Crypt
The warm desert breeze blew against the deck, carrying with it the scent of wood and blood. The silence between the three of them hung like an invisible veil, each waiting for the next move.
Riser closed his eyes for a moment.
The darkness behind his eyelids expanded. The world faded into distant sounds, pulses in the air, echoes of life around him. He felt it.
The crypt.
Ancient. Hidden beneath layers of stone and secrets.
A forgotten tomb of the kings of Alabasta.
His eyes opened.
Robin noticed the subtle shift in his expression.
"You have a plan."
He raised his hand, not responding.
The energy around them enveloped them before she could react.
FWOOSH!
The wind warped, and then… silence.
The light changed.
The temperature dropped.
The dampness of the underground replaced the dry heat of the desert.
Robin's eyes widened.
The floor beneath her feet was no longer wood but cold, smooth stone. The smell of time permeated the air, dust and history encrusted in the hand-carved walls.
She spun on her heels, surprised.
A narrow corridor, lit only by faint torches, stretched ahead.
Riser stood beside her, impassive.
"How…?"
Robin touched the wall beside her, feeling the rough texture of time's marks.
"You teleported."
Riser tilted his head slightly, his eyes glinting in the dimness.
"Yes."
She frowned.
"That's not an Akuma no Mi ability."
His smile was brief.
"No."
She crossed her arms, eyeing him cautiously.
"Interesting."
He stepped forward without waiting for a reply.
Robin hesitated for a moment but followed.
The crypt stretched out like a stone labyrinth, tombs carved with ancient symbols she recognized.
She traced her fingers over an inscription.
"The kings of Alabasta… buried here."
Riser didn't respond.
He already knew.
---
On the Going Merry, Alvida kicked a loose piece of wood on the deck, her lips twisting in disgust.
"Wench."
The insult slipped from her mouth like venom.
She glanced at the two bodies on the ground—Crocodile and Miss Doublefinger—and rolled her eyes.
"Leaves me here to babysit this trash while he runs off after that woman… Hah. As if I didn't know."
She leaned against the mast, tapping her club against her shoulder.
"I don't know what he sees in her."
The wind tousled her dark hair, but she didn't take her eyes off the spot where Riser had disappeared.
"All prim and proper, full of mysteries, pretending to be above it all… But in the end, she's just another woman waiting for a strong man to carry her."
Her fingers tightened around the club.
"I would've finished Crocodile with my own hands if it were me. But no… He wants to play secrets with her."
The night sky stretched over Rainbase, but Alvida only tasted the bitter sting of irritation.
She lightly kicked Crocodile with the tip of her boot.
"If I were him, I'd have killed you right here."
The man didn't react.
She sighed, bored.
"I hate waiting."
******
Crypt
The silence between the two was broken only by the sound of their footsteps echoing off the stone walls. The faint torchlight flickered, casting dancing in the narrow corridor.
Robin followed a few steps behind, her eyes sharp on the details.
'He's not an Akuma no Mi user, but he can manipulate fire and teleport. How?'
Crocodile's Logia power seemed insignificant compared to the casual way Riser defied the world's laws. It wasn't common. It wasn't something she could explain with logic.
'Does this mean there's something beyond what the World Government wants us to believe?'
The thought was unsettling.
She had studied Poneglyphs since childhood. Her knowledge of the world's history made her a target. But the man walking ahead of her moved as if he knew even deeper secrets, wielding a power that shouldn't exist.
'Where did he come from?'
Her fingers slid over the stone's surface. The cold against her skin grounded her in reality.
She wanted to ask.
But part of her feared the answer.
Riser stopped abruptly.
Robin stopped too.
His eyes were fixed on something ahead, where the corridor widened into a vast chamber, its ceiling supported by carved columns. In the center, a black monument rested, untouched by time.
The crypt's faint glow couldn't diminish the weight of its presence.
Robin felt her heart quicken.
'This is…'
She stepped closer, her eyes widening as she recognized the ancestral characters etched into the polished surface.
A Poneglyph.
The silence in the chamber grew heavier.
She raised a hesitant hand, tracing her fingers over the sacred stone.
Each symbol carried the weight of a forgotten history.
Riser remained still, watching her.
Robin read.
Line by line.
The words spoke of Alabasta, of kings who ruled with wisdom, and of battles fought long before the current world took shape. But nothing about Pluton.
