"Andy...Sediero...now where have I heard that name before?" Derek rested his chin in his hands. "But why are you so angry with him? What, did he cheat on you? Released some racy pics all over school?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I huffed, walking across the hall to my brother's room.

"Aw, come on! You've sparked my interest, you can't just leave me hanging!" he followed me, pouting and whining. I tried the doorknob. Unlike previous attempts, this time it rotated smoothly, and I opened the door.

Leo's room was exactly how I remembered it. Two ginormous bookshelves lined two of his walls. One was dedicated to games and consoles, while the other was for his books and manga. His bed and desk were in the middle of the room. On his desk lay his laptop with the cracked screen (he once brought it to school without permission and ended up dropping it onto the floor. Our parents grounded him for weeks) and his drawing...tablet...thing.

During summer vacation, Leo would always lock himself in his room with a box of cereal and an entire jug of black coffee. Whenever I demanded to know what he was doing, he would always tell me he was drawing 'doujinshi' or something on his computer with the tablet. And whenever I asked him what a doujinshi was he'd get this really really creepy smile on his face and then pat me on the head like I was five! He was truly infuriating sometimes.

I grabbed his old school backpack and emptied it. It had been over a year since Leo graduated from high school, and yet his bag was still filled with twelfth grade textbooks and binders! It was obvious he just threw the thing into the closet the minute he got home and forgot all about it.

I stuffed the bag full with clothing, and then looked at the daunting bookshelf.

One Piece...One Piece...I scanned over all the books quickly, but I couldn't find the manga series my brother loved so dearly. I blinked a few times to clear my eyes, and then forced myself to look very carefully through all the titles.

Derek was also looking through the bookcase, but not to help me. Instead, he pulled out a photo album and started flipping through it.

"Hey, it's you as a newborn! Wow, you were one ugly baby."

I hit him square in the head, and then back to my search. Suddenly, a colourful spine caught my attention.

"Nep Ece? What the?" I pulled the book out. On the cover were three people; a black-haired guy in a straw hat, a guy with green hair, and a girl with orange hair, of all things! They were drawn in a small boat, and they looked like they were having the time of their life.

I looked closer at the title. And then the realization hit me like a Frisbee in Ultimate season. The Jolly Roger was also an 'O', and the small figure was an 'I'!

"One Piece! I found it!" I quickly looked up at the other books. Sure enough, the entire shelf and the next were filled with One Piece, from volume 1 all the way to volume 62! "Wooooaaaah...this is one heck of a long story..."

I looked back down at the three people. And that's when I also realized with a start that they were Luffy, Zoro, and Nami!

"He has green hair?!" I exclaimed. "What the fuck?"

I grabbed some more volumes and sat down on the carpeted floor, next to Derek. I flipped through the books until I also found Usopp, Sanji, and Vivi.

"So this is what they look like..." I muttered. They weren't at all like I had imagined, but then again, why would I ever think that anyone had natural orange or blue hair? Derek tapped me on the shoulder. I turned my head towards him. He pointed at a photo in the album he took.

"Is this Andy?" he asked. I leaned in to get a better look at the picture. It was my brother and Andy, standing with their arms around each other's shoulders. They had huge smiles on both their faces, and they were dressed in graduation robes.

My eye twitched. "Yes," I gave a brief answer and went back to the One Piece manga.

"So him and your bro were best buds, huh?" Derek chirped cheerfully. "And then you and him went out, but he broke your heart or something? And now you hate him? That's it, isn't it? Right? Right?"

"Agh, would you please shut up?!" I snapped at him. "What part of I don't want to fucking talk about it do you not understand?!"

"Someone's on their cycle," Derek muttered bitterly. "Hmph, even if you don't tell me now all I have to do is go through your memory files and dig it out."

My head jerked up at this new information. I watched as Derek's face slowly contorted into one of 'oh shit'.

"What do you mean...go through my memories...?" I said slowly and menacingly.

"Er, uh, that was just a figure of speech!" he raised his hands in defence. I grabbed him by the shirt.

"Tell me NOW, Derek! Stop avoiding the topic, dammit! WHAT ARE LACRIYONS? WHAT ARE YOU?"

Unfortunately, before I could receive an answer to the question I had to thinking about for weeks, my vision faded into black suddenly and without warning. I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake.

I was lying in bed again, only this time it was in the women's cabin on the Strawhat ship. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Vivi's sky-blue light.

"Good morning, Cecilia-san. We're almost at Drum."

I yawned, stretched, and reluctantly pulled back the covers. The sharp cold air hit me right away. It was familiar, too, in a sense, considering the winters in Winnipeg.

