A/N: So my exams are finished, and so are my classes (for a bit at least). I think I did okay with my Ancient Greece History exam and fingers crossed I did good with Latin, but results aren't out for a few weeks so I guess I won't know until then.

I whipped this chapter up a bit faster than I thought, but it's also a little bit shorter than a lot of the others in this story. I kind of wanted to show a bit more of relationship development and how some characters feel about Ebony's Outlier status. I'm also trying to keep with updating this story at least once a month for the rest of the year, so I think I've done a pretty good job so far!

I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

"Do you reckon we should go and find Mister Two and my crew mate?"

Ulpia and I had moved from where we had been sitting once her nose had stopped bleeding and we walking in the general direction of the palace. I had no knowledge of how to set a broken nose and Ulpia had apparently given people enough of them that she could do it in her sleep.

"I think I'll wait here for a bit longer," Ulpia put a hand over her eyes, blocking the sun. "Mister Two probably isn't completely down and out yet, and I need him to be so he'll actually listen to me."

"Might be a good idea, I've got to go and stop a bomb."

She stopped walking for a moment, "Oh, the bomb in the tower?"

I nodded and was a little angry at myself for not having remembered that it existed.

"That bomb, yes."

She waved a hand dismissively, "Don't worry about that. That minion that you sent my way? Well, he has friends, which gave me more minions."

A slow smile started to make its way onto her face, the scars pulling in an odd direction.

"They decided to go off and stop the bomb themselves, and I'm pretty sure that Crocodile doesn't even know."

A startled laugh bubbled out of me, that was fantastic. If that was true, then that means that us Outliers had the upper hand over a man who had essentially indentured one of our own in Ulpia.

"Crocodile really doesn't know what he's invited into his own house, does he?"

She laughed, darker than my own.

"Not even a little bit."

"Shall we go and find some friends?"

She nodded, "I'll go with you two find Mister Two and then we'll part ways."

I picked up on her unsaid cue, "Until Crocodile is defeated, then we'll see each other again?"

It came out as a question but the other took it as a statement of fact. We would see each other again, probably sooner rather than later.

Sanji knew that the okama would try something, but he didn't expect Mister Two to exploit his weakness when he didn't even know what it was initially. Sanji knew though that anyone who spent even ten minutes in his presence would be able to tell his weakness for women if one was in front of him.

Facing the man who wore Nami's everything was incredibly uncomfortable, and as such he couldn't really defend himself from any of the hits and kicks that were being forced upon his body.

If Sanji managed to avoid looking at the okama's face, it definitely made it a whole lot easier to actually concentrate on building a strategy on how to defeat the face-stealing ballet dancer.

The only way to go about it was to trick him into changing back.

"There's something on your left cheek, you may want to see what it is."

"Eh?"

But the okama still checked, face changing back.

Sanji knew that it was now his time to strike, letting his right leg fly.

"Inner muscle kick!"

This caught the okama off guard, stumbling backwards as he choked out blood.

"Back muscle kick!"

This kick caught Mister Two underneath the chin, slamming it shut. He went to try and gather his footing, but Sanji swung his foot back towards the okamas stomach. The okama spat out more blood, even as Sanji flipped into a handstand and spun, legs continuously hitting his target.

The okama flew backwards and scrambled to his feet, stumbling and hunching over before trying to right himself. Neither of them could stand up straight, but that didn't stop them from charging at each other for one final attack.

"LITTLE BEEF BARBECUE!"

"EXPLOSIVE BULLET SWAN WIND WING OPEN STYLE!"

The kick that both gave the other caused the pair to stagger away from the other, bloodied. Taking a few steps away from each other, Mister Two slumped and keeled over, back hitting the hard ground.

"Ugh!"

Sanji stood for a little longer, falling to his knees, breath heaving. He sat like that for a little while, gathering his breath.

"I lost! I cannot believe you made me go all out."

Sanji couldn't say anything to that.

"If you turned into Nami, I wouldn't be able to hurt or kill you now."

Mister Two let out a breathy laugh.

"I can't even move if you want you'll be able to kill me easily."

Sanji didn't want to kill if it wasn't necessary, and here it definitely wasn't. Besides, he kind of liked the man and his expressions of friendship. (Still didn't understand okama though.)

The okama continued when Sanji didn't answer, "Crocodile will end up killing me later, so hurry up and finish the job!"

