Alright, I'm warning you now that this story is a little different from the others I've written so far. There's angst. We'll see how this goes.

Disclaimer: I don't own one piece.

Metamorphosis

"Give us all of yer treasure!" demanded the ugly brute.

"Tch, like hell we would!" yelled Nami, shaking a fist.

"Nami~swan is so sexy when she's standing up to bastards!" Sanji mellorined from behind her.

"Yah fools! Watch who yer disrespectin'! I'm Captain Kiladaro and this is me crew, the Cuttin' Cadavers! Yah better give in ter our demands, or suffer the consumquences."

"It's consequences…" the smarter members of the crew corrected.

"Whatever! Do you surrender?"

"Never!" shouted Nami. The crew chorused in agreement. "Now get 'im guys!" She hollered before turning tail and hiding behind the mast.

"Oi, you can't act all bold and then run away!" yelled Zoro.

"Haaiii Nami~swan!"

"Don't encourage her!"

But the routine fight between the swordsman and the cook was interrupted as a volley of knives came flying in their direction.

Sanji spun and knocked a bunch of the missiles from the air, while metallic clanging rang out as Zoro deflected the rest with his swords. Despite their loathing for each other, the two made an efficient team.

"Attack!" cried Luffy joyously as the enemy started boarding the ship. It was a pointless order; most of the crew were already locked in battle or defending themselves from the flying cutlery.

While everyone was busy fighting Nami still hid behind the mast, but now she had her Climatact out and assembled.

'Alright, I'm going to finish this with one blow.' She thought. 'It's a good thing the crew is distracting everyone, or I wouldn't have had enough time to prepare this move.'

Disconnecting both ends, she began to twirl the rods of her Climatact, releasing hot and cool balls at a furious rate. She tried to ignore the sounds of fighting going on behind her as she concentrated on completing her task. In a short time dark storm clouds had brewed above the two ships, darkening the sky and blocking out the hot ocean sun.

"Wha' the hell is this strange phermomenon!" bellowed Kiladaro as a deep rumble resounded from the thunderheads.

"I believe it's pronounced phenomenon," yelled Nami as she stepped out from behind the mast, pointing her Climatact skywards.

"Shut yer trap, wench!" he cried and hurtled a rusty knife towards her chest. Anticipating that he would do this, Nami was already side-stepping to avoid the oncoming missile. But she wasn't fast enough as it nicked her on the arm, slicing partially through before lodging itself, now bloody, into the mast behind her.

She bit back a curse as the cut stung smartly, but ignored it as she prepared her counterattack.

The air around Nami crackled as she summoned the electricity within her Climatact. With a crack and burst of light she thrust it towards the clouds, charging them with ions and making an array of lightning bolts rain down upon the enemy. Targeting them became even simpler due to the metal knives, swords, and cadavers they were wielding high above their heads, aka perfect conductors for electricity.

Screams of agony rang out among their ranks and countless men fell to the deck, their hair standing on end while they coughed smoke from their mouths. The captain himself resembled a piece of charcoal. Eyes wide in shock, startling white against the blackness, he paid no mind as a small flame burned his beard up like a tiny forest fire.

Nami stood in the middle of the carnage, hmph-ing in satisfaction as she watched those who could still move crawl back onto the other ship.

"Good job, Navigator-san." Robin complimented as she came to stand beside her. "Your control over your Climatact has improved greatly. You only managed to fry one of our own this time." She chuckled.

"But you know we live and we learn, so all is forgiven." Zoro said cheerfully, patting her on the shoulder. Confused at his niceness, she looked around until she spotted Sanji a few feet away, fried to a crisp but still looking at her with heart eyes.

"I'm so sorry Sanji-kun! Are you alright?"

"He's fine," said Chopper waving a hoof. "He's just in shock from when the static electricity made your skirt flare up."

At this Nami's hands flew to her skirt, pulling it down self-consciously.

