Asteria Nightmare

Part seven of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma

Note: You guys seen the first episode after the timeskip yet? Aw man, it's so cool to see everybody with their new looks, animated!

Note Note: I love you guys. I really do. You're too good to me. :D

Note Note Note: We've got a newcomer!

h t t p : / / tinypic . com / r / qzp0gj / 7

Disclaimer: I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. The only thing that belongs to me here is the concept for the story.

"Not long ago you'd find the answers
Were so crystal clear
Within a day you find yourself
Living in constant fear

Can you look at yourself now?
Can you look at yourself?
You. Can't. Win. This. Fight."
~Welcome To the Family, Avenged Sevenfold

As one the crew members froze, huddled in a tight knot as they faced the creatures from hell that were pacing ever closer from both directions.

Nami's mind worked frantically to try and find some way to escape their precarious situation, but no matter how she looked at it, nothing presented itself. Zoro and Sanji-kun faced outward, forming a makeshift wall of defense with their own bodies between the creatures and rest of the Straw Hats. While it was reassuring to know their strongest fighters were already prepared for battle and had locked themselves firmly between her and the enemy, Nami realized nevertheless that standing in the way was all they could do. Neither swordsman nor cook could afford to move from their guarding stances lest they open the way for the Nightmares to get at the weaker crew members. And while it would make sense for the three of them to get out of the way, so that Zoro and Sanji-kun could be allowed a full range of movement, the very fact that their defenders were locked in place also trapped the crew members they were protecting: Nami, Robin and Usopp were wedged in the doorway, with no way to get safely around their nakama and not risk attracting the monsters.

As if things weren't bad enough, the horrible scraping noise from behind them, within the temple, grew still louder. Nami thought she could now hear a rhythmic thud-scrape of what she assumed were footfalls as well—feet with very long nails or claws by the sounds of it—although it was still hidden in the dust and gloom of the destroyed building.

Then another thud-scrape passed, and Sanji-kun gagged behind her, rasping, "Ugh, smells like rot and—what the hell is that!"

Nami managed to tear her gaze away from the spider-Nightmares long enough to glance around Sanji-kun, and resisted the urge to vomit as the overpowering stench assailed her nostrils...and again as she spotted the Shepherd.

The creature was huge, at least twice the size of a normal human, and so tall that its shoulders and head would graze the small arch of the temple even when bent double. Its torso was almost human, albeit shadow-black in color, but any resemblance to humanity ended there. On its thick neck a jackal-like head perched, with enormous canine ears and six red-gleaming eyes placed impossibly on its narrow skull. Its legs were hunched and twisted, again vaguely dog-like, but only if said dog had been forced to walk crouched on its hind paws. Its feet ended in wicked claws, and like the Harvesters it too had a long, muscular tail that ended in something like a scorpion's stinger. But worst of all were its arms. These were long, strangely disjointed, and oddly thin, but at the elbow they suddenly extended into bony protrusions that formed long, curled scythe blades. Vaguely, Nami could see where the creature might have gained the name 'Shepherd;' the bony scythe-blades had several unusual twirling protrusions that were reminiscent of a shepherd's crook.

The creature gave a short bark and took a step forward with another thud-scrape as its enormous foot-claws dragged over broken stone. The much deeper, more insistent scraping noise came next, as it dragged its scythe-arms—too long for its body—along the ground after itself. Another wave of the horrific stench seemed to emanate from the creature as it moved, so strong Nami actually felt involuntary tears come to her eyes as it hit her. The Shepherd's six red eyes dropped to the small huddle of pirates, and with a low, throaty rumble its progress became more insistent.

"Stay away from them!" Sanji-kun snarled, but while the warning was heartfelt and certainly promised pain, the threat was lessened by the fact that he gagged on the stench of the creature as he spoke. Poor Sanji-kun, Nami thought with a grimace—since he worked with subtle spices and scents in the kitchen all the time, his sense of smell was second only to Chopper's, and right about now this had to be killing him.

But despite his gagging and obvious discomfort, the cook didn't budge an inch. Instead he shifted his body subtly, dropping into a firmer crouch as he readied himself to attack if the creature came too much closer.

The Shepherd came to a stop and seemed to consider the cook for a moment. One enormous canine ear dropped absently, flicked almost in puzzlement, as if it wasn't used to its prey trying to threaten it back. Then, with what Nami was almost sure was an annoyed sigh, the creature narrowed its eyes, lifted its jackal-like head, and uttered three short staccato barks.

Almost immediately, the dull hissing behind Nami turned to more feral, hungry shrieks, and with a sharp clack of mandibles and a furious clicking of far too many spindly legs, the navigator felt more than saw the two spider Nightmares charge.

Usopp gave a shriek of fear as Nami spun around, raising her Clima-Tact in a panic, and even Zoro let out a curse. The swordsman was trying to shift to intercept both Harvester attacks at the same time, as both of the creatures charged towards the crew, but there was no way for him to block two of the enormous beasts.

