Part Seven:

Proceed With Urgent Caution

Franky pulled the door open, teeth chattering slightly with apprehension. For some reason, the security lights of the landing flickered ominously, the stillness and silence of the outside thick; it figured it was only because it was two in the morning. Standing outside the doorway was a man taller than him, his grin white in the dim darkness of the landing. He seemed to be bathed in shadow, Franky squinting at him to make out the edges of a snappy suit, possibly blond hair. He glanced up at their porchlight to see it sizzle before popping noisily.

"Hello," the man in shadow said, Ussop staring with wide-eyed shock. This voice was the very same voice he'd heard just moments earlier, but it was also different. Human. This man standing before them wasn't some fearsome monster that scared ghosts wordless; he was in a dashing three piece suit, hair gelled back and jewelry at his earlobes. He looked like he'd just left some high priced club. Unusual for their side of the city. "It appears I was given the wrong address."

Franky stared at him with wide-eyed fear, unsure of what to think. The man didn't seem apologetic, but he didn't look like a threat, either. In his opinion, dude was only there as the result of a mistake.

"S-she gave you the wrong number…bro?" he asked tentatively. "I know how that scene goes."

After mulling it over for short, terse moments, the man then nodded. "Yes. It…appears that way. I'll be on my way."

He turned and walked back towards the stairway, Franky watching after him with doubt. He closed the door lightly behind him, pulling the locks into place. The moment his hands fell away, Ussop heard those awful noises resume. The screaming and crying noises faded in volume, the shuddering force of power fading with each step on the stairway. He gripped his shirt with sweaty hands, unsure of what just happened. He turned around, half expecting to see the quartet of ghosts.

"Ussop," Sabo stated firmly, "what's wrong?"

"They're not here," Ussop said vaguely. "They left. That man…they were terrified of him. Guys…"

"No problem Ussop!" Luffy cried, removing his earbuds, flinging his recorder about. "Listen to this! This is going to blow you all away!"

: :

At sidewalk facing the hospital, Sanji clasped his knees while struggling for breath. Brook wheezed next to him, back curved as he braced his hands on his own hips. Zoro held Tony under one arm, imagining that sweat was dripping down his face. He couldn't feel it – couldn't feel any part of his missing face – but heavy activity he'd taken while living always earned the action of sweat. He ended up feeling for it anyway – looking at his palm with terrible road rash, he realized he wouldn't be able to feel anything like sweat again.

The horde of festering souls that continuously walked around the hospital caught their attention, and Tony anxiously stared off behind them for signs of the spider. Zoro set him down. Tony ended up clinging to his flannel, using it to hide himself behind while the other two straightened up.

"We found his name, his name is Tony," Sanji muttered to himself, focused on the cross visible to them. "His name is Tony, his name is Tony, he needs to go into the light!"

Tony gave a moan. "I don't want to…!"

Brook felt faint, hand to his forehead. Sanji then looked at the parking tower nearby, pointing at it. "Let's go there."

"Why are we even listening to him?" Tony complained, following along anyway. Zoro wiped his hand on his flannel, trying to focus on the present. "He's not the boss of us! Why are we always doing what he wants to do?"

"I alone am responsible for all of you, because if it wasn't for me, none of us would be in this spot right now," Sanji snapped, grabbing his hand once he deemed Zoro walking too slow. With cautious looks behind them, he stalked their way towards the parking garage, completely bypassing the moving horde. "We'd all be stuck in our routines! Now that we're cognizant – we're going to be fine. The doc will help us – once he gets you moving, we can then find his name."

Tony sighed noisily, head lolling back and forth as he allowed Sanji to tug on him. "I guess…!"

"Why would he ask that of you?" Sanji then asked Tony, Brook floating alongside them. The fact that his feet didn't touch the ground caused Tony some distraction before he answered Sanji.

"Ask me what?"

"He wants you to give it back. What did you take from him?"

