The italics are the song, not the chorus. The bold is chorus.

Chapter 6: I am scared

Morning came quickly, as it tended to do in the desert, and we left early. Vivi said we had to hurry because she had a bad feeling that something was going to happen, and so we did. I was silent that morning, having had very little sleep again because of the dreams that seemed to haunt and plague me. This time though, they had actually made a little sense.

The setting had been the open sea, and all I could see was a barefooted figure floating on the top of the rippling water, her hair fanning out around her. Or his. I couldn't tell because the figure was so dark. But the voice had to mean it was a girl, by the way she was singing so softly and sweetly. The song had stuck in my head as well. A slow, melodic tune it had and a few times I found myself humming it as I walked.

Across the sea,

Pirates come for miles,

Seeing nothing but gold,

Silver, and jewels.

The water shines,

The moon dies,

The sun fades as blood makes the sky dark and red.

"What are you singing?" a voice asked. I turned and saw Vivi beside me. She had opted to walk today which meant Nami was alone on the camel. I smiled.

"I don't know. It came to me in a dream." I replied. Vivi tilted her head.

"Sounds like a nice song." she said. I smiled. I didn't know what else to say, but the song wasn't nice. It was violent, and reeked of something evil, but, I wasn't going to tell Vivi that.

"Hungry." Luffy groaned. I turned to look at him and came face to face with Zolo instead. I blushed and turned back to the sand, feeling his dark eyes watching me.

"Do you want to learn?" he asked as he suddenly appeared beside me. Damn he could move quick. I paused before turning to look at him.

"What?" I replied, thoroughly lost.

"Do you want to learn how to fight with your sword?" he asked again as though it seemed obvious.

"Leave the poor girl alone." Sanji muttered from behind us. I turned and suddenly the air around Sanji became all butterflies and rainbows.

"Ah, she looks at me." he cried. I frowned and sighed before turning back to the sand ahead again.

"I guess." I replied to Zolo's question. He smiled.

"Good. What use is a sword if you don't know how to use it eh?" he said and nudge my shoulder. I smiled.

"Exactly." I replied. Then there was silence.

"Hungry!" Luffy cried again.

"Oh shut up." Nami said from the camel. I laughed.

"Hey, it's one of those cactus things!" Luffy cried. Zolo, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper and I all grabbed onto various arms and legs of the captain as Luffy tried to eat the cactus.

"You're not eating another wacky cactus!" Zolo yelled. Luffy groaned.

"But they taste good!" he responded, his mouth open as he tried to reach for the plant. Damn, all five of us hanging onto him and he was still moving towards it.

"Luffy! You can have this chicken leg!" Nami suddenly called. How she had managed to get a chicken leg was beyond any of us, but, at least Luffy dived for it instead of the cactus which Zolo promptly cut into a million pieces and then buried beneath the sand. And so, we began moving again. Once again that damn song found it's way into my head and I tried to think of another song to get it out, any other song.

"Are you okay?" Usopp asked. I looked around and nodded, finally managing to get the blasted song out of my head.

"Yeah. Why?" I asked. Usopp shrugged.

"You just looked like something was bothering you." he replied. I shrugged.

"Yeah. Just thinking about ho- I mean, my memories. Why I don't have them I mean." I responded, realising that I was going to say something which could condemn me to leaving the straw hats.

"Oh. Yeah that is kind of strange." Usopp said with a nod. Nami turned on the camel. Did these people have nothing better to do than talk to me?

"Is there anything you can remember?" she asked a little concerned. I shook my head.

"Nothing." this lying thing was getting difficult.

"Usopp the great hypnotist and therapist will help you!" Usopp cried. Sanji whacked him over the back of the head.

"All you'd do is torment poor Miss Stealthy." he snapped, big toothed and white eyed. Usopp frowned miserably.

"It's not nice to hit other people for only trying to help." I said. Sanji turned to me as Zolo laughed.

"She has a point." Zolo agreed.

"Shutup Marimo!" Sanji yelled. I frowned.

"It's not nice to insult others either." I couldn't resist. It was too much fun bossing Sanji around. Now I now how Nami feels when she does it. Sanji smiled and bowed.

"Of course, I am sorry S." he apologised. I waved my hand, dismissing it.

"It's alright." I said and then winked at Zolo, who chuckled.

"About time someone told that bastard off." he muttered. I smiled.

"I agree." I replied. Oops. That arose suspicion.

"What do you mean? You only met him yesterday." Zolo said slowly. I stiffened.

"Yeah, but, that short time of knowing him, I mean, it's enough to drive anyone nuts. Don't you think?" I asked rubbing the back of my head nervously. Zolo watched me for a moment and then shrugged.

"I guess." he answered. I inwardly sighed. We stopped at a large rock formation, Luffy hanging off of Sanji's arm, trying to get some food and when he did, eating it so fast that it couldn't have been healthy. Then again, all the time I had been watching them on TV, he had never gotten sick or anything so, I guess in the One Piece world you don't get tummy aches.

Well, that's a good thing. For Luffy anyway. I was eating and thinking when Zolo came and sat beside me, crossing his legs and leaning back against the rock wall.

"Do you wanna start tonight?" he asked. I stiffened.

"Start what?" I replied. What had I forgotten? Was it important? Zolo shook his head.

"You really have a bad memory huh? Your sword training. Remember?" said.

"Oh. Sorry. Yeah, sure. Whenever you want to start." I responded. Zolo sighed.

"You know, you can say no." he muttered looking over at Luffy who was playing some sort of chasing game with Chopper.