"Dieciseis Fleur!" Robin called, arms crossed, and while her voice was as calm as ever her eyes were narrowed in determination. Sixteen of her arms sprouted from the ground beneath the smaller of the two Harvesters, and every pair of arms reached out to grab hold of one of it's spindly spider legs or twisted cat-insect appendages. The creature ground to an abrupt halt with a screech as it found itself unable to move further, and while the sharp spines and claws of the creature's limbs dug into more than a few of Robin's disembodied arms, causing her to wince in pain, she held on gamely. The creature screamed in fury and tried to bend to bite the arms and free itself, but lacking a neck and the flexible body of a pure cat, it was unable to reach her.

Zoro grunted a rough acknowledgement as the archaeologist effectively removed his choice from him, and charged forward to meet the second Harvester head on. It hissed at him furiously—Nami noted somehow in the haze of battle that this was the one missing the tail, the one Zoro had already fought—and crashed into the swordsman with a wordless, inhuman war-cry, bringing both sets of mandibles and two raised spider legs to bear to stab at its opponent. Zoro blocked them somehow, barely, slashed out with his swords in retaliation. Once again, the katana in his hands clacked off the creature's armored body ineffectively, while the sword clenched in his teeth severed one of the reaching mandibles from the creature's gaping maw as he deftly dodged the monster's attempt to snatch him up in its jaws.

There was a furious rumbling from behind, and a crashing, thudding noise. Sanji-kun screamed, "Run!" at the top of his lungs, and seconds later Zoro's muffled voice ordered loudly, "Scatter!"

Nami didn't hesitate. Robin's and Zoro's work had opened up a hole in their defensive prison, giving them one opening to run. She, Usopp, and Robin—arms still crossed in concentration—darted out of the confining doorway, and Sanji-kun charged after them seconds later, clutching one hand to his left shoulder, where red liquid was already seeping over his fingers.

For a moment, the navigator thought they'd make it. Even caught unawares, Robin's defense had proved unexpectedly effective, and Zoro had already managed to cut one of the Nightmares once more. The things weren't invincible, for all the stories implied, and they'd be able to escape.

But her hopes were dashed seconds later. Robin gave a sudden sharp gasp of pain and staggered sideways, clutching her right forearm, where a vicious gash had suddenly appeared. Sanji-kun, running behind them, caught her hastily and pushed her back upright, but before he could even inquire into the archaeologist's health there was a furious screaming behind them, and the ground began to rumble as an enormous monster thundered their way.

Afraid of what she would see, Nami looked over her shoulder.

One of the Harvesters, the same one Robin had trapped for a few moments, was charging towards them, still shrieking at the top of its undoubtedly mismatched lungs. Its scorpion tail dripped blood, and Nami realized with a start of disgust and horror that it had probably slashed Robin to force her to release it. It was now charging straight for the archeologist, blind hunger and fury evident in even it's many bulbous eyes.

"Zoro!" Usopp yelled suddenly. "Crap, don't—no!"

Nami glanced at the sniper running beside her—or where he had been running beside her, a moment ago. Usopp had slid to a stop, staring in horror back down the street they were charging up. While it was difficult to see around the elephantine Harvester rocketing towards them, Nami could still see exactly what had him so worried. Zoro had given the order for everyone to run, and might have even tried to do just that himself, but he hadn't gotten far in the attempt. The Shepherd had moved rapidly to cut off the swordsman's escape down the other end of the street, standing boldly in the swordsman's way with both of its bony scythe-arms raised. And the second Harvester, now scuttling a bit awkwardly with one of its four purely spider legs missing, smoking at the joint—another attack from Zoro, no doubt—was nevertheless convening on the cut off swordsman's position with a keening, hungry victory wail.

"Sanji-kun!" Nami shouted frantically. The cook was the closest to their endangered swordsman, and the only one who stood a chance of rescuing him, if it could even be done—

But Sanji-kun was already moving, a furious grimace on his face as he charged at the first Harvester—the one coming for them.

For a brief moment, Nami almost thought that maybe he'd gone crazy. He had to know by now that his attacks against the creature were ineffectual; nothing he'd tried last night had damaged the spider Nightmare, after all. And even if he managed to kill it, it still wouldn't do anything about the two Nightmares that were about to rip their swordsman apart, or worse, poison him the same way they had Luffy—

"Not on my watch," Sanji-kun snarled, closing in on the unearthly beast with terrifying rapidity, and then he leapt into the air. "Mouton Shot!"

As before, the attack had no damaging effect on the Nightmare. However, unlike his first time battling the creatures, Sanji-kun seemed to have some idea of what he was dealing with this time—and, Nami realized with sudden enthusiasm, had placed the attack not to damage, or even to stun, but to move the creature.

The Harvester gave a surprised screech as Sanji-kun's kick rocketed it backwards, down the street. The cook's aim had been perfect; the first spider-creature smashed into the second, sending both crashing to the dirt. Zoro dodged away from the flying abominations and took the opportunity to launch a furious sword-assault at the Shepherd in his way. The dog-like Nightmare, surprised that its two charges had been so quickly repelled, actually fell back several steps.