"I told you, I don't know!" Tony answered impatiently, Zoro furrowing his brow as something caught his eye. There, tucked in the waistband of his boxers, was a folded slip of paper.

Before he could do anything about it, the ghostly howl of a ghoul cut through the silence.

"I've heard those sounds before," Tony whispered, eyes wide. "Inside the hospital. Are those monsters, too?"

"They're the escaped souls of dead drug addicts," Zoro said, Brook pressing against him with fear. He shoved the skeleton to the side. "They eat anybody for a chance to be alive, again."

Sanji hurried his step, Tony jogging just to keep up. Brook eked out a startled noise, hands to his face with distress while Zoro glanced around, looking for moving shadows. They found their way back into the ER, Zoro and Sanji scanning the area frantically while Tony looked utterly disappointed.

Brook clung to Zoro's back, the ghost unaware that he was even carrying him. "If he sees me, he's going to do away with me!" he whispered frightfully.

"Maternity ward," Sanji decided, dragging Tony behind him as they headed for the stairway. Once there, the four exhaled heavily, feeling more uplifted than before. The weight from their shoulders was gone, their chests light. Brook inhaled deeply then frowned while Tony wore an expression that was moments from tears. Sanji remembered what babies smelled like, inhaling with a refreshed expression. Zoro went cross-eyed from looking at his missing nose with frustration.

"You. Losers. What are you doing here?"

Their heads snapped to the left to seeing Law emerge from a room with a male soul kicking and struggling from his hand. Nurses were running to the room upon frantic shouts, and the soul that Law clung to managed to sit up.

"We found him!" Sanji exclaimed, holding Tony's arm up as Law looked to the boy. He crouched to open the door at his feet, kicking in the struggling man without a glance back. The doctor marched over, hands sliding into his jacket pockets.

Brook shrieked, Law catching sight of him with determination.

"Run!" Tony cried, ripping his arm away from Sanji and racing after Brook. Sanji and Zoro whirled around with horror as the pair raced down the busy hallway, shrieking noisily. Sanji looked back at Law with a stunned expression, expecting him to give chase. Law looked at him as he paused nearby, wearing a disgruntled frown.

"You expected me to give chase? Do I look like someone that runs after someone else?"

"That's the kid we were talking to you about," Sanji insisted. "We found him, you can guide him to the light."

"He's not meant for the light," Law stated, giving him a puzzled expression. His stethoscope briefly blinded Sanji once it caught the light from above. He looked over the pair with serious consideration. "We've spoken of this before? Because I don't seem to remember shit."

Sanji gaped at him, then looked at his broken watch. "We were only gone a couple of days - !"

"And I've been here for quite some time, doing my job. You're interrupting it," Law stated with irritation, hands fisted in his pockets. "You're both dead, there's nothing to be done with you. For fuck's sake, man, what's with that color combination?"

Sanji sighed noisily, head hanging back.

Zoro approached cautiously, Law looking at him with disgust.

"Ew. What happened to you?"

"You stopped the bleeding," Zoro stated.

Law's eyes dropped to his missing nose. "Can you smell?"

"Like cherry blossoms on a windy day," Zoro answered gravely.

Law rubbed his forehead with exasperation. "That's not what I…never mind…"

Sanji interrupted their conversation with a wide wave of his hand. "Enough, you two jerks. We were here before to talk with you about this boy. He left this hospital his own way – but he met this spider monster that lives in the basement that insists the kid's got something of his."

Law looked up with surprise. His left eye twitched. "How do you know about that?"

Sanji gave him an exasperated look. "You knew of this thing?"

Law looked at his blond hair with disdain. "What is going on with your hair? Did you purposely die like that?"

Before Law could allow Sanji an answer, his eyes roved over their heads and focused away from them. Down the hall, Brook and Tony were watching them from around the corner. Various personnel walked through them, uninterrupted. Screams from newborn babies and the alarms coming from the room nearby made it feel like they were briefly alive.

"Why did they run?" he mused. "Am I that frightening? I'm sure I have all my skin intact."

