It all started with a fruit. A Devil Fruit, to be exact. That's what caused me to have such a messed up life full of greed, tears, pain, adventure, and near-death experiences. But I wasn't always the one being greedy, crying, having adventures, or nearly dying. No, my friends and family shared those times with me.

To start from the very beginning, my mom married a navy officer who dreamed of making it big one day. He barely ever came home so it was just the two of us for the shortest time, Mom and I. Whenever Dad did come home, he would always apologize to us for not being a good father and husband, and then go back out onto his ship within days.

Mom always told me to keep hoping someday he'd come home for good. I shared her optimism. We still loved him even after he practically abandoned the two of us. He'd write and say he loved us and missed us. But I still felt somewhat empty and longed for him to come home for an extensive period of time.

He wrote to us one day saying that he'd found something spectacular and was coming home immediately to show us. Within the very week, he showed up on our doorstep with a small bag in hand.

"You'll never guess what I found, Honey!" he said happily to Mom. He smiled as he picked me up and hugged me tightly. He set me down and kissed Mom. "Our troubles could be over with this!"

"What is it?" Mom asked.

"I found a Devil Fruit!" he said. "I don't know what powers it holds, but it's a Devil Fruit alright!" He pulled a fruit out of the bag and set it on our kitchen table. It was a completely pale yellow fruit shaped like an orange with swirls on it. "These things can go for millions of Berries!"

Mom was just staring at it. I had no idea what was going on.

"What do you think?" he asked. "Should we sell it, or eat it?"

Mom lifted her piercing gaze onto my father. "Maybe we should think about it…" Mom said. "We should take a few days to think about our decision…"

Something seemed a little weird about her, I could sense it.

"You're probably right," he said.

Mom spent most of the day just staring at the fruit on our kitchen table.

Later that day, I finally asked him, "Daddy? What's a Devil Fruit?"

"Oh!" he said. "Devil Fruits give you special powers if you eat them. There's this one captain in the navy that can turn his body into smoke! Really the possibilities are endless… It's just a risk to eat them because it's really anyone's guess as to what power you'll get."

I scowled at the fruit. "Why would anyone want something like that if it's so risky?" I asked.

"Exactly the point!" he said, petting my head. "Well, it's a little late for you. Shouldn't you be going to bed?"

I looked to Mom and she nodded. "Yes," she said. "You should probably sleep. It's late."

I nodded and said goodnight to both of my parents.

It was in the middle of the night when my mom woke me up frantically.

"Maggie!" she whispered. "Maggie, wake up!"

I opened my eyes groggily and sat up. "What time is it…?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and yawning.

"Never mind that," she said, looking behind her. She grabbed my hand and half-dragged me into the kitchen.

"Mommy…?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

She looked around frantically and sighed in relief. "I overheard your father saying he was going to eat the Devil Fruit…" she whispered.

"What's wrong with that?" I whispered back.

"Things would be very, very bad if your father gained immense powers…" she said. "He would try to take over the navy, and probably die out in the sea trying! No. I will not let him ruin his life over a greedy wish."

"What do you need me for, then?" I asked.

"You," she said. "You're going to eat the Devil Fruit. We'll keep it a secret from your father. He'll think someone stole it in the middle of the night."

I stared at Mom for the longest time. "No," I said. "You eat it. I don't want powers."

"You have to be the one, Maggie," she insisted.

"No!" I said. "I don't want too!"

"Maggie!" she said. "If I ate the fruit… It would be a waste of the thing. You have longer to live than I do."

"What…?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

I saw tears fall from her eyes. "I didn't want to tell you this…" she said. "But I've visited plenty of doctors and they all say the same thing… I have an incurable heart condition… I don't have long. You have to eat it!"

I felt tears drip down my face and I hugged her tightly. "Mommy… I don't want you to die… No! You're lying!"

"I'm afraid I'm not…" she said. "Maggie, please hurry. Before your father wakes up, you must eat it."

"Why would he wake up?" I asked.

"Like I said, I overheard him saying he was going to eat it," she said. She picked up the fruit and gave it to me. "Eat it in your room quickly. Even if it tastes disgusting, eat it all! Don't leave a trace of it!"

I nodded, accepting my mission and snuck quietly back into my room. I hid in my closet and looked at the fruit in the dark. I closed my eyes and put it in my mouth. I bit down.

The fruit was the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted in my entire five years of living, and that was counting baby food! I swallowed reluctantly and felt like I was about to throw up. I wanted to throw the rest away, but Mom had given me specific instructions! Hesitantly, I put the fruit back to my lips and finished the rest in one horribly awful bite.

I still felt nauseous as I went back to my bed. My stomach didn't really like me for eating the fruit.

But then, suddenly I had this weird feeling. I became aware of my newfound powers.