"He'll never make it out of there," Nami said with a frown. Despite his sword-attacks forcing the Shepherd backwards, Zoro still wasn't managing to wound the creature seriously; and both of the Harvesters, though groaning and chittering dazedly, were already starting to stagger to their many legs. Sanji-kun had provided an excellent momentary delay, but if they didn't act now they were going to lose Zoro anyway.

"Then we must help while we can," Robin said grimly, and though her arm was still bleeding she crossed her hands in front of her chest and called, "Veinte Fleur!"

Twenty arms sprouted this time, targeting the same Harvester that she had held before. This time, in addition to grasping each of the creature's limbs, two extra pairs of arms also clasped its tail, tightening sharply to try and hold the dangerous weapon at bay. The creature shrieked angrily and began bucking all of its limbs wildly, and Robin grit her teeth with the exertion of trying to hold such a mighty creature for so long.

"Yes, Robin-chan!" Sanji-kun called, voice adoring, before narrowing his eyes and charging back down the street. And though Nami was less than enthusiastic about running back towards such terrifying creatures—they looked like spiders, damn it, she hated spiders—she nevertheless raised her Clima-Tact and ran after their cook to get in range, with Usopp following and screaming bloody murder the whole damn way.

The tail-less Nightmare had recovered enough to start charging for their swordsman once again, screeching hungrily as it rocketed towards his currently undefended back, and Zoro, caught in a furious blade battle with the Shepherd—and defending, barely, against both of its scythe-arms, its jaws, and it's slashing tail—would have no chance to protect himself from it. But Nami, unexpectedly inspired by Sanji-kun's battle insight, planned to put a stop to that. She doubted her physical attacks would do any good against the Nightmares, but there were other ways to deal with them, as well.

Moving quickly, she shoved the electric pole of her Clima-Tact into her belt before twisting the other two sections together into a flat, oblong shape. Still charging down the street towards the three Nightmares—crazy, I've got to be crazy to be going towards them like this!—she drew her arm back, took careful aim, and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Cyclone Tempo!"

The folded metal poles flew true, spinning over Sanji-kun's head towards the unrestrained Harvester. Nami had added a slight arc to the throw, and now the poles curved ever so slightly in the air before smashing down with unerring surety into the strange cat-spider's side.

There was a sharp clack of metal on armor as the Nightmare's chitinous covering negated the force of the attack. Although Nami had expected it, she found herself vaguely disappointed all the same. Fortunately, her attack was about more than just physical impact—it was about the weather, and there was a big gust coming that creature's way.

Seconds after the impact, the air beside the creature seemed to explode outward, as the buildup and collision of hot and cold air took effect and a furious whirlwind was formed. The Nightmare screeched in surprise as, for the second time in only a few minutes, it was picked up and thrown back by the sheer force of collision, smashing into one of the smaller stone huts on the other side of the street. Nami couldn't help but grin to herself as the poles of the Clima-Tact, propelled by the cyclone winds they had formed, were kicked backward and returned to her hands. It had been a perfect shot, excellent execution, and thanks to her skilled prediction and careful aim the wind blast hadn't even hit her nakama.

"That was excellent, Nami-san!" Sanji-kun cheered delightedly over his shoulder. He was halfway down the street towards the Nightmares and Zoro, but had paused long enough to congratulate her. How he justified pausing in mid-battle like this all the time to coo over her or Robin was beyond the navigator, but she let it pass for now.

"Look out!" came Robin's sharp warning from behind, and seconds later the tailed Nightmare charged back into the streets, unrestrained. "It broke my grip," the archaeologist added apologetically, and her voice was rasping, as though pained. "They are quite strong."

The larger Nightmare was charging towards them now, lashing its tail furiously as its clawed mismatched legs propelled it forward. Panicked, Nami stumbled back several steps at its speed and tried to raise the heat and cold poles to line up a shot—

But Usopp was faster.

"Atlas Comet!" the sniper yelled, and fired a large something from the Kabuto in his hands. The shot split abruptly into four, trailing smoke, and all four shots crashed into the approaching Nightmare with stunning accuracy. Nami covered her face with one arm as the shots exploded, two on the creature's head at its eyes, and another two at the joints of its spindly spider legs.

Explosions would break even stone or steel, if properly applied. Usopp had to have done something to it, Nami thought grimly, as she lowered her hand, reconnected her Clima-Tact, and raised it at the ready.

But when the smoke cleared a few moments later, it was to everyone in the crew's obvious dismay. The creature had stopped charging forward at them, and looked agitated, clicking its mandibles and legs furiously. But its bulbous, glittering eyes remained perfectly intact, and neither its legs nor body had taken any sustaining damage.

