Zerina

"What do you mean you have to leave?!" Luffy cried, literally. Zerina sighed at the tear streaked black haired old boy in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Luffy." Zerina moved closer to hug him, but he jerked away from her when she got close. "This isn't 'Goodbye', it's just 'See you later'."

"But you're leaving!" Luffy wailed. "It is goodbye!"

Zerina smiled tenderly even though the young boy didn't see it. "I'm not going to be gone forever, you know?"

"No! I don't know!" Luffy cried. "You said we'd always be together! You're my girlfriend! We're supposed to be together forever! You promised!"

Zerina giggled. She knew Luffy didn't know the different between a girl friend and a girlfriend. But still he called her that and she let him call her that.

"And I'm keeping that promise, Lalu." Zerina stepped closer to Luffy again. When he tried to jerk away from her, she grabbed him and pulled her into a hug. She pressed her forehead to his and both of them started to glow. "My promise I never break. By my star I am born, we are bonded, Lalu. We will always know what's going on with each other. And, if you ever need me, I will come back to you."

Luffy sniffed a couple times. He lifted up from her forehead, the glow remained around them. "Promise?"

"I gave you my Star Promise, My Lalu." Zerina pressed her lips to his forehead.

Zerina pulled away from Luffy and opened her eyes. She paused when she noticed his body was fading away. She gasped. "Luffy? What's going on? You're disappearing."

Luffy started talking again, but she couldn't hear what he said. Her heart seized up. He faded away more. She reach out to grab him. Her hand went right through him. She paused to notice her hand wasn't small anymore. She looked down at her body. She was no longer a child. She was a teenager.

"Ace!" Zerina's head snapped up when she heard Luffy's voice cry out.

"Luffy?" She looked around. But all she saw was pitch black.

"Ace!"

"Luffy?" She asked again. "Where are you?"

"Ace!"

"Something's wrong," She said. She grabbed her chest in pain and collapsed to the ground. "It…It hurts. What's wrong? What's happening?"

"Zerina…"

"Who's there?"

"Zerina?"

"No! Stop! I can't leave him yet!"

"Zerina! Get up this instant!"

Zerina gasped as reality finally broke into her dream. She shot up in bed. Cold sweat slid down her skin, her clothes were clinging to her from all the sweat. Her breath was labored as her mind spun with her current dream. She placed a hand on her face, trying to calm herself down. "What was that?"

"What are you mumbling about? You know ladies should never mumble." Zerina groaned inwardly. "Will you get up already?! It is far past six o'clock. A lady should always rise with the sun. Haven't I taught you anything?"

"My apologizes, milady." Zerina pushed off her thick blanket. She placed her feet on the cool floor and stood up. Collapsing her hands in front of her, Zerina held her head up and looked at the woman that was speaking to her, Angel. Angel was her aunt. The woman was tall, physically beautiful, thin with curves in all the right places and high cheek bones.

Behind the sneering woman were three maids. All of them dressed in the typical black and white uniforms of servants with their white hair pulled back in buns. Everyone who lived on this island, but for Zerina, had white hair and silvery green or silvery blue eyes. These traits were passed down the generations, but only to people of the island.

And the reason for this was because of the magic that resided on the island and those who were originally born on this island hundreds of years ago. Magic that allows the wielders to grant wishes. Zerina's magic was unstable. She was what the privilege elite called a Dark Wish granter. No matter how innocent the wish would be, it would always come out dark and destructive. So she was forbidden from using her magic and if she did, even if it was an accident, she would be punished for it.

Zerina looked at the maids. She didn't know any of them. There were very few maids and butlers that Angel currently kept around that Zerina knew. Others were constantly being swapped with new staff. Zerina didn't know why. She assumed it was because Angel was looking for the perfect people to serve her. Angel was a decedent of one of the ones who discovered this island and its secrets. Secrets which Zerina was not privileged to know even thought her bloodline too was connected to the one of the ones who discovered this island.

