Fyr3Fly3: So recently, a well-known fanfic, New Game Plus, was put on indefinite hiatus by its writer, DuncanIdaho2014. New Game Plus was easily one of my favorite One Piece fanfictions ever. It's one of the fanfictions that got me into the writing them. At one point, I even wrote notes for my own fanfic based on the idea of his. This isn't that exact fanfic per say, as that one is filled with a lot of self-indulgent stuff since it was my own personal thing. This is a more refined version of that (refined being a relative term), inspired by his work and others, but with my own ideas and spin on things. I often have trouble keeping up with writing my fanfic as I'm sure maybe a few people might know. But this one is really kinda special to me. So, without further ado, here is the beginning.

Chapter 0: Huey Lewis and The News

There's a thing called Murphy's Law. It states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and in the current case of the Straw Hat Pirates, things had gone very very very wrong.

After Whole Cake Island, the crew was finally able to reunite after nearly two months in Wano Country alongside the samurai and Law. From there, they were supposed to enact their plans to take out the Yonko, 'Thousand Beasts' Kaidou, and his crew, the Beast Pirates. They knew it wouldn't be easy, especially after the fiasco at Whole Cake Island, but they couldn't have imagined it would end up like this.

By this, it is meant that they didn't expect the Marines, led by all three Admirals and Fleet Commander Akainu, to invade Wano while they were in the middle of their plan. They didn't expect to be caught between the two forces and have their allies slaughtered. They didn;t expect the Grand Fleet to try and come save them only to be sunk into the depths of the sea. They didn't expect to find the Thousand Sunny covered in lava and sinking into the ocean when they tried to retreat. They didn't expect Akainu to melt down Law to nothing but bloody sludge in front of them. They didn't expect to be beaten back with no way out.

How could they expect that? For the Straw Hats, there had always been a way out. Some lucky break that would come and save them before time was up. Luck always seemed to be on their side. But not today. Today was the day that the Straw Hat Pirates were wiped from the face of the earth.

"Midori Boshi: De-AHHH!" Bullets, air slashes, and an assortment of Devil Fruit-based attacks came flying at Usopp as he peeked around the corner of the cave to fire at the horde of Marines slowly enclosing on their position. It was only thanks to Luffy stretching and pulling him back that he wasn't the first Straw Hat to die.

Never before had the Straw Hats looked so battered and disheartened. Chopper stood in the corner of the cave, sniffling and clutching Law's sword to his chest while Robin tried to calm him, barely hiding her own tears. Franky sat against the cave wall, the skin on his body torn away to show his metal facade beneath and both of his arms ripped off. Brook leaned against the wall, for once looking like the dead man he was, his crown gone and several of his bones cracked. Sanji stood over Nami, whispering softly to her while wrapping bandages around the massive burn on her arm. Blood dripped from behind his bangs where his right eye used to be. She didn't listen to him, simply stroking the golden band around her wrist. Zoro held what remained of his three blades close to his chest, Wado Ichimonji left only as a hilt and Shunsui melted beyond recognition. Jinbei was barely breathing, covered head to toe in burns, stab wounds, gunshot wounds, and any other kind of wound imaginable.

Luffy's arms snapped back, dropping Ussop on the ground. The long-nosed sniper looked up at his captain and saw something he'd never seen from him before: defeat.

Straw Hat Luffy, the Man Who Would Become Pirate King, felt defeated for the second time in his life. For nearly two years, he trained non-stop with Rayleigh to make sure this never happened, and yet, here he was again. Outnumbered. Outmatched. Out of time. He was going to lose his friends. All the faith they had put into him and his dream, constantly risking their lives and even their own dreams for his sake, and he was failing them.

"This can't be it!" Chopper sobbed, speaking out the words all the Straw Hats felt in their hearts. This couldn't be the end of their adventures, not after everything they went had to be a way out of this!

"DAI FUNKA: KOTEN!" Akainu's voice boomed alongside the sound of his eruption. The light from outside became bright red and heat began to fill the cave. Chopper could smell the sulfur and smoke of Akainu's attack coming from them. The Straw Hats hearts dropped. They had no way out of this. The grand adventure of the Straw Hat Pirates would come to a close as they were wiped from the earth.

