Holy hell, so many reviews! I feel like a kid on Christmas again! :) Seriously, that's a lot to everyone reading, I cannot express how awesome you all are. Here's another chapter for your reading pleasure. Is it too late to mention that I love putting my favorite characters through a meat grinder?

Sanji ran.

The cries of his companions and the noise of the battle still rang in his ears as he left them behind and sprinted deeper into the village with Nami hot on his heels. The little girl in the navigator's arms had her eyes shut and was frantically trying to cover her ears as well. The spirit's cry split the darkness to pieces. Windows all through the village slammed as they passed and lights were hurriedly extinguished. The night itself seemed to be rejecting their presence as it closed around them, cold, damp and pitch black.

Bitter tears stung his eyes when he sped up, trying to suppress the overwhelming rage and helplessness tearing at his core. Zoro's words on the terrace now burned like a thousand flames as Usopp's silent scream frozen in marble swam in front of his mind's eye again. A sense of crushing defeat rose up in him threatening to drown the last bit of his rationality and was quickly pushed down again as he forced himself to focus. Kara was still with them, clinging desperately to Nami less than three steps behind him. The thought ignited a flame that consumed every doubt in his head. Keeping them safe, getting them away from the fight was all that mattered now. Self-doubt and the searing guilt could wait for later.

Your soft heart will ruin you, love cook.

Damn straight.

In the ever growing darkness, he could feel Nami's fingers brush against his wrist as if searching for support. The unexpected touch almost froze him in his tracks but his legs kept propelling him forward. In a strange compulsion that surprised even himself his own fingers grabbed hers like a lifeline and squeezed them tight. Nami was counting on him to be strong. He would be dead a thousand times before allowing himself to disappoint her.

"Where are we going?" The navigator's voice sounded embarrassed as she caught up to him and slid her hand from his grasp. "I can't see anything in this darkness! What happened back there?"

Sanji felt his heart sink a bit. He instinctively reached for the redhead's hand again but stopped himself halfway through.

"The spirit broke our first line of defense. Kara's not safe in that place anymore." He surveyed the dark streets wishing he had Chopper's night vision. "We have to get her somewhere where he can't find her."

Behind him Nami cursed as she tripped on a stone. Their shoulders bumped for a second before she regained her balance and pulled the little girl closer.

"That's going to be impossible! He lived here, he must know the village like the back of his hand."

"Merry isn't part of the village. You can both hide there. Then I can go back and..."

His words died in his throat as he found himself floundering. Go back and do what exactly? Watch all his kicks fail miserably to do any damage? Stand in the way of his companions like a useless tool? A tiny voice in his head dripping with malicious sarcasm that sounded surprisingly like Zoro mocked him for his insecurity until determination and anger overruled it. Giving up was not an option, it had never been an option. His friends were fighting a losing battle and they needed him. There was no way in hell he was going to let them down, with or without kicks.

He felt his feet treading on round cobblestones and realized they had reached the village square. Some of the streetlamps forgotten by the fleeing villagers still remained unextinguished spilling the light in irregular patches around them. He stopped, trying to make out the way towards their ship's docking place as Nami gently lowered the girl on the ground. The stone eyes of the statues observed them in silent judgment and expectation.

Sanji looked back towards Solomon's house where the lights had gone out. The dark shape of the mansion now almost merged with the night and as the adrenaline rush from the run left his body he noticed that the noise of the battle had died down and an eerie silence had fallen over the village. At the back of his neck, his hair stood on end.

This was not good. This was not good at all.

The cold hit him like an avalanche, sudden and merciless. It came from every direction numbing his limbs and freezing the marrow in his bones. Darkness clouded his eyes for a second as he tried to turn his head searching desperately for the navigator and Kara only to find them backing away from a tall dark shadow in frayed doctor's clothes. The figure took a step towards them and stretched a long sinewy arm in their direction. Sanji ignored his muscles screaming in protest as the tore himself from the spot and leapt between the spirit and his prey.

A strong gust of freezing wind knocked him back a couple of steps.

In its human form, Aron Fellman´s ghost was almost as tall as him. The big lidless eyes had disappeared to be replaced by something that looked mostly human. A gaunt, pale face crisscrossed by scars and lips cracked from the sun grinned madly at him baring long yellow teeth. Its eyes, now a faded blue, seemed to stare right through him. A skeletal hand reached for Kara again and Sanji noticed the torn fingernails and the bare bones peeking from under worn knuckles. As he stepped forward and spread his arms in a futile attempt to protect the girl in the navigator's arms he heard the spirit's voice. Faint whispers fluttered around in his head, dry and coarse like the sound of fallen leaves in autumn.

"Step aside. I need... need her. Need her..."

