Disclaimer: Sadly, I am not the owner of One Piece.

Author's Note: Not much to say other than I am totally inconsistent with these chapters, as you can obviously tell, but I'm doing my best now that Marching Band is finally over. I am completely up to date on the manga and the anime and I am aware (**Spoiler Alert**) that Zoro lost his eye. He looks so shmexy like that! However, this particular story is going to be different than what's be going on in the manga as of late but I will be consistent with some things—I just thought you should know.

Oh and also, a question for those of you following this weird fanfic. I've decided to make this into a Nieve X Zoro fanfic, but if you would like me to make it into a Zoro X Robin fanfic, I can do that too because I like that pairing as well. It's up to you guys, but otherwise its going to stay with Nieve and Zoro!

Thanks for reading—ideas are extremely welcome! PLEASE REVIEW!



**This chapter was inspiried by the song Ridin' Solo by Jason Derulo 3

**And in reply to Blue-grey-purple-brown, thank you for the advice, but I think I'll keep doing things the way I have been doing them for a long time. ;D

Jacob-emmettluvr


Chapter Four: Great Escape?

"Niji…" Nieve whimpered sadly as they trekked through the forest, Zoro forcibly having to literally knock trees down with his bare hands now that his swords had been stolen by that woman.

"I can't wait to get my hands on her…" He growled, muttering darkly to himself as he knocked down yet another humongous tree. As creepy as the forest was, neither of them seemed bothered by the spooky mist and the ugly naked trees. Nieve whistled calmly to herself until she overheard Zoro's menacing threats.

"That sounds dirty, Zoro-sama." She commented. He stopped and glared at her out of the corner of his eye before hastily walking forward, determined to reach the castle before dark. This was definitely the worst misadventure out of all the misadventures he'd been on, including the ones with that stupid Ero-cook and his ridiculous captain.

"Lighten up Zoro-sama! That scary face you're giving Nieve is unnerving. You don't look very handsome when you look at me like that."

He knew she was getting under his skin on purpose. She was bored, not easily distracted by the incredibly uneventful forest, and her only source of amusement was the green-haired swordsman. She was just as bad as Nami sometimes when it came to annoying him. Half of him was seriously considering leaving her behind and just swimming all the way back to the famous archipelago, but his other half reminded him that he would be ditching her as soon as they reached the island anyway.

He wasn't sure just how much more of his he could handle. At every tree he had to tear down, his anger boiled to the next level. Why had that woman stolen his swords? Why did he have to get stuck on an island with someone like Nieve? Why couldn't he have been strong enough to defeat Bartholomew Kuma?

With his anger reaching the boiling point, he thought of something to quickly shut Nieve up before he ended up tearing down the entire forest in his frustration. He decided to go for a low blow.

"Instead of picking on me, why don't you practice holding onto your sword with a stick? Maybe then it wouldn't have been kidnapped in the first place!" He snapped. It worked like a charm. Nieve deflated, tears comically running down her cheeks as she remembered how her beloved sword had been so easily plucked from her grasp.

"I'm sorry Niji…!" She moaned.

After a couple more minutes, the castle was in full view. It seemed a lot bigger then he remembered, but then he had only seen it from one of the taller towers. The castle was magnificent and vast, yet mysterious and eerie. The curvy, somewhat familiar, mountains in the distance seemed to hang over the castle like the jaws of a fearsome monster about to make its kill. Through the mist, a crescent orange moon hung low in the sky, yet it was still clearly visible through the thick fog. Even though it was only just past sunset, the moon sat as if it had been the middle of the night—looking just as beautiful as it had when he had first arrived on the dreaded island. He could only imagine what it would be like to live here. Or maybe he didn't have to imagine it. He could just ask Perona, while he was slicing her up for stealing his swords.

"Oooh! That castle looks so pretty!" Nieve exclaimed.

