A/N: PART TWO OF THE DOUBLE UPDATE! So this took me a lot longer than what I had hoped that it would. I hope that you enjoy it!

I really wanted to punch all their stupid faces in, especially Mister Three.

"Don't breathe the mist in!"

Mister Three had, by this point, made his way up towards Nami and had curled a hand around her throat.

"Take your filthy hands off of her!" I couldn't help but snarl at him, but he only glanced at me and grinned. I could see it in Nami's eyes, she was absolutely terrified. I was, too but I didn't have his hand around my throat.

"The looks on your faces are perfect!" He stepped backwards, pointing and smiling. "The emotions of pain and suffering are very good! This will become the perfect piece of art! The torture and sadness!"

"I can't move my arms!"

"Our bodies are definitely becoming harder," Zoro shouted towards the downed Giant. "Can you still move? If you can lose your arms and legs, it's better than dying and not doing anything."

"I'm going to try and move."

"Think of it like resistance training, right Zoro?"

He laughed. "Precisely."

Zoro slowly drew his blade, the wax making it difficult but not as hard as I would have thought. I tested my own arms, lifting them slowly and with difficulty.

"I will cut both my legs off."

"What the fuck, Zoro?" "Cut off your legs! Are you kidding me? This isn't the time for a stupid joke!" "What about us? That's worthless! If you do that, they'll catch you anyway!"

Zoro looked at the three of us, all staring at him in disbelief. I honestly couldn't believe that he would be that stupid.

On second thought, yes he could be that stupid. It was Roronoa Zoro, of course, he could be.

Brogy, on the other hand, started to laugh. "You are a brave young man, I was about to give up. Ok. I'll do it!"

He had said it with such conviction that made me do a double take. How did these people have such bravery, yet such stupidity?

Nami was shouting at Zoro, "Are you kidding? If you lose both of your legs, how can you fight them?"

"Just the heart that never gives up." Zoro gave her a boyish grin.

"Honestly." I shook my head; I had genuinely forgotten that in this world people are absolutely insane and somehow I'd become just as insane along with it. "I'll help. I'm not chopping off my legs, though."

Nami turned to me, betrayal in her eyes. I'd just become an idiot to her, I could tell.

"What's wrong with them?" "Have they gone nuts?"

"Wait!" I turned to Vivi, who had just spoken. "I will fight with you, too!"

I nodded towards her, bringing my arms up, reading for a fight. The wax that had settled wasn't hard enough yet to completely limit my movement, but it was like training with resistance bands or trying to move fast and sharp under water.

"This is crazy!" Nami closed her eyes tightly, bringing her hands up next to her ears.

Zoro had brought his swords down towards his legs, ready to cut them at a moment's notice. "Let's do this!"

"WE'VE COME TO CRUSH YOU!"

There was a blur of movement that flew past the gathered members of Baroque Works. I could vaguely work out the shape of a large duck and the straw hat of the Captain; unfortunately, the landing that they had was into a large group of trees and the impact had crushed several bushes and made several of the trees collapse.

Mister Three, who had been preparing to attack stopped in his movement. "What is that?"

I couldn't help myself, I started to laugh which caused him to turn towards me.

"What are you laughing about, statue?" His eyes had turned sharp, cold.

"Nothing, nothing." I made sure that my hand movement was as fluid and unhindered as possible, to just show him that I wasn't being affected by the wax. He kept on staring at me, highly suspicious as to why I wasn't panicking about turning into a Madame Tussauds model.

"USOPP! DUCK! LET'S TAKE CARE OF THEM!"

"CAPTAIN!" "USOPP!" "LUFFY!" "CARUE!"

"I'll take care of them," cracking his knuckles together, Luffy scowled towards the members of Baroque Works. "They've destroyed the pride of the battling giants!"

The Baroque Works members looked unimpressed with the Strawhat wearing teenager, who was standing in front of the cracking his knuckles, with Usopp standing beside him with his slingshot out and legs trembling.

"So, you're the man whose currently worth the most in the East Blue?" Mr Five scoffed, "It seems that the marines are going downhill."

"I really wouldn't judge a book by its cover, but then again, go ahead. Be my guest." I couldn't help but interject, gaining a rather dirty look from Mr Five.