Dammit, Nami thought in frustration. Are these things invulnerable to everything that should normally kill a living being? No, that wasn't right, she decided after a moment. Zoro had been able to cut them before. He still was, too, she noted when she glanced over in the swordsman's direction. Zoro was still engaged in a furious duel with the Shepherd, and while he was bleeding from more than a few cuts, she could see the creature was injured as well, emitting dark, oily blood of its own from half a dozen sword slashes that evaporated into the air like smoke. They weren't completely invulnerable—but with the Nightmares resisting Sanji-kun's bone-crushing kicks, most of Zoro's sword attacks, and now even Usopp's explosions, they might as well have been. What was so special about that one sword of Zoro's that made it able to cut things when nothing else could?

I'll ask him if we live through this, Nami thought grimly.

The Harvester charging at them had stopped, though. Even if it had taken no lasting damage from the explosive attack, something about Usopp's explosions had confused it enough to make it halt in place, and to continue that spine-chilling click-click of its mandibles as it regarded them warily from the cast-off shadow of one of the old stone buildings.

Shadow...

Stunned, Nami suddenly found her mind going a million miles a second as it pulled together all the details she had noticed subconsciously, arranging them in a neat pattern. The creatures were out in the light. By Nami's reckoning, there was maybe a half hour of solid daylight left before the sun really started to set, but the creatures were still attacking them despite that. That meant these creatures were nothing like the shadow-zombies they'd met on Thriller Bark—if they entered the sunlight, they wouldn't disintegrate, or burst into flames, or anything else of that ilk.

But Nami did notice with sudden, startling clarity that even if the sun wouldn't kill them, they still avoided it when they could. The spider-cat Nightmares had been continually scrabbling between the shadows cast by buildings, and had ambushed them from shadows near the temple's doorway as well. And the Shepherd, the navigator now saw with a grimace, had probably intentionally lost ground against Zoro, just so that it could be backed into the cooler shadows cast by the old stone huts.

Maybe it's not that they fear the light, Nami thought with a frown. Maybe it's just that they're stronger in the dark. Nightmares are things that come at night after all...maybe they're just so used to that, that hunting by day is more difficult.

Which explained, suddenly, why the Nightmare charging them had frozen. It was still in its patch of shadow, but the way it twitched and clicked and waited, it was almost as if it was playing its next move defensively—as though it didn't know how they were going to act next.

As if it can't see us.

"Usopp! Robin! Sanji-kun!" Nami shouted to the others. "The gunpowder flash—the ones that hit its eyes, it stunned it, at least for a little bit. I don't think it sees as well in the light as the dark, so blind it with light!"

"Understood," Robin said, summoning another two dozen arms to bind the temporarily blinded Nightmare in place once again. "Longnose-kun, I'll hold it for you. Hurry!"

"Got it!" Usopp said, and though his voice shook slightly, he raised the Kabuto once more, taking aim. "You guys go ahead, get the other one!" he added, gesturing down the street towards the tail-less Nightmare that Nami had hit.

Nami nodded in agreement. "Let's go, Sanji-kun!" she ordered sharply, pointing with her Clima-Tact towards the second monster, which was once again recovering and seemed adamant on feeding. "If we can just keep them stunned long enough for Zoro to finish off that Shepherd and kill them, we might make it out of this alive!"

"Yes, Nami-san!" Sanji-kun agreed immediately, although he looked more determined now, concentrating on his part of the battle as they charged past the restrained Harvester down the street. Both of them—and Robin and Usopp, too, Nami knew—understood the direness of the battle. They might have found a few minor advantages, but most of those were only temporary, and they didn't know how long their momentary gain in the battle would last. Escaping from the fight would be ideal, but the creatures would obviously not let that happen—which meant all they could do was try to hold out and delay the things long enough to let Zoro bring their one working weapon into play.

"Cover your eyes, Robin!" came Usopp's quick yelp from behind. Nami resisted the urge to turn around, and was thankful for it a second later, when a burst of light that sent her shadow reeling forward and flickering wildly. The restrained Harvester behind them gave a surprised shriek, and Nami guessed that Usopp had employed his Flash Dial. Hopefully her theory was right.

And now it was her turn to produce a little light of her own. Explosions and Dials weren't the only sources of such things; the weather had a few ways of shedding light on the world as well.

"Sanji-kun!" she ordered, as she broke the Clima-Tact down and gripped two of the poles carefully. "Keep it distracted for just a few moments!"

The cook's response was not made in words, but in the rapid spinning of his body as he prepared for some of his most deadly moves. The spinning halted just a few moments later, and Sanji-kun's right leg was suddenly burning like overheated embers, ready to ignite with only a breath of air.

He charged down the street towards the creature, and Nami hastily set to work; she couldn't afford to waste time. Bringing the spheres on the two Clima-Tact poles in her hands together, she activated them and watched with determination as a small but dense cloud began to form around the orbs. It roiled with life in mere seconds, the dark wisps of cloud growing more and more opaque as it grew larger and larger and began to crackle with energy.

"Dark Cloud Tempo," she murmured to herself, as the creation grew still larger. It needed a few more moments, and so, while keeping the pole ends together in front of her, and being very careful not to touch the cloud itself with her body, she glanced up to check on her nakama's progress.

