OH MY GOD BRUHS I FEEL SOOOOOO BAD… I LEGIT HAVE LITTLE TIME TO WRITE AND I'VE BEEN BUSY WITH SCHOOL AND STUFF…. SORRY… Sadly tho expect late uploads. Uni is a pain in the ass and life is too so I'm kinda busy with that…

Well now that the filler chapter is over with… Here's the next (story) chapter

Inner Conflict

After everyone had breakfast made by both Thatch and Sanji, the crew was continuing to sail towards Drum and Arabasta. It would take them about another day to arrive to Drum and another dew days after that to get to the desert country.

The Whitebeard Pirates were helping the crew in their fields, well most of them. Robin, Mika, Vivi and Nami were out relaxing talking about girl stuff while the guys were either fighting or doing other things. Ace and Luffy were having their 100 matches and the score was 41-43 in the favour of Ace as Ace was stronger than Luffy. Marco was helping Usopp with his Observation Haki even though Marco wasn't a sniper or a man who liked to use a gun, his observation Haki was second to none on the Whitebeard ship, including the master of guns Izo himself. Davy Jones, Zoro and Lucifer were sword fighting as they were sparring and training. And poor Sanji and Thatch were stuck in the kitchen, but they were fine with it as they were used to it. And plus they enjoyed cooking so it didn't really matter.

When all the training was over, the group had been travelling with a nice speed but when Nami noticed that there was a small figure that they were getting close too and they needed to take precautions.

Nearing the figure, it turned out to be a giant ship and there was a whole army on that ship and they stopped the Going Merry. "STOP!" yelled a voice from within the enemy ship, causing Luffy to act a bit defensive

"And why should we?" the Captain of the Straw Hats replies

"Well it seems you are pirates… And you are in my way. I guess I'll have to shoot you down." Says a small man that was on the ship

"And just WHO are you going to shoot down?" says Zoro in a serious tone

The man on the other ship stayed silent for a few seconds then looked right at Zoro "You!" and the first cannon ball was shot. As it was nearing the ship, Zoro closed his eyes and had took out Wado with such speed, he managed to cut the ball in half just before it got even closer to the ship.

Just as Zoro cut the first, right after it was raining cannon balls. Shot after shot, the cannon balls were nearing the Merry fast and that was when Marco and the rest of the Whitebeard Pirates went to action. Marco, Jones and Lucifer flew up due to their abilities and took out quite a bit, the rest were being taken car by Ace, Thatch, Sanji and Luffy and all they were doing was knocking them out of the way or making them explode before they came near the Merry.

As soon as the cannon balls stopped, with a sudden burst of speed from the other ship, it went right in front of the Merry and all of a sudden, the army had come out of the ship and boarded the Merry. Now the front line was Luffy, Marco, Thatch, Ace and Zoro and of course that is a dangerous front line that took out most of the opponents head on. Everyone else was scattered around with Sanji protecting Nami and Robin and Vivi on the left side of the ship and the three were fighting the enemy without much trouble. Lucifer went in his half Dragon form and he was covering Mika and Usopp while they were taking down opponents in their own. And lastly was Jones who was basically walking around and cutting people down without any difficulty.

A lot of shots were being fired and bullets were flying everywhere. There wasn't much that could be done to stop the chaos going on at the time and everyone was busy fighting. The one person who was having trouble with fighting only because he was busy looking after the ladies was Sanji. They were positioned at a side where they were attracting more attention than Luffy's group only because everyone wanted to avoid the strongest members of the crew so they went to the side where Sanji was with the three girls. Now while the girls could keep up fighting with this group because they weren't necessarily strong, but there were a lot of enemies. Nami had her staff, Robin had her devil fruit power and Vivi had found a club from a dead body and used that to defend herself.

Nami had her staff out and was fighting with relative ease. She did ask Luffy and Zoro to train her for a bit and of course they had helped her and not push her so much where she got tired because she was the navigator of the ship. She finally was able to test herself against real opponents but she soon realized that either she was stronger than what she had expected in such short time or that this group was particularly weak but had the numbers to make up for it.

