"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Zoro!" Luffy blubbered, nearly wrapping himself around the swordsman, still tied to a pole. "Yuur alibe!" He managed through his tears, sobbing into the man's chest.

"Get off me!" He jerked his body, trying to dislodge the man, but nothing was working.

"Hey! Guards!" Zoro called. "Get this lunatic out of here!"

The marines quickly showed up at the disturbance, rifles ready.

"Sir, are you attempting to free the prisoner?"

"Whuh?" The other Luffy asked, turning away from Zoro for a second before reexamining him. "Oh yeah! You're still tied up!" He immediately got to work on the knots.

"Hey! Stop that! I made a bet, if I survived a month without food, tied to this pole, they'll let me go."

"Nah, I can't wait a month!" He thought back, biting his lip. "And I think they were gonna kill you anyway, or something?"

"What?" Zoro asked, shocked. "No, you're just a lunatic, what would you know. Stop untying me!"

"I can't just leave you here." Luffy pleaded. "We need to get back onto the ocean, to meet with all the others!"

"What others?"

"You know! Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Brook, Franky, Jimbe, Carrot!"

"I don't know anyone going by any of those names!"

"Hahah! Sure you do, they're your family, our comrades! Crew Mates!"

"I honestly have no idea about anything you're talking about."

"What- but... Oh yeah!" Luffy slapped himself across the forehead. "I'm back in the past! I forgot! We didn't do that yet! Okay, okay, so, I picked you up here, and then we went out to sea, and I got eaten by a bird, and then we met Nami on the island the bird dropped me! And then I beat up Buggy, you remember Buggy, right?"

Zoro blinked, taking a second to realize the lunatic in front of him had asked him a question. "Uh, fifteen million beli bounty? A clown guy?"

"See! You remember!" Luffy grinned madly. "This is going to be amazing, we'll get to do it all over again!"

"Hey, don't just ignore us." The marine growled. "You're under arrest for attempting to-" a glare from Luffy had the marine's eyes roll back, showing the whites, as his mouth foamed.

The entire group of soldiers simply collapsed, no match for his Conqueror's Haki.

Zoro stared in awe, but Luffy simply turned back to him. "So! Are you up for it, Zoro?"

"Up... Up for what?"

"Being a pirate again! We never reached the One Piece, but we were so close! I know we'll get farther this time!"

"I'm a Pirate Hunter, not a pirate. Besides, I have my own dreams." He felt nervous now, glancing behind him, back at the bodies, but he wouldn't let anyone intimidate him.

"The world's greatest swordsman, eh?" Luffy asked. Zoro looked up in shock. "I know, because we did it before. You lost to Mihawk once, and then you made a promise to me, to never, ever lose again." All the joy disappeared from Luffy's face, and it seemed like the air became colder. "You broke that promise. All of you did." Luffy reached over, and grabbed the wooden pole that Zoro was tied to. With a slight sheen of Armament, he simply tore it apart, his fingers cutting through simple wood like butter. Zoro fell free, and Luffy pulled off the rope that was now simply hanging loose around him. "But I forgive you. I can't stay mad at all of you!" He dragged Zoro into another hug. "It's been so hard, I thought you were all dead! You were all dead, so I looked for a way to bring you back, and I couldn't, until..." he wiped away newly forming tears. "...Until I found someone who could send me back here! Let's do it over again, and have even more fun!"

"Wh-What are you?"

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm going to be King of the Pirates this time!" He reached forward, and grasped Zoro's hand. "And you're my First Mate! Roronoa Zoro, and you're going to be the greatest swordsman! As the King of all the seas of the world, I can't have anything less!"

The bounty hunter didn't know what to say. Usually when people learned his ambition, they laughed at him. So many people he had cut up for that! But this man... Zoro couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something so... honest about the man. He sounded insane, but he didn't sound insane. Strange things happened in the Grand Line, everyone said so.

"Was I really part of your crew?"

"Yeah."

"How... how far did we get?"

"Almost to the end." Luffy said sadly. "But not quite."

"Did... Did I beat Mihawk?"

Luffy opened his mouth, before shutting it and looking at Zoro. "...You don't remember?"

"No." Zoro said earnestly. "Not at all."

Luffy looked saddened, before steeling himself and placing both hands on Zoro's shoulders. "If... If that Zoro did or not, it doesn't matter! Because you still need to do it!"

"...What?"

"If I told you that the first Zoro did it, would that make you think your goal was accomplished? If I told you that he couldn't do it, would you give up?!"

"N-No!"

Luffy grinned. "You sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure."

"Really?"

"Tell me!"

"You didn't." Luffy said, and before Zoro could begin to get sad, or angry, Luffy continued. "But you could have."

"..."

"..."

"That's not an answer you bastard!"

"Um..." Coby began, staring in horror. Next to him, his Luffy stood, somehow looking even more confused. If there was anything Coby learned in their short time together, Luffy basically was always the strangest thing in whatever situation they were stuck in. Nothing phased the pirate.

Well, technically, the strangest thing still was Luffy, in a way.