That didn't sit well with Sanji, who knew damn well what it was like to be tossed aside for not doing a good enough job. He held out his hand.

"That was a good fight, and really what more needs to be said?"

Mister Two started to cry, as the two shook hands. Sanji could hear him vaguely murmuring something about friendship and the power thereof. The pair were startled out of the handshake by two female voices.

"Need a hand, Sanji?"

"Friendship really gets to you, doesn't it Mister Two?"

The two turned their heads towards the sound of the voices and spotted both Ebony and Miss Midsummer Eve walking towards them. One with a broken nose, and the other with a nasty burn on her arm. (Sanji thought that it looked as though she had been hit with a bolt of lightning, as there were silvery patterns starting to form underneath the redness of the burn and spreading outwards.)

"Miss Midsummer Eve! But what about Crocodile? Your secret?"

Sanji could have snorted at that, if he really wanted the secret to stay a secret he shouldn't have said it was a secret. He didn't know what the secret was, but he could hazard a guess.

"The blond in front of you is the only one here who doesn't know." She pointed out dryly, blood and gold dust weeping from her broken nose.

Ah, so that was why Mister Two was so worried about Crocodile.

"Miss Midsummer Eve!"

The okama wailed, looking back and forth between the three standing, he was obviously scared that Sanji and Ebony would do something to the Outlier.

"Call me Ulpia, Bentham."

Sanji and Ebony turned their heads, grins forming on their faces as they glanced at each other, the Baroque Works former members embraced with one crying about the power of the friendship.

Sanji had gone to stand beside Ebony, gently lifting her arm up and winding his tie around the wound.

"Thanks, Sanji." Ebony turned around and pointed her thumb around her shoulder at the two crouched. "We should get going, find the others."

He lit another cigarette, nodding.

"Those are bad for you."

She couldn't help but point out.

He gave her a droll stare but spoke regardless.

"So is being a pirate."

Ebony let out a laugh.

"Point taken."

Ulpia had helped Bentham to sit up, the okama struggling even with her help.

"Will you two be alright?" Sanji asked, slightly concerned for their once enemies.

"We'll be fine, you should probably go and find the rest of your crew."

We said our goodbyes to Ulpia and Bentham, for now at least, with Sanji needing help properly standing up.

"My ribs…" He definitely didn't mean for me to hear, but I had and it was a good time to repay him for the tie around my arm, the fabric shielding the wound from the sand. It hadn't stopped stinging and I could tell that it was going to scar.

Cool, or maybe not? I couldn't really decide.

"Do they need to be wrapped? I mean at least until we can get back to Doctor Chopper to look at them?"

"No, it's alright."

"Sanji."

He looked away but nodded.

He didn't want to bother me I could tell and I didn't necessarily feel completely comfortable basically ordering the man to strip, but it had to be done. And for the fact that Sanji claimed to be a ladies man, he was incredibly shy about the whole thing.

"I hope that it's not too tight?"

He did a few stretches and bent over backwards into a handstand. The amount of flexibility the blond had was making me jealous.

"It's good," He stood back up again, his face covered in a light blush. "Thank you, Ebony."

"No problem, as long as it helps."

The closer we got to the north-eastern gate the more nervous I got, but it wasn't until I saw Usopp, Chopper and the perverted camel that the nerves really kicked in.

How is it that I had spent over a year in this world, and had seen more fighting in that year than I had in the twenty previous, that it was only hitting me now? The panicky sensation that hadn't left me since I spoke about being an Outlier was coming in waves, hitting me constantly. I could see the waves coming, but like in the ocean, there was little to nothing I could do to stop it from happening; all I could do was brace myself for impact.

Usopp had taken to scolding Sanji for breaking the glasses that he had lent him, while Sanji brushed him off.

"Little Deer, if you have a moment I've sustained a lightning induced burn and we think that Sanji has some broken ribs."

This stopped Usopp as he looked towards the pair of us properly, exhausted and mussed up. Sanji with blood pooling under his eyes, left arm clutching around his ribs slightly and myself holding my right arm stiffly, wincing every so often when fabric Sanji had tied around the wound scratched it uncomfortably.

The doctor acted exactly as I thought he would.

"Ahh! You two need a doctor!"

"You are a doctor, little deer."

"You're a doctor!"

"Oh."

And with that he got to work, I told him to check over Sanji first as broken ribs are potentially fatal if left untreated. Sanji had of course protested but gave little resistance once the doctor had gotten his hands on the cook. Once he had finished with Sanji, Chopper turned his attention to me.