Three men ran up to her after she took out a guy with a gun that was aimed towards Sanji while his back was turned and she held her staff tightly, took a quick deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment and let her Observation Haki help her out. When the first of the three guys came close, he held his sword, ready for a strike and Nami blocked the attack and hit the man in the face, in the ribcage and right at his chest. The next opponent also had a sword but this time the third man also jumped in, making this a two on one and of course Nami accepted the challenge but as she was fighting the man with the sword, the third guy had an axe in his hand and he had a hidden pistol in which he aimed and shot. When Nami realized that the bullet was coming towards her, she had tried to get out of the way but it hit her right in the stomach and she didn't yell or scream…

Nor did she fall.

The first people to run towards her were Mika and Robin who held her and carefully placed her down and she was instantly surrounded by Jones, Kratos (Lucifer's Dragon form) and the rest of the Whitebeards and Vivi. Marco looked towards Luffy who has his back turned and he could feel the demonic aura Luffy was letting out. Marco then noticed three more bloodthirsty auras and he could tell it was from Zoro, Sanji and Usopp.

But while everyone was surrounding Nami, the man who shot her was quickly found by Sanji and started kicking him with a Haki clad leg, snapping the man's neck and instantly killing him. With intense anger in his eyes, he was so focused on the dead enemy in front of him that he had slipped up and let a man sneak up behind him and as the enemy brought his blade down to strike Sanji but instead was blocked by Zoro, who also had a demon aura around him. With one blade blocking the man's attack, the second blade was used to sever the head off of the man. Then a another man came up behind Zoro, and although Zoro knew that someone was behind him, he waited for a second longer and then he heard the man drop dead, land face first and could hear blood spilling onto the deck.

"Don't think you can sneak up on MY nakama as long as I am the sniper!" yells Usopp, as if he didn't care that he had killed a man. And just as a last person rushed towards Usopp, Luffy stood in front of the man, but not in his normal form. Since he had eaten a mythical Zoan devil fruit which could make him a dragon, he could have a hybrid transformation. In his hybrid form, he had red wings on his back, red dragon feet with large talons and his arms were covered in red scales. He looked more like a demon than an actual dragon in that form but it did not matter. Normally he uses his full hybrid transformation for stronger opponents but seeing his own Nakama get shot, he was VERY angry. It's as if he saw his family member get hurt (which Nami was. All Straw Hat pirates are family to Luffy).

Everyone knew not to stop Luffy as they could all see and feel his intense anger and red aura around him. The man in front of Luffy was at a frozen state in which he was sweating profusely and wasn't able to move at all. The sword that was in his hand had been long out of his hand and was lying on the deck. His eyes showed so much fear that it was as if he was seeing a ghost.

Slowly nearing the man, he covers his right arm in armament Haki, exhales on his fist that he made, causing fire to engulf the fist and with the hardness of the scaled arm along with the Haki coat and the fire, the punch from Luffy would surely mean death and all the man could do was stand still in his spot and wait for the very moment he would lose his life.

Marco wanted to stop his youngest brother, but he knew it was futile. Mika cared not for any of the opposing soldiers, even the ones injured. She was tending Nami as best as she could. Thatch and Ace both knew that if they tried to stop Luffy, they might get themselves hurt. That left Jones, Kratos and the Crew, along with Vivi. The crew didn't want to stop Luffy. They knew what he could do and since one of his Nakama was now hurt, they also knew it was useless to try and stop him. Hell, they would probably kill the man too but they knew Luffy was there and that he would do it. Vivi wanted to stop Luffy. But seeing everyone's reactions around her, it made her realize that Luffy was not some ordinary pirate. She had traveled with the crew for quite some time now and she noticed that this crew was a happy and caring crew. They never harmed anyone unless they absolutely needed to and now Vivi understood that Luffy was doing something he needed to. So she stayed silent. She watched Luffy close in on the man.

