1. Delirium
"Robin, are you alright?" Chopper asked, his large eyes filled with concern and dirt from the ferocious battle covering his face.
"I'm fine," she commented through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her arm. "Just a scratch."
A few days later….
The body was sprawled out on the kitchen floor, face as pale as a sheet and eyes open, unseeing. His blonde hair flopped over his face, as usual, concealing his left eye and blood was running from his chest where the knife was embedded, the redness of it blossoming like some terrible flower. Sanji was undoubtedly and inescapably dead.
Robin stumbled back against the hard, solid, wooden door, horror and near screams rising in her throat. She fumbled with the handle and ran out onto the deck. There was no-one in sight.
"Someone, help! Please, anyone?!" She yelled, her heart pounding in her mouth.
"Robin?"
"Miss Navigator?" Robin ran towards Nami's voice, her dark hair blown back by the ocean wind.
She burst into Nami's room, and staggered back in horror. Nami lay; face down on the rug, her short orange hair obscuring her face, a pool of ruby liquid surrounding her and, beside her head, her disconnected heart, as smooth as silk, slicked with blood.
Robin choked and fell back through the open door onto something hard and bumpy.
A pile of bones.
A skeleton.
Brook.
Robin screamed, long and loud, her unwavering composure shattered, anguish and terror making it almost palpable.
All around her she heard the sounds of people falling to the ground. Then she saw them, her friends, strewn across the deck. She took in the sight and it burned itself into the back of her eyes, so no matter how many times she closed them her friends lay there in the darkness. Disbelief embedded itself in her mind. They couldn't be dead, they would have beaten any enemy they came across. It was absolutely impossible. It couldn't, can't, wouldn't have happened. And yet they lay there, colder than ice.
"Sanji, Zoro, Nami, Chopper, Franky, Brook, Usopp. Everyone." She fell to her knees and sobbed as if her heart would break, her pain mingling with her tears.
"Robin?"
She gasped and looked up. A figure stood above her.
"Luffy? You're alive?"
Luffy ignored her question. Grabbing her wrist, he dragged her to her feet and pulled her forwards to the side of the ship. There, hovering above the surface of the glass-like water, was a small rowboat. Pushing her into it he lowered it into the water, his arms stretching with the use of his rubber power, before jumping down himself, the boat rocking wildly as he did so.
"Go, hurry!" At that command the boat sped away from the huge ship, just as a tendril of darkness pulled the Thousand Sunny into the murky depths. The grassy deck was flooded, and finally the cheerful, sunflower-like, lion figurehead was consumed by the ravenous ocean. .
There were huge ripples and then silence. The ship to sail a thousand seas, the straw hat crew's closest friend, their home, was gone, and so were they.
Sobs racked Robin's body as she tried to shut out the image that had burned itself before her.
Luffy said nothing, but the tears streaming down his childlike face, out of the cover of shadows that his hat cast, were evidence enough of his pain.
Suddenly a black tentacle shot up, grabbing at her. Luffy cried out and pushed her back before his wrist was grabbed. He thrashed in the grip for mere seconds before he was pulled underwater. He didn't resurface, only bubbles appeared.
"Luffy." In the heat of the moment, Robin barely had time to register what was happening, and once it had happened her mind wished it had not caught up. She was alone on the wide, unpredictable sea.
Her friends were gone, the closest thing to family she had, so was the Sunny, her home.
And without them she was a spider in a hurricane.
And there was no way out.
"I can hear them, you know." said a quiet voice next to her.
"What?" Robin raised her head. A young woman, about Nami's age, sat beside her in the boat. She had long, wavy, brown hair and brown-green eyes with her denim jacket open onto a t-shirt and legs crossed. A million questions bubbled up in Robin's mind.
"Your friends, your nakama. I can hear their voices inside my head, like they're whispering to me. They need you and I know you need them, so look for them. In every situation there is always a way out."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Ava."
"Where are my nakama?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"Yes."
"How do I find them?" The girl began to disappear.
"Wait! Please tell me how!" Ava smiled, becoming more transparent by the second.
"Why, it's easy, Nico Robin. Wake up."
"Please, Robin, wake up." said Luffy, quietly.
"What's wrong with her?" Nami demanded of Chopper.
"She was poisoned." He replied gravely.
"POISONED?" exclaimed all those present, unanimously, in disbelief.
"Who would poison Robin-san?" asked Brook.
"Whoever they are, I'll shred them limb from limb" growled Zoro, His hand on his kitanas.
"No need." replied Chopper. "It was that swordsman we killed a few days ago. He must have dipped his swords in poison."
He indicated the cut on Robin's left, upper arm. Sure enough, black veins were spreading out from the wound like a spider's web.
"If she had left it any longer she definitely would have died. As it is, it's up to her willpower now." Tears emerged in Chopper's eyes as he exited the room.
"And I'm not crying you bastards!"
Franky entered the room just as Chopper left.
"What'd the doc say?" asked Franky, his usual zeal gone.
"She might not make it" said Nami, tearing up.
"Poor Robin-san" murmured Brook. "My heart aches, although I'm dead, so I haven't got one." He gave a half hearted laugh and then fell silent.
"Where's the curly idiot?" asked Zoro.
"In the kitchen, crying his eyes out, last I saw" answered Franky.
"Stupid bitch, why'd she have to go and get herself stabbed" muttered Zoro, angrily. There was a long pause.
"Robin, why are you doing this?" murmured Luffy.
"She's mortally ill, she can't answer you." Nami said softly.
"She said she wanted to live, she promised she would…." He trailed off. "I won't let her die!"
"You don't have a fucking choice in the matter." Zoro reminded him.
"He's right, Luffy, we can't help her any more. It's like Chopper said, it's down to Robin now." Nami gently said.
"Please, Robin, come back." whispered Luffy.
Chopper sat in the infirmary, next to Robin's motionless figure. He had had to practically force the others out. Robin was as pale as snow, with a burning fever. Her breathing was soft, her chest barely moving as she inhaled.
Chopper began to make Rumble Balls. There was nothing more to do.
"Chopper-kun?" said a weak voice. Robin's eyes fluttered open.
"Robin!" Chopper ran over. "You're awake."
"Was I away long?" she whispered.
"You were unconscious for three days." Robin acknowledged the fact with a nod.
"Can you get thee others, please?"
"In your condition, visitors aren't a good idea…"
"Please." The desperation in her voice forced Chopper to relent.
"Alright, but one at a time."
Nami came first. She cried out in relief when she saw Robin was alright. Then Sanji, practically fainting from happiness when he saw her awake. Usopp, who had been trying to distract himself from her dire predicament, came out of the corner he had been hiding in and almost danced for joy. Franky posed a lot and Brook happily started playing 'Bink's Sake'
Zoro appeared. His words when he saw her alive were: "you stupid bitch, don't you ever do something like that again."
Then Luffy came in.
"You promised not to die."
"I know. I'll try not to"
He grinned.
Everyone was finally kicked out to let Robin rest, but only after Luffy ordered a feast for when she had fully recovered. As Chopper finally closed the door, Robin lay back against the pillow, her raven hair framing her pale face. She frowned as a thought came to her.
That girl. Who is she? wondered Robin as she succumbed to sleep.
Why is she so familiar?