Zerina dipped her head in a quick bow. She said, "I did not mean to over sleep, milady. It shall not happen again."

"I should hope not," Angel said, smoothing out an invisible wrinkle in her maroon color dress. This woman was all about perfection. Her shiny, thick, wavy white hair was always neatly pulled back in a tight bun high on her head. Her bangs were perfectly cut in a straight line just above her 'perfectly plucked to the right thinness' eyebrows. Her make up was always applied correctly and brightly, which Zerina thought was too much. But Angel loved her makeup. Angel believed she was the embodiment of perfection.

Zerina was not perfect. She knew no one ever really was. Perfection was an impossible goal to obtain. But to Angel, Zerina was far from being the perfect niece-young woman-she envisioned Zerina should be. To Angel, Zerina would never be perfect. She was only five foot five. Only five inches shorter than Angel, but to Angel, Zerina might as well have been only two inches tall. Zerina was also fairly small in the bust size. She wasn't very curvy at all either. She was just average.

Zerina didn't mind thought. She didn't have a problem with how she looked. One thing she did really like about herself was her red hair. The hair she got from her father. The red hair that was straight and unevenly cut. The hair that Angel always sneered at with disgust.

Zerina moved her hands around to her back. She reached up and clenched a hold of the longest layer of her hair that fell to the middle of her back. She tugged a strain as Angel sighed. Zerina resisted the urge to pull away when Angel walked over to her and cupped her cheek. The woman's hand was cold. She never knew Angel's touch to ever be warm, in more ways than one. Angel sighed again. "I know it is not your fault you are sick. It is that wretched woman's fault that you were born this way."

Zerina gritted her teeth and clenched her fists as she braced to hear yet again the reason for her imperfections. "If only your mother was smart enough to not have an illegitimate child with that man, that pirate."

"My mother did marry my father," Zerina said before she could stop herself. A sharp pain shot through Zerina's right cheek as Angel's hand collided with it.

"Do not talk back to me, child. Your mother did not marry that man by our laws. You are an illegitimate child!" Angel hissed. Zerina straightened herself back up. She ignored the blood slipping down her now reddened cheek. She forced herself to choke back a gag when Angel suddenly took on a distraught look in her silvery green eyes and covered her deep red lips with her hands. "Oh, dear me, I should not have struck you. I know it is not your fault you are such a delicate, ill little flower. If you weren't sick then you would be able to easily hide that hideous hair of yours with your magic, but alas, you cannot."

Angel sniffled as she wiped a fake tear from her eye. "We shall forget this ever happened. Dress now, child. Breakfast is awaiting for us downstairs."

Angel turned, her dress twirling as she went, and headed for the door. The woman paused to give Zerina a look of warning. "And do cover up that scar of yours. A lady should be presentable at all times. I'm sure Mari will be happy to help you dress as always."

"Of course, milady," Mari said as she walked through the door. Zerina felt a little better with this short, slightly plump woman around. Mari was the closest thing Zerina had to a mother.

On the surface, Mari was all business. But when they, the workers or slaves depending on who you asked, were gathered together away from the elite, Mari let her real opinion of their masters be heard. Mari made things fun. Mari made things bearable.

"Then I shall see you in a few minutes," Angel said. The woman flowed out of the room with her three maids quickly, and quietly, following behind her.

Once the door was securely closed, Mari stuck her tongue out at the mistress of the household. "Such a despicable woman, that one is. One of these days that bad karma is gonna bit her on her butt. And I so hope I'm there to see it."

Zerina giggled. She instantly felt better. Mari huffed then turned to Zerina. "So what's up with you today? You're usually more careful."

"I'm sorry," Zerina sighed. She plopped back down on her bed. "I was having an intense dream about Luffy."

"Ah." Mari let out a drawl of understanding. "Your boyfriend wreaking havoc again? Did he go after another government facility?"

