It takes place in the New World, but is slightly AU because the Going Merry is still around, and because some elements of some back stories have been changed.

Chapter 1

Blood in the water, Luffy.

All it takes is one drop of blood in the water

and all the sharks come out.

My name is Robin. Just like before, I'm the only one left. He knew, going in, that the Grand Line has swallowed many crews up, I just don't think Luffy ever thought it was possible that it would tear us to pieces. But this is the New World, and the New World's a harsh place, full of things unknown, fears undiscovered. And no captain makes it through untried. Even Luffy, who we all thought was invincible. I guess in some ways he is—was. If nothing else, the fool was brave. Stupid, rash, irresponsible. But brave and loyal as any dog—any pirate—ever could be.

Luffy…I miss his smile.

There is an island where every direction is south, and where people's smiles are wide as the moon, wide as pain. Where trees float upside down by their struggling roots and where life is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful…until it is no more…!

And it looks like anywhere. That's what makes a place truly evil, when the scary things, the things no one wants to see, hide in everywhere. Under the surface of the water, weaving through the fine hair on a man's arm, crouching like rats in the bones of sunken ships. Permeating and undying. A plague. And that's why the trees there don't look like they're hanging upside down, and you wouldn't dream of accusing the kind and smiling men of murder, and the little children wouldn't appear to have cockroaches rotting in their chests instead of hearts…

It starts at the beginning, like all good stories do. And at the beginning no one has any idea that there won't be a happy ending. You're dead wrong if you believe this will end well. Or maybe you're dead right?

But either way, you're still dead.

Never getting out, are you?

They say elephants run from typhoons.

So how did someone as large as you fall into my fly-trap?

"Good morning!" Luffy shouted, his voice and the laugh that accompanied it ringing around the cabins and deck. The Merry popped into view as I bolted awake, my eyes wide.

Nami, as expected, was already sitting up, shouting curses. She was pulling on a pair of short red shorts left on the floor by her bed, shouting loud enough that Luffy—still on deck and performing a stunningly accurate impression of a sea cow's mating call—could hear her. "Luffy, what is the matter with you? You know there's a fine for waking me up before the goddamn sun has risen, don't you?" She jumped onto the cabin floor and almost immediately fell into the wall as the ship rocked fiercely. Sighing, clearly still half asleep, she rolled back onto her feet and stuck the Clima-Tact's three pieces into her back pocket while pulling a questionably clean T-shirt over her head. She brushed her long, fire-orange hair into a messy braid behind her shoulders, effortless as always. A peal of thunder sounded in the distance, and Nami froze, eyes shooting skyward. The way she watched and heard storms, the passion and half-fear in those glances, never ceased to amaze. Like watching a ballet without the music. She turned to me, no doubt to crack a joke.

Our eyes met and her smile disappeared. "You alright, Robin?" She asked.

The walls in my head shot up immediately, and I looked at her in shock. Nami's friendship and the rest of the crew's were still strange and foreign. My time in Baroque Works and Ohara's destruction before that had left me cold, unused to people I could trust or befriend, people I didn't have to deceive. Crocodile's face shuddered across my brain, and I almost screamed. "Yes." I replied, shaking my head to clear it of sleep, "I'm just tired. I didn't sleep well."

Nami's eyes flashed at me. Large and dark, they held strength that one could only find there. She leaned against the ladder to the deck, her brow slightly furrowed. "Were you dreaming again?" She asked. "You were talking in your sleep."

I glanced away for a moment. Standing from my hammock, I swayed as the ship rocked against a huge wave. Skirting around Nami's clothes and the maps and drawing supplies she had scattered on the floor, I reached into the chest—a glorified barrel, really—where I kept my belongings and pulled out a tight black dress. "No," I replied, my voice edged with defensive coldness. I looked down so she would not read me like she could read those storms as I tried to block out the images from the nightmare that had haunted my sleep.

Nami saw right through it. Her mouth opened as though she would speak. I shook my head, smiling a little. She shrugged, obviously a little frustrated, but with a twist of the Clima-Tact into her back pocket, she vaulted up onto the deck in less than a second. " Luffy? I don't see the sun! You know the rules and I don't want—what the hell is that?" She said loudly, her comment followed by a deafening crash, Luffy's high-pitched laugh, a scream from Chopper, and some curse in French from Sanji.