"Aw, now why the long faces, guys? I expected more from you lot. You've gotten out of worse spots than this." All the Straw Hats, those still capable of moving, snapped towards the source of the voice, ready to attack. Sitting on a broken stalagmite near the back of the cave as a man or maybe a woman or perhaps a dog or even a talking teapot. It was impossible to tell. Their eyes couldn't focus on the figure for more than a second before it changed again. Despite the constantly shifting form, they could tell it was smiling at them. "Now there's the fight I was looking for. Much much better, though I doubt it'll do much against the lava."

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here you bastard?!" Sanji yelled, bringing the flames of his Diable Jambe to life. The Enigma chuckled at the action, amused at the obvious threat. Zoro tightened his grip on his sword, throwing an eye over to Chopper and Law's cursed blade. If he could reach it-

"Oh, that won't be necessary, Zoro, trust me. Besides, it wouldn't even work if you tried." Zoro tensed. "And yes, I did just read your mind, which I find very amusing. You were always the hardest to read. The stern, responsible one, at least when it mattered. Though, Jinbei fills that role much better than you did. Got all that old Sun Pirates knowledge rattling around in the waterlogged brain o' his. Too bad he's in no condition to talk right now, I would've-"

"SHUT UP!" A Hawk Pistol flew towards the Enigma, currently in the form of a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves and trunks. It made no move to block the attack. It didn't need to. Before the attack even got within a foot of it, the Hawk Pistol stopped and snapped back to Luffy, knocking him back onto the floor. Shock rang through all the Straw Hats as they saw their captain so easily defeated without even a move.

"Now now, Luffy," the Enigma wiggled its finger condescendingly, " I know being impulsive is in your character or whatever, but there's no need to be rude. I'm only here to-"

"Shut up, ya bastard! I don't know who you are or how you got behind us, but I ain't gonna let you-"

"I'm not here to kill your friends. I'm here to save them, you elastic simian. Why do you think I froze time?"

"Froze…" Nami, struggling to sit up, happing to glance the cave entrance. Her head snapped back immediately to confirm what she thought she saw. She could see Akainu's attack, a wave of lava descending from the sky like a tsunami of magma, but that wasn't the part that shocked her. It was the fact that the lava was frozen in place. Even as it hung over in a rolling curl, it did not move. It didn't even make a sound and all the heat had stopped coming in. Just through the pockets of air and gaps in the wave, she could see the Marines all lined up with Akainu at the lead, frozen in a righteous scream. The other Straw Hats, those that could still move, looked lout as well, eyes wide with awe. They had seen plenty of strange things on their journey, but this took the cake and ate it too.

"Yeah. That was me. You're welcome."

"Are..are you a god?" Usopp asked. His hands shook around his Black Kabuto and the Pop Greens scattered across the floor. He was feeling his 'I-Don't-Wanna-Meet-A-Scary-God' disease starting to flare up The old woman gave a hearty laugh at that. It seemed very amused by the Straw Hats.

"Oh, that's very ironic coming from you, Usopp, but yes and no. I won't explain fully as I am not allowed to, but just understand that I am a very powerful 'person' who has an offer for all of you." The man in the technicolor coat smiled to himself, "I can save all of your lives right now with a clap of my hands."

"How?" Luffy growled, calming down a bit. He still held onto his suspicions about this guy, whatever he was. Something about him made his skin crawl and his instincts scream at him to run as far away as possible, which wasn't the usual response. Between that and stopping time, Luffy was pretty on edge about this mysterious figure, especially the way he smiled at him.

"Simple, my dear Luffy. I will send you back in time."

Robin called him out, "That's impossible." The flat screen TV raised an eyebrow at the Oharan archaeologist.

"Oh, my dear sweet Robin, are you really questioning me after all this?" The stool gestured to the frozen lava tsunami. "Stopping time should also be impossible, but here I am, stopping time with ease. Thusly, I feel time traveling is well within my capabilities." Robin pursed her lips, thoughts racing through her head.

