Hiding the Truth (One Piece)

Chapter 6 - Confrontations with Crocodile

Vivi and I turned around, to see who had approached us only to be met with the gorgeous figure of the one and only, notorious Nico Robin. Both Robin and I's expressions upon seeing each other were identical, neither of us could mask the shock at seeing the other considering the circumstance, but as quickly as she was surprised, she concealed her emotions with a veil of indifference.

She defeated Pell, the renowned warrior of the kingdom, in a second leaving Vivi and I dumbfounded for a moment, her Devil fruit abilities only leaving the task to appear as a tedious matter to the women. This fact only further angered Vivi, her face red with hatred at the women's actions. Just as she was about to retaliate, her weapon ready to be released, I placed my hand on her shoulder stopping her from making a fatal mistake. She looked at me in shock and anger, her mouth opening to shout at me for my actions obviously not understanding what I meant by them.

"There's no point. Her attacks are long range, we wouldn't be able to lay a finger on her without getting hurt ourselves" I explained looking back at Robin to see a pair of sea prism cuffs held in her gloved hand. Vivi begrudgingly saw reasoning in my words and put away her unusual weapon, but when she saw the cuffs her face twisted in confusion.

"I'm not a devil fruit user" Vivi voiced her confusion, looking at the women with a raised brow.

"I am well aware of that, but she happens to be" Robin responded nodding her head in my direction. Let's just say that Vivi didn't take this new piece of information very well. She whipped around to face me, her jaw hanging at the notion. Her gaze moved between Robin and I, to see if she was lying but seeing as I wasn't contradicting the idea, Vivi's expression switched to hurt.

"Why didn't you tell us?! Or at least me?" she asked betrayed at the idea that I hadn't shared that bit about myself over the time we had been together. To be fair, the idea of informing them completely slipped my mind, we'd had more important things to deal with at the time. While Robin was placing the shackles on my hand, I could feel its effects immediately, all my energy drained as the stone came into contact with my skin. I had only managed to remain standing by leaning against an outcrop of rubble.

"It never really came up" I responded feeling very fatigued, the words almost garbled at the effort. Vivi must have seen a change in body language because her expression softened, looking away with a resigned sigh. Robin reached forward, grabbing both our arms and pulled us in the direction of Crocodile's lair.

~Time Lapse~

We were nearing the double doors, knowing what was behind them would decide whether we would live to see the next day. Robin dropped her hold on us to shove the doors open and walking us over to the staircase. However, before we were left to face our doom, she slipped the key to my cuffs in my hands inconspicuously, a slight smile pulling at the corner of her lips. The action left me returning the smile, making sure that the expression was concealed from the others, it was nice to see we were still friends after so long. I pushed the key up my sleeve and we began our descend down the long staircase.

"Welcome princess or should I say Miss Wednesday! Oh what do we have here?" I looked up and noticed the coward that stood in all his 'glory', his hands outstretched as if welcoming us into his dungeon. This was the swine that had caused all this bloody mess, caused so much heartache. My eyes skimmed across the room and who would have guessed that the other idiots had gone and gotten themselves locked up, though it seemed that Smoker was now categorised as one of those idiots.

"Lana! You got caught!" Luffy shouted at me and everyone's attention turned to me. I glared at him, not having the time for his theatrics. 

"Well spotted Luffy" I growled at him and he slightly flinched away from my glare.

"Well if isn't Monkey D. Lana in the flesh, a sight for sore eyes really. You are a very hard women to catch, I'll give you that." I turned my glare towards Crocodile and Robin nudged me forward so I was in the spotlight.

"Lana what's he talking about?" Nami asked from the cage, her and the other's expressions twisted in confusion, not quite understanding the insinuation Crocodile was making.

"I have no idea what he's on about" I responded, masking the fear I felt with confusion. If everything I had tried to get away from would be revealed here by this scum bag, and if he did... well then, I had a lot of explaining to do.

"My my, it seems that you haven't told them, well this should give you a hint. What do you see around her hands" he asked them from across the room.

"Is... Is that sea prism? Why do you have sea prism shackles on? Are you a devil fruit user?" Nami asked and everyone was shocked, waiting for an explanation.

"You didn't tell them. Why?" Smoker asked from behind them. Everyone turned around to look at him, there eyes shifting from person to person, not quite knowing where to look due to the flood of information.

"And how would you know about it?" Zoro asked, his glare more hateful than anything I had seen from him. His defence was a certain surprise, we hadn't exactly interacted with each other over the course of the time I've spent with Luffy's crew.

"I see that you didn't tell them that either" he spoke looking a bit upset, though to the others, it seemed like his usual deadpanned look.

"It's not relevant to know why I didn't tell them and right now there are more important things to deal with" I replied, turning my attention to Crocodile, spotting the smirk that ghosted over his lips, even with the cigar in his mouth.

"What are you planning to do in this country? We've already have you figured out. There's no point in hiding" I asked. He then proceeded to reveal his 'grand' plan to us in great detail like the idiot he was, sometimes I wonder how he even got a warlord position.

As he was babbling about how he was going to replace Vivi's dad as King, I was trying to unlock my cuffs which was harder than trying to fix my hair in the morning, and that's saying something. When they clicked, their tight grip loosening, I hid the key and made out as if I was still shackled, keeping my hands locked together behind me.

"You're a monster!" Vivi shouted out and I just noticed that she was sitting at the table and I looked around to see if anyone had realised I was unshackled and it seemed that only Robin knew. She laughed lightly and I sent her a smile back showing my gratitude.

I focused back to the conversation, and as it progressed Vivi ended up standing and shouting a bunch of insults in his face, her anger clouding her judgement. This was starting to get intense and just in time as Crocodile was about to deliver a blow, I decided it was time to interfere. I stepped forward, manoeuvring Vivi around to switch places so I was facing Crocodile instead and we were back to back. Everyone was watching and I knew this wasn't the time to screw things up.

"Why don't you fight someone who has the same power as you, you asshole" they all looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"NO! LANA, DON'T DO IT!" Smoker shouted from across the room.

"You can't stop me" I kept my attention on Crocodile, just then he decided to unleash his powers on me.

"SAND KNIFE" He shouted as large amounts of sand formed in the air to create a knife and came hurling at me. Raising my hands into the air, my shackles fell from around my wrists making everyone's jaws drop.

"WATER SHIELD" I pulled a water barrier from thin air to form around Vivi and I managed to block the sand that would have pierced my heart a moment ago. At this point everyone's jaws where on the ground except Smoker who remained miserable as ever.

"So cool!" Luffy shouted from across the room and had stars in his eyes, but Crocodile looked furious. I smirked at him and it just made him madder.

"I ate the Mizu Mizu Fruit, do you honestly think that you would be able to fight me. My powers go against your in every way, neither of us will win" I stated looking him dead in the eye.

"I guess will have to have that statement proven now won't we" he responded with a death look in his eyes and the battle began.