I pulled the dress down over my hips and dashed up the ladder to the deck, opening the Merry's hatch on a cloudy sky with wind dashing through the riggings, the waves in tight, intense lines plowing along like teeth. Nami had been wrong, the sun was up, but obscured so thickly by the almost unearthly-looking clouds that it was like a struggling robin's egg, pale and fragile. The wind beat at my face like teeth, sending sea-spray over the boat's edges. Did Nami know this storm was coming? I wondered. She was dressed for a sunny day, her feet bare, just like the rest of us. My intuition told me no, but logic said there was no sort of storm Nami couldn't feel.

I looked left as Brook emerged from the boys' room, holding onto his hat. Zoro's head emerged next, and he shouted into the wind. "The fuck, man? Can't you see—" but Zoro never finished his sentence. Chopper, still frightened, ran full tilt across the deck and grabbed hold of Zoro's face, sending them both flailing, Zoro with a curse and Chopper with a high shriek, down the ladder into the boys' room. I laughed, turning to see if the rest of the crew had seen Zoro—our fiercest member and debatably best fighter—taken down by a tiny reindeer.

But my smile vanished as I turned to where they were all standing, halfway across the deck, where Nami and Franky had mounted the permanent Log Pose. Immediately, I vaulted myself onto the deck and ran to where Brook, Ussop, Luffy, Nami, and Sanji were standing. Looking over Sanji's shoulder, my breath caught in my throat. The Log Pose was shattered, the needle bent backwards and the glass cracked, pieces missing or scattered on the deck. A cold fear descended into my stomach as I was once again forced to block out nightmarish images that had plagued me in my sleep.

I looked up at Nami, whose distraught face revealed to all of us the seriousness of the Log Pose's breaking. Even Luffy was oddly silent, but when I looked to my right I bristled, seeing that he was no longer standing next to me, but stretching his limbs throughout the rigging, shouting and laughing. "Nami, I didn't know you could make storms like this! There weren't even clouds yesterday, none of us could tell it was even coming!" He yelled, vaulting between the Merry's two masts.

Nami's face contorted, and my heart sank. She hadn't seen the storm coming either, and as long as I had known her that had never happened. She clenched her fists, her strong, dark eyes fighting to control tears. Furious, she whipped the Clima-Tact from her pocket, locked two of the pieces together, and before Ussop could stop her, launched a cyclone tempo straight into the Merry's rigging at our captain. The force of the blow sent each of us careening back. Sanji grabbed hold of my arm to keep me from flying off the ship into the turbulent ocean, and both of us fell through the hatch to the boys' room, landing right on top of Zoro, who had somehow managed to fall back asleep on the floor, with Chopper still attached to his head.

He woke with a grunt as Sanji and I tumbled onto him, sitting up and instinctively pulling a sword from its sheath, ready to defend himself. Seeing it was just Sanji and I, he set his sword on the deck beside him and pulled Chopper from his face, spitting out reindeer hair. "It's alright Chopper," he said with an uncharacteristic smile.

"Do you promise?" Chopper said, still huddled close to the bigger man, his hooves pressed over his eyes.

"It's just Robin and Sanji. See?" Zoro said, prying Chopper's hooves away from his eyes.

He saw Sanji and I sitting awkwardly on the floor and smiled. "Right!" He sat down beside us, running his hoof over my hair like a child would. He looked up at me, looking concerned and a little sad. "Robin, is the Log Pose still broken?"

"The what is what?" Zoro choked, bolting to his feet and sheathing his sword in one movement. Ignoring the ladder, he jumped straight up onto the deck. I glanced back at Chopper and Sanji. Our cook had burned his palm on his cigarette during the fall and though he was doing his best to convince Chopper he was alright, the doctor was—as usual—overly concerned and eager to make his friend feel better.

I followed Zoro onto the deck to where Nami was standing over Luffy, the Clima-Tact still in her hands, the whole staff pointed directly at Luffy's face.

"Luffy, you are going to have to let the Marines catch you to pay off the fine you're going to owe me after this!" Nami said, rage bubbling under her calmness.

"Nami, did you know glass doesn't bounce?" He replied, glancing at the broken Log Pose.

I watched Nami lose control then, for the first—and what I hoped was the last—time. "Yes, Luffy, I did! And do you know why?" She grated out the last word, and our captain actually looked scared for a moment. "Because everybody knows that!" She shouted, driving the Clima-Tact straight into Luffy's solar plexus.

His rubber body absorbed most of the shock, but it still winded him, and Nami's strength kept him pinned to the deck. "Nami, it's not a big deal. We're not lost, we can just turn around and go to Punk Hazard, right?" he said ignorantly. I think that was when he finally began to understand what he'd done, seeing the hurt in one of his nakama's faces, and Nami's no doubt.