"Because you've tried to end Brook a few times, and that boy came from this location, so he's aware of what you docs do here," Zoro stated.

Law walked past them, heading for a room nearby. Sanji and Zoro followed with exasperation. Zoro spoke with some mild exasperation. "We already went over some things with you. You were the one to talk to us about how to move things, how routines work, how - "

"I don't know why I don't remember that, but that seems highly unlikely," Law said with doubt, flattening a palm against a woman's heaving chest. The woman was in the midst of pushing, her doctor encouraging her while her family waited anxiously nearby. He then reached down to pull on the umbilical cord, catching the baby before he could fall. The body fell into the waiting doctor's hand but the soul of the child remained in Law's hands. Activity increased around them as the baby stretched its arms over his head with a low gurgle, smiling. "I haven't spoken to anyone that could actually hear me, asides from the occasional nurse."

Sanji waited for him to pass the child into waiting arms, then followed after him with determination. "Tony died here in the nineties," he said slowly, as Law checked the charts of a woman breathing deeply, listening to the shrill screams from the room next door. Sanji patted her hand absently, wishing he could console her as Law flipped through the paperwork. "Then he somehow left – you said he couldn't do that. You said he needed to come back here so we can help him into the light."

"I'm the only one that can do that," Law confirmed, resetting the paperwork back against the bed, the woman jarred by the sight. Law walked on, passing through the hallway with the pair trailing after him. Tony and Brook retreated nervously behind a food cart. "I'm one of the few that can send spirits on their way. And that boy doesn't have an indicator on him."

"TONY!" Sanji shouted with exasperation, causing Law and Zoro to cringe. "Get your shitty little ass in here! NOW!"

"Awww, but I don't want to go!" Tony shouted back from the hallway.

"Can you keep it down?" Law asked Sanji with annoyance. "This is a hospital. People are trying to die here in peace. Why are you sending them to Hell with your shrilly voice?"

Tony walked into the room as an expectant couple sat on the bed, working through their Lamaze breathing together. Law turned away to face the boy that approached, looking him over. Tony's bottom lip was hanging out as he pouted, fists balled at his side. Zoro caught sight of the folded slip of paper at his waistband once more, reaching out and taking it.

"What do you want, you little mongrel?" Law asked Tony. "Got any complaints? I'll personally kick your ass if you complain about my methods."

"Wow, you are mean," Tony commented. Zoro looked up with a frown.

"He's just a kid, don't talk to him that way," he scolded the doctor, pushing his hand into his pants pocket while Law looked at him with irritation.

"He's a kid who ran away from the light and now can't reach the light. His own shitty consequence for being a shitty kid," Law said simply. "I can't put him through either door. So either he didn't die here, or he's fit enough to join the horde downstairs."

"As mean as you are…" Tony interrupted, looking at him with disdain while reaching behind him. He paused once he realized he couldn't find what he was looking for. He gasped, hands slapping to his cheeks. "I lost his name!"

"You knew his name?" Sanji asked incredulously while Law looked puzzled. Sanji's hands went to his hair before they went to his belt once more. "So you did have something that spider wanted!"

Zoro punched Sanji hard enough to forget about that task, Sanji rubbing his head with exasperation.

Tony looked at him guiltily, toeing the floor while Law crossed his arms over his chest with building irritation. "…I did. I found it downstairs in the basement. It was just sitting there, so I grabbed it. The spider told me I couldn't tell him his name. He said if I did, bad things would happen. I can't even pronounce it to say it!"

"What relevance does all of this have with me?" Law asked, gesturing. "Can I go back to doing my job?"

"The spider says he," Tony pointed at Law, "can't leave here. He's not allowed to. As long as he doesn't know his real name, he can't leave."

Brook cleared his throat delicately from the door. He peered in from the top left corner, clearly not touching the floor. "The Paranormal Kings dealt with this type of situation before. There was a demonic entity – "

"Is that anatomical skeleton talking to us like it's alive?" Law asked incredulously. Sanji and Zoro yanked him back while Brook shrieked in surprise, ready to run if he had to.