"Why would I want to do that?" I asked as I wiped my hands on a scrap piece of cloth and then cleaned my plate. Zolo turned back to look at me.

"Because every time Luffy asks you to sing, you do. Sure Luffy's captain, but if you don't feel like doing something, Luffy will understand." I looked at him.

"I like singing though." I replied. Zolo tilted his head and gazed at me with narrowed eyes.

"Then why did you faint?" he asked. I paused. Why did I faint? I shrugged.

"The heat I guess." I replied before getting up and walking back to Sanji and handing him the clean plate.

"You don't have to worry about cleaning the plates." the cook said taking it from me and placing the plate in it's appropriate bag.

"It's ok. Less work for you." I replied sticking my hands in my pockets. I was even beginning to sort of like Sanji. Loveable characters on screen and in real life.

"Viviiiiiii." Luffy whined. The princess turned and I watched interestedly, wondering what Luffy could want. "Can we stay here tonight?" he asked. Vivi paused and then nodded.

"That's actually not a bad idea because there aren't anymore rock formations from here on and if we camp in the middle of the desert, then something bad will probably happen." she said. Luffy started dancing around, waving his arms in the air happily. I smiled. I yawned. Being in the sun was tiring. Sitting down by the wall, and wriggling a little bit to settle my jacket around me, I drifted off to sleep.

"S! Wake up! Come on!" déjà vu. I opened my eyes, and found that I was screaming and just couldn't stop. I put my hands over my mouth, but the sound just wouldn't cease. I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and finally, the noise stopped. I shivered, not even remembering why I was screaming. As I slowly began to calm down, I realised why.

I was remembering my past. Not my real life, or had my real life been fake, because my One Piece past seemed way more real. The arms rocked me gently back and forth and I relaxed enough to let them just hold me.

"What happened?" a voice asked above me. Luffy's voice.

"I don't know." that voice was closer. Zolo's voice. He was the one holding me.

"Is she alright?" that was Nami.

"She looks ill." Chopper's voice.

"The great Usopp shall cure her!" no doubt who that was.

"Shut up you idiot." and Sanji.

"Look at me Stealthy." Chopper asked. I raised my head slowly, trying to focus on that fuzzy face, but it was almost impossible, and sleep was beckoning me. "Focus on my hand." the little doctor instructed. I sighed and did as I was asked, my eyes finally focusing on the little hoof that was held in front of my face.

"She's alright. Just shocked." Chopper finally said. Leaning against Zolo like this was warm, and nice and I couldn't bring myself to move or talk, so I let myself drift into a dreamless sleep.

The next time I awoke, it was dark and I was still in the arms of the swordsman. Zolo was fast asleep, leaning against the wall and I needed to move. My legs were falling asleep from being in a cramped position. I hadn't had anymore dreams, and for that I was thankful but the fact that I was remembering things that seemed to have happened to me, but were not actually what happened to me.

Strange and very hard to explain. What I am trying to say I guess is that the things I was remembering, didn't happen to my real life side. They had happened to Stealthy, the person I had created. But the memories were more real than the memories of my real life, and that's what made it weird. I managed to get out of Zolo's grip, but as soon as I had done so, he opened his eyes.

"Sorry." I said. "Didn't mean to wake you."

"No problem." he replied yawning widely. I looked around and found a piece of wood to put on the fire. "So, what was the dream about?" he asked. I paused and looked down at the ground before drawing my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my knees, I sighed.

"I'm remembering things." I replied softly, gazing at the hypnotic flickering of the fire. Small bugs and things began crawling out of the wood, scurrying away from the heat. I sighed again. I wanted to tell someone what was wrong. Why it was scaring me so much.

"Can I tell you?" I asked softly, making up my mind then and there. I would tell him the memory, but I still wasn't game enough to tell him the total truth.

"Sure." he replied leaning forward so he was beside me again. I smiled. He was so nice. Of course, I had only ever seen what he looked like and how he acted on TV and hadn't been interested in knowing his personality. Except of course the funny comments he was so good at.

"I… I don't know how to explain it." and I tilted my head at the fire, trying to find the words to explain what had happened in the dream.

"You don't have to tell me." he said. I shook my head.

"I have to tell someone. Well, what happened was… I killed someone." I muttered.

"Hey. I've killed heaps of people." Zolo said, trying to reassure me. I shook my head.

"I don't know why though. I don't know the reason for killing him. I… I feel like I shouldn't have killed him. I feel like, I failed someone." and I sighed, annoyed at my own weird mind. A hand nudged my shoulder.

"Come on." Zolo said getting up. I looked up.

"What?"

"I'm going to teach you how to use your sword, like I said I would." he responded putting his hands on his hips. He looked so commanding that there really seemed to be no other choice than get up and learn. So I did. I pulled out my sword and the first thing the swordsman taught me was how to hold it. He placed my hands in the appropriate spots on the hilt of the blade.

"Right. You've got it." he said finally after much rearranging and hand swapping. I smiled, glad to have finally got it right. "Now, basic cuts." he said. I gulped as he took the sword and showed me a few basic moves, which didn't look basic at all. Amazingly though, I was able to recreate them.

"Hnh, I'd swear you've done this before." he commented and I was glad for the shade that covered my face so he couldn't see the blush that settled on my cheeks. A soft orange glow began appearing on the horizon and I realised how hungry I was. Oh well, breakfast was only a few hours away.

We practiced the basic moves for a while, Zolo helping me with how I stood and everything. All in all, I think tonight, was the best night I have ever had.

I may update this again next week, I may not. I have exams next week, and my brain is in permanent stress overload at the moment, so, if I don't update, I am sorry. Please don't hurt me!

-starts running-