"Hello~! Wake up, sleepy head! It's time for your first day of training!"

I groaned and rolled over to see who was waking me up at what seemed like a very early hour in the morning.

"Mom…?" I blinked slowly, opening my eyes to see her face in my doorway. "What time is it?"

"Early enough," she said. "Come on, get out of bed, get dressed, and let's go eat some breakfast before your big day!"

"Big day…?" I wondered. "What?"

"I said it's your first day of training, so get up, up, up!" she sing-songed.

I rolled out of bed and quickly changed out of my sleep clothes. I noticed that none of my old clothes were here, really anywhere. I looked all around, under the bed, the closet, but they were missing. Instead, I found a new change of clothes waiting for me, laying in my closet, folded neatly.

It was a burgundy uniform with golden yellow accents around the hems, vaguely reminiscent of what I had seen some of the other people Father Time and Mom had introduced me to. It seemed that this was the uniform for the Kronos employees, just in different colors. I even got a new headband than the old one I used to wear. Attached to the left side of the top was a name tag. Mine read 'Magnolia Apollo – Trainee.'

With my new, more professional attire on, I began walking down the hallway, desperately trying to figure out the maze that was this building. Eventually, I made it to the lobby. Mom was sitting on one of the chairs waiting for me. As she saw me enter the room, she got up with a huge smile on her face.

"Maggie, you look fantastic in your new uniform!" she said.

I blushed and thanked her.

"So. What would you like to eat?" she asked, walking towards me. "We can make anything you like, just ask!"

She grabbed my arm gently and began escorting me to the kitchen, talking on and on about the many different breakfast options available for this very special day.

I chuckled slightly and said, "This is new. The last time I had to train, I didn't really get to have food."

Mom stopped for a brief second, looking a bit taken aback, but regained her eager smile and continued walking me to the kitchen.

Right as we walked in, two people jumping out of nowhere to greet us.

"HELLO!" they yelled in harmony.

Mom laughed, but I let out a tiny scream of surprise.

"Oh, you boys crack me up," Mom said. "Good morning."

"'Morning ma'am," said the first, looking at mom. "And ma'am," he said to me.

"I believe it is Magnolia, right?" the second asked. "We met very briefly a while ago."

I tried to think back and remember the names of everyone I met that day, but luckily they had name tags, too.

"Light," said the first, striking a pose.

"And Chaos…" the other whispered hoarsely, waving his arms towards me.

"At your service, ma'am and ma'am!" they said together, saluting the two of us.

I saluted back out of instinct and nodded to them, smiling.

"These two help out in the kitchen every once in a while," Mom explained.

"Well, I'm the one that usually does all the work…" Light sneered, clearly throwing his cohort under the bus.

"I supervise, you know that! We've talked about this, babe," Chaos retorted back defensively.

"Yeah, and if by 'supervise' you mean sit on the counter and distract me, then sure," Light shot right back.

Chaos slapped his hand to his chest and gasped. "Babe… I can't help it if I'm literally the embodiment of Chaos. You know that."

Light sighed, "I know… I'm sorry I snapped at you, babe."

He held out his arms and Chaos began running to him in fake-slow motion before they hugged it out. When they finished their embrace they began an overly-complicated handshake involving various other body parts and then snapped, yelling "QUEENS!" at the end.

I just stared at them in stunned silence. Mom laughed and clapped for them.

"Mom," I whispered. "Are they-"

"Gay?" Chaos asked.

"Very," Light answered.

"I was gonna ask if you were insane, but ok…" I mumbled, smiling.

They both burst out laughing.

"Orazia, we're adopting your daughter from now on, m'kay?" Chaos said.

"First of all, I just got my daughter back, second of all, the most I can do is joint custody, and third of all, we came here for breakfast, so what do you want to eat, Maggie?"

I hated being put on the spot and being told to make a decision, so I nervously thought about it for a while and said, "Umm… what about oatmeal? With some fruit?"

"Great," Mom said.

"We'll get started on that right away," they said together.

Mom and I sat down at the small round table in the kitchen together. She stared eagerly at me, as if waiting for me to say something.