A quick glance told her Robin and Usopp were working together quite efficiently as a team, one restraining while the other launched a series of blinding attacks. The spider-cat was creeping back down the street towards Nami, Sanji-kun, and Zoro, trying to both escape its captors and attack the greater collection of prey, but Robin and Usopp were providing enough of an interference to keep its progress halting at least.

Zoro was still caught in a furious battle with the Shepherd, and Nami frowned at the rasping pant that she could hear from the swordsman even at this distance. With a grimace she noted that he was curled over slightly, as though reacting to a bad chest injury, and realized with a quiet mental groan that he was probably suffering from the horrible wounds he'd received at Thriller Bark, barely a week and a half ago. Even so, the swordsman gave the fight everything he had, his sword blades moving in a barely perceived blur as he blocked the dog-like Nightmare's slashing scythe arms and stinger tail. They looked fairly even, and while it was definitely a good thing Zoro wasn't overmatched just yet, it was going to be tricky to get him out of the fight long enough to kill the Harvesters with his sword.

But most pressing for Nami's concerns was Sanji-kun, who was leaping into the air over the tail-less Nightmare and swinging his flame-encased leg down with a roar of "Flambage Shot!"

Fire spurted as the attack hit, and the force behind the blow was so strong the Harvester was actually smashed down to its belly on the old cobblestones, all seven and a half legs splaying out awkwardly as it thudded down. The Nightmare wailed in surprise, and while the flames seemed to roll off its armored back without so much as a tiny ember setting the creature alight, the combined bright flash of fire and the concussive force seemed to stun it once again.

"Damn," the cook scowled, as he landed on the thing's back, and then hastily leapt off it as its legs began to shudder and twitch in a drunken attempt to raise itself to its feet once more. "Doesn't anything work on these stupid shitty spiders?" Another spindly leg twitched, and Sanji-kun shuddered in disgust as he took a step backward, one leg hissing on the cobblestones.

Nami grimaced in agreement—both with the frustration, and the disgust—and checked the Dark Cloud's progress. It was massive now, and sparking angrily, threatening to discharge the electricity stored within at any moment. Any larger, and it would endanger herself and her allies before she could use it to harm the creatures.

Drawing both Clima-Tact ends out of the cloud, she stepped around it carefully and bolted some distance away, reattaching all three poles as she did. "Good job, Sanji-kun!" she yelled to the cook, as she finally slid to a stop at her chosen point, Clima-Tact ready. "Now kick it over here, between me and the cloud!"

Sanji-kun looked gleeful at her praise, and then grinned at her in sudden understanding when he spotted the Dark Cloud. Despite his constant love-sick puppy act, Nami had to admit that he was pretty smart, when it came to it, and he knew exactly what she was up almost immediately. With a sharp call of, "Right away, Nami-san!" he leapt agilely onto the Harvester's back—it was starting to recover now, its movements less dazed, and had many more of its legs underneath it once again—and then jumped again to its other side. Nami couldn't see him behind the creature's bulk, but she did hear the loud "Mouton Shot!" that came next, and glimpsed the burst of flame as the significantly powered up attack sent the wounded spider-cat careening down the street.

Directly between the roiling Dark Cloud and the sparking, electrified end of her Clima-Tact.

Grinning fiercely, Nami timed the thrown creature's trajectory and waited. As it drew closer, she twisted the end of the weather-influenced staff in a swinging arc and said triumphantly, "Too bad for you, but a thunderstorm is no place for spiders and bugs. You'll only get washed away—or worse. Thunder Lance Tempo!"

She closed her eyes out of habit as the powerful force of electricity in the Dark Cloud, suddenly sensing an escape, came rushing towards the electrified end of her Clima-Tact with a furious crack. The lightning she had created was exactly the same as those from the real storms she spent her life observing, and just as in those real storms, it was completely and utterly uncaring of who and what it went through to reach its intended target—and that included horrible, twisted Nightmares that never should have existed in the first place. Nami heard the thing shriek and saw the brilliant flash even through her closed eyelids, and a second later a dull thud reverberated through her sandals as the thing hit the ground.

She opened her eyes.

The tail-less Harvester was on its back, smoking from the thunder blast, with its seven-and-a-half legs curled and twitching above it just like a real spider in its death throes. Nami shuddered at the sight, but felt exhilarated when she realized that her attack had been so effective. Perhaps the degree of light was the key, and lightning was strong enough to permanently blind a person in some cases.

"Good job, Nami-san!" Sanji-kun was cheering over and over, and down the street—though much closer than before, due to their own delaying fight—Robin and Usopp looked hopeful as well. "You did it, you beat it—"

The tail-less Nightmare hissed.

Almost immediately Nami backpedalled, raising her Clima-Tact defensively. Sanji-kun charged back up the street towards her, leaving Zoro and the Shepherd locked in their duel behind him, and Usopp yelped in surprise as the still fully whole Nightmare dragged itself free from Robin's grip once again and staggered down the street towards its fallen kin.