"Breakfast will be ready soon, alright?" Vivi informed me before leaving.

I sighed, frustrated and concerned. I wasn't sure if I should tell Leo about Andy, and my mind agonized over the decision during breakfast. Afterwards, I headed to the infirmary to give Leo the goods.

"Sorry I couldn't bring all of the volumes, I was woken up before I could get to them," I apologized as I handed Leo his backpack.

"It's fine, don't worry. You got most of Drum, so I think I'll be good. You think you can bring my laptop next time?"

"Um, hello? We're like in what, the seventeenth century? I really don't think there are high-speed wi-fi hotspots anywhere, let alone in the middle of the ocean. Besides, you'd have to explain the damn thing to anyone who sees it."

"Ah, it was a long shot anyway. Thanks, C."

I sighed, and sat down on the chair beside the bed.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked. I could hear the concern in his voice. "You're assuming your sulky posture."

Sighing again, even more heavily this time, I fidgeted in the seat. The two of us stayed silent. Obviously, he was waiting for me to begin speaking. But honestly, I didn't even know how to begin. Hell, I didn't even know whether or not I should tell Leo!

Then again, it's not like he'll ever find his way into this world, I reassured myself. And Leo has every right to know.

"Andy broke into our house again," I said very quietly. I could barely even hear myself, but I knew Leo would. His ears always perked up at the sound of Andy's name.

It was silent in the infirmary at again. The air felt heavy; I had a hard time breathing.

"...fuck..." Leo muttered. I heard the sound of him lying back in bed with a thump. "We changed the locks, right? Just a couple months ago! And isn't he in some art school in Ontario?"

"Not anymore, apparently," I said sadly.

"How do you know he was there? Did you see him? Oh god, did you talk to him?" Now Leo sounded panicked, which was rare for him. I wanted to panic too, but I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

"Derek told me."

"And who exactly is Derek? You never really explained all this to me, you know."

"Derek is a Lacriyon."

"But those guys are trying to kill us!"

"He's one of the good ones, I guess. Then again, I'm not quite sure. But Lacriyons are kinda like humans, so there are bound to be good and bad ones, right? Either way, whenever I dream-travel back home, he's there. Actually, the house and school that I dreamed about were probably illusions. Because I couldn't go into your room, which Derek said was sort of like your mind. I could last night because you allowed me to. However, I can make a physical change in those...illusion places, so I guess that means they reflect the real world."

By now I was thinking as I was speaking to Leo, trying to piece all my current information together.

"Like, once I found Amy and Evangeline collapsed in my room. I put them on my bed, and the next time, they were gone. I also left a note explaining out situation once, but now that's gone too. I thought it was taken in the police investigation, but...Derek told me it was guy who looked liked Andy."

"And Derek...well, sometimes I can only hear his voice in my head, sometimes he appears in this world, and I can only see his light, which is white, by the way, just like yours. And then I can see everything normally in the dream world. So I'm assuming all Lacriyons are like this. They can...travel...between worlds...and the British guy...was also a Lacriyon who sent us here for some reason..."

"Derek did say something weird though...he asked about Andy, and when I wouldn't tell him, he said he could just 'sift through my memories' until he knew. I don't have an explanation for that one, though..."

"So Sediero is back in Winnipeg, eh? And the first fucking thing he does is break into our house. Jesus, I don't know how he does it," Leo lamented. "You say you left a note? And he took it?"

I nodded. "In it I explained that the two of us were in the One Piece world. So either he believes me and is trying to get here, or he doesn't believe me and is looking for us in the real world."

"If it's you, you could tell him the Earth was square and he'd write up a five thousand word essay explaining that it is," my brother scoffed. "But I guess we're safe for now. There's no way he'd be able to get here. Hell, if that were even possible, I would've escaped to here five years ago."

"It is possible, Leo! That's why I'm worried!" I insisted. "After all, we're here, right? What's to say some Lacriyon won't send him our way?"

He was silent for a moment. "Well, now it's pretty obvious we need to even out the playing field. Try and coax more information out of this Derek guy. I don't care how you do it, begging, bribing, seduct-"

I swiftly karate-chopped Leo's light before he could finish his sentence. Apparently I had hit him in the chest, as I heard him wheezing afterwards.

"I'll do what I can, alright? And we're almost in Drum, so put on your parka."

"Eh? But it makes me look fat!"

"Both your legs are broken and the two of us are somehow supposed to make it up a mountain; I will not have you catch a cold on top of that."

Leo laughed at this. "How strange for the younger to be taking care of the elder."