"The Tick-Tock Fruit…" I whispered to myself.

I went to sleep with my head spinning about my new powers.

I woke up when I heard yelling in the kitchen. It was Mom and Dad yelling at each other.

From what I could hear, Dad was accusing Mom of eating the fruit. Mom assured him that she didn't.

"Well then who could've eaten it, huh?!" he asked. "Magnolia?!"

"Maggie's got nothing to do with this!" Mom said. "It's obvious that someone stole it!"

"That's what you want me to think!" he said. "Magnolia ate it, didn't she?! You gave it to her because you didn't want me to have it!"

"That's not true!" she said desperately. "Someone stole it-"

I heard Dad's heavy footsteps come closer and closer to my room. I pretended I was asleep. The door to my room burst open and I felt Dad's strong hand grip my wrist and raise me out of my bed. I squeezed my eyes shut in fear.

Mom dashed into my room and screamed at him to put me down.

"You ate it, didn't you?!" he asked. "What is it?! Tell me, now!"

I knew I would have to lie to him. "I didn't eat it, Daddy…" I said, looking at him.

He looked pleased. "You're lying and I know it," he said surprisingly calmly. "You know how I know? Your eye is different."

Mom was staring at me, crying. "What…?" I asked. He set me down and I ran to my mirror. My right eye had a clock on it!

"What's the name?" he asked. "Tell me the name."

I shook my head and said, "No. It's a secret."

"MAGNOLIA!" he yelled furiously, picking me up by the wrist again. "Tell me the damn name!"

I cried in fear of my own dad. That's when everything stopped. Literally, the whole world stopped and I was the only thing moving. I was like I made everyone freeze. I stopped time.

I struggled out of his frozen hand, but it was no use. Time unfroze a couple seconds after. I panted from the taxing effects of stopping time.

"Just tell me the name!" he yelled.

"Maggie!" Mom said. "I'm so sorry!"

I cried even harder and struggled to get out of his hand.

"Just tell me!" he said. "Tell me and I'll let you down!"

I stopped struggled and seriously thought about it. "Tick-Tock Fruit…" I said.

He set me down and everyone stared at me. He walked out of my room and dragged Mom out with him. He locked the door and I started panicking.

What was he going to do?! I thought.

I sat on my bed the rest of the day in fear he was going to come bursting through the door at any second.

When my worries exhausted my brain later that night, I fell asleep.

I woke up in a different place. I didn't even recognize where I was. Wherever I was, it was on the water because I felt swaying. I sat up and looked around. On the other side of the room, there wasn't a wall. There were only parallel bars, like I was in a jail cell.

Apparently, I had slept through my own father kidnapping me in the middle of the night and bringing me to his navy ship. I had a feeling I would never see my mom again.

I was five.

My dad came in moments later, seeing I was awake.

"Wh-where am I…?" I asked.

"My ship," he said. "You're going to be a small part of my crew now. You'll be the key to my victory."

I shook my head and said, "No… I don't want too!"

"You will," he said. "In due time, that is."

"I want to see Mommy!" I said. "Take me back!"

"Can't," he said. "I have my orders from HQ. We won't be going back for a long time, Magnolia."

I couldn't believe my ears. I didn't want to believe any of it.

"You see, Magnolia," he said. "I did some research on the Tick-Tock Fruit. Turns out the last person who ate it could stop time and everything around him, but still be able to move within the frozen time. I believe that you may have eaten one of the most powerful Devil Fruits that exist."

"No…" I said to myself. "I don't want this…"

"Too bad," he said. "You can't undo the effects of a Devil Fruit." He tossed me something small and black. "That's for your eye."

I picked it up off of the ground. It was an eye patch with a clock drawn on it.

"Put it on so people don't freak out when they see you," he ordered.

I tied the eye patch over my right eye. It was weird only being able to see out of one eye, but I got used to it eventually.

I wasn't officially part of the crew. Most of the soldiers thought I was just on the ship because Dad wanted me to be. No one was allowed to talk to me either. I had to find things to do own my own in my little prison. There was always a guard stationed outside of my room to make sure I didn't escape. I don't even think he knew why he was guarding me.

Dad ordered me to keep practicing and training myself to use my Devil Fruit powers. By the time I was eight, I could freeze time for about a minute and a half at most. He said he would start taking me on missions until I could stop it for at least three minutes.

He beat me every time I said I couldn't do it or refused to help him. Stopping time, to give an analogy, was like holding back a river on my own. It exhausted me every time I stopped it for more than a minute. Sometimes to be cruel, he'd even take away my meals to get me motivated, even though he knew how taxing it was on my small body.

It didn't take very long until I was able to freeze time for three minutes due to his violent methods, but it still exhausted me. That's when he let me out of my prison for the first time. He gave me a small, sheathed knife with a rope attached to it and said, "In case you ever get in trouble, use this." I tied the rope around my waist and moved the knife pouch to my side for easy access.