Jones and Kratos however knew something that the others might not know. Kratos only knew because they share a similar devil fruit (they both have a dragon, but instead of shooting out fire, it shot out darkness as its flame) and he knew that if Luffy is consumed by this anger, the very dangerous power he has might control him instead of the other way around. But Jones knew something a bit deeper than that. From the murderous aura Luffy was giving off, it reminded Jones of his younger self while he was on the Roger Pirates. More so, it reminded him of his own curse and blood lust that he once had and still does even to this day but is now controlled very much so. He knew that if Luffy would be pushed to a limit or see something on which would make him very angry, that anger could easily take over Luffy's soul and make him a killer. And as the blood related uncle of Luffy, he had to make sure his nephew does not become like his younger self. Both Jones and Kratos look at one another and give each other a nod. They knew if Luffy would not calm down, they would have to be the ones that would calm him down.

In any case, Luffy stood right in front of the man and brought his hands back, bringing it back in such a speed that the fire on his hand was now larger and gave a heat that man could feel. And with everyone's eyes on Luffy, something inside him made him hesitate. He did not know what it was, but it could have been the looks he was receiving. Quickly looking around once again, he noticed a concerned look on Mika's face and noticed that she was on the verge of tears but was holding it back. He then looked at the flowing blood that was coming from Nami and it was a lot of blood. And suddenly he snapped. His anger had now taken him once again.

Swinging full force to the man that was in front him, the punch had so much strength put in it that it had gone right through the man's chest. Burning up his insides and with the hardness of the scales and Haki, easily breaking through any bones if there were any, tearing up muscle and flesh as well as burning the skin. The man had bled through the mouth and his once fear covered eyes now showed lifelessness. Pulling his hand out of the man's chest, Luffy stated to transform back into his human self but for some reason it wasn't working. Using all his might and inner power, he tried to transform back but he just couldn't. And seeing Nami, his anger wasn't cooled down.

There was a tension in at atmosphere as Luffy neared Mika and Nami, pushing everyone out of his way and that's when Marco had noticed Luffy was not himself. Jones had a hand on his two swords and Kratos had made a small ball of darkness around his fists just on case. Ace and Thatch had little clue as to what was going on but then they saw the look on Luffy's eyes.

"Mika… How's Nami?" asked the Captain of the Straw Hats

Trying to look at Luffy with a straight face, she had tried to give him a reply but words could not come out of her mouth.

"ANSWER ME!" yells Luffy

And now a slight tear rolled down the cheek of Mika and that tear seemed to have calmed down Sanji and caught the attention of Zoro and Usopp. Ace and Thatch both had their eyes widened when they saw the tear roll down. They knew Mika was the best doctor on the Moby Dick and if she had a tear drop, they knew something was wrong. Both tried to have an arm on Luffy, but that seemed to anger him just slightly.

Taking a deep breath, she had looked Luffy right in his eyes and said "Luffy, I'm trying the best I can… But I simply do not have the necessary tools with me."

"Then why the fuck are you unprepared?!" yells out a furious Luffy, causing Mika's heart to break. Her eyes had widened and Robin have given Luffy a cold stare. "You're supposed to be a doctor right… Then why don't you do your fucking job."

"Oi shut up you dumbass. She's trying" says Sanji, now giving his captain an odd look. He knew something was wrong.

"Shut up cook. That's all your good at. Maybe if you were as good of a fighter, maybe Nami wouldn't have gotten hurt then."

"Luffy it's not his fault." Says Usopp "Don't blame Sanji. He was protecting Vivi and Robin."

And just when he turned to Vivi, he looked at Mika once again "What the fuck are you staring at? Be useful and help MY crewmate." And Mika had closed her eyes as a couple of tears had fallen now.

Thatch did not know what to say or how to deal with him. He gave Ace a look and Ace didn't know anything. They both looked at Marco and he just looked at Davy Jones and Kratos, who both looked like they were ready to fight.

"Vivi, if it weren't for you and your stupid request in taking you to your country that's on the verge of war, Nami would have been fine."

And while this was going on, Zoro was having an inner conflict with himself. As the first mate, he knew he was the closest to Luffy but he also knew that if he said something maybe Luffy would call out his loyalty. So he remained silent.