"How do we know this isn't some kind of trick? Even if you aren't a Marine, well, you said you weren't a god and you don't look like an angel," Sanji grimaced at the garden gnome, "so that leaves one other option." He took this opportunity to finish Nami's bandage and light up a smoke.

The disembodied glove scoffed, "Oh, so you think I'm the Devil. Sorry, but you're a bit too far off there, Sanji, though not too far. But no, I'm not Satan and this isn't a trick. I really do want to help you guys out. Sending you back in time is all I have to offer."

"How far back?" Zoro asked. The question mark took a minute to think about this, mumbling to itself before answering.

"4 and a half years. Just about two years before Luffy set sail and you lot ended up on your path here. Not far back enough to stop any major tragedies in your lives like the death of Kuina or Bellemare and certainly not Brook's crew, but far enough back that you can give this another try."

The Straw Hats looked to one another, silent messages traveling between them. Their questions and conversations blazed by until all eyes turned to Luffy. He looked to each one of them. Doing this would set them back beyond step one. Everything they'd have done to this point would disappear. The friends they made, the adventures they had, all of it would be rewound, but, at least this way they could do it again. They could still reach their dreams. After a few tense seconds, Luffy gave a stiff nod, "Alright. Send us back."

"Wunderbar! I'm glad you made the right choice. I mean, I would've forced you to go anyway, but that's beside the point." With a clap of his hands, white light began to surround the Straw Hats, consuming them. The Enigma smiled as their bodies began to break down and dissolve into the light. Soon, all the Straw Hats were gone save the titular captain. Luffy looked around frantically, turning a glare of unimaginable rage at the Enigma. "Ah! No punching necessary, I'm sending you last cause I have something to say."

The Enigma stepped off his perch, now transformed into a beautiful woman with dark hair, small dark eyes, and a wide smile. She stood in front of Luffy, now only a torso, and held up two fingers. "Two things, Luffy, that's all I have to say. One, when you go back through your adventures, things may be a bit…..different than before. You may find some things that weren't there before?" Luffy's eyebrows twisted in confusion, but the Enigma carried on, "and two, well…..nevermind. I'm sure you'll figure out two on your own when you see him. Anyway, take care and try not to get into this situation again. I can only do this once a millennium. Toodles!"

The Enigma waved goodbye and Monkey D. Luffy disappeared into a flash of light, flying through space and time to be mentally sent back four years. Or at least, that's what the Enigma had told him and his friends. What the Enigma had withheld was that it wasn't time travel per say. Even for beings such as it, time travel was impossible. Time cannot be undone. What can be done is sending someone to a timeline that is almost exactly the same and on a further back timescale than the current one. They weren't sent back to a past version of their world.

"They were sent to an alternate version of their world." The Enigma said to no one in particular, "But if I had told them that, they never would have left. If they knew that this time would continue on without them, they never would have agreed."

By sending the Straw Hats away, the Enigma had essentially killed them in this world and reincarnated them in another with the same minds and souls. In this world, the Straw Hat Pirates disappeared on Wano Country, or died as the Marines like to report. In this world, their friends and families waited for the Straw Hats to return as they had a few months ago after two years, but as decades began to pass, their friends and family began to give up hope and began to believe the Straw Hats were dead.

"Perhaps it was a bit selfish of me not to tell them, but I of all people should be allowed to be selfish sometimes." The Enigma snapped its fingers, summoning the weapon that marked its true identity. The Enigma, whose name was Death, grabbed onto its Scythe and ripped a hole through space to re-enter its dimension. "I should be allowed something to enjoy." Death stepped through the rip and sealed it. Time started again and lava flooded the cave, filling it to the brim.

And thus ended the Straw Hat Pirates and thus began the Straw Hat Armada.

Fyr3Flyt3: The plan for this fanfic is to work on it in my free time and on the weekend, meaning that it'll most likely come out on weekends. This chapter was a bit wonky as I'm usually pretty bad at beginnings, but after this, I should hit my stride. I hope you enjoy this, and if you have any comments or critiques, leave a review. I am also looking for a beta to look over chapters for mistakes and help me with planning things out. Until Next Time, Bye!