"We take care of each other," I stood up and leaned over him. Using my hands to guide me in absence of my eyes, I managed to kiss his forehead. In turn, Leo lightly pecked mine.

It was a small tradition our family had. My mom used it as a way to calm us down when we were little, and eventually we were all doing it. It was comforting in hectic times such as now.

"I told you we'd get back to the real world eventually, right?" Leo said softly. "And when we do, I'll protect you from Sediero, too. Don't worry about it, C. Leave everything up to me."

-TRANSITION-

After some mild gunfire, we somehow made it onto the island. I had personally dressed Leo in his giant parka and now he was being pulled along on a makeshift sled Usopp had built. We were following a guy named Dalton, who introduced himself as a former captain of the guards. As we headed into town, he told us the history of Drum.

How horrible for a king to take away doctors from the people! Honestly, how could anyone be that selfish? Fortunately, there was still one last doctor on the island, and that's where we needed to head.

"She lives in a castle? On top of a mountain?" Usopp exclaimed at the news Dalton had presented. "You're kidding!"

"Not at all, I'm afraid," Dalton sighed. "All we can do is wait for her to come to the village."

While the others fussed over the situation, Leo and I had a quiet discussion of our own.

"Alright, so everyone is pretty much busy during this whole arc. Which is to be expected, you can't have one of your characters lazing around doing nothing, after all," Leo whispered into my ear. "So that means we can't have anyone from the Strawhats come with us."

"The trip will be virtually impossible by ourselves, though!"

"Calm down, I specifically said, from the Strawhats," he replied. "Soooooo...how good is this Derek guy? At fighting, I mean."

His words stunned me for a second. "Oh god, you can't be serious."

"Deadly. He's the only choice we have the moment. And besides, if you trust him, then I will too."

No no no, that's not the problem, big brother, I thought. If you two meet, you're either gonna hate each other 'til the end of time or love each other so much that you'll have matching BFFL gravestones.

I sighed. "Fine, I'll see if I can ask him. Gimme a sec."

Closing my eyes, I tried to block out all the noise and voices around me.

Derek? You there?

There was no reply for a long time, and I when I was just starting to open my eyes, I heard his voice.

Heeeeeellloooooo!

I need you to do a favour for me.

I'm already outside.

"Hey, Cecil!" Luffy's voice interrupted my conversation.

"Oh, uh, yeah, what is it?"

"Is it alright if Luffy and Sanji take Nami up the mountain first? Without Leo, I mean. Since Nami's fever is getting worse and worse..." Vivi explained.

"Well, you'll have to ask Leo, not me," I replied. "How about it, Leo?"

"Sure, sure, I'll be fine," he said cheerfully.

"Well then, I'm in your hands, Captain," Nami's weak voice said. My eyebrows furrowed in worry when I looked at her. Her light-or rather, her soul-was the dimmest I had ever seen it. I could barely make out the orange. She was literally on the verge of death.

I shook my head free of the morbid thoughts. She'll be fine, Luffy and Sanji will definitely get her to Dr. Kureha.

After the trio headed out, Leo piped up and babbled something about wanting to take a look outside.

"Me and C will be right back," he promised.

"Oi, oi, are you sure you two will be fine by yourselves?" Usopp asked.

"It's okay, I'm not as helpless as you think, you know," I said, standing up. "Like Leo said, we'll be back before you know it."

"Alright then..." Vivi said reluctantly.

Grabbing the rope tied to Leo's sled, I pulled him outside.

"Derek says he's already here..." I looked around for any white lights.

"What does he look like?" Leo asked.

"Um...he has one of his eyes sewed shut. With a tattoo on the eyelid."

"Oh god, that must've been painful. Hey, is that even possible?"

I shrugged. Suddenly, some wool covered my eyes.

"Lookin' fer me?" said the most pretentious cockney accent I had ever heard.

"Drop the accent, Derek," I removed his hands from my face and turned around.

"Hey," Leo greeted.

"Hey," Derek replied.

It was silent for a second. I think they were sizing each other up in that time, although I can't be sure. Apparently they had approved of each other, and Leo broke the ice.

"So how good are you at bodyguarding?"

"Eh, good enough, I suppose. Hey, Cecil, gimme the arrows and bow."

"Do you want the chest guard and all that other stuff too?" I asked as I handed the aforementioned items over to him.

"Nah, I'll be fine. Been doing this for years," he said. "Hmmm...so you have been waxing the bow and string, eh? Nice, nice."

"I did take archery lessons once upon a time, you know," I puffed my chest with pride. "I still have everything."