A little girl placed a step ladder next to them, making her way up to try and bring some food out to the bounty hunter who saved her life, when she stopped and stared at the same thing the other two were. She glanced to the side, looking at Coby. "What's going on?" She whispered.

"I have no clue." He said.

"Is... Is that me?" Luffy asked.

"I mean, it looks like you." Coby replied. "You know, except..."

"Bigger."

"Yeah."

"And musclier!"

"That's... that's not a word."

"And look at all those cool scars!" Luffy said, grinning. "I'm gonna go talk to him!"

"No! Don't go in there!" Rika shouted. "The Marines will kill you if they catch you! Axe-Hand Morgan doesn't let anyone get away with breaking the rules!"

"Yeah, Luffy, just, I bet he'll come out of the yard, and then we can talk to him... do you have a brother or something?"

"Yeah!" Luffy said, smiling wide. "His name is Ace! He's a pirate too, and super strong."

"Cool. Is... is that him?"

"What? No! Of course not!" Luffy asked, insulted. "That's me!"

"But you're you!" Rika added.

"There are two of me." Luffy said, as if only realizing it that moment. "That's awesome! I'm going to ask him to join my crew!"

"He's more muscly." Rika said, pointing at him. "Maybe you should join his crew."

Coby watched with more acceptance than disappointment as Luffy got into an argument with an eight-year-old girl. It was evenly matched, in terms of logic. Perhaps only a slight advantage on the girl's side.

"Whatever, either way, I want to meet him." Luffy pointed at Rika's riceballs. "And you still want to give Zoro that, right?"

"Yeah!" The girl hopped over the fence, and Luffy followed. They both walked on the opposite side of the pile of unconscious marines, aiming for the two bizarre men. "Mister Pirate Hunter!" Rika shouted, walking up to them.

"Ah! The little girl!" the older Luffy said, ecstatic. "And her rice balls!" He grabbed them from her. "That's funny, last time, Helmeppo came outside and caught you, and then he smashed them into the dirt." He turned and smiled widely at Zoro. "But you ate the rice ball anyway. That's how I knew you were the right person for my crew."

"Helmeppo?" Rika asked, scared. "He's the one who let the dogs attack me, Mister Pirate Hunter saved my life. It's why he... was... stuck here."

On cue, Helmeppo walked out into the yard. All four of them turned to look at the man and his two guards. The captain's son would have been outraged, to see Zoro free, and so many people trespassing. But he was more concerned with the dozens of unconscious marines. He turned on his heel, running back to the base. "Sound the alarm! Call daddy! Tell him that there are people breaking out Zoro! And they beat up Marines!"

"Huh." Zoro began. "That... was eerie. There might be something to that time travel thing you're spouting."

"Time travel!" The younger Luffy said, shocked. "That explains it!"

"Explains whaaaaaaa-" older Luffy finally looked at his younger self, and found himself with his mouth hanging wide open, not really sure of what to do.

Zoro looked between the two of them. "Is... is this your brother?"

"NO!" Both Luffys shouted. "That's me! I mean, you're me! It's I!" They growled at each other. "Stop it!"

"And that just about proves it, doesn't it?" Zoro said, mostly to himself. He almost started to laugh, it was all so bizarre. He would have begun laughing, and it would have been a long time before he stopped, but his gurgling stomach and lack of swords in his sash told him that he had other things to worry about. "Uh, hey."

Older Luffy turned around immediately, forgetting his rage at the younger. "Yeah?"

"I need my sword-"

"Oh yeah! I forgot, the first time around I was gonna hold them hostage!" Older Luffy said, smiling. "And I'd give you your swords back if you joined my crew. And you did! And I did."

"Wait, wait, wait." Younger Luffy said, a mischievous glint appearing in his eye. "Are you saying that Zoro will joint he crew of the first person to bring him his swords?"

"Yep, that's how it happened last time."

"Wait, this isn't some race, care to explain why there are two of you-" but the younger had taken off, cackling.

"I'll get the swords, and the Zoro will join me, and I'll be the Captain Luffy!" The younger declared.

The older gasped, shocked at this turn of events. "But I'm the captain!" He raced after himself, smashing into a window in a desperate search for swords. He had forgotten exactly where he found them the last time. But he'd get to them eventually.

Coby climbed over the fence, gathering his courage, as he walked into the yard. In the Shells Town marine base sirens, bells, and alarms were going off. The sounds of men being mobilized was only overshadowed by the sounds of crashing as two Monkey D. Luffys barreled through the base looking for three Katana.

Notes - You've all heard it before. Luffy reaches the end of the Grand Line, but tragedy befalls him, and so he goes back in time to try again, relive his old adventures, and try to set right what once went wrong, but stronger and more competent than ever.

And everything pretty much works out how it should.

This isn't that story. Because lines of events are very finicky, random occurrences, conversations, and reactions are just that, random. And if you know they're coming, why, that changes everything.

And because unlike some other characters, Luffy wouldn't be able to just sit back and let people get hurt when they "were supposed to". Luffy's mantra had always been to screw destiny and do what made him and his crew happiest.

Things would go off the rails pretty fast.

(Most recent One Piece chapter at time of writing- 833)