Luffy, on the other hand, had spotted Mr Three and his rather impressive hairdo. "Your hair looks really stupid!"

"SHUT UP!"

Luffy couldn't help himself, "His hair is on fire! It's in the shape of a three on fire!"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Mr Three had now gained shark teeth in his pursuit of trying to shut our captain up.

"LUFFY," Nami hurried to get our captains attention back onto his crew. "YOU'VE GOT TO DESTROY THE POLE BEFORE WE BECOME DOLLS!"

"Captain, I really don't want to be a wax model!" I shouted out towards him.

Luffy looked up as if suddenly noticing that we were actually in trouble. "Eh? So you're in trouble, too?"

"Yes."

"No"

Nami and Zoro glared at each other.

"Not really." Zoro just had to have the last word.

"Freaking hell! Yes, we're in trouble, Captain!"

Nami looked down at Zoro's legs, where he was successfully cutting away at them. "That's a lot of blood, Zoro."

"Well, I've cut off about half of my legs so far."

"And you say that we're not in trouble!" Vivi sounded both exasperated and nervous.

"Can you destroy that pole, Luffy? I'll take care of the rest."

Luffy grinned up at us. "Sure!"

Mr Three, having lost his shark teeth gained instead, a rather creepy looking grin.

"I cannot allow you to do that."

Sabo was making his way to Alabasta, memories swirling through his mind.

How could he have forgotten his brothers? Ace, grumpy freckled Ace with no manners but who tried so damn hard and could blush like a really red, ripe tomato? Luffy, with his straw hat far too big for his head, stretching way too far for a normal human and a grin that could light up countries? How could he have forgotten them?

He wanted to thank the outlier, Ebony. He also really wanted to pick her brain. What else did she know about this world that she found herself in? He also really wanted to know where his brothers were; he knew of 'Fire Fist' as the captain of the Spade Pirates and then as a Whitebeard Pirate, but nothing else. Whatever he knew of his brothers may now be completely different and whatever mourning they had done would be undone by his sudden appearance. Should he even reveal himself to them? Should he even find them?

Sabo gave a self-depreciating chuckle; he couldn't doubt himself on this. Even if they had moved on, he needed to know them, even if it were to help with his amnesia and to provide some closure for himself.

Perhaps he should give Ebony a call?

"I've got no idea what the pole is, but I will destroy it!"

"HURRY UP BEFORE WE BECOME CANDLES!"

"Is there always this must posturing?" I could have sworn that there wasn't this much in either the anime or the manga. It could be the fact that I was actually there, in the moment and a part of the action, rather than being a third party and watching from the outside.

"I don't think so?" Vivi must have heard my muttering, as she gave me an answer with a shaky grin.

"Zoro? What are you doing?" Nami levelled a glare at the only male of our current group of wax model wannabes.

"I'm doing a pose, you know, just in case we do become candles."

I couldn't help but laugh. I hadn't realised it until now, but I think that I was the sort of person who resorted to humour and outright cackling in moments where I could and probably would definitely die.

"Shut up, Ebony!" Nami turned her ire to me, instead.

"This isn't the time to start playing around!" Vivi turned to glare heatedly at Zoro. I got the feeling the two of us were now naughty school children, being scolded by their parents.

"Can you do something about your legs? The blood is making me feel pain whenever I look at them."

Zoro turned and snapped. "Well, don't look."

"The idea of cutting your legs off, by the way, was stupid. You won't be able to escape."

"It's not about escape, it's about being able to fight back."

"That's nuts!"

"Shut up!"

"Honestly, such children, arguing at a time like this."

"Shut up, Ebony!" The two at that moment were so in sync; right down to almost identical glares coming from the icy blue and hazel coloured eyes.

I turned to Vivi, who was looking at him with a worrying expression on her face. The wax had now made its presence known on her temple. I was now thankful for my hood, although if it got any heavier I would probably end up blind and eventually suffocating before the wax could do anything to me.

The loud proclamation of Mr Three believing that Luffy could not fight shook me out of my heavy thoughts.

"Mr Three, we already killed him." Mr Five now had his arms outstretched, almost as if he were trying to convince himself that he had, in fact, killed Luffy and that this was some sort of mirage image instead.