But seeing a tear in Vivi's eye, he knew he couldn't remain silent. And just as he was about to say something, Robin spoke up.

"Captain san, it is not fair that you yell at anyone. If you want to blame anyone, blame the dead bastard who shot Nami. Mika is trying to help her, Sanji was protecting Vivi, Nami and myself."

"Well clearly both did not do their jobs right then."

And that was it. That's when Zoro spoke up. "Luffy try to understand… There were many of them. They outnumbered us. If you want to put blame on someone, put the blame on me. I'm the closest to Sanji and his group, I must have left an opening for some fucking idiots to slip past me. So if you want to take your anger out on anyone, it should be ME."

And Luffy looked right at Zoro, as with speed, he charged right at his first mate and just as he was about to strike Zoro, who remained unmoved and somewhat accepted his death, Luffy's attack was blocked.

"Now you little shit… Don't go yelling at your mother like that. And don't you DARE attack your own crew. Are you Teach?" says Jones. Hearing the name Teach, Luffy had gotten even angrier. And taking a look in the eyes of Luffy, the uncle did know that the bloodlust took over him. Luffy's eyes were pitch black and gave a murderous aura.

And with that, he gave a signal to Kratos, who had hit Luffy with an attack that had canceled out the devil fruit and made Luffy come back into his human form. Then Jones had hit Luffy with an attack to knock him out.

Seeing as Luffy was out cold, Jones told Kratos to take him down to the cellar and let him be knocked out. If he did change back into his dragon form, cancel it out. And with that Luffy was taken out.

Then he spoke to everyone on deck "Ok… That wasn't Luffy. That was either the devil fruit taking over him, but I say that was unlikely… Also, if you saw his eyes, they weren't normal. He was out for blood, hence why he ran towards you Zoro and yelled at everyone. Mika, continue what you are doing, Luffy did not mean a single thing he said… Marco and Ace, you two get your assess off the ship and travel to Drum. Ace you sail with your small boat, Marco you fly. I want to know how many days we should be there by both sea and land. And take a fucking den den mushi with you two. Marco, when you get there, stay there and get the damn doctor. Not the shitty government ones, get Kureha. Ace you keep your eye out for Teach. That bastard is the stupid reason we came out to this sea and when you get there, get as much information you can from Dalton. He should be there to help you." And just like that both Ace and Marco had left.

Just before they left, they hoped that Nami would be better soon and they hoped Luffy would be calm and normal by the time they get to Drum.

When the two division commanders had left, Jones was kind of in charge of everything while Luffy was out. Normally it would be Zoro, but he knew it wouldn't be best time. "Thatch, Sanji and Zoro… Help throw out the bodies to the sea. If any are injured and alive, kill them. Robin and Vivi, help out Mika and listen to her. I'll take Nami to the room. Usopp you and I will work on ship repairing and we will clean the blood after they throw out the bodies. And Thatch, before you start lifting up bodies, keep an eye on the ship. It's best we keep on course."

"Thatch, Zoro and I can carry the bodies. Keep the ship on course. We'll take care of this."

"You sure? It's not bad to have an extra hand."

"Yeah, we got this." Says Zoro

And with that, Jones had carefully held Nami and went to the ladies room, where they had her on the table and where Mika could get to work. He looks right at the doctor and says "Luffy didn't mean a thing. He's just angry right now. I know you and I know you won't give up on her. So just forget about what Luffy said. I'll take care of that little brat for the time being. Just focus on getting Nami back to normal as best as you can. I'll let you know once I hear from Ace and Marco." And he gives her a hug before he leaves the room.

When he got to deck, he noticed that a quarter of the dead bodies on the ship were thrown off and while the blood was still wet, it was best if they start cleaning the deck as best as they could first.

After hours of finally finishing cleaning the deck and fixing up the ship, everyone was tired but they all knew that they could not sleep. The first thing they did was check up on Nami whenever they were free and Mika had told them that without any medical tools and supplies, she can only stop the bleeding but cannot pull out the bullet from her stomach. And Nami is not allowed to move like at all otherwise the bullet might go in deeper.

