Luffy panted slightly from the run. His back and side hurt badly, but he paid no mind to that. His dizziness had only increased after his sudden movement which made thinking clearly more difficult.

He turned his head to see if Usopp was okay. Other than the hole in his hand, the sniper seemed fine. The long-nosed teen looked at him with shock and a hint of fear. He had expected that.

He turned his gaze back to the guard in front of him. The man was shaking in fear as he tried to crawl away from the demon-like creature. Something in Luffy then changed. He felt how his sanity began to fade away. He was slowly losing control of himself as he watched the person who almost killed his friend try to get away.

At that moment, the air in the backyard seemed to get colder. Everyone present was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of fear and despair. The group of friends recognized this feeling. It was the same feeling that suddenly appeared on the day that Luffy woke up.

Luffy walked to the man and grabbed the guard by his neck. His sharp nails dug in the guard's throat. He brought the man's face close to his and stared into the man's soul with his blood-red eyes. The anger that could be seen in his eyes made the man almost cry in fear.

Luffy clenched his fingers tighter around the man's neck. The skin under his nails broke and blood started seeping down from the puncture wounds. The guard cried out in pain and struggled to get away from the monster.

The hand clenched tighter. The man started to choke. No air was getting to his lungs. Everyone watched in horror as the monster slowly strangled the man. The only thing that could be heard in the backyard were the choking sounds of the guard.

Suddenly, there was a loud snap and the guard stilled. The gasps for air stopped, the hands that had been clawing at Luffy's hand dropped down and the man's head hung in a weird position above the still clenched fist.

Luffy had snapped the man's neck.

It didn't stop there though. Luffy moved his other hand to the guard and grasped the dead man's head. He then started pulling.

Everyone could hear the guard's skull break under the force of the teen's fingers. The man's neck stretched as Luffy moved the head away from the body. Small tears could be seen in the guard's neck as the teen started to rip the head off.

Blood spurted from the cuts and most people looked away from the gruesome sight. Skin and muscle was torn apart as the head was slowly severed from the man's body.

"Luffy, enough."

Luffy's body flinched when a hand touched his shoulder. He looked away from the guard's corpse. Zoro was standing next to him.

His sanity slowly began to return to him at the sight of his friend's concerned face. He felt like he woke up from a daydream or something. He had no idea what happened in the last few seconds. He suddenly felt very exhausted as well.

The heavy weight in his hands had him turning back to look at the corpse. He let go with a gasp.

The man's decapitated body fell to the ground with a loud thud. The head rolled a few feet before it came to a stop in front of the crowd. The other guards around them stared at the detached head of the man and backed up even more. The rest of the friends backed up too. Even though they didn't want to admit it, they felt scared. They were afraid of their own friend.

Memories from that place came back to Luffy. All the awful things they called him. He had yelled at them so many times that they were wrong! That he wasn't the demon they said he was! But now, he believed they might have spoken the truth after all.

No, he shouldn't think like that. He wasn't a monster! This wasn't him!

The tense silence was interrupted by the leader, or rather, the sound of the leader's boots breaking twigs as he ran back into the forest. The coward had fled as soon as he got the chance. The rest of the Government's people didn't stay long either.

The guards wasted no time getting the heck out of there now their superior had fled. They dragged the dead and unconscious behind them as they ran back into the forest. After less than two minutes, the whole backyard had been cleared of the Government's men.

The friends were glad the guards had left them, but they couldn't say that they were relieved. There was still one more thing that they didn't really know how to deal with.

The creature in front of them.

The creature looked like Luffy and had been called Luffy by Zoro, so his identity wasn't a mystery anymore. However, they still didn't know if Luffy was a threat to them now. The way he acted before, the way he killed the guard, tore off the man's head. How could they be sure he wouldn't do that to them too?

On the other hand, he was their friend. They hadn't known him for too long, for about a month, but they knew he was a kindhearted teen. In the weeks they had spent with him he never showed any sign of hostility towards them.