"How on earth did you get hit with lightning?"

"Magic."

Chopper gave me a stare, unsure if I was joking or not.

"I'm not playing a joke little deer, it was lightning magic. A destruction spell if I remember, and not a particularly hard one to cast if you have the means to do so."

He lowered his voice as he spoke, "Another outlier thing?"

"Yes, another one but not one that everyone has. This is specific to them."

He thought for a moment, applying a cream of some sort that lessened the stinging which was a nice relief. "It's going to scar, but this will lessen the pain and the visibility of the scarring."

"Thank you Doctor Chopper, I appreciate it."

"That doesn't please me!" I hadn't yet witnessed his strange form of happiness at being complimented, but his wiggle dance and smile were quite funny to watch, endearing and saddening all at once.

The fighting had stopped momentarily when Vivi and Kohza reached the capital, halting the two opposing armies, but shots were fired again into the rebel crowd.

There was a momentary pause as everyone looked for the source of the gunshot. The one who had fired the shots was tackled, seemingly by another of the guards who wrestled with them, trying to get the gun out of their hands and throwing it over the cliff when they did so.

"Traitor!"

Another of the soldiers attempted to fire his weapon at the man who had taken down the shooter but was stopped by a vice-like grip on their shoulder.

"Now, now. He was only following orders."

A tall woman with a bloodied nose that she made no attempt to hide, red blood and gold dust mixing as her grip tightened on the man's shoulder. Everyone there knew what she was, and couldn't help but feel a flash of fear.

Vivi, on the other hand, couldn't help but wonder who had got the jump on her. She had met the woman a few times, but the Princess was always so wary around her for fear of retribution for being a royal, but the Outlier did nothing except look around her in disdain and paranoia. Perhaps it was as Ebony had described? Outliers were not the evil that they had been depicted?

Vivi couldn't help but feel a flash of sympathy; she had seen the way everyone else besides the Captain had tiptoed around Ebony after her announcement and she was ashamed of herself that she had pulled away even further than the others. Ebony did not seem cruel or even evil, but Vivi had done so regardless.

She felt like an awful friend to someone who had put their life on the line more than once, it seemed just by purely existing, to get the Princess home in time.

"More specifically, he was following my orders. And those orders were that Crocodile is not getting his way."

"Miss Midsummer Eve!"

The cry came out from the one who had tackled the shooter, still sitting atop the struggling man.

"What are you doing? You're supposed to be on our side!"

This came from various people around the area, both supposed rebels and guardsmen; Ulpia didn't think that they were too smart revealing themselves so easily to those that had nothing to do with Baroque Works.

"And after everything Crocodile has done for you!"

Whipping her head around to meet the gaze of the person who had spoke this, Ulpia stalked forwards, dragging along with her the Baroque Works underling that she had in a vice grip.

"That man has done nothing for me! He has lied to me, as he has lied to you all!"

"So forward, Miss Midsummer Eve, for an Outlier who I graciously took in when I could have easily just killed you where you stood."

There was a sharp gasp that flew through the crowd as they all looked upwards, either from the finality of the word Outlier or that it came from the mouth of a man that many still considered to be a hero. Crocodile was floating in the sky, sanding spilling about his body, grinning cockily.

"Besides, with Straw Hat out of the picture. Well, I don't see how you could stop me." His grin widened, becoming bloodthirstier, "After all, who here won't turn on you now that they know what you are?"

"Tch. I don't care. Not anymore."

Crocodile's smirk fell off of his face, not expecting the short response from the still bleeding women below.

"Besides, they all know that you're a liar now." She grinned defiantly up at him, a hint of dovah showing in her grin. "You found me after all and you didn't do your civic duty; aren't all Outliers supposed to be executed on the spot? Why keep me around if you didn't need my power for something? Why keep me around to instil fear into others if you didn't have an ulterior motive?"

Sir Crocodile did not have an excuse for that.

Luffy was glad that Pell had arrived when he had.

He wasn't sure that he would be able to make it to the capital in time by himself, but he didn't doubt that he would have tried regardless of how battered his body was.

He hadn't been beaten so soundly by anyone in such a long time, apart from members of his own family and that definitely didn't count. It was nice in a way to know that he definitely needed to keep training, to keep improving and to know that there would always be someone stronger than him.

It was always going to be like the rules of the jungle he played in as a kid; the strong survive.

