Asteria Nightmare
Part eight of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma
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.
"Before you start to drift, and your soul begins to scream,
I just wanted to tell you that you're listening to a dream."
~The Dream, Shinedown
Around six-thirty, just as the sun was beginning to set, Franky, Chopper and Brook ducked into the abandoned temple of the nameless village that the rest of their crew had discovered hours earlier. All three were panting from the exertion of a long run, but despite their obvious fatigue, none of them paused to rest for long. Franky took up a careful post in the doorway, much like Zoro had done hours earlier, while Brook stood back and allowed Chopper free reign of the building.
"Smell anything, Reindeer-Gorilla?" Franky asked.
Chopper trotted around the interior of the building in Walk Point, nose to the ground like a bloodhound, before lifting his head and nodding. "They were here," the reindeer confirmed. "Probably this afternoon, since the scent is starting to fade a little, but it's still strong enough for me to track. I think they even had lunch here, I can smell food. And Sanji's cigarettes." His nose twitched a little in disgust at the last scent.
"Then we're on the right track after all," Brook noted with enthusiasm. "Yohohoho! That is news to lighten a man's heart, although I have none to lighten!"
Franky nodded in agreement, reassured that his hasty call had been a good one. After their wild encounter with the horde of spider-nightmares, and their creepy snake-arm generals, he and his crew mates had worked quickly to prepare for more encounters and hopefully rescue their nakama. The cyborg spent an hour carefully combing the ship for anything that he and his crew mates could use as a weapon, along with the help of both Chopper and Brook. It had to be something that was part of the Thousand Sunny, but still viable as a weapon, so careful choice had been necessary. The planks he and Chopper had used were naturally set aside for further use—they were good and stout, long enough to have a decent reach while still packing a super punch. Joining them was a large bag of nails, some older and bent from past repairs, while others were painstakingly (and tearfully) extracted from some of the boards in the ship's less visited rooms (he could replace them later, when the danger was past). An old sailcloth came next: it had been torn in a fight the week previous with some marines that had been a little too cannon-happy, and Franky had been forced to replace the old sail with a new one. It was a good thing now, and Franky had carefully cut it into strips for more convenient use before adding it to the pile. A few coils of line had finished the ensemble, and the makeshift weapons, combined with some food from Curly-Cook's stores (thank whatever gods were out there Franky knew the override commands for the locks) were all neatly packed away in a large canvas sack.
Chopper carried the supplies, fastened to his back in Walk Point. Franky could have done it as well—he was certainly strong enough for it—but Franky had already taken on another burden: their captain.
Luffy was still sickly and pale, his skin gray and dead looking, and while his eyes remained open they looked lifeless, staring blankly at nothing. He'd been unresponsive and uncooperative when they tried to move him, so Franky had fashioned a hammock-like sling that strapped across his back out of the largest piece of old sailcloth to carry him in. Thankfully, even in his unnerving, corpselike state, the captain was still enormously flexible, allowing his body to bend enough that they could fit him into the sling in what would otherwise have likely been an uncomfortable position.
Strangely enough, when they had first tried to fit him into it, Luffy had actually whimpered and shied away from the sailcloth hammock, almost as though it pained him. It had set him into a terrifying, hypnotic ranting— "No, no, can't find it, stolen, stolen, stolen—" that had caused Chopper to cover his ears in distress and Franky and Brook to start shivering finely, despite the fact that the sun beating down on the deck made it quite warm. Luffy kept up the ranting whisper until they pulled him out of the confines of the sailcloth, whereupon he fell silent as the grave once more. It had puzzled them deeply, but they found that if they wrapped their captain up tightly in a thin blanket and then placed him in the hammock, he uttered not a sound. Solution found, Franky had strapped the makeshift contraption over his shoulders. Once in place, their captain was so snugly bound into the sling that it cocooned around him, hiding him almost entirely from view, just as the cyborg had designed. If any of the creatures tried to attack him from behind or steal their captain away from them again, they'd find the Sunny would have something to say about it.
They made preparation after preparation until at last, a little under an hour after the initial swarm attack, the three crew members were ready to go. Chopper carried their weapons, both for themselves and their exploring crew mates, in the canvas sack on his back, and Franky had tied a few strips of sailcloth around his horns just in case. Brook had a bit of line tied around the sheath of his cane-sword, and was more impressively armed with his violin and bow, with the instrument case strapped across his back. And Franky, in addition to carrying their captain, also held the largest length of the Sunny's broken planking in his two massive hands, ready to use at a moment's notice.
They set off as quickly as they could after that. Franky had no worries for the Thousand Sunny, which clearly was able to defend itself against these terrible creatures. But just in case he'd moved the ship back a little ways from the docks, and they took the Mini Merry to the shore instead. From there, Chopper took the lead, and the three of them quickly followed the reindeer's nose as he tracked their nakama through the old fishing village and the two roads at its edge. Chopper had sensed their nakama's scent strongly from the northwestern path, and the three of them tore down it at full speed, hoping to catch up to their nakama as soon as possible. The road never deviated or shifted, and Chopper repeatedly reported the scent trailing ever onward ahead of them as they ran.