Sanji felt the cold eat at his brain, freezing his very thoughts. The voice came in waves, rising and falling in the wind and with it, came a sense of pure and utter despair. Memories of emptiness, thirst and hunger resurfaced from some hidden depths in his subconscious as he commanded his feet to move forward and fought for control. Robin's words flashed in his mind like a lightning bolt, grounding him in reality again. If the spirit indeed ran on feelings and thoughts, the last thing he wanted was let it turn his own mind against him.

"Aron Fellman!" He could hardly hear his own voice over the wind howling in his ears. The spirit's hand stopped in mid-air at the sound of its name and Sanji almost let out a sigh of relief as he continued. "I know what happened to you and I understand your anger but this girl..." he looked back at Kara who was staring at the creature with a rictus of pure terror imprinted upon her little face. "Look at her, she's only six years old! She wasn't even alive when it happened! She can't be held responsible for…"

The spirit screamed.

It was a scream that could shatter minds. Sanji felt a stabbing pain in his temples and collapsed to his knees as the world blew to smithereens around him. The ground reeled and swam before his eyes and a second later, a sharp metallic taste filled his mouth. Through a red cloud of agony, he saw the dark specter glide closer, cobblestones vibrating and cracking in his trail. Running on some sort of autopilot, he shot up and kicked blindly but the devastating blow met only with empty air. Pure momentum kept him on his feet as he staggered forward and found himself staring directly into Aron Fellman´s dead eyes.

"Leave…them…alone."

He was sure he had said something along those lines, though the sound didn´t even reach his own ears. The spirit´s stare remained fixed on him, almost as if he was considering his plea. The cracked lips moved. Words weaved themselves into the deafening cry but the sheer force of it seemed to be tearing them apart. Feeling his knees ready to give out, Sanji took a tentative step forward trying to tune out the scream.

Aron Fellman's face twisted into a grimace of triumph. Sanji had time for one last desperate attack before the spirit dissolved in a dark mist and passed through his body carrying with it cold so intense, it seemed to freeze the breath in his lungs. The hellish howl reverberated inside his skull as he clutched his head praying for it to stop.

It did.

For a couple of seconds, the world was a blur as shadows and bright spots danced in front of his eyes. He found himself in the middle of an empty square swaying where he stood and doing his best not to vomit. The few lamps around him had all gone dark except one that flickered dangerously behind a cracked glass pane. As his muscles slowly started to respond again he felt his heart skip several beats at once and spun around to check on Nami and Kara.

His hand brushed against something cold. The last lamp on the square buzzed, released a couple of stray sparks and stabilized again. The weak patch of light fell upon Nami's silhouette. Her statue of marble as dark as the night's sky was a striking contrast to Kara's snow white form that lay frozen in stone curled up against the navigator's chest.

Sanji felt his world dropping away from him. He raised his hands almost in a dreamlike state and clasped them around Nami's hunched shoulders, patting the cold stone as if not entirely believing his own eyes. His ears vaguely registered footsteps somewhere in the vicinity but he couldn't force himself to turn around or even look away. There was a part of him, a tiny logical part that was telling to calm down, pull himself together and think straight. It was telling him that not all was lost, that he should get back to Solomon's mansion and try to figure out what to do next. It was even drawing up a neatly ordered to-do list for later.

His emotional part ignored it all.

"SHIT!"

What was going to be a scream filled with rage turned into a choked sob as he slammed his fist on the cobblestones, his right arm still around Nami's statue. The footsteps sounded closer now and a few seconds later a Zoro-shaped shadow fell in front of him. The swordsman's voice sounded strangely hollow.

"You can say that again."

It was enough to make Sanji snap back to reality. He rose from the cobblestones and looked at Zoro with a sinking feeling.

"What the hell are you doing here? You were supposed to take the fight to the beach! Where are the others?"

Zoro's expression darkened. His eyes slowly went to rest on Nami's statue, then looked back at Sanji. The wordless explanation almost made his head reel.

"No..." His voice dropped to a whisper as he took a step back, colliding against the lamp. "No, they can't be... all of them... What about Luffy?"

Zoro shook his head. Sanji got the strange feeling that the swordsman was doing his best to control himself.

"That thing was smart, it went for the devil fruit users first. It got Robin before we managed to get to Luffy and Chopper. We nearly tore the house down trying to contain it but eventually it turned them too. I thought I was going to be next until that thing suddenly lost interest and fled. Maybe it finally realized Kara was not there anymore."

He looked at the little girl in Nami's arms again.

"I guess it's gone now. It got what it came for."

The creepy monotone was starting to get on Sanji's nerves. He stepped towards Zoro as the familiar rush of anger washed over him, reviving every muscle in his body.

"How can you be so calm!? That thing is still out there! We have to find it while we still have time and return them back to normal!"

His next words quickly turned into a strangled croak as the swordsman's fingers clasped around his throat and slammed him into the lamp post again.

"I warned you, didn't I? I told you that if anything happened to any of them I would make you regret the day you were born."