Seven and a half legs flailed wildly, and the fallen Harvester shrieked in fury as it struggled to right itself, already beginning to shake off Nami's Thunder Lance just like all the other temporary stuns they had unleashed on the creatures. Nami watched in shock as the more wounded of the two spider-cats jerked with its legs and finally succeeded in rolling itself over, coming to its feet with a series of furious clackings and wild screams.

Behind them, the Shepherd gave one single, furious, booming bark. As if in response, the two spider Nightmares, now joined once again in the center of the street, raised their heads, and the one still possessing a tail waved it wildly as they began to shriek.

"Look out—" Sanji-kun began, already leaping into the air and swinging his flaming leg at the closest of the two monsters. But then, just like before, the wave of pure terror and agonizing dread hit them, spreading outward in a far stronger, furious blast now that it was powered by two creatures, not one.

Instantly, Nami froze, and all around her the rest of the Straw Hat pirates did the same. Robin's hands, sprouting from the ground in yet another attempt to hold one of the Harvesters, dispersed in a flash of petals as the cold wave of terror interrupted her attacks, and Usopp's arms froze halfway through the process of drawing his Kabuto taut, the pellet dropping limply from his hand. Down the street—only a few yards, but feeling, to Nami's assaulted mind, like miles—the furious clang of swords abruptly ceased; and Sanji-kun's flaming leg abruptly fizzled out as a wide, horrified expression flitted across his face.

Nami knew why he was scared. She was terrified too. She could feel it, all of it, every single horrible, damning, shaming, terrifying thing she had done or witnessed or been trapped in, happening to her all at once. Bellemere died in front of her eyes over and over; Arlong's face leered at her through the cast shadows on the streets; Enel's cool announcement that all of her friends were dead filled her ears. Suffer. Fear. Die!

Distantly, Nami heard a crash through the frigid, mild-altering terror, and her eyes vaguely caught the sight of Sanji-kun smashing to the ground as gravity dragged him back from his attack leap, though her mind couldn't quite place the significance of it. Attack what? What was the point? They were going to die, there was no way to stop it; life was a mass of only suffering, of horrible things, of pain—

Sanji-kun jerked to his feet abruptly, gasping, looking like he'd clawed his way to the surface after nearly drowning. But while his expression was wild and exhausted looking, his eyes seemed...clear? That wasn't right, couldn't he see the inevitable, everyone was dead, everyone was going to die, nothing existed but horrible, terrible things—

"Nami-san!" Sanji-kun yelled at her. "Wake up, wake up now! Robin-chan, Usopp, wake up, run!"

It was like he'd dumped a bucket of ice water over her. Hearing her name spoken so sharply, so urgently, had snapped her out of her daze. The blind fear, the wild panic, seemed to decrease, edging away from her heart, and the terrible visions faded into the mere shadows that they had always been. Looking around, she spotted Usopp and Robin, also with dazed expressions but clear eyes as they dragged themselves out of their own terrible visions.

And she heard the snarling, rasping bark behind them, sounding eerily like a throaty chuckle.

Spinning frantically, Nami watched in horror as the Shepherd, still making its strange laughing noise, reached out with its scythe-arms for their swordsman—and Zoro was still stunned by the creature, eyes wide and arms trembling as he struggled to free himself from the insidious attack's grip. Remembering how Sanji-kun had managed to free her, she shouted the swordsman's name, and heard three others join her frantically.

They were too late. The hook-like protrusions on the Shepherd's enormous scythe arms had already dug into Zoro's jacket—and to judge by the freshly running blood, a fair bit of skin as well. It gripped the swordsman with surprising care between the flats of the bony blades it possessed, just shy of crushing the human it held, and then, with another rasping bark, it flung Zoro into the air and down the street towards them.

Or, perhaps more specifically, towards the waiting Harvesters in their midst.

Zoro gasped as three frantic calls of his name (and one equally frantic 'marimo') finally reached his ears and dragged him from the confines of the fear-stun, but by then it was too late; he was already in the air. He twisted, trying to bring himself around, bring his swords to bear, but despite the Shepherd's lack of hands its throw was surprisingly accurate and equally swift.

The Harvesters surged forward gleefully, raising their heads and clacking their mandibles as they both tried to claim the swordsman for themselves. Robin crossed her arms and urgently summoned dozens of hands to try and hold the creatures in place, and while she succeeded in effectively capturing one—the one with the tail—the other evaded her grip. With a frantic yell, Sanji-kun leapt at the other one, trying to knock it aside before it could catch their nakama—

But it was too late. With a triumphant scream, the Harvester reared up, using several of its legs to push itself still higher, and snatched the thrown swordsman in its jaws, pinning his arms to his sides.

It was terrifyingly familiar, and with a start of horror Nami realized what was going to happen next. And though her predictions were never wrong, the navigator found herself wishing fervently that this one would be.