They only hoped to hear from Marco and Ace.

When they all gathered to the room, they ate some food and everyone was worried about Nami and Luffy. After Jones told everyone that he was fighting a dangeruos inner battle within himself, everyone hoped Luffy would come out like he used to be.

Just when everyone had finished eating, the den den Mushi rang.

"Jones… It's me Marco… I've been her for 3 hours. It took me four hours to fly here, and Ace is about a solid three hours away. I can't talk much… But you guys need to get here fast. Drum is pretty fucked up yoi." And he hung up the phone.

"We are about 8 hours away then." Says Jones. Might be more or less but I'm saying 8 hours for now. So if you guys want to get rest, you should. All of you get some sleep. Zoro even you. Today was a busy day and we might need to fight tomorrow as well. I'll look after Nami and Kratos will look after Luffy."

And with that, everyone had went to sleep. Jones stayed in the room to look after Nami. Zoro went to the crows nest. Everyone else found a spot to sleep in, while the ladies went to sleep in the mens quarters.

In the cellar with Kratos and Luffy, the room was dark, except for a small and controlled fire made by Kratos, Luffy was asleep. He loved the night so he of course was awake and looking out for his younger brother, just in case something happened.

Luffy didn't know when or how he went to sleep. He just did.

The last thing he remembered was… yelling at Mika? Why would he yell at Mika…? She is like a mother to him. There is zero reason for Luffy to be mad at her.

In the dream that he was having, he noticed that he was yelling at her and she had tears fall from her eyes. Did he really make his mom cry? Trying to wake up from his dream, he noticed that he couldn't. There was something keeping him asleep.

As he was watching from a far distance if what happened before he got knocked out. He saw him kill the man, he saw Mika crying, he saw Nami's blood, saw him yell at his crew mates and saw himself charge at Zoro. He then heard what his uncle had to say to him and then he got knocked out by Kratos and his uncle.

Trying to wake up once again, he noticed that he couldn't. And suddenly, there was a shift in his dream. Before, he knew where he was at, which was on deck of the Going Merry. And now he was in a dark place, lit up by a small fire. Heading towards it, he sat down by the fire once he realized that he was alone. And even with the light from the flame, he still could not see anything or anyone in front of him.

Looking around, trying to find something in which he can put his attention to, he suddenly sees someone open their eyes. But it wasn't just any eyes. Luffy recognized it as his own. It was as if he was looking at a mirror image of himself. Looking at them, he noticed there was something different. Luffy has brown eyes, the eyes in front of him seemed more black than brown. "Who are you?" asks Luffy

"I'm you." Says the other voice, but it sounded like a much darker and evil Luffy. As if there was hate in the voice

"Where are we?"

"In the farthest part of our mind."

"Why are we here?"

"We are here because I want to show you what you can gain if you just give in to the dark part in you."

And with that said, suddenly the vision in Luffy's mind changes became an image where he was surrounded by dead bodies. Among those bodies he noticed that he saw the Yonko Big Mom, Kaido and Shanks dead. He saw their crew dead. He saw the marines all the way from Akainu to Coby dead. He saw Pops and the Whitebeard pirates dead. He saw Sabo and the Revolutionary Army dead including his mother and father. He saw Garp dead along with Makino and Dadan and her bandits. He then saw Vivi dead along with many other unfamiliar faces that had died. He saw the 7 warlords' dead. And then he saw a skeleton with an afro that was broken into bits, a giant cyborg broken and lifeless, He saw a raccoon or reindeer like animal dead with blood flowing out through its head. He saw Robin's severed head, Sanji's legs and hands cut off with a spear lodged in his chest. He looked at Usopp who was covered in bullet holes from the top of his dead to the bottom. He saw Nami's body but Nami's body was quite odd for some reason. The top half of her shirt was ripped open and so was the jeans she was wearing, exposing her breasts and private parts. There was also a sword that went through her back and went straight through her heart. When he looked at Zoro, he noticed that his first mate was covered in wounds. From bullet holes, two spears in his body, a cut jaw, a few arrows, and numerous amounts of cuts on him, he also noticed an old wound that was once again re-opened which was the scar on his chest and there was cut on his left eye which had seemed old but there other eye was open.

