacles that are holding onto the ship. "This is so awesome!"

"I'll be damned." Sanji says as he grabs his cigarette and lights it up before he heads to the kitchen to walk about the gold.

Robin only grins at the birds flying past them before she and most of the others start going inside.

Rose however, takes a moment to photograph her surroundings from her seat on the crow's nest, as she thinks of what's to come next. *Going by the manga, we should be heading to the Davy Back fight after we reach the ocean.*

She quietly sighs to herself while she puts her camera in her bag and remembers the crew's encounter with the Foxy pirates and Aokiji. *Man, that arc's gonna be a pain in the ass... At least seeing afro Luffy makes up for it.*

She chuckles at the exciting thought of Luffy fighting in an afro before she vaults over the crow's nest. The wind girl creates a gust to land on the deck before she starts walking below deck.

Before the brunette can reach the door though, Luffy opens the kitchen door and waves her over. "Hey Rose, come inside!"

Rose grins at the invitation, before she points to her door. "In a minute, I gotta take care of something first."

He nods in agreement as he goes back to the kitchen to demand to buy a bronze statue.

As Rose heads inside though, she's unaware that her comment was overheard by Robin. As the archaeologist sits down at the table, she closes her eyes and creates an eye on the hallway wall to see where her crew mate is going. When she finds out that she's just heading to the bathroom though, she cancels out her power and leaves her alone.

Rose however is planning to perform her experiment in the private room, so she doesn't take any chances as she locks the heavy bolt on the door, that Nami had Usopp install for privacy. She even inspects the entire room, along with herself and her backpack, for any of Robin's spying appendages. Once she knows that she's alone, she sits cross legged on the floor, opens her bag and gently carries out the tied up box that holds her samples.

She feels more like a child opening a Christmas gift than a scientist right now, as she rushes to untie the handkerchief that she wrapped around her stone box. As soon as she takes off the lid, her smile couldn't get any bigger while she stares at the two red and black gems that hold a blue luminescence thanks to the Timore comet's power. *Alright, I should only need one for this.*

The brunette gently sets the small container on the floor, before she makes sure that her dark grey glove is covering her hands. With a look of determination, she takes a deep breath before she clears her mind and keeps it from thinking about the many worlds out there. With her mind blank, she slowly touches one of the gems, that's a little smaller than the other, and waits for a reaction.

When her body isn't taking in the comet's energy, she lets out a breath that she didn't know she was holding, and plucks the jewel from the box. *So, touching them doesn't automatically do it. At least when I don't have a desire to leave. It might be because I'm wearing gloves too.*

She grins at the new theories before she puts the lid back on her box and stares down at her necklace. Her eyes move from one crystal to another, before she touches the jewel she's holding to the one she's wearing around her neck.

After a moment, she takes the glowing crystal away from her necklace, but no changes were made to her family's treasure. "The radiation isn't transferable between them on first contact either. Long term contact might do it, but that can wait."

The excited girl shakes her head to help herself get focused on the real test as she gently places her sample on the floor. She goes into her backpack and pulls out the letter, that she made for Naomi, Timothy, and Bobby, and scans over the long note to make sure that it holds everything that she wants to say.

As she reads over the reassuring words to her friends with a soft grin, something in the back of her mind tells her that something is missing, and she knows exactly what that is. She digs into her bag until she pulls out the envelope of photos that she made from her adventures in Skypiea.

Rose shuffles through the pictures until she reaches the one that Luffy took of her sitting alone on top of a palm tree and giving him the peace sign. She nods in satisfaction as she takes the picture out of the stack, then piles both that and the stone onto the letter.

After she puts her memories back in the bag, she rubs the palms of her hands together to steel her nerves before she takes off her gloves and bandages from her hands. When her cream-colored fingers can be seen, she hesitantly reaches for the crystal with one hand. As soon as her middle finger touches the gem, a shiver unintentionally runs through her whole body from the icy cold stone.