"Calm yourself, doc, he's about the reveal the plot," Zoro said pensively, narrowing his eyes.

There's a plot? Sanji wondered with a bewildered look.

Brook tried again. "There was a demonic entity who was clinging to ghosts he as a living being had killed centuries ago. He was very greedy and did not want to release his victims. This was part of his curse. He fed off the reactions the ghosts caused upon the living and swelled with power. The only way to defeat him was to find his body and destroy him. Which I did. I…helped…which is why Ussop and the others don't try very hard to get rid of me."

"You know of this guy, right? The spider in the basement," Sanji insisted, looking at Law. Law looked unnerved, reluctant to say much. As they spoke, the scenery in the room changed – it switched occupants, the curtains drawn against the night city scape. The clock ticked soundlessly, hands moving quickly – lights fluttered once they were touched by the hand of a relative who set up post on the couch nearby, the newest occupant being wheeled in by a chatty nurse.

Law's brow furrowed, but he shook his head. "The hospital doesn't have much of a basement. It's just a morgue. We're a simple place, it's nothing fancy."

"But it expanded since I was dead, and judging by your ugly ass clothes, it's gotten bigger and better since you walked on."

Law looked down at himself with a scowl. "…Ugly…?"

"You can choke yourself with the waistband of your pants!"

"You're wearing pink!"

"Enough of the flirting," Zoro commanded, pushing them apart. "Tony said that this spider thing is insistent on keeping you here – why?"

Law gave him a puzzled look. "I wouldn't know. I've obviously with no memory of my life, just work after death. I remove souls, not…talk…to them. So all of this shit is new to me."

"Then how do you know of this spider?"

"I'm assuming you're talking of the energy from downstairs that takes preventative measures in ensuring that souls don't avoid the light. It's not a spider that works down there."

"Then how do you know of it?" Sanji asked, looking fairly put out. He grasped Tony's hand tightly before the boy could sneak off.

: :

The clanking noises of the elevator squealing to a stop was loud and obnoxious. All of them rocked in pace once the doors opened. Tony hugged Zoro's head tightly while Brook hugged Sanji from behind, both of them shaking. Law looked annoyed as he stepped out into the fog, pausing between car and hall. He stepped back with a confused look.

"It's never been this thick," he murmured to himself. The doors reopened once it registered his blockage. "This energy is supposed to discourage the dead from fleeing the light. There is an entity out there that consumes souls daring enough to do that. It's not as frightening as you think – it's just an old fool that figured out the system. If you see it as a spider, then it's a spider. It takes the shape of something you fear the most to discourage you."

The four of them looked at each other skeptically.

"Are you afraid of it?" Tony asked tentatively.

Something in the distance scuffed noisily against the floor, causing the four of them to push back against the elevator's back wall. Law gave no reaction to this sound.

"No," he answered. "There's nothing I'm afraid of. Why should I be? I'm aware of death, I'm aware people go somewhere. But I am dead, you morons. I do not remember what fear feels like to even conjure the thought of fear. Therefore, this concept is negative."

"What if it eats you?"

"It can't," Law answered simply, hands in his pockets. "Because fuck 'im."

"You have an annoying attitude," Zoro said.

The fog shifted with ominous movement, the sound of scraping against concrete emerging as a shrilly sound. A grey blur passed through the doorway.

"Who's fucking with the door again?" a man's voice rung out with irritation, jamming the Close Door button. Law stepped in. As the doors closed, it rang with a harsh collusion of something heavy, causing the car to rock in place. Law stood undisturbed while the quartet screamed and the living released a series of shocked curses.

"There are beings capable of rendering torment onto each other, but only if that soul remembers what torment is," Law stressed. "I don't. I've seen ghouls consume other souls, I avoid the monitors, but I don't feel fear."