"You're so beautiful," she said. "I can't even believe that you're twelve now. It feels like yesterday when I could still hold you in my arms… And now! You're almost a teenager!"

"Oh, that's weird to think about…" I said, making a face of disgust. "But I'm kinda glad, once I'm a teenager I guess I won't feel as little compared to everyone else on the ship."

Her smile dropped a bit, but the corners were still curved. "Are you… happy? With the Straw Hats, I mean."

Now it was my turn to smile. "Yes. I love them all so much." I laughed, thinking back nostalgically. "Luffy-nii is the one who's gonna be King of the Pirates! He's hilarious and unpredictable- but also very predictable at the same time. And Zoro-nii used to scare me, but I think he's secretly a teddy bear on the inside. Like, way on the inside. Sanji-nii's the cook, and he's not-so-secretly in love with Nami-nee and Robin. Oh, and Usopp-nii tells the coolest stories! He basically knows everything, but he's scared of a lot of things. Ah, Chopper-nii… He's my best friend. I help him sometimes because he's our ship's doctor. Nami-nee is kinda bossy, but usually it's for a real reason. She's very good at keeping the boys in line. Robin's basically my second mom. Franky is like a really weird uncle. He's a cyborg! I didn't even think those existed before we met him. And Brook is the musician. He's so good at playing the violin and making jokes- well, he calls them skull-jokes because he's a skeleton and he really only makes skeleton puns!"

"Well, it certainly sounds like you've found some great friends," she said.

"What kinda fruit would you like, Magnolia?" Light asked.

"I'm not picky, but I do love-"

"Strawberries!" my mom and I said together.

"I remembered," she said. "You ate them like candy when you were little. And you would help me pick them from the garden out back." She reached out and touched my hand on the table. "I would give anything to go back to how things were…"

"Mom…" I said.

"Well, here ya go!" Chaos interrupted. "Be careful, the bowl is hot."

The two set down a bowl of steaming oatmeal with strawberries and blueberries thrown in.

"Oh, thanks," I said.

"Would you like anything to eat, VP?" Chaos asked.

"Nothing right now," she said.

I took the spoon and stirred the oatmeal a bit, letting the steam escape from the inside.

"Mom… Why did you say you were dying?" I asked suddenly. It sort of just slipped out of my mouth. "That night. You could've just said-"

"That was my cover, Maggie," she explained. "When I told Boss that I wanted to settle down and have a family, we both knew it couldn't be forever. So we came up with this cover story, so whenever she needed me back, I'd disappear so people assumed I was dead and wouldn't go looking for me."

"But you said normal people can't come here without being invited," I said. My stomach felt like a fire was sparking up inside.

"I did say that, yes, but-"

"Did you even plan on telling me about you? Before you 'died'?" I asked. "Did you even plan on telling me about me about me? About what I am?" What was I even saying? Why is this all coming out of my mouth? I thought.

"Of course, Maggie, but-"

"What would've happened if you 'died' and dad was gone and I was living with you?" I can't stop… It's just coming out!

"Maggie-"

"Would you have just abandoned me?" The fire was burning furiously. It was coming up my throat and into my lungs.

"Stop-"

"All these years I thought Dad was the worst parent, but you share some of the blame too…" Hot tears began forming in the corners of my eyes as my throat choked out desperately, "You knew Dad took me. Did you even try to find me? You could've if you wanted to-"

"MAGGIE, STOP!" she shrieked, standing up and moving the table slightly.

I shut my mouth immediately. What have I done…?

"We're just gonna… go…" Light said awkwardly, pushing Chaos out the door to the kitchen.

Tears were steadily streaming down my face as I uselessly tried to wipe them away. My stomach seemed too cool off as the fire inside subsided. But the damage was done.

"Maggie, I thought about you every single day. I tried desperately to try and contact the Headquarters to find out where he was deployed, but they never returned my calls or letters. Finally, one day, I stopped trying to find you down there. So I came up here. And when I found out what he'd done to you, I wanted nothing more than to rewrite every single day you were on his ship. I wanted to rip you from his grasp and hug you so tight and never let go. But I couldn't."