The entrance to the castle was easy enough to spot and it was obviously unguarded—not a single soul resided on this island except for the Ghost Princess, the swordsman, and the stupid dragon. Still, as they drew closer and closer to the castle, Zoro kept his eyes peeled and his senses on high alert in case one of those Negative Ghosts appeared out of nowhere and took him out when he wasn't looking. As they continued to drift farther and farther away from the edge of the forest, Zoro quickly made up his mind about something and doubled back. Nieve watched him curiously as he went up to the nearest tree—one that he had already torn down—chose three of its thicker branches, and tore them off. He ripped off the tiny twigs on the meaty branches and tucked them into his sash, right where his three swords would have been.

As he strode past the pretty dragon in disguise, he didn't miss the look of amusement she was flashing him and he held his head higher than normal and pretended not to notice it.

"It's better than having nothing to fight with."

Nieve said nothing but the smile held on her lips and she silently (for once) followed the green-haired swordsman farther onto the castle grounds. The entrance to the castle was a towering, elegant arch, with a bridge hanging over a black river that seemed to wrap itself like a snake around the forefront of the castle. On the bridge, there were giant chains strapped to the sides, indicating that it was able to act as a draw-bridge as well. At this time, the bridge was down and the castle seemed to beckon him in, not showing any signs that its current owner was going to put up a fight. As Zoro and Nieve walked across the several feet thick bridge, Nieve peeked over and noticed that the waters, which were at least twenty feet below, were infested with tons of oddly shaped and multi-colored fish—each about the size of a large crocodile.

Baby sea kings, Zoro thought grimly, as he took his first step into the castle which he hadn't set foot in since his first arrival on the forsaken island. As they continued down the statue-infested corridors—Nieve staying very close to Zoro's side ("I swear they're watching me!")—Zoro stopped dead when he heard the familiar chanting of Negative, Negative, Negative!

All along the walls, appearing towards the ceiling, hundreds of Negative Ghosts appeared and their silly faces seemed to be mocking him as they whirled several inches above their heads. Wailing with laughter, they seemed to guide them further and further into the castle, but they never dared to attack.

"What the hell is wrong with these creepy little things?" Zoro growled as one passed a little too close for his liking. His hand touched his stick-swords, although he hesitated. He wasn't sure anything except for Usopp would work against these strange beings.

"N-Nieve thinks they want us to go in that room!" Nieve said, breathing slowly in and out. Neither of them had noticed she was hooked around his arm until she had pointed nervously towards a door at the far end of the corridor and it wasn't until Zoro had turned to look at her that he had realized she was standing very close. Zoro tried to gently pull his arm away but she only held on tighter and he had to suppress a sigh. He would never be able to fully understand the intentions of women. Hadn't she been trying to annoy the crap out of him just minutes earlier and now she decided to act like this?

Silently, Zoro agreed with the tan-skinned girl for all the ghosts seemed to flow through that one particular door, meshing into a sea of white and laughing faces, and what choice did Zoro have but to follow? Who knows, Perona might be in there as well and when he found that stupid princess or whatever, he was going to make her pay for taking his precious swords.

Since Nieve obviously wasn't going to be letting go any time soon, the poor swordsman was forced to literally drag her towards the door and as they got closer, Zoro definitely noticed how she began to drag her feet more and more as he got closer to opening the darn thing.

"Nieve. Let go." He managed to force out, keeping his tone level.

"No." She replied, sniffling.

Zoro tried again. "Let go."

"No." She replied more firmly, tightening her grip. Now he was positive she was cutting off the circulation in his arm.

"Nieve…let go." He tried one last time.

She sniffled loudly again and, after a moment of nothing but that, tears burst out of her eyes and she buried her head into his shoulder. "Nieve's scared, Zoro-sama!"

Zoro lost all of his patience. "Get the hell off me, woman!"