The astronomer mentally notes the feeling, then puts two more fingers on the jewel, moves her thoughts to the restaurant that made her last few years in New York less painful, and talks under her breath. "Please go to La Bella Pizzeria on 12th street in New York City, USA…"

She stares at the stone intently, as she keeps her fingers on the freezing gem, but nothing happens at all. She feels an awkward silence fill the room before she groans in frustration and picks it up. *What's missing from the night I left?*

The astronomer keeps the cold stone in her warm hand, and examines it for a way to make it work until the door handle starts shaking. She jolts at the noise as she fumbles with the gem until she catches it with both hands, and turns to the locked door. "Give me a minute!"

"Hurry up!"

Rose starts to relax when she hears Zoro's voice from the other side of the door and goes to her sample's container. "Don't get your boxers in a bunch, I'm almost-!"

She stops when she feels the chill growing in her hands, then looks down to discover that the stone's blue glow is starting to flow out of it and is spreading onto her hands!

"HOLY SHIT!" She throws the crystal onto her letter and photo, before she jumps up from her seat on the floor to wash her hands with hot water.

Zoro widens his eyes at the frightened yell as he tries to push the door open, but it won't budge. "Oi, what's going on in there?!"

When Rose notices that the radiation from her hands is fading away, she lets out a breath of relief, and calls out to her crew mate. "I'm ok, sorry for the-!"

She stops when she sees that she has no time to relax, because the blue radiation from her stone is spreading onto her photo and letter. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!"

She frantically uses her wind to lift up the three items before the energy can spread onto the floor and ignores Zoro's worried calls. She continues to ignore the door's loud banging as she keeps the three piled items levitating a few feet in the air.

While her focus remains on her experiment, her wide eyes marvel at the fascinating sight of the comet's energy spreading onto the papers.

Once all three items are completely covered in a sky blue luminescence, and with nothing else for the radiation to spread to, all three of them begin to vanish just when the swordsman slashes through the door with two of his weapons.

Zoro widens his eyes at the floating blue objects before they disappear in a matter of seconds, as if they were never there. He blinks at the crazy sight, but he can't find any traces of the glowing items.

He sees Rose still in a stupor from witnessing such a beautiful sight, as she leans back against the sink to keep herself from collapsing. "Oi, what the hell happened?!"

The astronomer finally snaps out of it and sees that the box on the floor is still sealed. She feels relieved that he doesn't see that her second sample is the same crystal as her necklace.

However, she knows that she's not off the hook yet, so she nervously looks at him and waves her arms around frantically while she talks a mile a minute. "Dude, did you see that?! It was fucking crazy! I got this weird rock back on the island and when I was holding it, my hands turned blue! Then when I threw it on the ground to wash my hands, it made the things it touched turn blue! I made them float, so it wouldn't affect anything else, and then poof!"

She throws her arms into the air for dramatic effect, to make it seem like she's lost her mind. Thankfully the tactic works, for he can only stare at her blankly before he sheethes his swords. "I got nothing from that except you finding weird rocks..."

He notices the stone box on the floor and widens his eyes at the blue glow leaking from the cracks of the container. "Wait, is another one in-?!"

He cuts himself off when they hear the others screaming outside before the two of them, along with every movable object in the room, suddenly fly up until they reach the ceiling!

Zoro groans from the rough flight as he pushes his torso off the ceiling, but they're still pinned. "What the hell are you doing Rose?!"

Rose scowls at the complaint before she uses her wind to push both herself and the swordsman off the ceiling, but they can only get a few inches of distance. "This isn't me, the ship's falling! Come on!"

She uses as much wind as she can muster up, to keep the two of them off the ceiling as they escape the bathroom and heads to the deck.

Rose barely has time to think about her backpack and sample that she left in the bathroom when the pirates make it outside, just to have to hold onto the doorway to keep themselves from flying off the ship.

"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?!" Zoro asks as they look up to see the night sky above them instead of the octopus balloon.