"Then let us help you remember," Tony threatened him, punching his leg. "I'll make you feel pain again! I'll make you hurt so bad that you'll remember what it feels like to be scared!"

Law only stared down at him with condescension, forcing the kid to hide within Zoro's flannel once more. Sanji crouched down to face him.

"I am starting to like you," he said brightly. He straightened up to face Law, shoving his shirt sleeves up his arms. "Let's inflict violence upon this guy so that he'll never forget!"

"I'm so afraid of you and your weeny arms," Law stated with an eye roll as the elevator doors opened, the grey blurs leaving the carriage. "In any event, the thing down there will eat souls that try to leave the light. It's their own fault that they don't want to pass on. Souls are recycled, guaranteed another chance if they chose to go, but those that don't – well, it won't hurt the world of the living to have less of them."

Brook tapped a finger against his chin with consideration. When Law looked at him, his eyes seemed to brighten with determination. Brook hastily forced the trio standing around him in front of him as protection.

"I died here," Tony insisted. "So I guess this is where I go to the light, right?"

Law looked down at him, crossing his arms while the living crowded onto the elevator around them. Their blurred shapes wavered and seemed to burn as the doors closed and the carriage began to move.

"There is nothing on you that indicates that you can," Law said slowly. There was an ear ringing crash of sound, causing the living to scream with surprise and fear. The elevator rocked, the quartet looking around themselves with alarm. Only Law was unreactive. "So you either forget where you originally died, or there's something else in store for you."

"He knows a lot more than he's letting on," Sanji said with discomfort. "That spider told him many things – "

"Then he's the spider's," Law made quotation marks with his fingers, "problem. He should go back down there to talk to him."

The doors opened, allowing everyone to spill out of it. The chaos amongst their fear and shouts prompted security reaction. Law walked away, reading the floor number and departments with dismissive action. The quartet followed after him hurriedly.

"There's nothing we can do," Law added, snatching a clipboard off a nearby nurse's station and reading through it. Everyone was focused on those that had disembarked from the elevator, not paying attention to the movement.

People screamed as they were slammed to the ground. The four looked back to seeing the spider emerge from the slight space around the elevator, wheezing with effort. Multiple heads on its bulging back cried out with fear and horror, screaming warnings to anyone that could listen. Multiple limbs with sprouting arms and legs wiggled about on the reflective floor to steady the spider's bulbous body. Its head leveled in their direction, tiny, baby-like arms at its neck reacting with wiggling fingers.

The ghosts screamed with horror, drawing Law's attention.

Monitors popped up from the floor and hallway walls – they wiggled and squealed with seemingly unnatural action as they fought to catch the thing's attention. The spider's multiple arms reached for them, causing the monitors to dart out of its grasp as the thing ventured in the ghosts' direction. Zoro picked up Tony while Brook shrieked shrilly, unable to move.

Law furrowed his eyebrows, looking from it to them. He lowered the clipboard.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked casually, as if the hallway wasn't full of panicking people. Law swatted Brook into silence, the four of them taking cover behind him.

"i'M aPpAlLeD," the creature wheezed, displaying sharp teeth. "HoW DaRe YoU sPeAk tO mE so condescendingly after all this time?"

The spider shifted into the tall man that had faced Ussop and the others earlier. The monitors were watching silently, shifting after him with the sounds of cracking glass surrounding them. Once the quartet realized that the spider had shifted form, their faces filled with confusion. Law looked back at them.

"Who's this guy?" he asked.

"'Who's this guy'?" the man repeated, grinning. "You don't remember me, doctor?"

"I wouldn't ask if I did," Law stressed. "What the fuck are you doing, scaring my patients?"

"What patients? These ones?" At the leer sent the four's way, the quartet seemed to shrink just enough to hide behind Law. Law looked at them all with a frown. "I need to speak to them privately."

