Royal Mausoleum:
-x-
"Well, Straw Hat Luffy, this is a good way to die," Crocodile taunted as he stood on top of the Royal Palace holding Luffy's shriveled and mummified form by the throat. The entire lawn below them had been turned into a desert over the course of their second battle. The three water balls that had been Luffy's last desperate shot to get Crocodile continued to fly up into the sky. The face of the clock on the clock tower that loomed over the square where the Rebel Army and Royal Army were fighting read four twenty-four. "Within six minutes this yard will be blown up along with the square!"
SWIP! Crocodile released his hold on Luffy's throat and let the mummified pirate drop from the palace down onto the sandy lawn below.
"I'd stay but I'm in a hurry," Crocodile taunted. "You just wait right there, okay? And then you can celebrate the new King of the sand country." TMP! Luffy's still body finally hit the sand. "Now then... I should be on my way. He said it was in the mausoleum to the west of here." SHWOOOO! Crocodile's body became a cloud of sand and the Warlord floated off.
But had Crocodile stayed a moment longer he would have seen the three balls of water drop down from the sky and land on the prone pirate lying in the yard. PLURT-PLURT-SPLOSH!
"YAAAAH! THAT WAS WAY TOO CLOSE!" the rehydrated Luffy shrieked as he sat up with a start. The wet pirate sat there panting as he attempted to recover from almost dying at Crocodile's hand a second time. "THAT BASTARD! HE TOOK OFF!"
Luffy looked to the side where he'd seen the sand cloud float off from his position on the ground "I think he flew off in that direction," Luffy reasoned. "HE WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS! DAMN HIM!" With that, Luffy was back on his feet and was off chasing after Crocodile.
-x-
Just outside of Alubarna, Y/N and Nico Robin followed King Nefertari Cobra along a stone path that led to an ancient-looking stone monument.
"So this is the Royal Mausoleum," Nico Robin remarked as she surveyed the stone tomb with a small smile, "where generations of your Kings lay in their eternal rest."
"You seem interested in this sort of thing," Y/N noted.
"Of course," Nico Robin replied. "I'm an archeologist. I've been studying this Kingdom's long and storied history since I first came here. But I believe we're here for the Poneglyph."
"Your Majesty, if you wouldn't mind?" Y/N prompted.
"I trust you know what you're doing?" the King asked. "Crocodile can't be allowed to find the Pluton. If its deadly power lives up to the legend Crocodile could use it to destroy the world."
"Nobody wants Crocodile to get the Pluton," Y/N stated. "But I've found that people like him are at their most arrogant when they believe their evil plans are going perfectly. And when they're arrogant, they tend to make the biggest mistakes. If Crocodile manages to escape from Luffy and makes it all the way here he'll think everything is going smoothly. And that's where I'll capitalize."
King Cobra nodded and moved off of the path and over to a large rectangular pedestal with a statue of a Sea-Cat on it. With his arms no longer bound behind him by one of Nico Robin's extra arms the King was able to push the pedestal and turn it ninety degrees.
CHUNK! Y/N and Nico Robin watched in surprise as a rectangular panel of grass rose up into the air and revealed a stone staircase.
"Hidden stairs," Nico Robin observed.
"The Poneglyph is kept down there," King Cobra informed them.
Y/N walked over to the staircase and stared down it into the darkness of the hidden tomb. "So... who wants to go down the dark and creepy staircase first?" he inquired.