Nami lifted the Clima-Tact again and jammed it into Luffy's stomach. He looked a little guilty that it didn't hurt more. "No, we can't Luffy! I don't know where that is from here! This is the New World, how am I supposed to understand the magnetic fields here when even the storms fool me!"

Ussop shook his head in disbelief, "Wait, you mean to say you didn't see this coming?" He gestured around the deck at the wind, which was picking up speed now, almost as though Nami's cyclone tempo had inspired the sky to start a cyclone of its own.

Nami pulled the Clim-Tact from Luffy's skin and whipped it around to trip Ussop, sending him sprawling to the deck beside his captain before he could even think about dodging. "No, I didn't!" She shouted, tears in her eyes. None of us dared to move, beside me Zoro seemed too tense even to breathe. "This place is insane! I heard thunder, but it sounded so far away. I thought the next island was close to Punk Hazard, but we've been on the seas for a week, and there's no sign of it. I don't even know which way is north, because the sky is so black here you can't see the stars at night!" She was crying now, looking at the broken Log Pose and her captain laying on the floor.

Luffy's despair was evident. "I'm sorry Nami…I didn't mean to! We can fix it, can't we? Ussop and Franky, they're good at fixing things, and Robin knows everything. It will be okay, Nami." he tried to get up but Nami slammed the Clima-Tact back into his stomach, leaning against it and crying.

Luffy wrapped his hand around the Clima-Tact and began to push it off, his desire to be near Nami, to make things better, winning over her strength.

"Zoro, help me." Nami said, still holding the Clima-Tact steady, though she must have known she was losing.

The large, calm man strode up to her and looked at her for a second, his arms crossed. He considered Luffy and Ussop on the floor, and the whole deck felt like we were waiting for a new storm. Zoro reached out an arm as though he would help Nami, and then scooped her off her feet, throwing her, as well as the Clima-Tact that had been restraining Luffy, onto the deck beside him. "Fighting won't solve anything," he said. Nami, indignant and still angry, scrambled to her feet to slap Zoro. He caught her hand before she even had a chance, and pushed her away towards the edge of the deck. "Really?" He asked sardonically, turning to look at Franky and I standing together on the deck. "Can it be fixed?" he asked.

Franky opened his mouth to respond, but I beat him to it, sure he would somehow sugarcoat the answer. "No, it can't." I said, meeting Zoro's eyes evenly.

Behind us, Nami started crying even harder. Luffy, finally daring to move, jumped up and wrapped his arms around her. I glanced over at him, sure of the anguish he was feeling. He hated failing any one of us, and in front of him he'd seen Nami's dreams shattered as surely as the Log Pose.

Zoro began walking across the deck, motioning for me to follow him. Ussop, Brook, and Franky followed, and we all took the ladder down into the boys' room, where Chopper had Sanji laid on his bed with a cold compress on his forehead, insisting the cook had a fever. Sanji, meanwhile, was doing his best to light another cigarette.

Zoro, Ussop, Brook, and Franky all sat on barrels or crates near Sanji. I leaned against the wall, steadying myself near the ladder as the ship rocked dramatically.

After a long silence, in which we all watched Chopper carefully pack up the incredibly extensive first aid kit, Zoro spoke. "So what do we do?" He asked, looking around at us.

All eyes landed on me, as though I knew all the answers. I considered each of them calmly, concealing my pounding heart and struggling brain under my typically calm face. "We find land and stay there. The Log Pose was leading us towards an island before, if we stay on course then we'll find it."

Franky spoke up, "but what about what Nami said about the magnetic fields? Won't those distort our heading? If we don't know which way is north, how can we keep ourselves relative to it?"

Sanji laughed ironically. "I guess that's the beauty of not having a compass, no need to steer. Maybe we should just let Zoro drive for awhile, we'd be back in Alabasta before we knew it."

Zoro slammed his fist down on the crate next to him. "That's not funny, Robin. And now's not the time for jokes."

Sanji stood, putting his cigarette out with his foot, "It's not my fault you can't drive," he said. "I'm going to make breakfast." He straightened his jacket and walked coolly up the ladder, Zoro's eyes burning holes in his back as he left.

"Robin's probably right, we could find help on the nearest island. There's bound to be people somewhere in the New World." Brook said, his empty and cavernous eyes boring strangely through me. His face always frightened me, though I'd never tell him that. It reminded me of mortality, I think that's what it did for all of us.

"Right." Franky concluded. "Plus, onshore we'd have supplies, maybe find another Log Pose."

"And we'd get out of this storm," Brook continued. "I don't like it, it makes my bones ache. And Nami didn't see it coming. What kind of storm could do that?"