"THE OCTOPUS JUST UP AND SHRUNK!" Luffy yells as he holds onto the small octopus with one hand while the other holds onto the railing.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAUSED IT BY JUMPING ON ITS HEAD!" Sanji yells as he and the others hold onto the railing for dear life.

Rose mutters a curse as she lets go of the doorway and gets herself flying on her own gust.

As Rose flies down next to the ship and goes towards the bottom, Usopp calls out to her. "I ALREADY PLACED WIND DIALS DOWN THERE TO HELP DELAY THE FALL! TRY REUSING THEM WITH YOUR WIND!"

She widens her purple eyes at what he said and realizes that she saw Usopp do this in the anime, but not in the manga. She holds off on thinking about it as she keeps going down until she's next to the bottom of the ship.

She creates as strong of a gust as she can manage under the ship, to refill the four empty wind dials that are lined up on the keel of the ship, until they're at full blast again and helping her to ease the Merry's descent.

The wind girl grins in satisfaction that the ship is falling at half the speed and glances down to find that they still have twenty feet to the ocean.

"YOU OK DOWN THERE ROSE?!" Nami calls out as she peeks her head over the railing.

Rose doesn't move her eyes from the water yet, as she keeps descending with the ship, and uses her wind to keep the wind dials at full power. "I'M FINE, I'LL BE BACK UP IN A-!"

She stops herself when she's able to get a close enough view to see exactly where they're landing. A part of the ocean that's mostly surrounded by a small, mountainous, island. However, this island has been modified by the marines to be one of the strongest fortresses on the Grand Line. *OH HELL, WE'RE HEADING TO THE NAVARONE FILLER!*

She tries to create a stronger gust of wind, to get the ship flying, but the vessel is too heavy for her powers to carry it. "DAMMIT!"

The others become confused at Rose's distressed yell as the wind girl flies up to the railing and grabs on just as the ship hits the water in the middle of the crescent like island.

The rest of the crew hangs onto the ship to keep themselves from collapsing on the deck.

Luffy laughs at the fun ride as the others try to recover from the crazy landing. Rose however, doesn't take a break as she starts flying to the sails. "Guys, we need to get out of here! Turn the ship-!"

She cuts herself off when her nose starts tickling, but before she can stop it she sneezes off the ship and lands in the nearby forest.

"ROSE!" The others call out to her, but before they can do anything, the sound of the base's sirens begin to ring throughout the air.

As the searchlights, that are perched at the top of the island's walls begin to direct their lights onto the Merry, the pirates begin to understand why Rose was in such a rush for them to leave.

"Everyone, split up!" Nami says as she grabs her waver from the back deck and jumps off to sail to safety while the others rush to get off the boat.

As Luffy stretches his arm to the first tree he sees, Usopp pulls a grappling hook out of his belt buckle and launches it towards another tree.

Zoro decides to try another way as he dives into the water to avoid being caught.

Sanji grabs onto Luffy while Chopper and Robin grab onto the sniper just before they go flying into different parts of the woods.

However, the doctor loses his grip mid-flight, and screams as he falls into the trees below him.

"Chopper!" Usopp calls out, but he doesn't get an answer as Robin jumps off the sniper just before he crashes into the tree.

Robin manages to swift land on her feet before she watches Usopp land on his face. "I'm sure doctor-kun and the others are alright. For now, we need to hide."

Usopp reluctantly agrees as he gets up and runs deeper into the woods with Robin.

Meanwhile, the wind girl flies on the same level as the trees until she reaches the coastline. When she sees the ship starting to be surrounded by lifeboats full of marine officers, she knows that she's too late. Once flashlights start flashing towards the island, she hides in one of the trees and sits on one of its thick branches as she glares at the distant officers in frustration. *Damn, with my research in there, the World Government's going to find out! Hold on…*

She starts calming down when she finds out that if the base holds any record of the night that the researchers disappeared, then this can be a perfect opportunity for her to uncover more of the comet's mystery. With that possibility in mind, her lips begin to curl up into a smirk. "I don't know if I'm being lucky or unlucky, but this is going to be interesting either way."