That's when we went on our first mission together. I hated every second of it. He handcuffed me to his arm so I couldn't run and he could move when I stopped time.

We did many of these so called 'missions' together. They were actually his attempts at making his way up the ranks by defeating many notorious pirates in the East Blue by using my powers. Most of the time, he would have to carry me back to the ship because I was too weak to stand from using too much power.

When I was ten, Dad received a letter saying that Mom had died.

He didn't even let me go to her funeral.

I was distraught for days and refused to eat or train. No one even tried to comfort me.

That's when I'd had enough. That very day I stopped just going along with whatever he said. I tried to escape every chance I could get. So much so, that Dad eventually stepped up my security to seven men guarding me.

I trained harder than before and sometimes forgot to eat because I was so focused. By the time I was eleven, I could stop time by a whopping ten minutes when I wanted too, but at the end of the ten minutes, I could barely move, let alone breathe.

I was twelve when I finally escaped. I had kept a small bag ready for times when I needed to make a quick escape. Inside was one change of clothes, my small knife, and two pairs of handcuffs with the keys.

The ship docked on an island called Syrup Village. Apparently there were complaints from villagers about battle sounds and blood on the north cove of the island. Dad was sent to check it out.

All of my guards were looking the other way when I stopped time in my room. While time was frozen, I grabbed my bag, unlocked my door from the keys supplied by one of the guards, and ran off the ship without anyone noticing me.

I took off running as fast as I could off of the north cover while panting. I kept running until I made it all the way to the south cove. I hid behind a tree when I saw that there were people there.

There was a blonde girl and a sheep-headed man standing in front of a ship. From what I could hear, they were giving the ship to a man in a straw hat, an orange haired girl, and a man with three swords. I also heard the word pirate mentioned…

If these people are pirates, then they'll be going out to sea far away from any navy ship! I thought. And if they kill me, then I guess I'll be finally rid of my burden.

That's when I decided to hide in there ship.

I stopped time again and ran onto the ship. I found an empty barrel to rest/hide in. I started time again and waited patiently.

I just want to ride along until their next stop, but if they noticed me before then, I could be in trouble… I thought. Hopefully, they won't even notice me!

My hopes of the pirates not noticing me were short lived. About two days later, I sneezed and someone heard it.

"Zoro…?" I heard a girl's voice. "Did you just hear that?"

I heard something metal then a low male voice say, "Yeah. I heard it."

"It sounded like a sneeze," said the girl.

I didn't dare move an inch or even breathe. I was too scared to even begin to think about stopping time. I managed to move my hand slowly enough to pull out my small knife in case they actually found me.

"Someone else is on board," said the low male voice.

I could feel myself shaking in the barrel. They're not going to find me… They're not going to find me… I thought.

I heard what sounded like metal sliding. I bit my lip and hoped they wouldn't find me.

"Come out now and I won't hurt you," said the man.

But I'm too scared to move… I thought.

"Ok, your choice," he said.

Within seconds, the top of the barrel was sliced off and the whole barrel tipped over. I spilled out of it and stood up as fast as I could with my knife in hand.

"Go get Luffy," the man ordered the girl.

She took off running.

The man had a sword in hand. He looked at my small knife and said, "Drop it."

I backed up away from him and said, "St-stay away…" I pointed the knife at him with two shaky hands.

He pointed his sword at me without fear and said, "Drop it."

I panicked, dropped the knife, and screamed. I stopped time and ran around the frozen man. I ran out of the room and saw the girl was about to come in with the straw hat wearing man.

I stumbled and fell, but I lost focus and time started again. I felt a little bit out of breath.

"What…?" I heard the man with the sword say. "So fast…!"

Within a millisecond, he was pointed his sword at me again. I was still on the floor trembling in fear and breathing heavily.

"What's going on, Zoro?" asked the man in the straw hat.

"I think we've got a stowaway," he said.

I stopped time again, despite my fatigue, and ran back into the room to pick up my knife. I ran up the stairs of the ship and panicked when I saw another person. He had a long nose and was wearing a bandana on his head. Panicking made me accidently unfreeze time again. This made me feel a little bit more short of breath.

I screamed in fright and ran around the person.

"How'd she get up there so fast?!" the man with the sword asked.

"Stop!" the straw hat wearing man yelled. All of a sudden, I was being picked up by a very stretchy arm. I squirmed and tried to get out of his grip, but it was no use. He set me down in front of the three of them. Soon, the one with the long nose joined them.

I was helpless and totally out numbered. The man with the sword pointed it at me and swiped my knife out of my hand with the tip of his sword. The rest of them just stared at me.

"No more of that," he said, throwing the knife on the ground behind him.

I had tears coming out of my eyes at that point. I was caught red handed.