Zerina huffed. "Luffy's not my boyfriend, Mari. He didn't understand the word when we were kids and I'm sure he doesn't understand it now. Besides, he just wants to have fun. Being in a relationship will only complicate that."

"You are in such denial about your feelings. You've grown very fond of him over the years." Mari gave Zerina a knowing smirk.

"Oh! Hush!" Zerina half heartily demanded. Despite not seeing Luffy since they were kids, she did somehow developed feelings for him. She stood up from her bed and walked over to the balcony doors. She pushed them open and stepped out onto the balcony. "Long distance relationships never work out. And we are as about as far away from each other as two people can get."

Zerina gestured to their surroundings. Their star blanketed surrounds. "We're technically not even on the same planet."

"Technically, this island was part of that planet below us," Mari huffed. She stepped out onto the balcony and looked out at the floating island called Hydra. "It still is despite it floating in the air."

"Mari, how can this island still be apart of that world when we're isolated from it?" Zerina asked.

"Because it came from that world. And one day it will return to that world. Just like you will return to Luffy and your father," Mari said with a soft smile.

Zerina couldn't help but scoff. "The only way for that to happen would be for someone to actually find where the elite hid the portals. And no one has seen them since I was dragged back to this horrid island years ago."

"That was an odd coincident," Mari said.

"What do you mean?" Zerina asked.

"Oh it's nothing." Mari smiled. Zerina put her hands on her hips and tapped her toes on the floor. Mari marched up to Zerina. She took the young woman's chin in her hand and looked at the cut on her cheek. "Don't give me that look. Besides, we don't have time to discuss this any farther. You have to get dress and get downstairs to breakfast before her majesty looses it again. Angel indeed, the correct name for her should be Demon."

Zerina giggled again. "She definitely is not angel."

Mari gestured for Zerina to follow her. Another maid, one Zerina didn't know, had filled Zerina's bathtub already by the time she got into the bathroom. The bathtub was ridiculously big. It could easily fit six people comfortably.

Zerina pulled off her cotton nightgown. She paused when one of the long, oval shaped mirrors caught her eye. There were several of these mirrors bolt down to the floor in Zerina's bathroom. They were also bolted where they couldn't be flipped like the design should have allowed.

Angel had placed them there years ago when she had first married Zerina's uncle and moved into the manor. They were placed there so Zerina would always be reminded of her imperfections. They were also placed there to constantly show Zerina the scar on her back. The, ironically star shaped scar that Angel had put there herself whenever Zerina would use her magic. She often wondered if Angel hit her like she did on purpose to create the star design or if it was an accident. Two long star points with several other points marred her skin between the longer points.

Mari's sigh brought Zerina out of her transfixed stare at the 'just healing' scar. "Hurry up with your bath and I'll put some healing ointment on that and your cheek. It'll be healed soon."

"No, it won't," Zerina said softly. "You know Angel won't let that happen."

Zerina heard Mari sigh as she slipped into the hot water of her bath. She didn't take long. She knew Angel despised wrinkled skin, no matter that it wasn't her skin to begin with. After washing her hair and the sweat, that her dream produced, off her body, Zerina quickly got out of the tub. Mari was holding out a towel for her. She grabbed it and wrapped it around her body before exiting the room.

While Mari bustled about, getting Zerina's simple dress ready for her, Zerina quickly brushed out her wet hair. She pulled her hair into a loose bun then paused when she caught her own eyes in the mirror attached to her vanity. Her eyes were silver. It gave her a ghostly look. She wished she had her father's eyes. Her father's eyes could easily scare every single elite on this island with just one harsh glare.

Zerina laid her brush back down on the vanity. She then reached under the table and pressed against the marble. A faint click was heard before a secret hiding slot opened up. She pulled out a piece of paper that was inside. On it was her father: Red Haired Shanks. Of course this was an old wanted poster. She knew that her dad no longer had his trademark straw hat. He had given it to Luffy ten years ago. While she wasn't there when her dad gave Luffy the hat, Luffy had told her about it through their bond. Thinking of their bond, Zerina tried to contact him. "Luffy? Are you there?"