I moved to sit between Franky and Zoro as the ship's pitching increased. "That's what's been bothering me the most," I said, looking into their serious faces. "This isn't a regular storm."

None of them contradicted me. They always thought I was right, and aside from that, it was unnatural to all of us that Nami had been unable to sense the storm's coming. Everyone was tense, Nami's harshness towards Luffy and Ussop on deck had been a testament to that. Beside me, Zoro unsheathed Sandai kitetsu and tested the edge on his finger, running his hand so gently along the blade that no blood was drawn. It was a game he liked to play with the cursed sword, almost daring it to bite him, like a dragon or a cobra.

There was quiet in the cabin, all of us for once unable to say anything. Even on the deck, Nami had either pushed Luffy from the ship or he, too, realized the gravity of the situation. I put my head in my hands, tired from my restless night, trying to think of a way out. I felt small, unprotected, out in an ocean full of Sea Kings and Shichibukai and uncharted islands. My dream began to form in my mind, and I tried to piece it together, to make meaning from it.

It began with Luffy and I standing on deck. What was he pointing at, with that stupid grin on his face? And why was his head tilted so far to the side? And then there was that space in the middle, where I could hear Zoro sharpening his swords, or was he grating his teeth? Was I floating? Luffy still stood on the deck, there, his arm like a board, rigid, but stretching longer and longer, almost like it was being pulled by something.

The Merry ran aground, didn't it? And that's where Luffy's hand was, nailed into the sand. And was that Nami vanishing into the trees? No, hanging, from a tree, her hair wrapped around her hands, to tie them to her while her neck, just like Luffy's arm, stretched and stretched as she writhed, hanging in agony. Wouldn't Zoro cut her down?

If that weren't him sitting on the sand, laughing through his teeth, eyes wide enough to see all the whites all round the dark irises, a stupid, blood-red grin stretched from ear to ear, like it was carved there. Cutting his hand on the blade of Sandai kitetsu until it dripped blood. And the blood congealed to become little dancing women, all around him chanting, again and again. 'Smiling swordsman. Smiling swordsman. Smiling swordsman.'

In the dream I'd felt myself pulled inland, even as in the waking world I could remember saying something. And inland was the most terrible, the giant mountains with an awful chasm in the middle. A calliope? Or was that a requiem? "Brook!" I'd shouted, sure he was playing, sure he was alright. An awful scream followed.

And then I'd been in the air, helpless, rising above the horrible place, rising up into one of Brook's eyes where there was a hand, a bloody hand that held something small.

It was my head, with its tongue sticking out, smiling. "Good morning," it had said, in my voice, before the hand crushed it.

I jolted, nearly falling off the crate. Zoro, beside me, grabbed my arm to steady me. "Robin!" He said, more urgently than usual. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head, looking around at Zoro. All I could see was that wicked grin pasted around his face, the awfully seductive drops of his blood dancing around him. "Yes," I said. "Just tired. I need air." I stood and walked quickly up to the deck, heaving in breaths of the unnatural air. It had begun to taste like metal. Luffy had vanished, no doubt with Sanji into the kitchen, and Nami was at the keel, looking up. I ran to the edge of the ship, afraid I might be seasick since everything was spinning, and looked out at the horizon. The waves rumbled on past the ship, the wind was heavy from starboard, blowing my hair into my face. Following Nami's gaze, I looked up at the sails, expecting them to be listing to port, taking the ship along the track of the wind. But they weren't. The sails were pointed into the wind, and the ship was not following the tide and current, but chugging along like a train, straight towards a hazy place on the horizon.

I walked across the deck towards Nami, who was regarding the sails with the same suspicion that I had. "What does it mean?" I asked her. "I mean, how is it possible that the sails are going one direction, but we're going another?"

She looked down at me, her dark eyes wide. "It's probably a current, a strong one. I've never seen it happen before, but everything's strange in the New World. For all I know, a Sea King could be pulling us along. But it doesn't matter, anyway."

"Why?" I asked, dreading the answer.

Nami pushed her hair out of her face, a triumphant smile on her face. "Cause whatever it is, it's pulling us towards land. See? That's an island over there, that hazy spot!" She said excitedly, stretching out her arm to point.

I shuddered, looking at that long arm extended outward, towards land. Good morning, I thought. Thinking of my head, crushed and smiling by a gigantic hand in a skeleton's eye. And that, I knew, was where we were headed.

A puppeteer has many eyes, many fingers.

And all of them have faces.

Good morning, Luffy.