Alright guys! I'm back! Sorry to leave you all on such a big cliffie last time. I was planning to write the next chapter before I left, but, I didn't get to it. I apologise sincerely to you all and hope this chapter more than makes up for it. In response to any queries about Arlong and why I made him fishy, it was because I wanted him human, but close to his anime character at the same time. He is meant to look like a fish. k? XD sorry for any confusion.

Thanks to all who said goodbye to Steve in their reviews. It was a very kind gesture. Thanks to all who have reviewed so far as well! 154 reviews! Woot!

If anyone wants to know, I had a great time on my holiday, learnt to ski and didn't hurt myself at all. Pretty damn funny when I tried to claw my way back up the mountain again though after falling over. -gets stared at- what? I thought it was funny anyway.

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Chapter 22: Arlong's end II

Zoro grit his teeth against the overpowering urge to breathe. He could see Luffy sinking, and his heart was beating somewhere around the vicinity of his mouth. It seemed to be hammering against his teeth. Zoro pushed his hand forward and grabbed onto the soaked material of Luffy's shirt, and was about to turn around, when two arms wrapped around his waist and pulled his stomach back, making him release the breath he had been holding and gasp as he tried to breathe, but couldn't.

His hand unwilling released Luffy and he was pulled backwards and spun around, narrowed, angry almost catlike eyes glaring into his own.

"Nice try." Arlong growled, his voice distorted in the water, and next thing Zoro knew, he was in pain as a fist was smashed into his gut again and again. His eyes searched frantically as he tried to breathe and he saw Sanji trying to block against Hachi and Kuroobi.

Another hit and he felt his body begin to weaken. Luffy was unconscious and drowning, Sanji was busy and he was drowning. Not to mention the bastard slamming his fist into his gut. Now, that was really beginning to fucking hurt!

His lungs were burning, and his hands were twitching in the water. And as dots began to dance in front of his eyes, the most unthinkable thing happened.

"Bastard!" a female voice yelled and then Arlong's head jerked forward after being hit from behind. Zoro was let go and he drifted backwards for a second before taking for the surface.

Luffy! His brain yelled but Sanji was there, grabbing the boy's hand. Kuroobi and Hachi were hot in pursuit of the chef, but Sanji's strong legs were proving the faster.

And he bolted, legs kicking, lungs burning, water clogging his body. This was impossible! How could he still be alive? His gut pounded and his eyes were barely open, but somewhere, he had managed to find some extra strength.

Better not let it go to waste then. And he broke the surface.

"Get out of the water Shit head!" Sanji yelled beside him as Luffy was brought up, and then thrown straight at him. Zoro ducked under the water, his lungs still burning, but it was only for a second as he got his shoulder under Luffy's body and bobbed back to the surface again.

"Where the hell you goin'!" Zoro yelled as Sanji moved to dive under again.

"Nami's down there! Who the hell do you think just saved your damn life?" the chef yelled before he was gone, the water churning for a moment before becoming still again. Zoro was in shock, but as he watched Sanji leave, he saw Kuroobi grab Hachi and direct the whacked out starfish wannabe towards him.

Zoro frowned and swam towards the shore. He deposited Luffy gently on the cold concrete before climbing out himself. Zoro checked Luffy's chest and saw the boy wasn't breathing.

Bending his ear down, he heard the boy's heart barely thumping. He would have to move quick. Flipping Luffy over onto his back, he pressed both hands against Luffy's chest, and pushed down.

----

Sanji saw Nami whack Arlong again with her stick and he frowned. A woman shouldn't have to fight. It had amazed him when he had seen her fly past him in the water as he knocked pig tails through the wall of the pool.

He had been even more so when she had nearly decapitated Arlong with her clima-tact. Now, she was in trouble and he wasn't about to let someone he loved, die. Feet moved up and down as he forced his way through the water like a bullet.

Arlong hit back and knocked Nami backwards. Her bar fell from her hand as her hands came up to wrap around her stomach. Seemed the fishlike bastard was going for everyone's stomachs today. Sanji's blood boiled as he pushed through the water.