As they continued to argue loudly, a Negative Ghost broke away from the stream of other ghosts and only its head was visible in the wall behind the pair of obnoxious island-dwellers. It laughed quietly and snuck up on them, wearing an unusually mean expression (with the usual tongue sticking out of its mouth) and waited for the perfect chance to attack. Just as Zoro managed to release Nieve's outrageously strong grip on his arm, the Ghost found its opening and shot straight through Nieve's mid-section. In what seemed to be slow-motion, Nieve gasped as a weird sensation began to spread through her body, and the force from the impact of the Negative Ghost violently threw her forward. She somersaulted towards the door which Zoro had been trying to open and she crashed through it, continuing on her rolling-rampage until she smacked into a wall on the opposite side of the room they had just discovered, staring dizzily back Zoro from an awkward, upside-down position on the floor. After a moment of staring, disoriented, at Zoro's handsome face, she managed to crawl up onto her knees and suddenly a wave of depression overtook her like a tsunami.

"I apologize for ever touching Zoro-sama's beautiful skin. I beg for his muscular arm to be cleansed of my tainted touch, and I wish for my soul to cease to exist." She mumbled.

Zoro ran over to her and as he got closer, he stopped, noticing the eerily depressed look that had come upon her beautiful face (seeming oddly familiar at the same time).

"Are…are you okay?" He asked stupidly. She stared blankly at him.

"May my soul be so insignificant and small that it may cease to exist in this world full of things that are more beautiful than I." She said to no one in particular. Zoro smacked himself on his forehead. How could he be so stupid and easily distracted to let this happen?

"Hororororororo! What an amusing reaction to my precious Negative Ghosts!" A high-pitched and girly voice said from behind Zoro. He flipped around, his hand instantly clamped around his hefty tree branches, and he turned to glare at the woman sitting comfortably in a cushiony and humongous chair, wearing her usual pink, black, and white dolly outfits and little gold crown. Her usual, mocking smile complimented her big round, dark eyes and she barely managed to suppress her laughter as she witnessed the swordsman's disbelieving laughter.

"You! What did you do with our swords!" He ordered right away.

She said nothing but continued to smirk at him, which was unusual since Zoro thought she never stopped talking. Then:

"Extra hollow!"

A huge hollow appeared out of nowhere, its gigantic, silly looking head smiled mockingly at Zoro and he reacted instantly, grabbing his wooden "swords" and jumping right into a defensive stance. Perona laughed loudly, almost jollily, and suddenly the giant hollow snapped its teeth around Zoro's mid-section. He was given no time to deliver a proper attack, so instead the powerful swordsman was forced to swinging his branches around in frustration, trying to in some shape or form harm the stupid ghost.

"OI W-WHAT IS THIS? LET GO OF ME AND GIVE ME MY DAMN SWORDS BACK!" Zoro swiped ferociously at the grinning hollow (who had a green-haired swordsman stuck between its teeth), but everything kept going right through the inside of the hollow—yet somehow it was still able to hold him in place.

"Hororororo! That's what you get for trying to deceive me, stupid swordsman! Did you think I'd let you leave this island without you paying me back in some sort of way? Did you think I bandaged you up just out of the kind soul of my heart? Horororo! Your stupidity is laughable! I needed a good servant that wasn't broken, so I had to fix you up. Return to your rightful owner and be my slave!" Perona yelled, not ever moving from her spot in her comfy chair. Meanwhile, Zoro seethed and he slashed even more furiously around the hollow's cavernous insides.

"LIKE HELL I'M EVER GONNA BE YOUR SERVANT! NIEVE SNAP OUT OF IT AND GET ME OUT OF HERE!" he roared, veins pulsating in his forehead.

Still sitting in the spot Zoro had left her in, Nieve blinked rapidly and slowly came back to her senses. Although she had a strange feeling of sadness, her slow brain easily banished the thought from her head and she instead focused on the lower half of the green-haired swordsman, which was sticking out of a giant hollow head. She unconsciously stared at his bottom for a little bit longer, slowly comprehending that the situation was dire and that Zoro, indeed, had a nice butt, until something finally clicked in her brain and she abruptly jumped to her feet.

"No, Zoro-sama! Leave him alone you freaky witch-person!" She shouted.

Perona snorted with raucous laughter; "Horororo! It seems your girlfriend has finally decided to join the party!"

From inside the hollow, Zoro snapped, "SHE IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!"

With an unusually determined expression on her face, Nieve reached down towards her waist and made to grab her sword. As soon as she caught nothing but air, all the most recent events came flooding back into her brain and tears comically began streaming down her cheeks again as she recalled why they were here in the castle in the first place.