The threat came out with a slight tremor but the hand holding him in place was steady. Sanji remained motionless as he stared into Zoro's cold grey eyes, almost too stunned to think until the fighting instinct overtook his brain and he kicked the swordsman back. The green-haired man's lips split into a slasher smile.

"I bet that bamboo blade is looking really good now, huh?"

Sanji felt a pang of guilt as fragments of their conversation flashed in his mind. Zoro was still standing in front of him, fury painted on every line of his face, waiting for his next attack. For a second, he considered giving him what he wanted but a closer look at his opponent made him reconsider. Despite every effort the swordsman made to train his body and mind into an impassive, emotionless, machine that nothing could ever touch, Sanji could still read him like an open book. What he was reading now was impotence and frustration turned to hatred and directed at the only person on the island able to take it.

He recognized the feeling quite well. Unfortunately, right now Zoro's anger paled in comparison to the anger he was feeling towards himself. A thousand different scenarios flashed through his mind, where he had made better, smarter decisions that saved Usopp and Nami and each and every one of them chipped away at his sanity. His mind, shocked and exhausted, begged him to give in to Zoro´s provocation so it could stop thinking only to fall silent when an unexpected calmness overcame him, washing away the last remains of self-pity. He took a deep breath and let his mind click into place. One of them had to keep a cool head if they wanted to help their friends.

He hoped he could still be that person.

"Has your brain turned to moss completely?" He stepped forward ready to deflect a blow and was almost surprised when it didn't come. "When exactly did I bail on you? Keep focused, you idiot, think for a second! What good will it do to start a fight now? How will it bring Luffy and the rest back?"

He wasn't sure who he was trying to convince, Zoro or himself. A sword slashed the air two centimeters away from his face. Sanji swerved to the right as a few stray hairs separated from his bangs and were swept up by the wind.

"You are telling me to keep focused, shitty cook? You are the one who can't let go of your dumb little personal crusade! It's because of your touchy-feely bullshit that we're utterly screwed!"

Zoro leapt towards him, his last words turning into a roar. Kitetsu sprang from her sheath and passed dangerously close to his ear. He dodged, trying to keep his balance.

"Goddamnit, moss-head, will you listen to me?! I'm not going to fight you! We're going to go back to the house, find Solomon and figure out how to fix this mess."

The swordsman's face contorted at his words as he lunged towards him again.

"Fix what, shithead? It's gone, remember? It turned Kara, just like it wanted and now it's gone back to God fucking knows where for another year! Hell, we don't even know if this is reversible!" His eyes fell on Nami's still form as he raised his swords and threw three quick slashes at him. The last one took off a button from his shirt. "Robin told you to take care of them! She should have known better."

Sanji's retort never made it to his lips as his stoicism cracked around the edges. He side stepped, let Zoro get within his reach, dropped to a handstand and slammed both his legs against the swordsman's chest sending him flying towards the end of the square. Blind fury drove his every move as he ran towards Zoro's fallen form and hooked his foot under his chin to prevent him from getting up.

"Fuck you! Where were you when that thing turned Usopp, huh?" His foot pressed against Zoro´s throat forcing out a repressed growl from the swordsman. "How about Luffy and Chopper? Did you let them down too? Why did it spare you, tell me?!"

Zoro coughed, his dark menacing eyes still locked on his face.

"It spared me because I got lucky. It spared you because you're weak."

"What did you say!?" Sanji´s foot slipped from under Zoro's chin as he stepped back into a fighting stance allowing the swordsman to regain his mobility. "Get up and say that to my face, asshole!"

"I just did." Zoro stood up and clipped the swords to his belt as if deciding not to bother with the fight anymore. As he looked back at Sanji, there was a hint of contempt in his voice. "It was always like that, wasn't it? Ever since we picked you up at the Baratie. You're soft, you're easily influenced and you're incapable of separating your personal feelings from what's in front of you. That's why this ghost can manipulate you. That's why you couldn't protect Nami."

A stab of one of his katana would have probably achieved the same reaction. Sanji slowly backed away and lowered his head in defeat. Every angry comeback he had prepared now seemed childish and hollow as he shut his eyes to prevent real tears from spilling out. If Zoro had screamed at him, he would have probably screamed back and accompanied his words with a well-placed kick but the calm level voice took away his last resolve.

The swordsman was one hundred percent right.

He kicked a random rock at his feet so hard it tore the air like a bullet and smashed into pieces against a wall fighting to keep calm and organize his thoughts. This was not the time to feel sorry for himself. Luffy and the others would have done everything to help him. He owed them the same.

In the deafening silence that fell between them he found himself asking the only question possible.

"So what now?"

Zoro let out a short laugh that sounded almost like a curse.

"I don't know, shitty cook. You tell me."

That'll be all, fearless readers! Don't forget to review if you like it. If you don´t, drop me a line anyway. Constructive criticism keeps bad fanfiction away. Or at least puts a leash on it.