"Why not?" I squeaked.

"Because I wouldn't let her," Father Time said, appearing in the doorway. "And trust me, she asked me every. Single. Day. So if you're gonna blame someone, blame me." She walked out without another word.

We just stared at each other for a moment.

"Mom, I'm sorry," I began. "I don't know what came over me and I-"

"Shh," she said. "Come here." She opened up her arms and I ran into them as I burst into even more tears.

"Why did he do it?" I asked in between sobs. "He was my dad… He was my dad."

She stroked my head comfortingly and whispered, "I'm so sorry," over and over again.

When we both had finished crying, Mom said, "I think your oatmeal's gone cold."

We both laughed. She took her thumbs and wiped the wetness from my cheeks and told me I should finish my breakfast before we started my training.

Mom escorted me to this giant room that was made of solely concrete. This is where I'd spend the majority of my time here at Kronos training to become even stronger.

Father Time was waiting for us. She had a long wooden staff in her hand that had several rings dangling from the top.

"Welcome to your first day of training," she said. "During our time together, I will not go easy on you, I will not baby you, I will not show mercy, and most importantly, I will never. Ever. Sweat. I think it's gross and there's no way you could ever make me try hard enough to get me to sweat anyway, so yeah. Any questions?"

"Umm… what exactly will this training entail?" I asked.

"Good question," she said. "Let's begin."

"Wait, what?"

My mom exited the room and gave me a thumbs up.

"What about my question-"

"I don't wanna answer it. So, show me everything you can do," she said. "I want to see it all."

"O-ok," I said. "Well, I ate the Tick-Tock Fruit so I can stop time and such…" I explained. "But I guess you know that… So anyway, I'll just demonstrate my powers so far."

I shifted my feet nervously and took a deep breath before I began.

"Tick-Tock!" I said, stopping time. I looked to Father Time, but saw she wasn't frozen. "What…?"

"I don't exist within Time itself so even when you stop time, it doesn't affect me, so go on," she explained.

"Oh, ok," I said. "Un-Tock." I took another deep breath and said, "I can stop specific things or other people, too." She tossed me her staff and I said, "Tick-Stop." It stopped in midair. "Also… this: Rewound." The staff began moving very slowly. "Un-Tock." I held out my hand and caught it. "I can heal wounds by speeding up the healing processes, but I don't have any wounds currently…"

"It's fine, continue." I tossed her the staff back.

"Oh, yeah! Time bullets!" I said. I made my hand in the shape of a gun and fired a single bullet into the ceiling. "Oh, and I can also see into the future. So yeah, that's about it, I think. I'm kinda useless in combat, but I guess that's why we're here."

"How long can you stop time for, do you know?" she asked.

"Umm… I think the last time I really counted it was about twenty-or-so minutes."

"Interesting…" she said.

"I used to carry around handcuffs so that I wouldn't have to hold people's hands when I stopped time, but they broke and I eventually learned how to extend it without touching people," I said.

"Invigorating," she said. "We have a lot of work to do. My goals for you are to 1: extend the limits of your time stopping powers to an hour and unlock the full potential of your Devil Fruit. 2: try to make the time bullets actually effective. 3: hone your prophecy abilities. 4: teach you your innate, non-Devil Fruit powers. And 5: teach you how to not be useless in combat."

"An… an hour?" I asked, mouth gaping open. "In two years?"

"I never said anything about two years," she said.

"But Luffy said at the-"

"But Luffy said! I don't care what he said, this is my project," she mocked. "You'll be here as long as you need to be here. Got it?"

"O-ok?" I squeaked.

"Now the real fun can begin!" she said, smiling maliciously.

I began to wonder how on earth I was going to survive this.

Author's Note:

Oh my. This is not how I planned this chapter, guys. Literally, my characters were like, nope this is how it's gonna go, so deal with it and type. This literally made me cry and I'm still a bit confused as to how Maggie hijacked this chapter from my brain, but it needed to happen, I guess.

~Momo

PS: Guys, I just really love writing Light and Chaos so much. They make me so happy. :)))

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