"I don't care what you do, but I do care that you're causing a disruption to my duties," Law stated, crossing his arms firmly over his chest. He looked the man over with examination before his expression filled with disapproval. "You're not part of the care group. You're one of the things that belong to the floor below. Why don't you return there and do your job? Thanks to your inattention, security has been considerably lax around here with ghosts evading our care and avoiding the light and shit."

"One less doctor would allow me to feed on the unnatural buildup of lingering souls here," the man threatened, Law furrowing his brow as he considered this words.

"What, you're going to eat me or something?" he asked, tone laced with heavy sarcasm.

The taller man suddenly expanded in height, towering over him. "I've already killed you once," he said, words heavy with satisfaction. "I can do it again."

Before the doctor could respond, the nurse with the bowtie rushed over, papers flying from his arms. He gave a shrilly dance of fear upon seeing the tall man, dropping his files onto the floor.

"What a mess," Law commented with irritation, bending to pick them up.

"This one isn't part of us!" Penguin cried anxiously, hands to his face. "RUN!"

He snatched the doctor's jacket and jerked him into a scramble away while the taller man chuckled. Seeing that the nurse was causing a diversion, Brook grabbed Sanji and Zoro by the collar of their shirts and scooped up Tony with the other, running in the other direction. The man's head snapped back to their direction before he reformed into the spider.

Voices filled the halls with shrill alarm. Monitors once again popped out into view. Both Sanji and Zoro watched as the spider snatched the mannequins by their heads, ripping them from wiggling bodies. Monitors screamed and squealed like animals as their bodies dropped behind the spider's moving form. The ghosts screamed in alarm, running on their own as Brook led the way.

"We're ghosts!" Zoro reminded them, veering through a wall and causing them to follow hastily. "Why are we running in a straight line?"

As they reappeared into a room busy with a birth, the spider slammed through the nurses, family and doctor waiting for the woman to push. The living scattered like bowling pins as the spider swept through the walls.

"yOu HaVe sOmeThINg tHat BEloNgs tO mE," it snarled, limbs waving about as multiple heads cried out with fear and agony. "I WaNt iT bAcK!"

"I don't have it!" Tony cried over Brook's shoulder. "I lost it!"

"i SmELl iT oN YoU!"

"It must be important!" Sanji wheezed, suddenly whirling into a nearby wall. The others followed, but none of them were more surprised than the other when the four of them fell straight down through a dark, tight tunnel. All of them screamed in surprise as their souls registered falling in the first place. The spider shouted out with frustration, large body caught at the mouth of the tunnel. The heads on its back screamed and cried, arms reaching for the walls in an effort to brace it against the darkness.

"ReTuRn tO Me rIgHt NoW!" it shouted, voice rumbling and vibrating against the tight walls of the tunnel.

The four of them bounced, producing grunts as they rolled over one another and sprawled out onto a stretch of cold, unforgiving floor. The spider's limbs banged and smashed against the tunnel walls as the creature struggled to continue pursuing them. Brook looked up, clearly able to see the thing stuffing itself into the small space. His face wrinkled with bewilderment as Tony and the others slowly gathered themselves together.

"i Am ToO fAt fOr THis," the spider then grunted, extending two of his closest limbs to his face. Meticulously, he began ripping extra limbs from his legs, baby arms holding the appendage close to allow him to do this. With each bite, he roared with frustration. The heads screamed in agony.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Brook murmured thoughtfully.

Sanji yanked him to his feet. "Get up!"

"We're ghosts," Brook stated, slowly brushing himself up as Tony clung to Zoro frightfully. "So why did we hurt falling down this tunnel? And why can't that thing follow us?"

Sanji whipped his head up just in time to see falling pieces of arms and legs hit the tunnel walls on their way down. He covered himself as broken arms and feet rained around them. Dancing with disgust and dismay, he quickly aligned himself with Tony and Zoro out of the danger zone. Brook's face registered surprise as impact registered upon him. He caught an arm, noticing the old jewelry on various fingers – a leg with a foot attached had the remains of a shoe on it that suggested it had come from the early century.