"Oh no…Niji I'm sorry!" she cried.

"BAKA!" Zoro snapped furiously, now certain that it was impossible for him to get out of this sticky situation.

"Horororo! You're too late, ugly woman! The marmio will be blown to bits with my ghostly powers. Don't worry though. You're welcome to become my servant alongside your precious swordsman," Perona snarled in an uncharacteristically deep voice and raised her hand as if to snap her fingers.

Nieve glanced around desperately, trying to find anything that would be able to help her save Zoro. Then, she saw them. Leaning up against the extra long dining table, right beside Perona's enormous chair, were four swords that seemed to glow as if they were a gift from God himself. Nieve immediately rushed towards them and made a split decision to play a trick on Perona. She didn't know who the owner of the name was, but she had overheard Zoro muttering his name several times when he was cursing Perona during their trek through the forest.

"LOOK ITS USOPP!" Nieve shouted. All traces of glee were erased from Perona's face and nothing but fear replaced it as she screamed and flipped around, searching desperately for this dreaded "Usopp." Nieve saw her chance and grabbed the ugliest sword of the bunch and immediately unsheathed it. From the depths of the dirtiest rags appeared the most beautiful sword, tinted a gorgeous sky blue color. If one looked close enough, one could see a dazzling rainbow glint in the reflection of the shine the sword let off. Any sword admirer would collapse to their knees at the sight of the sword, but it just so happens that the only one of the kind in the room was stuck inside the belly of a monstrous ghost, about to be blown to pieces.

"Niji, it's good to have you back," Nieve said in a serious tone, a smile playing across her pretty lips. Perona instantly flipped around at the sound of the girl's voice and it was only then that she realized she had been tricked.

"Persistent brat! You're not cute in the slightest! You're still too late! No one can escape my Extra Hollow!" She snapped her fingers.

"DIVINE WIND!"

For a split second, a look of utter fear came over Nieve's face and in one fluid motion she slashed the air with Niji and made a symbol that looked similar to a capital "Z", except it was backwards and slightly tilted, resembling more of a capital "S".

"ZORO-SAMA! KURO KURO NO COMET!"

Out of nowhere, or at the very least, from the direction of Nieve's sword, a large glowing blue light appeared. It hovered in the air for a few milliseconds before deciding on its directed path and shooting towards the giant hollow which Zoro had been entrapped between its teeth. Any other attack would have simply passed through the hollow, but this one had managed to accommodate so much energy from the surrounding area that the instant it came into contact with the Hollow, it forcibly caused the ghost to literally erupt. The room went dark as a huge blue explosion rocked the inside of the castle, throwing the swordsman back several feet along with everyone else in the room. While Nieve and Zoro slammed against a nearby wall, Perona was thrust into the row of chairs sitting idly beside the long dining table. The room steadily got lighter as nothing but a shower of blue embers, looking very much like mini comets, slowly sprinkled down to the ground where their light immediately went out and they disappeared, remained of the giant ghost.

Zoro groggily got up, rubbing his now very sore head, and could do nothing but stare in shock at the place where he had just been. He turned his gaze on the pretty dragon, who was laying very still a few feet away, and all his senses came flooding back to him. Many questions ran through his mind as he hastily got up and ran to the girl's side but he decided that now was not the time to dwell upon them. In due time, his questions would be answered. Right now, his friend needed him. He stopped short as he went to turn her over.

She was his friend? When the hell did that happen? He shook his head and gently shook the tan-skinned girl.

"Nieve, wake up. Oi, are you okay? Oi!" he said.

There was no response and Zoro noticed a trickle of blood was sliding down her forehead. He hastily checked her pulse and was relieved to see that she was still alive. He made to rip off a part of his shirt to use to dress her wound but it was only then that he noticed his shirt had actually been blown to oblivion. He had come that close to sharing the same fate as the Extra Hollow. What sort of unbelievable power did this girl actually have? The only piece of his shirt remaining was part of his short-sleeve and a piece of long fabric that hung off the end of it (he wasn't exactly sure what part of the shirt that used to be). He slid it off and put it up against the Nieve's head, holding her close and checking on her breathing, not caring that her blood was staining his shirt red.

