Cold

A/N I do not own One Piece

Chapter 12

Luffy watched the swordsman sleeping. The captain had a very focused look as he watched his first mate. He observed that Zoro was in some type of pain or nightmare. Luffy clenched his fist as he kept watching the swordsman's painful expression as he soundlessly slept in the small bed. Luffy knew that Zoro was losing to that demon thing. To be honest, he felt sad that he could not do anything to help Zoro fight this battle. He felt so useless and he was scared for the marimo.

'Zoro, you promised me, that you would never lose a battle ever again. So I know, you will never lose this one.' For once in a long while, Luffy left the sleeping man and stepped out the door. The captain of the migiwaras looked around on the deck to see everyone else in deep thought. Luffy may be a bit dense, but he knew exactly what they were thinking about.

'What would happen when Zoro was completely possessed?' Some people on the straw hat crew already knew the question to that answer. They refused to accept the answer they made up though. They refused to kill their very own nakama.

Nami felt very afraid of Zoro, she could feel her body shake when she thought of that blood thirsty smile. She hugged herself as she recalled all the blood that she and the rest of the un injured crew members had to clean off the wood of the Thousand Sunny. She felt herself gag at the thought.

"Feeling well, navigator-san?" Robin sat herself by the cat burglar while looking into those paranoid eyes.

"No, how could anyone feel well at a time like this!" Nami just stared back into Robin's eyes as she felt her breath grow heavier. Robin did not show it herself, but she, also, felt just like the navigator. Robin just shut her eyes and took a deep breathe.

"I know how you feel," Robin felt a weight on her heart as it ached with emotional pain ever since she witnessed the cruel bloody killing of the monster.

"Robin, I know this may sound very weird and its ok if you do not wish to tell me about it, but... do you... have feelings for Zoro?" Robin's eyes shot open as she felt her cheeks turn warm. She knew that she was blushing very hard as she felt her heart beat faster. She remained silent for quite a while to she finally managed to choke something out.

"N-No," Robin looked away from the navigator. Nami just smirked at the devil fruit eater.

"I see," the cat burglar just closed her eyes as she felt a weight from her shoulders that she had for a week, finally lift.

Sanji was surprisingly silent for most of the week. He was always in deep thought and would barley speak to anyone. Just like Luffy, he felt like a completely useless object. For once, he wanted to help the shitty marimo out, but, each time he thought about helping Robin's words would pop into his mind, "The demon can only be stopped by the mental will of the host." Sanji kicked the nearest wall in frustration. His foot went right through the wall creating a gap. Sanji cussed under his breath as he left the dining room and out the door into the main deck to find their shipwright.

"Oi, its time for a meeting!" Sanji looked up onto the Sunny's head to see his idiot captain yelling at the crew.

'A meeting? For what?!' Sanji quickly realized what the meeting was for, it was about Zoro.

Eight mugiwara's were seated in the dining room, some staring at a hole in the wall. Sanji was playing with his thumbs as he sweated nervously.

"This is about Zoro isn't it?" spoke a surprisingly calm Usopp. Luffy nodded his head up and down as a little frown formed on everyone's face.

"I noticed that Zoro is getting weaker and weaker while that thing is getting stronger and stronger," Luffy announced.

"Which means that Zoro is losing this fight," Nami added on to Luffy.

"And that the demon will come out and kill everyone that lives on this planet," Robin said mournfully.

"Shut up! Don't say that! Zoro would never lose to that damn thing!" shouted Luffy. Everyone froze in place as they could feel the anger boiling in their captain.

"I made a decision," Luffy said more calmly noticing that everyone went still in shock.

"And what would that be, Luffy-san?" questioned Brook.

"We are going to kill that demon thing," Luffy said with a determined look.

"Luffy! You idiot! If we kill that thing somehow, it will end up killing Zoro!" shouted Sanji as he stood up from his chair in a sudden burst on anger.

"Cook-san is right, the demon had already intertwined with Zoro's soul. I'm afraid that there might be no way we can 'kill' the demon," Robin took a sip of her tea that Sanji nicely made before the meeting. Luffy then too, shot out of his chair in anger, making the chair fly back and hitting the floor.

"Robin are you saying that we should just give up! I feel like complete shit just sitting here watching my very own nakama fade from this world!"

"Luffy! How dare you shout at a woman like that! And Robin didn't say that we should give up! She said that there was no way we could 'kill' it!" Sanji shouted back at the captain.

"Thanks cook-san, as I was saying, we might have to seal away the demon to get rid of it, but, the bad news is I do not know how to do that,"

"Then we'll learn how!" said Franky. The cyborg than took a quick look at the hole in the wall.

"Oi, Sanji, did you make that hole?" Sanji just pretended he did not hear as he looked the opposite direction of the shipwright.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Shut UP!" Nami whacked the cyborg on the head.

"Don't get off topic when we are disgusting a very important subject!" Nami silently walked back over to her seat and sat back down with a big sigh.

"When I read books about sealing monsters and demons away when I was young, the sealing usually took place after the thing that they are sealing away and the host is asleep, but, demons only seem to sleep when they are switched to a different host, then wake up when they collect enough emotions to fuel themselves." stated Nami.

"Oh Nami-swan, your so smart!" said Sanji.

"But then that means that its too late to seal it away!" exclaimed Usopp.

"I was not done! There is another way to make a demon fall back to sleep," said Nami. The crew leaned in closer as they knew that their navigator was going to say something important.

"To defeat it in battle, in the real world and in the host's conscious,"

"Thats practically impossible! That thing almost killed me twice and the whole crew once!" said Sanji. A fist collided with Sanji's face as he fell backwards on his chair.

"Shut the hell up! We will defeat that demon and so will Zoro!" Shouted Luffy. Sanji just smirked as he sat up and rubbed the place where Luffy punched him.

"Well, captain's orders, no way to go back now," said Sanji smoothly as he got back onto his feet. Everyone smiled at that very moment. They all knew that there was no going back, they were going to save their swordsman.

"Thats practically impossible! That thing almost killed me twice and the whole crew once!" Zoro sat by the door that lead into the dining/kitchen room.

'So it is true, I have tried to kill my very own nakama,' He bit the bottom of his lip as he felt pain strike his heart. Zoro has been sitting by that door since the beginning of their meeting. They wanted to help him, but, Zoro knew that in order to help him they would get hurt in the process. Zoro wrapped his hand around his swords and tightly squeezed them in frustration and sadness. He knew what he had to do.

He would have to leave them, to keep them safe.

A/N I really hope you guys are enjoying the plot so far! I'm not a very good writer so this is quite an achievement to see that you guys are actually loving the story! Thanks for all the nice reviews and till next time! Bye!