She snickers to herself when she sees that the officers are no longer flashing lights onto the shore, as they focus on inspecting the ship. She takes this as her best chance to infiltrate the fortress as she uses the darkness of the night to fly towards the fortress.

As the pirate flies towards enemy territory, she surveys the area below her and spots a lone fisherman walking towards the base, so she keeps close to the trees as she watches him go inside. Once she knows that she's safe she flies up to the building, then glances in each window until finds an empty room and invites herself inside the stronghold.

As the thousands of marine officers scramble around the fortress to close the sea gate and trap the new pirates inside, a lieutenant is going to the command room to understand the situation.

The middle-aged man, with brown muttonchop sideburns on his face, keeps a deep scowl on his face as he enters the command room. "What are we facing?"

The dozen subordinates in the room rise from their seats to salute them as a young man explains what they know. "Lieutenant Drake sir, from what we've gathered, the Straw Hats have invaded the base."

Drake widens his eyes at the news before he re-composes himself. "Where's commander Jonathan?!"

The marine, who spoke up nervously stares at the door before he gives his commanding officer his answer. "Well sir, none of us know where he is…"

The lieutenant grits his teeth at how his nonchalant leader would be missing at a time like this before he turns around. "Of course, he is. Keep me updated on any news."

"YES SIR!" The men immediately get back to work as Drake storms off to search for his leader. However, he didn't have to search for long because as soon as he reached his commander's office he finds the man, that was fishing outside just a moment ago, approaching the office. "There you are commander! Don't tell me you were out night fishing again!"

The orange haired man with a thick, dark brown, eyebrows and mustache only gives him a calm smile as he walks inside with his subordinate in pursuit. The muscular commander takes off his fishing gear as he stares out the window. "You shouldn't be so worried; night fishing isn't a waste you know?"

"You shouldn't be out fishing at a time like-!" Drake stops himself when a knock is heard at the door.

Both officers stop their conversation as they see one of the officers entering the room. "Commander, I have a report from the watchmen and maintenance men."

Jonathan nods to him as he goes to his fishing pole to do maintenance on it. "Go on."

The subordinate has no idea on how to explain the report without sounding crazy, but in fear of getting scolded by Drake he speaks as much of it as he can. "The crews reported that they saw ghosts. They're saying that the ship fell from the sky, but before any pirate can be seen there was no one there. There was also rumors about hands sprouting off the ship, a monster with a pink hat, and someone flying through the air."

Drake grits his teeth at the claim as he bangs his hand on the desk. "DO YOU EXPECT US TO BELIEVE THAT IT'S HAUNTED?!"

The officer resists the urge to flinch from the outburst as he keeps his posture. "Those are the claims from the others sir."

"I didn't ask for ghost stories, I asked for reconnaissance! And don't come lying to me about a ship falling from the sky!"

Jonathan chuckles at his subordinate's irritation as he finishes adjusting his fishing rod and goes into his bounty drawer. "Now take it easy, the part about it falling from the sky is true. And about the flying person, I'm sure it's one of the crew members."

Drake and the subordinate look at him in confusion before Jonathan shows them Luffy, Zoro, and Rose's wanted posters. "As I said, night fishing isn't a waste."

Drake reads over the three posters and stops at the drawing of the lowest bounty of the trio, who has an epithet that can prove that she can fly. "So you're saying this Wind Rider Rose brought the ship here?"

Jonathan shakes his head as he gets up. "I wouldn't say that, she could have something to do with the crew escaping. In any case, we should find more information about them at the source."

Drake raises an eyebrow in confusion until he understands that he means going to the ship, so he follows his leader out of the base and on a lifeboat to reach the caravel that's caused the base so much trouble.

The navy officers onboard are already in action as the men and women start photographing every section of the ship.