A few meters away from them stood Luffy and Zoro. The younger man was staring at the other people. He could see that they were scared. They feared him. This filled his heart with pain. And this pain was worse than any pain he knew.

Luffy felt a light squeeze in his shoulder. He looked back at his friend in front of him. Zoro was holding him with his hands on his shoulders, both to keep him steady on his feet and to reassure him everything was going to be fine.

The swordsman wasn't sure what to do in this situation. There was too much to worry about. There was Luffy in front of him who looked ready to pass out for several reasons, there was Usopp behind them with a hole in his hand and there was the rest of their little group who were looking at them with both fear and confusion.

How were they going to handle this situation?

Usopp was still in the same place he had been for the past few minutes. He was shaking in fear and pain. He didn't know what happened to Luffy, but his friend didn't look the same right now. What he was looking at, was his description of a demon.

But Luffy had saved him. The teen had taken the blow for him. He had saved him from the bullet that would have taken his life for sure. Was this form the reason why Luffy had been in time? He had seen the distance between him and the other teen and no normal human would have been able to run that distance in less than two seconds.

But Luffy was no normal human. He knew that now.

He didn't really know what to think of this situation. He still was shocked and scared by what Luffy had done to the guard, but right now his friend looked different than when he killed the man. He looked more like the Luffy he knew and not like the person who just killed someone. It almost looked like the teen was scared and hurt.

His eyes focused on Luffy's body. Blood was streaming down the teen's back. Not only that, the teen had been shot as well. Luffy was in pain and needed medical attention, now!

Usopp pushed away his fear and stood up shakingly. The two in front of him turned their heads in his direction when they heard him standing up.

"L-Luffy? Are you o-okay?" Usopp asked with a slight stutter. He didn't know why he even asked. The teen clearly was hurt. Luffy didn't react to his question. He just kept staring at Usopp.

Then, another person joined the small group of three. Chopper stood beside them. The younger teen kept a little distant between him and Luffy at first, but when he saw the wounds on the other teen, he almost immediately went into doctor-mode.

"Luffy you're hurt! We need a doctor! Oh wait, that's me!" The young doctor yelled out. He grabbed Luffy's wrist and pulled him with him to the house. "We have to get you bandaged up immediately. Usopp, too!" He said.

Luffy swayed dangerously as Chopper began to pull him. He felt exhausted and his head felt like it was going to explode. Zoro was immediately at his side to steady him. Usopp followed the three with a concerned look on his face.

The others backed away slightly as the four of them passed them. They watched as the small group disappeared into the house. After a few seconds they decided to follow them. Even though they were still freaked out by Luffy, they still wanted to be there with their friends.

They, too, entered the house, leaving the dark backyard behind them. It must already be late in the evening. That reminded Sanji that he still had to start with dinner. Oh well, dinner could wait.

They entered the infirmary where they saw the other four. Luffy was sitting on one of the beds with Zoro and Usopp was standing next to Chopper. The young doctor was applying bandages to the sniper's hand.

The doctor finished within a minute. He did it very quickly, only to stop the bleeding, so he could help Luffy.

Luffy looked a lot worse than Usopp. He had a bleeding hole in his left side and blood was running down his back onto the bed, soaking the sheets under him with the red substance. His skin was darker than normal, probably because of the form his body had taken on, but he somehow still looked pale.

Chopper had some medical supplies in his hands as he approached Luffy. He laid them down on the bed next to the teen and looked at Luffy. "I have to remove the bullet that is still inside of you. Do you want me to give you some kind of sedation?" He asked.

Luffy shook his head. He still had some kind of drug in his system. It's not the best idea to inject something else in him while there was an unknown substance in his body.

"Alright, we'll do it without sedation. It's going to hurt though." Chopper said. The other teen nodded. Zoro put his hand on his black-haired friend's shoulder, ready to intervene if anything were to go wrong.