No one deserved to be hit like that, especially not a lady, his lady. He twisted in the water and brought his leg around and as he reached Arlong, he slammed it into the cheater's gut. See how he liked it. Sanji paused a moment and made sure Arlong was out of action for a minute before grabbing Nami and swimming towards the surface.

She looked up at him, one eye closed in pain and a hand over her mouth. Somehow, she felt comforted with Sanji there and the pain running through her body subsided a little. Sanji jerked as Arlong grabbed his leg and Nami twisted around and kicked out.

Her own kick was nowhere near as powerful as Sanji's, even if she had of been out of water, but it was enough. The spike heel she was wearing hit her former boss's face and made him yell and reel backwards before his hand came up over his mouth.

He was obviously struggling to breathe now. Sanji smirked down at Nami, who smiled back and the two raced to the surface. Their heads broke to see Zoro holding a coughing Luffy.

"Is he alright?" Sanji called. Zoro looked up from where he was patting Luffy gently on the back. The swordsman nodded. Sanji sighed and looked down at Nami, "Are you alright?"

"Fine." Nami replied and looked away. Sanji blinked. What had he said? Nami looked angry. He was about to say something else, when Arlong surfaced beside them. The chef hurled both himself and Nami onto the ledge and was out of the way as the crime lord gasped for breath.

His eyes were red at the edges and he seemed on the verge of loosing his sanity. The four on the shore looked around at him as he came towards them. Sanji pulled Nami backwards and Zoro tried to do the same with Luffy, but the boy proved the stronger and he stayed in place, slowly getting to his feet. Arlong bared his teeth at them and his eyes narrowed as they came to rest on Luffy.

"Not so tough without your friends to back you up." Luffy said as he stood, water still dripping from his hair as he took off his hat and handed it to Zoro.

"Friends? Employees, nothing more. I have no friends. Besides, they're dead." and he nodded at the water beside him. Luffy looked over and he noticed the two on the bottom of the pool. Obviously dead.

"Why didn't you do anything?" Luffy suddenly yelled, surprising everyone around him. Arlong raised an eyebrow as he got out of the water.

"Should I have?" he asked in an uncaring tone.

"They worked under you! You were responsible for them!" Luffy yelled, getting angrier by the second. He clenched his hands into fists and glared at Arlong with an anger unrivalled by anything the crime lord had ever seen before.

Before he knew what was happening, a fist had collided with his jaw, sending him backwards, and leaving him teetering on the edge of the pool. Luffy looked tempted to kick him into the water, but didn't. He just stepped back and let Arlong regain his balance again.

The crime lord frowned. That was both unexpected and unwanted. He ran a hand over his bruised skin and frowned. Luffy glared at him and Arlong shook his head.

"Now you're just pissing me off on purpose." and he launched forward. Luffy dodged every punch, and Luffy dodged every kick. Roles were reversed as every hit Luffy tried, scored whereas before, nothing Luffy had thrown had hit at all, and Arlong's punches had been lethal.

Luffy slammed his knee up in Arlong's gut and then slammed his elbow into the back of the bastard's head. This sent Arlong, face first into the concrete. Luffy brought his leg up, so it was parallel with his body and brought it down in an axe kick that forced Arlong into the concrete again. The man groaned and held his bleeding nose, which was thoroughly broken by now, while the other hand held his stomach. Luffy shook his head this time.

"You hurt Nami. She's my friend. You messed with the wrong person pal." and he brought his leg up again, ready to slam it down one more lethal time. His leg began to come down and Arlong rolled out of the way, the heel of Luffy's foot slamming into the concrete. The boy winced in pain as he brought his leg back and stood gingerly on the foot. Arlong chuckled thickly through the blood pouring down his face.

"Thought you had me didn't you?" and he got to his feet again, swaying on the spot.

---

"We need to help." Sanji said from where he was standing beside Nami and Zoro on the sidelines. Zoro shook his head.

"No. Luffy's got it covered." he replied.

"He just smashed his heel! He's in pain!" Sanji growled, indicating with his chin towards where Luffy was testing his weight on that foot. Zoro shook his head.

"You'll just get in the way. Look at how they fight. They're too quick for us." he muttered, his eyes trained on Luffy's slim back. "You better be right about this Marimo." Sanji growled before going silent again.

"C'mon Luffy." Nami whispered.