Until at last, just as the sun started to set, they came upon the village that their friends had discovered earlier that day, and Chopper led them unerringly to the temple that they were in at that very moment.
"Where'd they go after this?" Franky asked next, looking around the temple again as he absently shifted the sling that held their captain more comfortably onto his shoulders. He could hear Luffy whispering his nonsensical accusations of something being stolen once again as he was stirred, but the whispers died down into nothing after a few moments. Franky was glad regardless. Luffy's ranting happened with depressing regularity now, but it was still impossible to grow used to it.
Chopper nosed around in the temple for a few moments more, then slowly trotted back towards the entrance. "This way," he said shortly, and broke into a canter as he raced down another empty village street. Franky and Brook sped up to keep pace, and another five minutes later found them at the edge of the village, staring down a long, darkened road.
"They must have gone on to another village," Brook observed. "Shall we follow?"
Franky considered, and then grimly shook his head. "No." And at the stunned looks of his companions, he added, "It's too risky. Even if we know the Sunny will help us fight these things, they still have the advantage at night. If they attack us in the dark there's no way we'll be able to defend ourselves, especially if they swarm like they did at the docks. Not to mention we'd be useless to the others—we can't deliver these weapons if we're knocked out or...whatever it is the Nightmares do. It'd definitely be un-super to let ourselves get ambushed like that, and besides, we've gotta protect Luffy."
"That's right," Chopper agreed solemnly. "All this travel has probably been rough on him." He looked fearful, and reverted to Brain Point without even appearing to notice.
"But what about the others?" Brook asked, and although it was hard to tell exactly, Franky was pretty sure he was concerned—he sounded it, anyway.
"Pfft, they'll be fine," Franky said, with more confidence than he actually felt. "They've got Sword-bro and Curly-cook with'em, and the others are smart enough to keep'em in check if things get dangerous. We'll find them tomorrow and share everything we found out with them. For now, let's find a place to hide out and get a little rest, and we'll leave first thing in the morning."
"Yeah!" the other two agreed, and, feeling a little more heartened that they were on the right track, at least, the trio turned to find shelter and attend to their still-murmuring captain.
The second night they spent on Asteria Island was, in Nami's opinion, possibly one of the worst nights of her life since she'd officially joined Luffy's crew.
With only half an hour until sunset, when the danger would definitely become tenfold what it already was, the four pirates were forced to scrabble desperately for some sort of shelter that would hopefully let them last through the night. Already a difficult prospect, it was made even more problematic by the need to transport—and if it came to it, protect—their unconscious swordsman, whom they hadn't been able to wake.
In the end, it was Robin who came through for them and their urgent need for shelter. Spreading her vision across the town of Remia with her Hana-Hana powers, the archaeologist eventually discovered a depression hidden deep within one of the less destroyed buildings, which she guessed had probably once been a rich home or a storehouse of some sort. They headed to it as quickly as possible, and after a little investigation discovered that the depression was probably formerly some sort of wine- or root-cellar, with a short flight of still fairly sturdy stone stairs leading down into its depths. The cellar was big enough for all of them, with some space left over, and according to Robin was likely sturdy enough to withstand physical attacks from the Nightmares, if the stone roof had already held for so long.
They moved quickly to prepare the space for their own safety. It was dark down in the cellar, but Usopp unpacked a pair of collapsible lanterns he and Franky had devised, and once lit (courtesy of Sanji-kun's lighter), they cast a warm, friendly glow throughout the interior. The place was thankfully uninhabited, and other than a few broken bits of what had probably once been tools or storage containers, it was completely empty as well. It was probably the best accommodations they could hope for, considering their dire straits.
While Nami carried their packs down, and Usopp and Sanji-kun worked together to lift their still unconscious (and extremely pale) swordsman down the stairs, Robin set to a different project. Borrowing an article of loose clothing from everyone in the group—even untying Zoro's black bandanna from his motionless figure with a pair of disembodied hands—she quickly assembled the collection and headed back up to the near-dark streets of Remia. Ten minutes later, as the rest of the pirates began to settle into their grim lodgings for the night, she returned.
"What was that all about, Robin?" Usopp asked curiously, as she handed his cap and Sanji-kun's and Nami's jackets back, and quietly re-tied Zoro's bandanna.
"I was spreading our scent throughout the entire town," the archaeologist responded, waving a pair of disembodied arms absently to show just how she had managed to pass the items around so quickly. "We do not know how these creatures hunt or track, but it is probably for the best that we eliminate as many possibilities as we can. Our scents are now in every single building and up and down every single street. It will be impossible for them to track us here directly. Hopefully," she finished, her expression utterly calm, a strange contrast to her unsettling words, "they do not track by other means we cannot even begin to fathom."
"Brilliant, Robin-chan," Sanji-kun cooed, though softer than usual. In the enclosed space of the cellar, their voices sounded impossibly loud, and out of fear of attracting the creatures back everyone had almost automatically started lowering their voices when they spoke.