"Perhaps you should wear pants the next time you use that particular move," suggested Robin with a smile.

"Yeah…"

As Nami spoke it began to rain, the moisture in the thunderheads she had made finally becoming too heavy to stay aloft. The water began washing away the mess of the battle as the boys threw the last of the enemy back onto their ship. Nami found herself shivering in the rain, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

"What do we do with them now?" asked Usopp, who gestured toward the other pirate ship.

"We take their treasure of course!" Nami snorted.

"Wait! You're wounded!" cried Chopper, getting ready to go into hysterics. Looking down Nami saw the gash in her arm, which released a small trickle of blood.

"Oh, I forgot. It's not that bad really; it didn't even go that deep."

Leveling his head Chopper rushed to get some gauze and bandages to patch up her wound. While she was waiting Luffy marched up to her, grabbing her arm and examining the cut with an intense gaze. As she looked at him a weird feeling came over her, as if he weren't really there. She shook her head to clear it, but this made the world spin violently instead. When she stumbled to regain balance she felt a strong pair of arms around her, stopping her fall.

As she began to panic the blood rose to her ears, muffling out the world. She panted for breath as her hands and feet went numb, tingling with an icy cold. She was aware of people calling her name, but all she could do was retreat deeper into herself, deeper into the darkness that promised peaceful refuge from the panic she was feeling now…

and let it swallow her whole.

She was a caterpillar in a cocoon. She had spun threads of silk around her tightly and now she was in metamorphosis, waiting to become a butterfly. But soon the refuge became too constricting and she struggled against her prison, twisting and turning to find room to spread her wings. It was hot, very hot, and she needed more space.

Nami…

That must be mother nature calling her back…

'Nami…'

She could see some light…

"Nami!"

With that her eyes flew open. The light blinded her at first, but then she took stock of her surroundings.

She was in the infirmary on the Sunny, the many blankets on the bed twisted around her. Sweat poured down her forehead, and her long hair stuck to her neck. While she panted for breath she looked up to see Luffy staring at her, looking very concerned.

"Luffy? What happened?" She panted.

"Chopper said the knife that cut you was rusty, and something got into your body and made you sick…" Luffy struggled to explain, no doubt trying to translate the large words that Chopper had no doubt used into simpler terms.

"I see," Nami interrupted, saving him the trouble. "I must have passed out."

"It's my fault." Luffy said abruptly, casting down his eyes.

"What are you talking about? It was that bastard Kiladaro," Nami growled.

"Well he wouldn't of thrown the knife if I had beat him up sooner, or pushed you out of the way, or taken the knife myself-"

"Luffy! Don't you EVER say that again!" Nami yelled, cutting him off. "You know that sharp objects are able to hurt you! You're the captain, we're supposed to take the knives for you."

At this point she felt even hotter, and she assumed all the yelling wasn't helping her fever much.

"I'm the captain. It's my responsibility to protect my crew." Luffy replied, hiding his expression under his straw hat.

"Well don't die doing it! That would just hurt everyone!" She shouted, tears springing to her eyes. He gave her a puzzled look.

"It would hurt everyone?"

"Yes! If you died, it would be very painful for everyone. I… I don't think I would even be able to… to…"

She couldn't continue as the thought of losing him made the tears start to fall. She grasped his hand and cuddled it, not caring how unattractive it must be to blubber all over it.

"But Nami, it would kill me if I let you die too."

She choked on a sob as what he said registered and then she was past tears, past sadness. She just felt very, very tired.

"Well then let's promise that no one will die, so no one will get hurt…" she mumbled as she laid back, closing her eyes. Warm lips lightly brushed her forehead.

"It's a promise."

She sighed as threads of silk surrounded her, wrapping her in sleep.

Don't worry she's not dead, just asleep lol.

This chapter seems a little depressing near the end. I promise next one will be a little more lovey dovey with rainbow sprinkles and glitter extract. I'll go start doing research ;)

Please review and tell me what you think!

l

V