---

Arlong ran forward again. He realized deep inside his mind that he needed more than just his body to defeat this kid. But the weapons he needed were on the other side of the room and he really couldn't leave the fight right now. So, he would just give it his all.

Luffy's eyes flashed before him and he knew instantly that the punch he was sending towards kid had already missed. The boy did indeed dodge it easily, and instead, Arlong found himself looking straight down at Luffy as the kid bent backwards like a bendy tree and brought his leg up and slammed it into Arlong's gut, sending him towards the ceiling.

Arlong found himself panicking as he floated in mid air for a minute and then was hurled by gravity back towards the earth below again. Only, the earth wasn't all that was below. Luffy was there too, and the kid had a present for him.

A punch to the chest. Luffy slammed his fist into those muscles and managed to get enough leverage to twist his hand and then slam Arlong back first against the ground again, leaving the crime lord groaning.

He was fucked, and he knew it. Well, he would have had he been conscious. Luffy sighed and stepped backwards, away from the body of Nami's former boss. That was it. It was over. He looked back towards the three who were watching him.

Nami looked shocked, amazed, frightened, and relieved, all at once. Sanji was out and out amazed. He had never seen anything like that!

Zoro was just watching him, his eyes assessing the situation before a small smile broke out on his face and he lifted his hand towards the boy. Luffy grinned and lifted his own hand, quickly forming a thumbs up before his strength gave out and he fell to his knees and lilted to the side. He was tired.

"Nap time." he muttered before falling onto the concrete completely and falling asleep.

"Shit, is he okay?" Sanji yelled, but Zoro was already on his way towards Luffy's body, quickly followed by Nami. Zoro bent down over his friend's inert body and quickly checked him out.

"Is he alright?" Nami whispered as she dropped down beside them. Zoro paused a moment, silence reigning throughout the room before he sighed.

"Yeah, he's asleep." he replied and sat back on his heels.

"Good. I was afraid for a moment…" and she trailed off. Zoro chuckled.

"I don't think he would do that to us." he replied and then a strange thought entered his head. Luffy wouldn't do that to them. That wasn't the thought though. Zoro was beginning to think that perhaps Luffy meant more to not just him, but everyone else.

Of course, Luffy meant everything to him and he was finally beginning to realize that, but everyone else seemed to be benefiting from Luffy's existence.

Chopper especially. Ever since that morning, when Zoro had seen them walking back to the car together, the little reindeer had been so much happier, and less shy with them than when they had first met. It was a total turn around and Zoro could see no other reason other than Luffy had helped in some way.

"Nami?" he muttered as he watched Luffy's content face. The woman beside him looked up, "This is gonna sound weird, and not like me at all, but, don't you think Luffy has had more of an influence on us than anyone else?" Nami tilted her head slightly and looked towards Arlong's inert form.

"No… and yes." she responded and stood up again before looking over her shoulder at Sanji, who had finally decided to move over to see if everything was okay, "I'd say he's had a big influence on us. Perhaps… someone more than anyone else. But, I've had other influential people in my life who have been more so than him." and Zoro nodded.

"Right." he grunted and sat down on the floor. Nami smiled lightly.

"Gonna stay there are you?" she asked, feeling that their little talking moment was over.

"You bet your ass." Zoro responded sarcastically.

"Hey!" Sanji cried upon hearing this statement, "Don't be so rude to Nami you shithead!"

"Oh go fuck off." Zoro responded. Nami chuckled as the two yelled at each other. Apparently things were going to get back to normal… sort of. She looked towards Luffy's sleeping form and the smile fell a little from her face.

Thanks Luffy. She thought towards him, and she could have sworn that the boy smiled.

"Usopp!" Chopper's voice yelled. Nami looked around just in time to see the marksman flash past the door in a weird army roll. She raised an eyebrow. Sanji and Zoro both looked at her. Nami shook her head and made for the door. She half hoped the moron had hurt himself after doing that.

"What are you doing?" She asked idly as she walked out the small doorway and saw Usopp in a tangle mess, lying haphazardly against the wall. The marksman looked up at her before somehow managing to find his feet and get back onto them again.

"I, the great Usopp! Have defeated my enemy!" he cried. Nami raised an eyebrow and then looked at Chopper. The little reindeer nodded.