"Oh really? Hmmmm...alright, let's go. Cecil, you'll have to pull Leo all the way there, is that okay? I'll have my hands full dealing with the wild animals and whatever. Think you can handle it?"

"Yeah. I will." I was very determined to. All of this was my fault in the first place, so I wanted to help out in whatever way I could. I hated the feeling of helplessness.

"Let's go on an ADVENTURE!" Derek cheered, no doubt gaining the looks of many citizens. Thankfully I couldn't see the stares and glares, but I was embarrassed nonetheless.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go..." I pushed him forward.

"On a grand aaaaadveeenture!" Derek sang tunelessly. He pronounced 'adventure' strangely; it sounded like 'ad-ven-tciah', extra emphasis on the 'ciah'.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Leo snickered behind me.

"I like this guy already," he said.

-TRANSITION-

As we hiked uphill, Derek shot arrows at anyone or anything that attacked. Not the real ones though, just some magical ones, that inflicted things like sleep or paralysis.

He was pretty darn good. Leagues better than me, for sure. Hell, he kept up a lively conversation with Leo the whole time while shooting! He never even missed a target, no matter how fast they moved.

Once there was a pause in their conversation, however, I interrupted.

"So what is a Lacriyon?" I demanded. "And there's no getting outta this one, Derek."

He sighed audibly and overdramatically. "We're nothing special, really."

"Nothing special? Do you know how many of you have tried to kill me? With magic powers? You gave me magic arrows, for god's sake! And you say you aren't 'special'?"

"Weeeeeeeeell, promise me you'll believe me, alright? None of that 'this is bullshit' bullshit."

"Dude, I'm dragging my brother up to a mountain in a fictional world because he broke both legs protecting me from a giant piece of wax. You could tell me the sky is bright magenta and I would believe you."

"Alright, alright," he sighed again. "How should I say this...ah..."

The three of us trekked onwards in silence for a few moments. After awhile, Derek had apparently collected his thoughts and was ready to speak.

"We...are personifications of human emotion."

"Bullshit," Leo and I said at the same time.

"Hey! You said you wouldn't do that!"

"Sorry, that was just our automatic response," Leo apologized.

"Che. Anyways, it's true. Lacriyons are born with people. Lacriyons born from weak emotions die off, while ones born from strong emotions live on."

"But humans feel a wide range of feelings all through their life," I argued.

"Hahaha, it's cute how you humans think you're so complex. Lemme give you an example. Take a psychopathic serial killer. They usually had a bad childhood and stuff like that, right? So the Lacriyons happiness and love die away, while loneliness and eventually, rage, grow stronger. If the guy reforms, and becomes good-hearted and stuff, then happiness and love will be reborn, and the bad stuff will die."

"So it's always a fluid sort of thing. Life and death," I mused. "Then what are you?"

"Ah, you see, I'm a bit different. I'm the Lacriyon of family ties. The Daring family bond, I guess. You people define it as DNA or blood, but there is a spiritual connection. It's especially strong in twins, since their lives began in the same place at the same time. Well, don't quote me on that. We Lacriyons aren't really sure of what we are either. So for me, I watch over every generation of the family until everyone dies off."

"So...you have access to all our memories? And private thoughts?"

"They're like files. All organized and put away in cabinets. I couldn't be bothered to go through all of them, you know. Ah, here we are. The ropeway."

We entered the wooden box, and Derek started it up. It started its slow ascent.

"This...this is pretty hard to take in, you know..." Leo muttered.

"Eh, you'll get used to it. So all the places you've been going to when you sleep, Cecil, are the real world. Only you're there spiritually. You can make a small impact on your world during those times, such as taking things or leaving notes."

"But how? Where'd you guys come from? Are you saying all the stuff about souls and whatever is true?" Leo questioned.

"Well you guys can't explain how or where the human race came either, right?"

"This isn't scientific at all."

"Just because you don't understand how something works, doesn't mean it's fake or unscientific. And who said everything had to apply to science? Hell, we could be some kind of new species! A new type of science. Besides, if you really think about it, nothing makes scientific sense."

I raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh really? Care to give an example?"

"Why to cells reproduce? Why do they split in half?"

"In order to create more of them, obviously. This is like grade nine science."

"But why create more?"

"So the organism lives on."

"But why do we live?"

He shocked us silent with that one.

"You see? We could debate on and on about why we exist and whether or not God is real and if he is did he put us here and where did God come from. The simple explanation is that there is no reason. All we know is that we are here. Humans are here. Lacriyons are here. And we've always been here. Some humans even met us in the past, although they mistook us for either an angel, a devil, or a mental illness."

"Okaaaaaay...I think I'm starting to get a bit of this..." I said slowly.