Nothing. Zerina sighed. She put the wanted poster back into its hiding place and closed it up. "He must be busy."

"Trying to contact your lover?" Mari asked.

Zerina felt her cheeks grow hot. "Luffy is not my lover!"

"In time he will be," Mari laughed.

"Ugh! You are impossible!" Zerina snapped.

"Never mind me. Hurry up and get dressed," Mari said with a dismissal wave of her hand. Zerina did. She rushed over to her changing wall and stepped behind it. Mari already had her dress on the hook. The woman had picked out a plain white sundress with matching slippers.

Zerina quickly put them on after Mari smeared some salve on her scar. She then glanced at herself in the wall length mirror that also stood behind the changing wall as Mari did her best to cover up the scar on her cheek. Zerina didn't mind the simple dress and shoes. But Angel wouldn't like it. It really didn't matter. No matter how simple or fancy she dressed Angel would always disapprove. Mari dabbed some salve on the cut on Zerina's face. She blew it dry before applying a light coat of make up over it. Zerina sighed. With nothing else she could do about her appearance, Zerina headed downstairs.

Before she even got halfway down the stairs, the smells of breakfast greeted her. Eggs, bacon, gravy, biscuits were obviously on the menu along with an array of fruits. It made her stomach rumble in protest that she wasn't eating yet. Zerina paused on the stairs when she noticed some maids talking with a tall woman that she didn't recognize. The woman was dressing in a slick navy colored tight fitting business skirt and matching coat. Her white hair was pulled back in a tight braid.

"I suppose this place will do," The woman said. She paused and gave Zerina a cold, inspecting looking over her thin rimmed glasses. Zerina barely heard the woman's disapproving scoff before turning back to the maids. "But it must be much cleaner for the upcoming event."

Event? Zerina wondered. What is Angel planning now, another ball perhaps? She does love showing off her beauty and her waltzing skills. That means I'll be working out in the gardens today to gather up flowers for the dance.

Zerina brushed off the new woman and headed for the dinning hall. The smells of breakfast became stronger with each step she took. Soon she turned into the room. Her aunt and uncle were already sitting at the table. Her uncle was a six foot three inches tall man. His white hair was always sliced back, Angel's preference because she liked it when she could see his silvery blue eyes. He was dressed in his typical dark grey business suit. At the moment a red cloth napkin donned the front of his shirt to protect it from falling food with another one on his lap to catch the food.

Angel shot her a dark look. "About time you decided to grace us with your presence."

"Zerina," Galen, her uncle's, voice boomed around the room. He continued to berate her while not looking up from his newspaper. "You're late. Are we going to have to now punish you for tardiness?"

"No, Uncle," Zerina apologized as she skirted around the long rectangular table to his left side. "I apologize for my tardiness. It shall not happen again."

"It better no-" Galen's voice cut off as Zerina sat down. "I see you cut yourself again. You're such a clumsy child. What was it this time? Another thorn?"

"Yes, Uncle," Zerina lied. She knew better than to speak the truth. Galen always took Angel's side, even when he saw the woman strike Zerina. Beside she knew that the make up covered up the scar, Angel had told him about it. "It was another thorn. It happened in the gardens."

Zerina forced herself not to smile. The thorn part wasn't a lie at all. Angel was a thorn to Zerina. Galen scoffed. "Be careful next time. You need to be presentable for to-"

"Ahem! Darling!" Angel quickly cut him off. She had a fork, with a grape speared on it, raised to Galen's face. "Have you tried the grapes this morning? They are simple delicious!"

Galen took the round fruit in his mouth as Angel fed it to him. He hummed in fake delight as his eyes dropped back to his paper. "Indeed it is, my dear."

Zerina looked at her uncle then at her aunt. "Is there something happening that I should know about?"