"You clearly didn't kill our Captain, he's standing right there." I pointed out dryly but was completely ignored as Mr Three laughed at his fellow Baroque Works member. Miss Goldenweek have me a dirty look, however.

"Look at him! If you didn't kill him, it means that you suck! He's standing right in from of us!" Mr Three turned away from Mr Five and settled into an offensive stance. "At least I know that he's stronger than you. Take care of the other scum."

Mr Three looked towards the captain. "I'll make sure that you're next to become a wax model!"

Somehow amongst the blabbering from the members of Baroque Works, Usopp and Carue had hidden away in the rainforest.

"Luffy! We'll support you from behind here! Don't you worry!"

"Eh? What did you say?"

Almost immediately the fight began and Luffy found himself unable to move; his legs became entangled together with wax in the shape of a hammer.

"LUFFY!"

"WHAT'S THAT!"

"YOU ALRIGHT CAPTAIN?"

Luffy seemed to be okay, lying on the ground, legs up in the air admiring the hammer that he had now apparently become.

Mr Three was now crowing at his supposed victory; "You suck! Next, it'll be your arms! Candle Lock!"

Luffy managed to outstretch his arm just in time, wrapping himself around the sword embedded in the downed Giants' hand.

"Sorry, Mr Giant!"

"Huh?"

The apology was absolutely necessary as Luffy began to unwind, almost as if he were a spinning top. This, unfortunately, made the blade embed itself deeper into the hand of the giant, who cried outings pain.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zoro was shocked, as were all of us.

But there was a method to the Captain's madness as he slingshotted himself with great force towards the pole keeping us held captive.

"What the…" Mr Three looked as shocked as we were a moment ago, clearly, he had never had someone escape from his candle wax before.

"YES!" Nami was ecstatic. "HE DESTROYED THE POLE!"

"Thank fuck." Was all I could say.

The giant candle pole cracked with a loud squelching noise, unloading from where it was perched. Unfortunately, that now meant that it was headed right in our general direction.

Thankfully it bounced, narrowly avoiding crushing us in the process.

"Nothings changed." Zoro closed his eyes.

"We're still alive."

"True."

"That was close," Vivi added her opinion to the mix.

"Why didn't you guys run away?" Luffy looked genuinely confused, tilting his head in a manner that wouldn't be far removed from a small and adorable puppy.

Nami looked ready to shout, but I stopped her before she could.

"Captain, we're stuck. We can't move."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He sounded a little hurt. "You just said to destroy the pole."

Vivi turned (as best she could) towards Zoro. "Are you seriously sure we can put our trust in him to save our lives?"

"We haven't got a choice. Besides I can't move my arms anymore."

"Shit, neither can I."

This seriously sucked.

"I can't move anymore."

Mr Three was ecstatic.

"You've now become my candles, you absolutely idiots! The closer the candles get, the sooner it will happen!"

"Why didn't you guys tell me?" Luffy's eye's almost bugged out of his head, startling me. I would never be able to get used to the bodily functions of this world, no matter how long I resided here.

"Captain! Destroy the candles!"

"Ok!"

"I won't let you interfere! DORU DORU ARTS: MORI!"

"EXPLOSIVE BULLET!"

Usopp's voice came out of nowhere, aiding the Captain in the destruction of the lit candles. Luffy dodged the wax harpoon as Mr Three slapped Mr Five, whom somehow had managed to swallow the bullet that Usopp had just launched.

"Huh, tastes bad. Poor quality gunpowder right there."

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit."

"This is bad, this is so damn bad."

"Well, I'm lucky I have such a nice pose."

"Really Zoro? At a time like this?"

I got the impression that he would have shrugged if his shoulders had allowed him to.

"MR LUFFY PLEASE HURRY UP!" Vivi was now absolutely terrified.

"Vivi, we'll get out of this. We're going to be okay."

I tried my best to reassure her. In reality I was trying to reassure myself; sure I knew from One Piece Canon that the Straw Hat Pirates escaped this and went on to do far more extravagant things (storming Enies Lobby anyone? Not to mention any of the crazy stuff they did in the New World.), but it wasn't canon as such anymore. I was here and my very presence changed so much stuff. I couldn't rely on my knowledge of the world anymore, at least not as much as I had been. Anything and everything could change now. And I could only hope that it would change for the better, and not worse.