Nothing about ancient weapons.
Just history.
She exhaled slowly.
The tension in her shoulders eased.
"Disappointed?"
The question caught her off guard.
Her fingers still rested on the Poneglyph, tracing the carved characters. Her heart beat slowly, as if her mind were still processing it all.
'He knew this would be here.'
Her eyes slid to him.
The relaxed posture, the golden gaze glinting in the dim light, that lazy smile that never revealed anything.
'He knew… but how?'
She took a deep breath, shifting her gaze back to the monument before her.
'Does he understand the value of this?'
If he could read the ancient language, it would be a problem. Something only she and… the World Government knew. But something told her that wasn't the case.
Riser didn't seem like a man who needed to read words to understand what he wanted.
Robin pressed her lips together.
"I'm not disappointed."
Riser tilted his head slightly.
"Then?"
She traced the symbols again.
"This is important. Knowing the history… it's important."
The silence between them grew heavy.
Riser walked to one of the chamber's pillars and leaned against it lazily, watching her.
"You spend your life running."
Robin lifted her eyes to him.
The faint torchlight cast long shadows across his face, giving him an almost ghostly appearance.
"I don't have a choice."
"You do now."
She frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Riser raised his hand, pointing at her.
"Stay with me."
Her breath hitched for a second.
"What?"
His smile lingered, but his gaze intensified.
"The World Government hunts you. You have nowhere to go. But with me… they can't touch you."
She studied him in silence.
'Is he serious?'
No hesitation, no hint of jest.
The idea stirred something strange in her.
"No one can protect someone from the World Government forever."
Riser chuckled softly.
"Who said I'm 'someone'?"
Robin opened her mouth to reply but stopped.
He wasn't normal. That much was obvious.
He didn't need an Akuma no Mi to defy the world's logic.
She crossed her arms, her eyes assessing every detail of him.
"Why me?"
Riser didn't hesitate.
"Because I like you."
Her heart skipped a beat.
A shiver ran up her spine.
She tightened her arms against herself, breathing slowly.
"No one ever says that to someone like me."
"Because no one has the guts."
Her eyes trembled slightly.
Echoes of her childhood, betrayals, losses…
She had always been disposable to the world.
But there he was.
Someone who not only saw value in her…
But wasn't afraid to say it out loud.
Riser pushed off the wall, walking toward her.
When he stopped beside her, the warmth of his presence contrasted with the crypt's damp chill.
"So, are you going to run again, Nico Robin?"
She held his gaze for a long moment.
What was he offering?
A path?
A promise?
Or just another game she didn't understand?
Her eyes returned to the Poneglyph.
The history of Alabasta's kings.
Memories buried by time.
Words that had withstood the World Government.
She had withstood it too.
Always had.
Her decision was made before she even realized it.
"Not this time."
Riser smiled.
"Good."
Fire flickered in his eyes.
"Now, let's get out of here."
Robin didn't argue.
This time, she followed.
The air crackled around them.
FWOOSH!
The chamber dissolved into light.
The underground dampness gave way to the desert's dry heat.
Robin blinked rapidly.
The Going Merry appeared before her.
The deck, the mast, the wood creaking under the night breeze.
She frowned.
'Again… so fast…'
Riser's feet touched the plank with his usual calm.
Robin took in every detail.
His power was something even the world's most feared didn't seem to possess.
Behind her, the city of Rainbase felt distant. As if they stood between two worlds.
Someone huffed.
"Finally."
Alvida leaned against the mast, arms crossed, her expression irritated.
"You two took way too long for a romantic stroll."
Riser ignored her.
His eyes slid to the prisoners on the deck.
Crocodile looked worse for wear.
Robin raised an eyebrow.
"He wasn't like that before."
Riser shifted his gaze to Alvida.
She shrugged.
"He twitched a finger. I hit him."
Silence settled.
Robin studied Crocodile closely. The former Shichibukai was panting, his face partially swollen.
Riser sighed.
"You had fun, it seems."
Alvida grinned, not a shred of regret.
"It's rare to get to beat a monster like him. And you wouldn't mind."
She swung her club lightly.
"Would you?"
Riser's golden eyes glinted for a moment.
"No."
Crocodile groaned, his eyes half-open.
His pride was as shattered as his body.
Robin knelt beside him, observing him with a mix of curiosity and disdain.
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