"Kid, I appreciate what you're trying to do." Luffy could sense a but coming from the bird who was flying the pair of them towards the war the was going to happen in one way or another.

"But why? What are you getting out of helping a stranger?"

Luffy frowned, he knew that many people didn't see the world in the way he did but he would have thought the Zoan would have understood.

"Vivi is my nakama!"

It really was as simple as that to Luffy. To be honest, he couldn't fully understand the urge to help some people and not others, he would never see himself as a hero as he wanted all the meat to himself. He would help and protect people he considered to be his and no one else. Ace was the same way.

Pell turned his falcon head around to face him, clearly judging whether or not Luffy meant what he said.

"Your nakama?"

Luffy nodded.

"Yep! She's nakama, I don't need any other reasons and neither does my crew."

He could feel the falcon jolt under him.

"Your crew?"

Luffy mustn't have been too obvious before about his piracy, but he could have sworn that it was mentioned in front of him by Miss All Sunday. They were both a fair bit beaten up at the time, so he could have been imagining that.

"Yeah, I'm a Pirate Captain!"

Pell let out a humming noise, "So that's how you met Vivi."

Before he could be accused of anything Luffy continued as though the falcon hadn't spoken. "We rescued her from Baroque Works when she got found out, even after she tried to kill us."

Pell let out a laugh, it was filled with emotions that Luffy wasn't sure he felt comfortable naming, but desperation was definitely a part of that mix.

"Undercover work was never going to be her strong suit. I did tell her that before she left."

Luffy could understand that. He would never be good at going undercover unless it was absolutely necessary; his personality was too loud and colourful.

"We're almost there, see?"

And Luffy could see. The battle that he expected wasn't going on, there seemed to be a standoff with Crocodile floating underneath them in the sky.

"Divebomb?"

Luffy couldn't help but ask, his childish notion getting the better of him.

The falcon Zoan couldn't help but laugh in agreement.

"Sounds like a plan!"

Chopper couldn't help but be wary around the blonde woman. Outliers had been something that Chopper had first heard about when he had eaten the devil fruit when people first assumed that he was one of them. But when they managed to cut him, he didn't bleed gold so he was just a regular monster just not one out of the deepest of hell pits.

Chopper didn't want to be wary around her, she was kind to him and to the others of their herd, (or was it family? He still wasn't sure what to call the group of people that he found himself around). Ebony called him little deer, and at one point young sir which made him feel all warm inside.

He could see everyone in the crew, except for the Captain, shy away even slightly from her and he could tell that it hurt. He knew how she felt when his birth herd pulled away from him when they saw his blue nose.

Chopper nodded his head coming to a decision that he knew he wouldn't regret.

Walking up to Ebony, he tugged on her sleeve making her turn and look down at him.

"Yes, little deer."

"I'm sorry, Ebony."

She stilled, before crouching down to his level.

"Whatever for?"

"I know exactly what it's like to be called a Monster. I didn't mean to pull away." Chopper could feel tears building up in his eyes and he furiously tried to rub them away before she could notice them.

"You even said to me that the unknown scares people and people don't like what they don't understand, but that doesn't mean that you're a bad person!"

He was suddenly brought into a gentle hug by the woman he was trying to apologise too.

"It's okay, it's okay."

"It's not! I should have known better!"

Ebony didn't say anything else, she just comforted him until he stopped weeping. She pulled away from him, a soft look on her face.

"Did you want me to carry you for a bit?"

Chopper tilted his head to the side, slightly confused.

"It's not exactly cool at the moment, and I thought that you might like a break from walking everywhere."

He thought about it for a moment, then nodded in consent.

"Piggyback alright?"

"Yep!" He transformed into a slightly larger form, one about the size of a young child and climbed up onto Ebony's back. She stood up, securing her arms under his legs and walked quickly to catch up with the others, a little while in the distance.

Chopper vowed to himself that she wouldn't be alone in feeling like she was a monster.

A/N: Please comment and favourite!

On another note, I'm currently writing a (long) one-shot set in the DC Universe and it's currently at 1,796 words. I'm not sure when it will be finished, but I'm hoping it will be sometime before I head back for the next semester. I'm also writing chapter five of The New World State, so that should be up sometime this month, too.

I really appreciate everyone who has favourited, followed and reviewed this story and taking time out of their day to do so! It's absolutely incredible and brings me so much joy to know that so many of you are enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing it!