Then he glanced at himself and Luffy saw that he had no wounds on his body, no blood, nothing. All he had was some clothes on and instead of a Straw Hat, a pure gold crown where the hat should have been. Then he also noticed the looks on everyone who he cared for. Each of them had died with pure disgust in their face but the ones who he saw as enemies were all happy and had smiles. And then he heard a voice. A very familiar voice of a man who Luffy hated with all of his life.

"Zeehaahaahaa…You've finally don't it Luffy. You've became Pirate King. You wouldn't have done it with those weaklings you call nakama. And I prove to be stronger than Whitebeard. And all those people around that have a smile on their face are happy you became Pirate King… Even the stupid marines and World Government. So now will you accept this title and be RULER of the world!?"

And within Luffy's mind he was fighting with himself. Back in the dark room, he fought his evil self. But he knew he was losing this. It seemed as if he was going to lose this but then he remembered something that his Pops and Shanks had told him. "You won't win every battle by being stronger than your opponent. No, sometimes your opponent will be much stronger than you. But no matter what, you keep on fighting. Follow your heart and follow your mind. Don't be afraid to lose. And do NOT fear death."

And suddenly, Luffy looked right at his darker self, and said "I'd rather be dead than be Pirate King like that." And suddenly Luffy had gained the upper hand.

And in his dream he looked right at Teach "I'll never accept your stupid title. I don't want to be a ruler… I WANT TO BE FREE WITH MY NAKAMA!" and without noticing, every angry look that Luffy had received started to smile and everyone who was smiling before became angry.

And that made Teach look at him with anger. "Well then so be it and suddenly Teach had started running towards Luffy with an army but Luffy could not defend himself. He was not able to move his body, all he could do was wait for the attack from Blackbeard, but before Teach could come near, Luffy said "I'm sorry guys. I failed you. You died for me or because of me and I can't do anything now. But I will not accept this 'crown' without any of you. I hope I'll see you in the next world if you forgive me" and he says this with his signature smile.

And when Teach attacked, it was blocked, causing Luffy to become very confused. And he heard "OI LUFFY YOU DUMBASS! DEFEND YOURSELF!" in the voice of Pops to even that afro skeleton and everyone in between. And he looked behind him and he saw everyone with a smile "So Pirate King shall we get rid of these pests for you?" they all say and he looks right at an angry Teach and everyone in his army "Let's do this." He says with a smile.

And suddenly he wakes up, sweating profusely and he saw Kratos who had now changed back into his normal self. "So, is your stupid ass better? Or do I have to kick your ass some more?"

"Where's Mika? I have to say sorry to her." And just as he was about to get up he was stopped.

"She's asleep. Everyone went to sleep. Well except your uncle but he's looking out for Nami. Go sleep some more until tomorrow. I'll wake you up first thing so you can apologize to everyone."

And just like that, Luffy went to sleep once more, but this time, he noticed that Lucifer had left the cellar and had a smile on his face.

And that is where I am ending this chapter. I hope you enjoyed this. Again, sorry for the delay. I'm getting really busy now so I hope you guys can forgive me... But I still will be writing. This story is far from going on break and me not continuing this.

Ok so about Kratos/Lucifer if you do not know or did not read the other story... he has eaten a dragon type devil fruit but instead of fire, it's darkness. Luffy is like a regular dragon, with fire and stuff. Kratos has the same darkness ability as Blackbeard, but he is also a dragon and of course is a zoan unlike blackbeard.

I hope you like this inner conflict part. I was thinking of doing this for a while and my dumbass skipped the Little Garden arc.. IDK why I did, but I fucked up... But since I skipped it, I figured why not get Nami injured and Luffy fight himself and snap, so I hope you enjoy. And if you guys are confused becuase I don't think I was clear on his inner conflict, please leave a review or ask questions, I will do my best to clarify/answer them.

And with that, have a nice day folks. Hope you enjoyed (once again) and as always, thanks for reading :)