"This tunnel," he said slowly, facing the others, "is the doorway down. A body chute."

Brook stilled, then his hands clamped to his face with horror. "We're in Hell!"

"nOt Yet!" the spider threatened, inching further down into the tunnel. "NoT UnTiL i gEt yOu!"

Sanji looked up with dismay as Zoro comforted Tony, all of them with horrified expressions. They looked around themselves, turning in slow circles. All around them was a scene of nothingness – darkness preventing them from seeing into any distance. The chill caused their arms to ripple with apprehension, a shrill wind whistling from nowhere. Sound seemed to carry, echoing in the distance. The spider's curses and struggles were the only noisy action around them.

"A body chute," Zoro repeated numbly. He recalled seeing the souls of those Law had deemed worthy of the bottom door being dropped down here. So where did the people go?

Sanji caught his breath as Tony looked around, eyes wide with fear. Scanning the darkness, he couldn't fathom taking any direction without any indication there was somewhere to go to. With the spider's voice ringing around them, the voices swallowed up by an eerie, unnatural stillness, he couldn't tell where the wind was coming from. He rubbed his arms as Brook fell to his knees, bracing himself against the hard floor.

"Well," Sanji said slowly, his mouth numb, "at least Hell isn't as hot as it's depicted to be."

"I was a good person," Tony whispered, clinging to Zoro, "I don't think I belong here."

"OnCe I GeT yOu," the spider snarled, teeth sinking deep into one of its own legs, "i'M GoIng tO TAke yOu ThEre."

The four looked up at the spider with apprehension, watching it inch further down the tunnel. It struggled to do so, cursing every little while as more and more human limbs rained down onto the floor. Sanji looked to the others, wearing an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "This is my responsibility. Look, when he gets down here, I'll run in that direction – Brook, dumb-ass, you guys go in that direction – do whatever it takes to get back up there – "

"How?" Zoro asked, looking up at the chute above. He then looked down to see that Brook was touching the floor, resting his weight against it. He hopped to measure his jumping height, then looked at Sanji incredulously. "We're almost human down here, with absolutely no ghostly ability to do so."

Sanji swallowed noisily, looking up to see that the spider had gotten himself trapped. It roared with frustration.

"Limbo," Brook whispered, mandible falling open. "This is…this is limbo…the in-between. Where we wait to hear of our fate – "

The four stilled when something crossed their hearing. The spider ceased speaking as well, the mouths closing with abrupt recognition of a new sound. Tony hugged Zoro tightly, holding his breath as they waited for the sound once more.

"Zoro?" The sound emerged into the voice with a tentative wave, then cast over them like a gentle blanket. "Sanji? Are you there?"

"It's USSOP!" Brook cried joyfully, clapping his hands.

The spider screamed with frustration.

"Brook? T-Tony?"

"Follow the direction of his voice!" Brook commanded, pointing off towards a direction. Everywhere they looked was a never-ending shadow of darkness, and the trio was hesitant to do so. But as Ussop continued saying their names, they managed to pinpoint the direction he was calling from. It seemed to build with strength and start to fade, suggesting that Ussop was moving away from them. Hurriedly, the spider cursing noisily behind them – his voice fading with their distance from him – the quartet continued in the direction Ussop's voice was the loudest. Eventually the darkness began to lessen, revealing shadowed hospital walls and dark, empty corridors.

"USSOP!" Brook cried.

"Brook?" Ussop returned tentatively, voice echoing closely nearby. "Where are you?"

"Here, Ussop! Keep calling our names!"

"Sanji?"

"I'm here!" Sanji cried joyfully, searching for the man. "Keep calling for us! Stop walking!"

"Guys, security is catching up to me, so hurry up – where are you?"

"Keep calling our names!" Zoro shouted, Tony contributing with, "Ussop! Ussop, keep talking to us!"

"You guys sound real funny – oh, hi, yes sir, I'm lost," Ussop then said nervously.