Luffy was troubled.

He didn't like seeing his crew, his friends, in danger and the way in which they now stood creepily unmoving, their breathing shallow in the rapidly hardening wax was terrifying him to the core. He wouldn't show it, but that didn't mean that he wasn't scared.

"I've just got to destroy this pumpkin, right?" He spoke more towards himself rather than anyone else; he thought better when speaking aloud sometimes, but it definitely didn't help in a fight when his opponent could hear him.

"GOMU GOMU NO BAZOOKA!"

"THAT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!"

Luffy didn't hear the guy with the weird, burning hair's attack as his fists slammed into the candle in front of him hard.

"Would you stop getting in my way?" He knew that the idiot wouldn't, but he couldn't help it. He was getting incredibly frustrated and there wasn't much time left from what he assumed by the state of his crew.

Zoro was standing tall, sword in hand, arm raised (Luffy privately thought that he looked super cool, even though his legs were all bloodied and wondered why that was). Nami, arms crossed, mouth set in a frown and eyes terrified, Vivi with her hands on her hips and mouth quivering, eyes wide in horror. And Ebony, fists clenched and legs stood in a defensive position with their hood covering their eyes and mouth set in a grimace.

Luffy would get them out of this, he would!

"Candle lock!"

"Again?" Could't this guy come up with something better? "Ah! That's right! Shishsishishishi! I've got a hammer now!"

The three guy in front of him looked confused, but Luffy now had a plan.

"GOMU GOMU NO OZUCHI!"

"Dammit! CANDLE WALL!"

The wall held for a moment, but the force that Luffy had put into the hammer cracked the wall and sent Mr Three flying.

"MR THREE!"

"THIS IS CRAZY!"

He loved shocking people, he really did.

"Well done, Captain!"

"Great job! Destroy that thing Luffy!"

"No."

"Shit, this isn't good."

"What?"

"Nami, look, he's trapped." And look she did, the trap had been laid out and our Captain had walked straight into it.

"We don't have time, Luffy! Hurry and destroy the stupid pumpkin!"

"I know."

"Do it then!"

"But I don't want to do it."

This arguing was going to go around in circles if I couldn't nip it in the bud then and there.

"Usopp, Carue, be careful! Watch out for shapes on the ground!" I shouted out, warning our remaining crew members in the area.

Miss Goldenweek looked up at me, glaring. "I've just had about enough out of you, Crow Queen."

Never before had my nom de guerre sounded so wrong; it was as if she had spat the words with venom.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Zoro wondered aloud.

"I have absolutely no fucking clue."

Mr Five and Miss Valentine were now staring Usopp and Carue down, both of them having taken a clue from my warning and were now looking carefully about where they walked.

"Don't get involved in this. Your captain has fallen into our trap."

"That's right. Take a good hard look under his foot, why don't you?"

"There's a strange sign under his foot, just like Ebony said. What's that?" Usopp adjusted his glasses, zooming them in closer.

"It's nothing, just a normal sign." Miss Valentine giggled.

"A normal sign? No way is that a normal sign."

"IT MEANS GO TO HELL!" And with that, Mr Five and Miss Valentine attacked both Usopp and Carue.

"Let me at them!" I couldn't help but shout. I was so beyond frustrated at this point; I wasn't normally a bloodthirsty person but all I wanted to do at this moment was fight some idiots trying to kill my friends and crewmates. Was that too much to ask for?

(Apparently yes, yes it was.)

Nami, on the other hand, was staring hard at Miss Goldenweek.

"You. It must be you."

Miss Goldenweek stared at the four of us, without saying a word, her silence was enough of a confirmation than if she had shouted it.

"Black is the colour of betrayal; paint someone with it and they'll ignore anything a friend says to them."

"If you wish to pursue that line of thought, sure, go ahead," I muttered. Black wasn't the colour of betrayal, technically it wasn't even a colour! It was the absence of light. But if you really wanted to say what black represented a lot of, it was more associated with the unknown, authoritative, powerful emotions.

"So that's what's wrong with Luffy."

"Would he do the opposite if you asked him to I wonder?"