As soon as Jonathan and Drake reach the deck, they immediately head to the kitchen to find eight empty coffee cups set out on the table with a pot of coffee on a cold stove.

Jonathan takes the pot and pours the contents into a cup to see that the liquid is still hot. *So, they didn't leave for long…*

He and Drake get approached by a marine who's carrying an arm full of the crew's treasure. "Sir we found something!"

The commander hums in interest as he examines the ancient gold. "The pirates must've stole them from some ancient city."

Drake scowls at the treasure before he turns to the soldier. "Get them to the lab!"

"Yes-"

"COMMANDER!" Drake and Jonathan freeze at the high and low voices calling for Jonathan, before they turn to the door to find a man and woman pair running into the kitchen in a frenzy.

The man is still catching his breath while the female officer points outside. "Sir, there's something you need to see in the bathroom!"

The two superiors hum in confusion before they follow the lower level officers below deck. What they find in the bathroom astonishes them both, for on the tile floor, is a red and black gem with a blue glow and is surrounded by fragments of its broken container.

Drake goes up to the crystal and crouches down before it. "What kind of a rock is this?"

He goes to grab it, but before his fingers can touch it, Jonathan swats his hand away.

Drake rubs his hand before he looks up to his superior. "What's the matter sir?"

Jonathan keeps his narrows eyes on the crystal as he remembers what his mentor, Akainu, has told him about it. "Drake, have you heard of a taboo known as Hell's comet?"

The lieutenant knits his eyebrows in confusion before he shakes his head.

The commander nods in understanding before he spots the red backpack that's lying on the ground. He goes through the contents of the bag until he pulls out Rose's golden colored journal. With one glance at the notes, he can easily tell that the owner is investigating the comet that caused so many people to disappear over twenty years ago. "It appears that this crew has an astronomer who's studying it..."

The lieutenant raises an eyebrow at the cryptic answer as he gets up. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Jonathan's eyes move to the stone before he puts the book down. "It's rumored that red and black crystals, such as the one on the floor have the ability to absorb radiation. Combined with the power of Hell's comet, a group of them caused an entire research staff to disappear into the underworld, because they were messing around with them. It could be that our ghost pirates shared the same fate."

Drake doesn't believe a word of it as he approaches him. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am." Jonathan looks to the two officers at the door, who are staring to the tiny gem in horror, before he speaks to them. "Get me a small box and see if you can find some tongs in the kitchen."

"Yes sir!" The two officers rush to get the requested items before they return with the objects.

Jonathan takes the silver tongs and the small, tin, box in his hands before he kneels in front of the stone. He carefully uses the tong to pick up the stone and drop it into the open box before he closes it tight, and hands it to the female officer. "Please bring this to the lab with the rest of the gold."

"Y-yes sir!" She rushes off with the mysterious item while her partner gets back to searching the ship.

Once the dangerous jewel is gone, Jonathan turns to his lieutenant with a grin. "Let's see what else we can uncover."

Drake hesitantly agrees as he follows him through the bedrooms, and then back to the kitchen where the officers are piling books onto the table.

As Jonathan searches through the cooking equipment, he can easily tell that everything is in perfect condition. When he sees all the books on the table, he approaches them as he listens to another officer explain.

"We found a collection of medical, history, and astronomy books here. They're all in good condition too."

He hums in interest as he picks up one of the books. "It seems like our ghosts study a lot."

Drake holds back the urge to roll his eyes as he scowls at his superior. "Please tell me you don't believe in ghosts..."

Jonathan chuckles at Drake's disbelief before he goes outside and claps his hands to get everyone's attention. Once he knows that every male and female officers' eyes are on him, he gives them a relaxed grin. "You've all done wonderfully, I need you all to remain vigilant on this investigation of the ghost ship."

The officers begin to murmur to one another nervously about his claim that it's a haunted ship. However, the commander acts like he couldn't care less as he goes to his life boat. "Back to work everyone."

"YES SIR!" The officers salute their commander as Drake joins Jonathan on the boat and sails with him back to the base.