The darkness still in place, none of them could see the man, but they could hear him talking to another with a stern voice. Brook whipped around, searching fruitlessly for Ussop and the others while the trio kept close by, urging Ussop to invite them. Once it seemed like Ussop's voice was rapidly being moved away, the quartet chased after the sound desperately. The shadows began to fall over the corridor once more, voices echoing and disappearing into the dark emptiness around them.

"Ussop!"

"Ussop, call our names!"

"Ussop, don't forget us!"

The spider roared with frustration in the distance, a noisy clatter of sound exploding around it.

"I CaN sEe yoU!" it cried joyfully, moving rapidly in their direction. "i WiLL gEt yOu!"

The quartet started to cry out with fear once they realized the darkness was settling over them, the sounds of the spider emerging closer towards them.

"USSOP!" Zoro shouted out, voice ringing out like a blast.

"GAH!" Ussop cried in alarm, the area alit with light once more. "Stop shouting in my ear!"

The light was like a bright explosion over their heads. The quartet covered their eyes with reaction, cringing under the brilliance. Brook managed to see that the body chute above them had opened, revealing the length of the tunnel that the spider had mangled earlier. The doctor was peering in on them with a bewildered look, Penguin at his side with a fretful look. Ussop was clearly behind them, dancing in place while a security guard lectured him for his lack of clearance in a secured zone.

"Get us out of here!" Brook cried, reaching up for him. "Hurry! Hurry, it's coming! He invited us! Ussop invited us!"

"USSOP SAY OUR NAMES!" Zoro bellowed in impatience, hefting Tony over his head.

"STOP SHOUTING IN MY FACE!" the doctor snapped back, he and Ussop snapping at the exact same time. But he reached in, the distance of the tunnel shortening with an alarming snap. Brook snagged his hand while reaching out and allowing the trio to grasp him – Law yanked them out of the chute with Penguin assisting, Ussop being dragged to the elevator while the security guard pulled him.

The spider screamed with fury from close behind them. Sanji could feel the thing's fingers at his Reeboks, looking back in time to see the spider's enraged face as those baby arms reached for him. Sanji screamed with alarm, but Penguin shut the door on those fingers, the noisy bang of impact causing all of them to shout.

The doctor looked at the quartet with alarm as Ussop was handcuffed, doors starting to close.

"Brook! Sanji, Zoro, Tony!" he shouted hastily. "I hear you guys! I can hear you!"

Brook paused as the trio raced for the elevator, Zoro preventing the doors from closing by slapping the arrow indicator. The security guard gave a puzzled look outside as the trio clamored against Ussop, hiding behind him while looking out fitfully for the spider. The walls seemed to ring with its angry screams, a ceaseless pounding echoing throughout the corridors. From the nearby ward, babies began to cry in alarm.

Ussop slapped his hands over his ears, giving a fitful shout of alarm.

Brook grabbed the doctor's arm while Penguin fretted at the door that bounced with the spider's efforts to crawl out. "Come with us. There's obviously a reason behind that thing's existence, and it extends to you."

"I've got a job to do," Law snapped at the skeleton, jerking his arm away. "No one is allowed to take me from it."

"Maybe you should listen to them," Penguin argued fretfully, pushing at him. "This hasn't happened before! That thing is conscious – that thing isn't one of us!"

"Ridiculous! There is nothing to fear!"

"BROOK!" Zoro snarled, slapping the doors open again, much to the security guard's irritation as he jabbed at the button opposite of Zoro's pressing finger. "Let's go!"

"What is going on?" Ussop snapped.

"I don't know!" The security guard snapped back, jabbing repeatedly at the Close Doors indicator. "I don't know! Is this thing out of order?"

Brook grabbed Law's arm and dragged him after him, much to the doctor's dismay. Penguin gathered up all his files and hurried away. The door on the floor kept bouncing violently, the handle jingling noisily. The spider continued to spit curses and scream as the elevator doors finally slid shut. Once they did, the pounding stopped.