It wasn't. Zoro glared down at the creature balefully over the hilt of his sword, and twisted his body savagely to the left as he tried to free himself from the creature's jaws and twitching, reaching mandibles. Nami heard a sickly wet sound as skin ripped, and realized with a twist in her stomach that the thing had its teeth sunk into Zoro's arms, and he was cutting his own body trying to rip himself free—but then, this was the man who had also tried to cut off his own limbs before for the sake of entering a fight, so why should this surprise her now? But then Zoro froze, back arching suddenly, painfully far as two sets of mandibles seemed to plunge into his chest. His mouth opened wide, and the white katana dropped uselessly from his jaws, clacking down onto the Harvester's head before thudding to the broken cobblestones, glittering in the sunlight. Every part of the creature's body that the katana touched blackened and smoked, but the Nightmare pressed on insistently, plunging its mandibles still further into their crew-mate.

And then Zoro, too, just like Luffy before him, started screaming.

As with their captain, the sound went on endlessly, until it was a wonder he could keep it up without drawing breath. It was wild, primal, desperate, and though there were no words it still encased such intimately powerful despair and loss that Nami wasn't sure if she wanted to be sick or start shaking or even sobbing as she listened to it. As with Luffy, Nami had never heard Zoro make a sound like that; not ever, not even when he was suffering from the most horrific wounds or when his own death had almost certainly been upon him. Even in those times, Zoro had been determined, gaining strength from his single-minded goals and his resolute promises to protect them all. Now—now, as the scream went on, and finally died away, it was as though all that was drained from him, and he was empty, dead.

Something flashed brightly, though it was dulled in the late-afternoon sun, and Nami, blinking spots out of her eyes, watched in confusion as the Harvester withdrew all three of its remaining mandibles from Zoro's chest, gripping something small and glittering carefully between one pair. It settled the gripping mandibles—holding the object like a finger and thumb, just as before—once again inside its mouth, and at the same time released their swordsman. Zoro dropped like a corpse to the cobblestones, looking unusually pale in the swatch of sunlight that slashed across the street from the late-afternoon sun.

"Look out!" Usopp warned frantically, running towards them and gesturing behind them. Nami heard a fast, rhythmic thud-scrape and looked over her shoulder in time to see the Shepherd charging towards them, doglike fangs bared as it paced ever closer.

"Damn it!" Sanji-kun snarled, and as the tail-less Harvester crouched over Zoro's unmoving form the cook dodged around it, spun, and released all his anger in the form of one displacing kick. The creature screamed as it was catapulted towards the Shepherd, legs flailing.

Drawing its shadowy lips back further in a fiendish grin, the doglike creature dodged the flung Nightmare and scrabbled back on course, its momentum barely slowed.

"Look out—" Robin hissed warningly, as the Nightmare she was restraining struggled all the more violently to free itself. Sanji-kun darted forward immediately to help her stun the creature, probably intending to use it as another shot against the Shepherd—so far, the most effective way to wound them had been to use the creatures against each other. But then Robin's eyes widened, and, still gritting her teeth as she struggled to hold the Harvester at bay, she gasped, "Swordsman-san?"

Nami whipped her head around—and stared. Zoro was, unbelievably, back on his feet. After Luffy's attack, she hadn't expected their swordsman to get up again; Luffy had remained steadily unconscious from the moment that terrifying scream left his lips. But whatever the creature had done to Zoro, apparently it hadn't been as strong as the same attack on their captain. Zoro stood at the ready, swords in hands, eyes narrowed as he watched the Shepherd draw ever closer.

Nami blinked, then frowned. No, that wasn't right at all. It had appeared that way at first, but now that she looked closer, she realized that Zoro didn't look well at all. His skin was oddly pale, just like Luffy's had been after the attack, and his eyes weren't narrowed in fierce determination or preparedness—they were squinted in confusion, as though he wasn't sure what was going on, or what he should do. The swords in his hands were held too loosely—Nami was no swordswoman, but even she could tell that they drooped too limply to be of use—and he made no effort to raise them, though the Shepherd was getting closer by the second. Worst of all, his white sword remained abandoned on the cobblestones, untouched and unnoticed. Zoro treated his swords like living things, like extensions of himself—there was no way he would simply leave one laying about on the ground like that, especially if he was about to be attacked.

Something was very, very wrong, and the origin of it was whatever that Harvester had done to him.

"Zoro!" Nami called now, frantic. "Zoro, attack!" Nothing. The swordsman's lips pulled back in a grimace of confusion, but the swords in his hand did not raise an inch, and he swayed drunkenly on his feet. "Zoro! Attack, run, do something, don't stand there—no!"

The Shepherd reached him, and emitting that harsh, barking laughter once again, it slashed out with one of its scythe arms straight for their swordsman's neck—

—And Usopp, with an all-out scream of terror, hit Zoro from the side and tackled their frozen first mate out of the way.