As soon as the two men reach the base they're joined by two captains as Jonathan leads them through the halls. While they roam the halls, as if it's a casual meeting, Jonathan voices his findings. "It appears that the crew made it through Jaya."

The others look at him in confusion as he keeps explaining. "The coffee aroma can only be made from the beans in Jaya. Also, legend has it that there is a city of gold in Jaya."

One of the captain's widens his eyes at the assumption. "So you're saying it's not-"

"I don't know what the crew's doing here, or where the members are, but that boat is just a pirate ship from Jaya." Jonathan says without missing a single step in his stride.

"Then what about the speech about Hell's comet?" Drake asks which makes Jonathan stop in his tracks, with the others following suit.

The commander scowls at what he's heard of the taboo as he turns around to face them. "The story about the researchers disappearing is true. One of these pirates is an astronomer that is committing the taboo of studying Hell's comet. However, if the entire crew was to disappear, then they would've left in the kitchen or on the deck. If this person was working in the bathroom, then they were conducting the experiments alone. Either that criminal is long gone by now, or they were about to start working but stopped when the ship came here."

The three male officers, glance to each other anxiously for a moment before one of them speaks up to his superior. "So why did you tell the others that it was a ghost ship?"

Jonathan chuckles at the question before he starts walking again with a relaxed grin, while the others follow. "To be honest, our men are too inexperienced to handle something like this. If we tell everyone that the infamous Straw Hats have snuck into our ranks, it'll cause chaos. So for now, we keep calling it a ghost ship, understand?"

"Yes sir." The two captains say, but Drake goes up next to him.

He keeps a stern look on his face as he voices his opinion. "With all due respect, I suggest we form a small unit to search for the pirates."

Jonathan stops again just as they reach his office and turns to his men. "Now don't be hasty, our defenses have to be our top priority."

Before Drake can object, Jonathan faces one of the captains. "You, go reinforce security at the gate as well as the coast."

"Yes sir." He salutes his commander before he goes off to do what's asked of him.

He points to another one to give him his orders. "I want the ammunition storage and passageways secured. You have my authority to handle the task as you see fit."

"Thank you sir." He goes to the ammunition storage to get started.

Jonathan sees that Drake's unsatisfied with the order and raises an eyebrow in confusion. "Is there a problem?"

Drake bites back his complaint to not doing enough before he keeps his head down. "No."

The commander nods in satisfaction as he opens the door to his office "Don't worry, the night's still young. Their movements are restricted by the darkness. When dawn strikes you can assemble a team to track down the Straw Hats. I suggest starting to investigate in places where people gather."

"Where they gather?" Drake asks with his superior nodding.

"Yes, because it's difficult to tell one person from a crowd. Especially when it's rather easy for the pirates to pick up some of our uniforms."

Drake immediately understands what he means when Jonathan looks at him seriously. "It's not that I don't trust my officers. It's that we're searching for some rather clever enemies."

Drake clenches his fists at the situation, but he understands what his superior is saying. "I'll get started as soon as dawn breaks."

Jonathan nods with a carefree grin as he goes into the room. "I recommend the dining hall first, as well as the archives in case our astronomer is still around."

"Yes sir!" He salutes his leader before he goes off on his own to get to work.

What neither marine knew though, was that up in the air vents above them, Rose has been tailing them since Jonathan explained that it wasn't a ghost ship and stealthily listened in on their conversation.

As soon as Drake's gone, Rose quietly army crawls in the vent as she glances in each room she passes, in hopes of finding a bunker.

While she's searching for the room, she doesn't know whether to be happy or worried about what she heard. At one hand, it seems like they didn't discover that she's the one studying the taboo. With Jonathan wanting his team to search the archives, she knows that the information she's looking for is here too. If she can make it to the library in a uniform before dawn, then she won't have any problems.