Zoro gave out a hum, "It couldn't hurt to try I suppose?"

"Oi! Captain! We just want you to continue standing where you're staining and don't want you to move away from the sign on the ground at all."

"We really don't need your help at all with this," Vivi added.

I honestly didn't think that it would do anything at all, but low and behold, Luffy began to move forward. "Why would I want to move at all?"

As soon as he was away from the painted sigil it was as if a cloud had been lifted from him. "What happened to me? Hold on, guys! I'm coming to help you guys now!"

The captain moved forward a moment but suddenly started to laugh.

"What's wrong now?"

If I could palm my face in frustration, I would have done so. Seriously? Why?

"Colour Trap! Yellow is the colour of fun, your captain isn't going anywhere now."

"Luffy! Take off your shirt!"

"You're really interested in getting him out of his clothes, huh?" SHit! I honestly couldn't believe that those words had come out of my mouth.

"EBONY!" Vivi shouted, "NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR SARCASM!"

"Sorry, it slipped out." "You should be sorry!"

"We haven't got much time left. This isn't good."

Luckily it was Usopp and Carue to the unexpected but nonetheless appreciated, rescue. Slipping past the cackling Luffy and managing to smudge the yellow paint dotted on his shirt. This broke the spell that the Captain was under.

"Damn it! They're really fast!" Mr Five and Miss Valentine were in hot pursuit behind the wailing duck and sniper duo.

"Usopp and Carue hit the sign! It's fading!"

"I got caught again." Luffy was crouched down on the ground, "Ouch."

"Stop it!"

"Hey, you're having a good time though, right?"

"Are you crazy or something?"

"Colour trap! Red is the colour of a target." "GOMU GOMU NO BAZOOKA!"

Luffy's arms hit the target Miss Goldenweek had painted on the ground.

"Like a bull, you'll always target the colour red."

"Oh come on! This is getting ridiculous!" I couldn't help but shout.

Nami clearly agreed with me, shouting out, "What are you trying to hit?"

"Mr Three wouldn't be very happy if you destroyed that pumpkin and I don't want to make him angry."

"The Captain isn't going to be able to do anything with her being in his way."

In the meantime, Luffy had attempted to hit the pumpkin, only to be thwarted by the red sigil once more and then subsequently being hit by the colour green. Supposedly the colour of peace.

I've always seen it more as the colour of envy, rather than that of peace.

"This tea is really good." And now the Captain was having a cup of tea with Miss Goldenweek on a picnic rug, seemingly oblivious to the struggles of us in front of him.

Nami and Zoro were now arguing, with Vivi trying to place peacemaker.

This wasn't going to end well.

Ace was getting worried.

He couldn't get a hold of Ebony, the den-den mushi kept ringing through or just going completely static.

Now, he wouldn't normally be as worried as he currently was. Ebony could generally take care of herself, but she was now on a crew. A pirate crew that his brother was the captain of and that just added another layer of worry on top of the already growing pile.

He had become fast friends with Ebony, after apparently drunkenly flirting with the bartender with some horrible fire-related puns and pickup lines, who he could tell had a dark secret (possibly one just as dark as his own) and had regaled her with stories of his brother's shenanigans whilst he was growing up. He also knew how much mischief Ebony herself could get into without much prompting was either a recipe for absolute disaster or a sign of an incredible adventure. If there was an option between the two of them, he'd pick that.

Ebony at one point during one of their conversations had casually stated that he had a bit of a brother complex. He honestly couldn't deny it and had offhandedly mentioned that he had already lost one brother and didn't want to lose another. Ebony had taken that information in and said that if he ever wanted to talk about it, then she'd be there but they had never brought the topic up again.

Privately, Ace thought that perhaps Sabo had escaped, especially due to the lack of body. He should know, he'd looked and looked for days. But he never mentioned it to Luffy, his hopeful little brother who generally tried to see the best in everything. Ace would never have that luxury, he never had.

A/N: I go back to university in less than two weeks, so I'm going to try and get another chapter written. I've got a bunch of outtakes that I'm going to publish, too, so be on the lookout for those. Also, I'm going to try and update this story of , as the last time I tried I couldn't get a document to save on there so fingers crossed it'll work for me this time around. See you guys next time!