"What the hell was that?" Perona said shakily as she emerged from the sea of broken and toppled chairs. She had lost most of her anger and her mocking grin was reduced to a grim line as she stared cautiously at the unconscious girl in Zoro's arms.

"What the hell is she? Is she some kind of monster?"

Zoro said nothing but he silently admitted that he had been wondering the same thing. He already knew she was a dragon, but he briefly wondered if she could also be a devil-fruit user (A/N: Zoro didn't hear Nieve when she screamed KURO KURO NO COMET). He watched as Perona rose to her feet and took several paces closer to them. His eyes flickered between his swords (which were now lying on the ground) and the ghost princess. If he acted quickly, he might have a chance to get his weapons back before the Princess tried anything.

Perona wasn't stupid—she could easily see the plan that was beginning to form inside the swordsman's mind as he glanced at her and his swords, which were lying directly between them. Finally, his gaze locked with hers and the room fell into an eerie silence as they were thrust into a deadly stand-off. Whoever backed down was sure to be the one to lose. Perona slowly lifted her hand while Zoro gently laid Nieve back on the ground, never tearing their eyes away from one another.

Zoro was about to stand up and make a run for it when the sound of a door opening broke the silence. The loud creaking of the door made them both jump and they looked down one of the many other corridors to see a figure walking into the now completely destroyed dining hall.

The only sound in the entire castle, possibly the entire island, was the sound of the stranger's boots thumping against the floor as it slowly came closer and closer to the pair of fighting opponents. The figure stopped several feet away from Perona, just on the other side of the table and close to where Zoro had just been trapped by the Extra Hollow.

Zoro recognized him immediately. Adrenaline pulsed through his veins and he felt vulnerable and weak in front of this new opponent. He desperately needed to get his swords back. For a moment, Zoro felt self-conscious. This was supposed to be the man he was going to surpass and become the world's greatest swordsman and yet here he was, squatting (shirtless, no less) over an unconscious tan-skinned girl, with nothing but three long branches strapped to his sash and he was sure he looked not even close to presentable. Of course, this only bothered Zoro a little. He had never really cared for looks and he certainly wasn't going to let it get to him now.

"I…I know you!" Perona sputtered stupidly, her eyes wide and her pupils tiny and shocked. She trembled as her eyes glided down the hilt of the giant sword strapped to the man's back to the tip of the razor-sharp blade. Jewels and what she was sure was pure gold decorated the handle and she shivered as she caught sight of the pair of terrifying gold-eyes that stared back at her from underneath his black, wide-brimmed hat.

Zoro slowly stood up and stepped over Nieve, standing just in front of her. In spite of himself and the situation he was caught up in, something of an evil smirk reached Zoro's lips and he grinned devilishly at his number one enemy.

"Mihawk…" He rumbled, his voice rough and his hands suddenly itching for a battle. Even from across the room, he could feel the sudden bloodlust his cursed swords sought and for a split second he lost control of himself and he could not disguise the look of complete joy that overtook him. Then, he remembered how easily Mihawk had defeated him with when he last had that sort of attitude when going into a fight and, with a glance at the pretty face of the unconscious Nieve, Zoro managed to regain control over himself and he wiped the smirk off of his own face. He was determined never to let what had happened in the past, happen again.

Missing nothing with his "hawk-eyes," Mihawk's golden orbs narrowed and he stared dangerously at the green-haired swordsman, whose name he would never forget.

"Roronora Zoro…what exactly are you doing in my castle?"


Yay I finished the chapter! Sorry, I lied in the next one. Zoro and Nieve don't leave until the next chapter! I decided to twist the plot along with recent events in the manga so if you're not up to date on that, then there may be some minor spoilers but for the most part, you probably just won't have any idea what I'm talking about at some points but that's okay.

Thanks for reading and PLEASE review! I love them!

Jacob-emmettluvr XD