Luffy clenched his jaw in pain as the doctor began with the task of removing the bullet. Luckily, the bullet wasn't that deep and still in one piece, so Chopper had it removed fairly quick. The young doctor then pressed some bandages against the wound to stop the bleeding.

Chopper wasn't sure how he was going to bandage Luffy's shot wound. Normally he would have wrapped his patient's torso in bandages to cover the wound, but that wasn't possible in this situation. The wings on Luffy's back were preventing him from doing so. He finally decided to tape the bandages to the teen's chest for now.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had taken in Luffy's appearance. It was nothing like they had ever seen. From the bat-like wings on the teen's back and the long, soft-looking tail hanging over the edge of the bed to the curved horns and red eyes. This was definitely not normal.

"Luffy, can I ask you something?" Usopp suddenly asked, breaking the tense, uncomfortable silence in the infirmary.

Luffy looked up from his lap and stared at Usopp. He slowly nodded. He was slightly afraid of what Usopp was going to ask.

"How did you do it? Saving me, I mean. How were you able to get to me so fast?" Usopp asked. He had an idea of what happened, but he wanted to know for sure. The others looked at Luffy as well. They, too, were curious about that.

Luffy gave a small sigh and looked at Zoro. His green-haired friend nodded. Luffy then began with signing things to Zoro. It was too fast for the others to follow. Zoro then started to tell them what Luffy did.

"Permission granted."

Luffy knew there was no time to hesitate. He needed to act now!

As soon as the leader spoke the first word, Luffy began to run. While he ran, he did the thing he hated most. The thing that had ruined his life. The reason why he had been captured, tormented, experimented on and all the other things they had done to him.

He heard a ripping sound as felt his back exploded with pain. He wasn't sure if it was his shirt or his skin that he heard rip apart, probably both, as those awful limbs ripped themselves from the inside of his body.

With one strong beat of his wings, he moved at incredible speedthrough the crowd of guards. He could hear the shot being fired as the neared the guard and his friend.

He was barely in time. He knew he could have been faster if his wings had been in good shape.

He stopped in front of Usopp as the bullet came closer. He didn't have time to think of a way the projectile wouldn't do any damage to him, so he let himself get hit with the bullet. It pierced his side and got stuck there.

He felt the pain come over him, but he didn't care. His friend was still alive and that was all that mattered.

Luffy stopped signing and Zoro finished his last sentence a few seconds later. The others were staring at them with both shock and amazement. Even though most of them were still a little afraid of the teen's appearance, they really appreciated what he had done.

He had saved their friend even though he'd only known them for about a month. Not only had he taken the hit meant for Usopp, he also revealed an other side of him he probably wanted to keep hidden from them.

Luffy was looking at the ground. He was trying to ignore everyone's stares. He was afraid of what they would think of him. Would they judge him for what he was now? For what he did to that guard? Would they want him to leave?

Suddenly, someone wrapped their arms around him. His eyes widen and he tensed slightly in the embrace. He recognized the curly hair as Usopp's.

"Thank you. Thank you for saving my life, Luffy."

All the fear had left Usopp for a moment. He wasn't even bothered by the other teen's appearance. Right now, he was just hugging his friend.

After a few seconds, he felt Luffy relax in his embrace and arms wrapped themselves around him. He felt the other teen smile against his shoulder.

Luffy's fear of being rejected by his own friends slowly faded away the longer the embrace lasted. It was weird how one simple gesture could mean so much to someone. He knew his appearance probably wouldn't be accepted right away, but maybe it would be alright after all.

Maybe everything would be fine.

AN: Here is the next chapter! Finally things are happening in this fanfiction.

I really liked writing this chapter (even though there isn't much happy shit in it). I know some of you who read this probably won't like the way this fanfic is going, and I apologize for that, but I hope most of you liked it!

Anyway, I have no idea when the next chapter will be ready to upload. Could be a week, could be more. I promise I won't take too long ;)

Thank you all for reading!