Ch. 20- A Wolf's Tears

One Piece © Oda

Blizzard © Me

"LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!" yelled Luffy over the flames.

Chopper, shifting into Walk Point form, climbed up the broken mizzen-mast and headed to the upper deck, ignoring the pain in his chest.

Luffy and Blizzard followed behind as the flames grew, but it appeared that Lady Luck was not going to be on the former's side, this time. He tried to keep his head beneath the smoke as he ran, but it was much too thick. His eyes watered and went bloodshot, and he started to go into a coughing fit.

"Blizzard…!" Luffy called to the wolf-dog with a cough. "Wait up!"

Thud! Luffy fell forward, panting heavily.

Blizzard braked to a halt when he saw Luffy collapse before he turned tail and ran back to him. He nudged Luffy in the side, attempting to get him to stand up, but it appeared that the fight with Benton had finally taken its toll.

Blizzard furrowed his brow.

Luffy's helped me so much since we met, Blizzard thought to himself. Now it's high time I returned the favor!

With another nudge, he managed to wake Luffy up, again. Shakily, Luffy struggled to get a grip on the scruff of blood-and-oil-stained fur, but once he did, he hoisted himself up on Blizzard's back. He coughed and gasped, a sliver of saliva streaming from his mouth before he weakly pointed forward.

"Go on, Blizzard," Luffy commanded. "Go…!"

Blizzard dashed off with Luffy in tow.

XXX

Outside, Hillary had seen the huge plumes of smoke coming from The Wolf-Song and came out to investigate. The rest of the Straw Hat crew, having sent the other pirates packing, also gathered. At that moment, Usopp saw something jump down from the prow.

It was Chopper. The reindeer staggered slightly once he landed, due to his broken ribs, but he managed to stay on his hooves before he shifted back into Brain Point, with some effort.

"You okay?" Nami asked.

"Aside from a couple of broken ribs," Chopper joked, "I'm okay."

Zoro looked around, and was the first to notice that someone was missing.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Where's Luffy?"

"And Blizzard?" added Hillary.

Chopper gasped and looked back to the flaming ship.

"They must still be inside!" the reindeer exclaimed.

"You left Luffy behind?" Zoro barked.

"Zoro, it's not his fault!" said Nami.

"Yeah!" Usopp agreed. "He probably panicked!"

Zoro growled as he faced the ship again, prepared to jump into the flames and get his captain out…

But he soon saw there was no need.

Blizzard appeared from the fire with Luffy still lying on his back, unconscious. Their bodies were covered in cuts, bruises, and minor burns, and Luffy's clothes had become singed. In Blizzard's mouth…was Robby's Jolly Roger.

"Blizzard!" Hillary cried.

"And Luffy!" Chopper added. "He's got Luffy!"

With some effort, Blizzard jumped down from the prow and landed before the group. Zoro was the first to take Luffy into his arms and began to shake him awake.

"Luffy!" the swordsman called. "Luffy! Can you hear me? C'mon, captain, talk to me! Luffy!"

No answer came. Zoro put his ear to the rubber-man's chest. His eyes went wide.

"He's not breathing!" he shouted.

"WHAT?" Chopper cried before he went into panic mode. "Oh, no! This is terrible! Luffy's dying! QUICKLY! SOMEONE GET A DOCTOR!"

WHAP! Usopp slapped him in the back of his head.

"You're the doctor!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah!" Chopper said before he took Luffy's hand into his hooves, one placed on his wrist. "He's still got a pulse!" he said. "He must be suffering from smoke intake! We have to put him on life support, now!"

The Straw Hats carried Luffy to the Thousand Sunny, leaving Hillary and Blizzard to watch The Wolf-Song burn away. A slight breeze blew, ruffling Blizzard's fur and Hillary's hair.

"Forgive me."

(A/N: Cue "Mother Sea" from the One Piece soundtrack)

Blizzard's ears perked and his lips parted slightly in surprise. Hillary gasped, as well.

"R…Robby…?" she whispered.

"Forgive me, Blizzard…I'm so sorry I made you wait all this time for nothing."

Blizzard lowered his ears and tucked his tail between his legs. He was so stunned at what he was hearing, that he had absentmindedly dropped Robby's flag on the ground.

Robby was speaking to him from the great beyond.

"I tried, Blizzard…I really tried to come back, but Benton…he couldn't understand. He could never understand…but I was happy…I was so happy that I had such a truly loyal friend like you…Thank you."

Blizzard's eyes welled up to the brim with tears and his nose began to run as images of Robby and himself seemed to burn away in his mind. He felt so many emotions exploding in his breaking heart: anger, turmoil, and most of all…sadness.

AAAARRROOOO~! Blizzard let out a long, sad, anguished howl at The Wolf-Song.

Hillary had a hand gripped to her face, as if it were about to fall off, with rivers of tears cascading from her eyes.

Damn it…! she cursed in her head.

On the Thousand Sunny, the Straw Hats had gathered at the portside bow upon hearing the wolf-dog's mournful howling.

Chopper felt tears beginning to form in his eyes, and he sniffled, his blue nose starting to run.

"Poor Blizzard," he said, his voice cracking.

"He sounds so broken up," Nami added, tear droplets falling from her face.

"BWAAAA~!" Franky bawled as he furiously wiped the tears from his eyes. "POOR SNOWY~!"

Zoro could only turn away, chewing his lip and keeping his eyes tightly shut, trying hard to keep himself from going into tears. Sanji tried to light a cigarette to calm his nerves, but his hands were shaking so much from hearing Blizzard's cries, he couldn't get it lit. He didn't even realize that he had a few tears in his eye, too.

"Crap…!" cursed the cook.

Robin lowered her head with her arms crossed against her chest and her eyes shut to keep her tears from escaping. Usopp was silently sobbing as he tried to dry his tears, himself.

In the sick bay, Luffy had been hooked up to a machine that counted his pulse and heart rate, and he had an oxygen mask over his mouth to help him breathe. However, as he slept, a single teardrop trickled down his face.

Blizzard continued with his howling as the flames consumed the ship.

CREEEAAK! The wood of the ship finally grew weak and collapsed before it sank lower and lower into the water, never to be seen again.

Blizzard stopped howling once The Wolf-Song was completely submerged underwater. Just then, he felt legs give under his weight. They buckled beneath him and he collapsed on the cobblestone.

The fight with Benton had finally caught up with him.

Hillary gasped.

"OH MY GOD, BLIZZARD!" she cried.

The Straw Hats gasped, as well, and ran to the wolf-dog's aid.