The scythe sliced past a hair above them, barely missing Zoro's head and sending a razoring gash halfway up one of Usopp's arms. The sniper's panicked scream turned into a yell of pain, and he and Zoro crashed to the broken cobblestones in a clatter of sheathes, the metallic clank of swords as they were jerked from the swordsman's hands, and the twin thuds of heavy bodies. Zoro's head smashed on one of the many scattered pieces of rubble in the streets, and with a grunt of pain his eyes rolled as he passed out. Usopp fared better, but had quickly become entangled in the sword sheathes still at Zoro's hip, and frantically struggled to free himself.

Things were going from bad to worse now, Nami noted, with a twinge of fear that was entirely her own. Robin and Sanji-kun were struggling to keep the Harvester still possessing its tail and limbs stunned and held down, and the creature was becoming more and more violent in its efforts to free itself. The spider-creature that had injured Zoro had righted itself once more and was clawing its way back to them, jaws agape and revealing something glittering within as it screamed and charged for them. And with Zoro down and Usopp tangled, the Shepherd was pacing towards them without a hint of worry or hesitation, raising is scythe arms high.

Nami grit her teeth and snapped her Clima-Tact together once again for the Cyclone Tempo formation. Maybe she couldn't kill the thing, but she'd be damned if she let it have a clear shot at her crew mates! Drawing back her arm to throw, she aimed—

And a high, cold, clear whistle resounded over the island, pitching higher and higher until it abruptly went silent.

As one, the three Nightmares froze in place, and the Shepherd cocked its enormous doglike ears curiously. For her part, Nami was surprised at the sound, and froze as well, arm still drawn back to throw. The sound was curiously familiar, and Nami recognized elements of it from the storm that had initially dragged them all here yesterday.

For a full ten seconds, nobody at all moved. Then the Shepherd broke the stalemate: it gave two sharp barks, and dove towards the Nightmare still possessing its tail, snarling and snapping at Robin's disembodied arms. She caused them to vanish in a swirl of petals instantly, and both Harvesters immediately broke away down the street, running full-tilt towards the red-gold forest, hissing and clacking almost urgently. The Shepherd growled at the humans warningly, then leapt after the two spider creatures, loping along just behind them as though to keep them moving in its sights. Within moments, they were gone.

Shaken, Nami sat down on a piece of rubble, staring down the street at the place where the Nightmares had disappeared. Nearby, Usopp finally managed to disentangle himself from the sheathes, and flopped back on the ground, gasping and staring at their unconscious swordsman with a look of horror on his face. Even Robin looked subdued, and every single one of them showed hints of exhaustion.

"Th-they're gone," Usopp finally said, voice shaking almost as much as the rest of him. "M-maybe we scared them aw-way..."

The rest of them exchanged glances, and even Usopp looked grim, like he didn't believe himself. There had been no victory here for the Straw Hats; those creatures had been called away, and stolen with them the health of another nakama. Almost as one, their gazes dropped to the prone Zoro, still crumpled on the cobblestones where Usopp had tackled him.

"What do we do now?" Sanji-kun said, very slowly. His hands shook slightly as he lit a cigarette for himself, probably in an attempt to calm down, although Nami had a feeling it would take a whole damn pack to recover from what had just happened to them. Blood still dripped over the fingers of his hand from the shoulder wound the Shepherd had given him, and the left arm of his jacket was matted and damp with it as well.

There was silence. Nobody knew, and the situation was very bad. It was getting dark, they were separated from the rest of their crew, on an island far more dangerous than they had first assumed, without knowing exactly where they were or how far they would have to travel through hostile territory to reach some point of safety. And on top of all that, now one of their nakama—and the acting captain, at that—had fallen to the same illness that had taken Luffy. She doubted things could be more dire.

But she forced herself to think logically, and there was only so much they could do, right now, in this situation. "Let's find a place to hole up," she said slowly. "Someplace we can defend, where those things can't get at us, like we originally planned. We can take care of our injuries there, maybe figure out a way to wake Zoro up, if it's doable, and compare notes. For now, we just have to make it through the night."

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all they had. One by one, her three conscious companions nodded in agreement, and Robin sprouted a number of feet to carry the prone Zoro until they could find a place of safety. Not even Sanji-kun argued. They knew that with Zoro down, his powerful kicks were likely their strongest defense against the creatures, and they couldn't afford to have him hindered by carrying anyone. Nami kept her Clima-Tact arranged for the Cyclone Tempo, just to be safe, and Usopp, after collecting Zoro's swords together from the cobbles and shoving them respectfully into their corresponding sheathes, kept an exploding star ready in his Kabuto as they walked.

They set off into the setting sun to find some sort of temporary sanctuary. If they were lucky it would last them long enough to survive the night and maybe, if they were really lucky, they could figure out a plan of action as well. Hopefully, the night would bring more answers than terrors.

Shit, wait, that Zoro guy isn't important either, is he?...He is? Aw, damn, I suck at this fanfiction thing...

For everyone who thought the Shepherd was going to be the snake-arm...well, Franky and Brook did say 'it acts like a general.' :P

I'm going to stop using my usual review phrase here because let's face it, you all know the drill by now, there's no need to repeat myself.

~VelkynKarma