"Alright, I'll bite," Leo said. "So those other guys are Lacriyons too? Of what, though? And whose?"

"Hell if I know, man."

The ropeway came to a shuddering stop. Derek opened the door, and helped me pull Leo out. Up on the mountain, the winds were harsher and much colder. I shivered, and tightened my scarf.

"Is that a good enough explanation for ya? Did I blow your mind?" Derek asked, handing back my archery equipment. "If so, then you better tell me about this Andy guy."

"Hey, if you've been around our entire lives, then you should know already!" I complained.

"Do you think I spent every waking moment of my life watching over yours? I've got my own life too, you know. So no, I don't. Anyways, I gotta go, can't have anyone see me. Catch you on the flip side, Cecil. Literally."

And then he was gone. It was just Leo and I standing on a mountain.

"Hey, you might wanna lower the ropeway again. So the others can use it later," Leo said.

"Fine, fine..." I grumbled. I didn't want to spend any more time outside, but I knew Leo was right. With his voice guiding me, I restarted the mechanism and sent the box back down.

"The castle is right in front of us," he informed me as I grabbed the rope again. I nodded, and started trekking though the snow. Suddenly, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Three lights, red, blue, and orange.

However, all three of them were so incredibly faint that I had to stare at them intently for a moment to make sure that they were lights in the first place.

"Oh god...is that Luffy, Sanji, and Nami?" I practically shrieked. Without waiting for Leo's answer, I dropped the rope and rushed over.

"CECILIA THERE IS A CLIFF THERE! LET LUFFY CLIMB UP, HE'LL BE FINE!" Leo shouted after me. I ignored him, although I did slow down considerably. I started crawling forward until I felt the cliff edge. The three lights were right below me.

"LUFFY! Grab my hand!" I reached down as far as I dared. However, the hand I was expecting never entered mine. "LUFFY!" I pleaded.

Come on come on come on! My brain screamed, panicked. I hate this! I wish I could see! Dammit dammit dammit Luffy grab my fucking hand!

At this point I wasn't sure what I was thinking and what I was shouting. All my other senses were being overwhelmed with the wind and cold and everything else without my eyes to connect everything together.

Suddenly, for a very, very brief moment, I could swear I saw a hand. It might have been my imagination-honestly, it probably was-but I reached for it right away.

And lo and behold, I made contact.

I grabbed onto Luffy's arm with both hands. Wait- was he not wearing a jacket?! I could feel his rubbery skin under my gloves. I leaned back and pulled with all my might, but all I did was stretch his arm! I reached down again and grabbed wildly; this time I managed to grab a fistful of his shirt. I threw myself backwards, and then tried to stand up. Finally, finally, I managed to drag Luffy and the others safely onto the mountain.

I scrambled to my feet and ran back to where I came.

"Where's the castle?!" I yelled hurriedly.

"To your left!" I heard Leo shout back. I turned there and kept running until I felt my feet hit concrete. I reached forward to pound on the door, but apparently there wasn't one. So I shouted.

"HELLO? PLEASE, SOMEBODY, HELP! ALL MY FRIENDS HAVE COLLAPSED ON THE MOUNTAIN AND I CAN'T MOVE THEM BY MYSELF I THINK LUFFY HAS FROSTBITE I MEAN THE SON OF A BITCH WASN'T EVEN WEARING A JACKET FOR GOD'S SAKE!" I ranted and raved in one long run-on sentence until something came into my field of vision.

A pink light. Not a hot pink type of pink. It was softer, lighter. I nearly cried with relief. Actually, I think I was crying. However, I still wasn't sure if the pink one was friend or foe. And even though I absolutely despised to think of them as an enemy, I still kept one hand on my bow just in case.

"I'll take it from here," said the voice. It was high-pitched and childish, and was almost like a woman's voice. But I knew it was a he. It was Chopper.

He put a hand on my shoulder, and then ran off.

I sank to the ground and leaned against the wall. I let my head drop, and my eyes shut closed.

-TRANSITION-

Wooooooo such a long chapter for once! Hopefully I can keep this up, though. :P

Soooooo I was thinking of maaaaybe opening up a tumblr ask blog for Cecilia, or Leo, or both, or any of my OCs, really. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a blog where you guys can send in questions for that character and I'll answer them as that character with drawn responses.

I'm a decent artist, I suppose, but that isn't the main problem. I just don't wanna open one and then have absolutely no questions or anything.

So once again, I'd like for your guys' opinion! What do you think? Should I start one? If so, then for who?

And who knows, you might just get some extra interesting information if you ask the right questions. ;)

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.

-NomSujet