"He shot him… in the leg." Chopper replied to her asking glance.

"Indeed, but, had I the opportunity I would have shot him properly!" Usopp cried and struck a pose. Nami's eyebrow was in serious danger of disappearing into her hairline.

"Well, at least you're not hurt." Chopper commented as he came trotting down the stairs. Nami shook her head and looked towards the top of the stairs. Nojiko popped her head out and Nami smiled up at her.

"Are we safe again?" Nojiko asked. Nami grinned and nodded.

"Yep!" and then she chuckled, and then began to laugh and laugh, until she couldn't breathe. Nojiko joined her and soon Genzo came into the picture and he began to laugh as well. They were free! At last. Usopp looked at Chopper, who shrugged and then smiled.

"Maybe they're just happy!" He replied to the silent question.

"Hey, what're you guys laughing about?" Sanji's voice asked. Nami looked around to see Sanji standing in the small doorway, Zoro behind him with Luffy over his shoulder.

"Luffy!" Chopper squeaked and ran over. Zoro shook his head.

"He's okay, just asleep. Might need a checking over when he wakes up though." the swordsman explained. Chopper nodded.

"I was going to anyway." the doctor replied and grinned. Zoro smiled. Chopper, was just too cute. Even for a freaky reindeer.

---

Luffy stood with his hands in his pockets beside the car as he watched some policeman take Arlong away in cuffs. Nojiko had offered them shelter for the night, and the group had accepted gratefully, but Luffy wanted to see Arlong go to jail with his own eyes. Nami was right beside him, while Zoro was in the car. All three were watching intently.

"He's gone…" Nami said beside him. Luffy looked over at her, and she bowed her head slightly forward.

"He was okay, in a way. I mean, he looked after me I guess." she muttered.

"Yeah, but he treated you like shit." Zoro commented from the car.

"Zoro's right, Nami. He had no right to treat you the way he did, or speak of you the way he did. You should be treated…" and Luffy paused a moment to think, "like Sanji treats you!" and he grinned.

Nami blinked and looked around at the boy, who gave her a knowing glance before opening the back door and sliding into the car next to Zoro. Nami paused. Had Luffy just told her… no. And dismissing what she had just heard, she moved into the driver's side of the car and started it up.

Her past, was a distant memory now. She was here with this group of people. Zoro looked out the window uninterestedly, hands stuffed in his pockets. Luffy was grinning out the window at the house.

He was obviously proud of what he had done, and what he had done it for. Nami smiled. She was proud of him too. She drove them back to Nojiko's house where the lights were lit as it was getting close to night again.

Figures moved behind the window's and curtains and Nami got out of the car and hurried away. She was anxious to see her sister and celebrate with her. Zoro was about to get out as well, when Luffy grabbed his arm. He looked around, feeling a little anxious. The alleyway flashed into his mind and he blinked at the boy.

"Zoro, can I talk to you." he asked seriously. Zoro's eyes narrowed a little at the look that suddenly crossed the boy's features.

"Sure." he replied and closed the car door again, "What's up?"

"I've…" and Luffy paused, "I've been having these dreams… and nightmares."

"Hmm."

"And, they're about… my family." and he went quiet for a moment, "Zoro, you remember when I said about my family, and how they were dead?"

"Yeah." Zoro replied, thinking back to that time so long ago when he had first met this kid. Oh, how his opinion of Luffy had changed since then.

"Well, it's about that." and Luffy looked out the window at the moon that was slowly rising, "When I was talking with Chopper, I remembered and now I have decided... I need to talk to someone."

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Ohhh, I am such a bad little girl for cutting it off there. -runs away from all the people looking to kill her- I promise to you all though, that all will be revealed in the next, wonderful installment of Fugitives- Chapter 23: What is asked of me.

Ah, felt like being all formal and teasing and stuff. Hope you enjoy it though when it comes. I think, my ending of Arlong was a little short, but, I really couldn't bring myself to drag it on anymore. It was becoming tedious. -kicks Arlong and then runs away and hides behind a nice, big, safe... thing that Arlong can't get through- I know, I'm weird. Deal with it. XP

Leave a review, and make me proud of this story! -grin-