On the other hand, it could raise more questions from Robin if she hears them talking about her work. Also, the wind girl can tell that Vice Admiral Jonathan will want to uncover the mystery of who's the one studying the taboo.

She holds herself back from groaning as she travels the vents while she tries to remember what she knows about the filler arc. *Ok, so Luffy and Sanji are gonna be together in the kitchen. Nami will be here soon in a janitor disguise then dressed as a nurse. Zoro winds up getting caught with Usopp following him when his disguise doesn't work. Robin manages to impersonate Condoriano, and Chopper passes himself off as a surgeon…*

She knits her eyebrows in thought of how she goes about surviving the base. She knows that everyone won't be in until morning, so for now she needs take this chance to get a disguise, and visit the library for any knowledge on the Timore Comet's incident.

If she can't get in, then she just needs to blend in as much as possible without getting caught. That can't be too hard right?

She shudders at the many possibilities that she can get caught if she tries to blend in, so she silently hopes that she can get to the library when she hears two female voices giggling below her. She stops and looks through the grate to find two girls talking to one another as they're adjusting their uniforms.

The pirate couldn't see either of their faces thanks to the thick grate, but she can clearly hear them.

"So, it's true that the pirate ship's haunted? How did it get here?"

Rose immediately freezes up at the navy officer's voice, because it sounds almost exactly like her own voice. *What the hell?!*

She pushes her face as close to the grate as she could, but she can't get a clear view of her face as her friend speaks to her.

"I heard that the ship fell straight from the sky!"

"Really?! That's so cool! Think we'll meet the ghosts if we can take a post there?!"

Rose couldn't stop herself from smiling at how bubbly her voice sounds from the officer as she barely sees the figures grabbing their rifles.

The second girl chuckles at her friend's excitement as she straps the gun to her shoulder. "Maybe if you do well with training tonight then you can ask for a post there. By the way, I like the color contacts but what did you do to your cheeks?"

The marine with Rose's voice casually shrugs as she straps on her weapon. "Just practicing my makeup skills in case we ever need disguises. Do they look real?"

Rose raises an eyebrow to what 'they' really are, for she can't see them, while her friend heads to the door while she answers in an approving tone. "If I didn't know you, then I'd have thought they were natural. Let's get going before we miss dinner."

The officer silently agrees as she follows her out of the room and turns off the light.

Taking that as a sign that there's no one else in the room, Rose pulls the grate out of the vent, and jumps down to get into the room. Once she's locked the door and turned the lights back on, she surveys the orderly room to see that it holds ten bunk beds, each with two trunks in front of them.

She immediately goes to the bed where the two girls were talking and opens the trunks to find that the one in her right has clothes that can fit her. As she grabs the uniform and changes clothes, her mind begins to drift to the unknown marine who shares her voice.

The navy officer sounded so similar to the pirate's tone, that it was like she was listening to herself talk.

Rose shakes her head to snap out of it as she finishes changing and puts her hair into a ponytail. *Now's not the time to be wondering about voices!*

She grabs a cap from the trunk and puts it on before she looks inside for anything else for the uniform, but that's all she needs as she finds another uniform neatly piled in the corner, while on the other side of the box holds a makeup kit, a stationary, stuffed envelopes, and a small mirror.

She reaches inside for the mirror, to make sure the blue neck scarf is straight, but stops when she notices that the reflection isn't moving with her!

She silently gasps when she realizes that it's not a mirror, but actually a photo of the marine who has her voice.

The wind girl can feel her blood run cold as she stares at her own face, with only two differences between her and the marine in the picture. The first being that Rose's freckles are nowhere to be seen on the girl's pale complexion. The second being that instead of a pair of amethyst eyes staring at her, big, dark green orbs take their place. "You've-you've gotta be fucking kidding me…"

With a trembling hand, she reaches for the photo of the brown-haired girl, to get a closer look in hopes of it being a joke. However, as she holds onto the image, there's no denying what this means for her. *MY DOPPELGANGER'S A MARINE!*

TO BE CONTINUED