"Our first stowaway is a little girl. What should we do, captain?" the man with the sword asked.

"Hmm…" said the man with the straw hat. "I don't know."

"Well think of something!" the girl asked.

"What's your name?" straw hat asked.

"M-M-M-Magnolia…" I stuttered.

"Are you here to steal my treasure?!" the girl asked. She looked furious.

I shook in fear and said, "No…"

"Then why are you here?" straw hat asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I… I just wa-wanted to get away… from the n-navy…" I said.

"Navy?" asked long nose.

"Why were you with the navy?" sword-man asked.

"I… I, uh… I don't want to t-tell you…" I said.

"Why not?" straw hat asked. "We won't tell anyone!" He smiled and laughed.

"I ate a Devil Fruit…" I said. "And they wanted to u-use it..."

"You're a Devil Fruit user?" the girl asked.

I nodded.

"Oh! Oh!" said straw hat excitedly. "What can you do? I'm a rubber man!"

"Luffy! Be serious!" said the girl.

"What?" he asked. "It's a question…"

"I bet its speed," sword-man said. "No other way she could've run that fast otherwise. I shook my head. "Then what is it?"

"I… I don't think I should tell you…" I said.

"Why is there a clock on your eye patch?" straw hat asked. "It's cool!"

"Um…" I said. "I don't know…"

"What should we do with her?" sword-man asked again.

"Are you a musician?" the straw hat wearing man asked.

I shook my head.

"Ahh… Too bad…" he said. "Well, anyway! I've made my decision!" he said rather loudly.

I gulped and wondered if this would be my watery grave.

Everyone stared at the man wearing a straw hat. Straw hat stared at me for a long time. I was sweating and shaking with anxiety.

Finally, the man said, "You can join our pirate crew and be our watchman."

"WHAT?!" everyone asked.

I was in complete shock. They were going to let me live! I had never expected this to happen.

"So what do you say, Magnolia?" straw hat asked. "Wanna join us?" He smiled mischievously and held out his hand. "Oh wait! On one condition. You have to tell us your Devil Fruit power someday."

Everyone stared at me. I nodded and saluted him. "Sir, yes, sir," I said.

The straw hat man laughed and said, "This is great! You've already got an eye patch to look like a pirate! Oh, by the way, I'm the captain, Luffy. This is Zoro," He pointed to the swordsman. "Nami," He pointed to the girl. "and Usopp!" He pointed to the long nosed man.

"Hi…" I said.

Nami was scolding me. "You're not getting my treasure," she said and then walked away.

Zoro and Usopp walked away.

"There's a telescope up there and everything," Luffy said, pointing to the crow's nest.

"Should I go up there now…?" I asked.

He nodded and said, "Yeah! Just holler if you see an island or a ship or something."

I nodded and he walked away.

I climbed up the rope ladder into the crow's nest, or the lookout station. Like Luffy had said, there was already a telescope there.

That's where I spent most of the day. Around noon, Luffy and Usopp found cannon balls and decided to test them out.

"OI!" Luffy called up to me. "Magnolia! See anything we can shoot?"

I quickly looked around and said, "Yeah, there's a column of coral off in the distance."

"Thank you," Luffy called back up to me.

Luffy fired the first shot, missing it completely. Usopp tried next, hitting the target directly. Luffy decided that Usopp would be the ship's sharpshooter.

Everyone else went inside the ship. I was still watching for any sign of an island or ship.

That's when I saw someone on a raft coming towards the ship. "Everyone!" I yelled. "Someone's coming!"

Everyone walked out, then dismissed the raft. I heard Luffy say, "Looks weak…"

I watched the man park his raft next to the ship and climb aboard.

"Guys…" I said. "He came on board!"

The man had a sword. He looked up at me and yelled, "Come on out, you pirates!" He started kicking some of the barrels on deck.

Luffy came out on the deck and asked, "What? What? Who are you?"

"Shut up!" the stranger yelled. "It doesn't matter who I am!" He sliced some of the railing with his ship and Luffy jumped out of the way.

"I've killed a countless number of pirates," the man said. I gulped and started wondering what I should do. "But a no name pirate like you dares to try kill my partner?!"

He took a swing at Luffy, who dodged again.

"What do you mean? Partner?" Luffy asked. "I don't know what's going on, but don't damage our ship!" he yelled. He picked up the man and set him flying to the other side of the ship.

Zoro walked out next. "Hey… Aren't you Johnny?" he asked.

"Who is it? Calling out my name with no respect!" the man said. The man sat up, seeing Zoro, and said, "Zoro-aniki!"

"So it is Johnny," Zoro said.

"Why are you here, aniki?" Johnny asked.

"Where's Yosaku? You're not together?" he asked.

"What? What?" Luffy asked. "You two know each other?"

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)