"Of course not," Angel said while dabbing her lips with her napkin. "Now, eat your breakfast before it gets any colder than it already is."

Zerina sighed inwardly. She tried to contact Luffy again. "Luffy? Are you there?"

Nothing. Zerina sighed to herself again then picked up her fork.

…

"Ah!" Mari jumped when the little blue ball whacked her in the head. Angel's other nieces, nephews and cousins, from her side of the family, ran over to the garden where Zerina and Mari was currently working. There were fifteen of them ranging from the age four to thirteen. Mari grabbed the ball, choking down her desire to make the kids eat it, and handed it back with a forced sweet smile. "Here you go, little darlings."

"Give it!" One of the boys demanded. He snatched the ball from the woman's hand then ran off with the other kids.

"Her majesty could have warned us her sweet little family was stopping by today," Mari grumbled as she jammed her little shove into the dirt.

"You know why she didn't," Zerina sighed.

"Yeah, I know." Mari nodded. "She's trying to get you to accidentally grant a wish. And she knows the best way to do that is having those brats around. Their loose lips are easy to control."

"Ze-rin-a!" The oldest of the kids, Angelica, a thirteen year old girl who was basically a mini version of Angel, called out. She stood up from her seat at the garden table and walked over to the two women in the garden. She swished her pink dress as she walked. The girl held a sickening sweet smile on her face. Her two female cousins, which she left at the table, giggled in anticipation.

"Speaking of which," Mari grumbled. "Zerina, get out of here now!"

Zerina only nodded in reply. She quickly stood up. "Mari, I'm going to go get some more water. These plants are very dry. Milady won't be happy if her flowers were to die."

"Indeed." Mari nodded. "Hurry up then."

"Zerina! I wish for Michel to eat a worm!" The teenage girl shouted out.

"Ung!" Zerina lurched forward. She dropped to her knees and grabbed her chest.

"No! I wish you not to grant that wish!" Mari cried, but it was too late. The air crackled around Zerina's body as she started to glow. A dark purplish blue aura surrounded her body. The glow flowed from her and wrapped around the seven year old. Tears poured down Michel's cheeks as Zerina's magic took a hold of him. The boy bent down and picked up a worm.

"Gross!" One of the girls giggled. They jumped up from the garden table and ran for the manor. "We're telling!"

"You're gonna get it now!" Angelica sang before turning and skipping after her cousins. "You're gonna get it now! You're gonna get it now!"

Just as Angelica got to the door of the manor, Angel stepped through it. Her expression was dark as she glared at Zerina. Angelica grabbed onto her aunt with tears running down her cheeks. "Auntie! Zerina's being mean! She used her magic on Michel! She made him eat a worm!"

"Zerina!" Angel hissed. "Inside! Now!"

Knowing there was nothing they could do or say to stop this, Zerina and Mari remained quiet. Zerina obediently headed for the manor. When she got close enough, Angel grabbed her wrist and jerked her inside. Angel pulled Zerina through the kitchen. All the maids and butlers, the ones Zerina knew, only gave quick sympathetic glances as Zerina was pulled by them.

Angel then jerked Zerina into a small room just off the kitchen. It was where spices and some foods were stored. The woman jerked Zerina's hands to a rope that was hanging from the ceiling. She tided the rope around Zerina's wrists. She grabbed the back collar of Zerina's shirt and ripped it open, all the way down her back then unhooked her bra strap. "I'm sorry, Zerina. This really does pain me to have to do this. But you must learn that you are forbidden from ever using your magic, especially on my family."

Zerina held in a flinch as the whip collided with her already damaged skin. She blocked out the snapping of the whip by thinking about how goofy Luffy was when she was with him. His goofy smile, how much he was a crybaby then, how weak he was. It made this situation better. Luffy, despite not being by her side, always could make her feel better. She loved him. She loved everything she knew about him. She wanted to see him again. She wanted to be with him again.