"Thank you, Cook-san," she accepted quietly. "I've blocked the entrance as well with some rubble, so our lantern light will be more difficult to see while not cutting off our air supply. Now that we have relatively safe lodgings for the night, perhaps it is best to tend to other matters regarding our survival."
Nami nodded. "Right, I was just thinking that," she agreed, and went back to digging through her backpack, just as she had been before Robin returned. Moments later, she finally found what she was looking for and and withdrew the small roll of bandages and a bottle of antiseptic, both generously provided by Chopper for the expedition. "Let's start by looking after everybody's injuries. Sanji-kun, could you please guard the door while I help everyone...just in case?" The cook leapt immediately to do as bid, and Nami turned to examine her fellow pirates.
As luck would have it, Nami had avoided taking any injury. Other than exhaustion, she had thankfully escaped from the encounter with the Nightmares unscathed. Robin had several nasty cuts on her arms from where she had scuffled with the Harvesters while trying to hold them in place, however, and while most of them had stopped bleeding it would still be important to treat and bind them as soon as possible. Sanji-kun had escaped the fight relatively unscathed as well, and his one shoulder wound, given to him by the Shepherd at the start of the fight, looked worse than it was and only required minimal bandaging. Usopp still had a long gash down one arm, where the Shepherd had cut him when he tackled Zoro out of the way. That was still bleeding, although Usopp was valiantly attempting to downplay it by telling stories about his grandeur and how this particular wound was nothing compared to that time when he was six and fought five-thousand enemy marines with his bare hands. Nami rolled her eyes at the story and helped him treat it, since the wound was at such an awkward angle, and shook her head in exasperation when the so-called grand sniper whimpered at the sting of the antiseptic as she dabbed it on.
Zoro was in the worst shape, though in terms of straight injury that wasn't exactly surprising. He'd taken half a dozen sharp cuts from his sword-and-scythe battle with the Shepherd, although these were laughable compared to some of the real injuries Zoro had gotten in past fights. One deep gash along his left arm was a little more worrisome, the results of the Harvester's fangs digging in and tearing violently, and Nami winced as she remembered the wet ripping sound when Zoro had fought to free himself. That wound probably should have had stitches, but they weren't exactly equipped for that on their exploratory trip, so Nami just had to bind it tightly and hope for the best. He had a rather large bump on the side of his head from where he'd cracked it into the stone when Usopp tackled him, but it wasn't bleeding and she didn't think it would cause any lasting problems.
Most puzzling, however, was his chest. Nami could have sworn she saw the Harvester bury all three of its remaining long, sharp mandibles straight into and through Zoro's ribcage, and when she asked around Sanji-kun and Usopp grimly reported seeing it as well. But his torso showed no signs of being violently torn open or burrowed within. Instead, only three minor puncture marks adorned his chest—things Zoro probably wouldn't have even noticed had happened to him, let alone counted them as wounds. They were identical to the four wounds Luffy had taken, and Nami was sure now that they were more significant than the Straw Hats had first thought.
But while it tugged at her mind, and while her subconscious screeched frantically that those minor injuries were perhaps the most important of all, she couldn't put her finger on it. So she pushed it to the back of her mind, and decided that a little rest might help her figure it out, instead. She bandaged the puncture wounds to be safe, and tried once again to wake Zoro up, but he didn't respond to her touch and remained freakishly quiet.
There was nothing else any of them could do for Zoro, so Nami packed away the bandages and antiseptic, and they settled down for the night. Despite the fact that there was enough room for everybody to spread out and have a little space to themselves, Nami quickly found all of them—even Robin—huddling around the two lanterns near each other like they might have snuggled closer to a campfire after a scary ghost story. Even Sanji-kun, still on watch and with his back to the lanterns as he kept an eye on the blocked stairs, seemed to take some comfort in the close presence of his nakama. The only exception was Zoro. They had laid him out against the far wall, outside the ring of warm light the lanterns cast, because in the shadowy gloom it was almost impossible to tell that the gray pallor his skin was rapidly taking on wasn't simply a trick of the light. Almost, then, it was possible to pretend that their nakama wasn't badly sick somehow, and that he was just taking another one of his obnoxious, poorly timed naps. Only the fact that he was dead silent, not even snoring, ruined the deception.
Nami did not think, in her entire life, that she ever would have actually wished she could hear their stupid swordsman snoring.
They sat up for a while, mostly silent, simply taking what small comforts they could in the presence of their nakama. Usopp tried vainly to cheer them by telling a few bright, colorful, fairy-tale stories with perfect endings and perfect justice, but none of the others really responded, and the sniper's heart didn't seem in it. After a while he gave up and fell silent as well, arms wrapped around the knees crushed to his chest as he stared tiredly at the lanterns before him.
They tried to trade off sleeping as well, taking a few hours at a time while the others stayed awake, but these attempts always failed miserably. Nami tried to get a little rest for a while, curled up with her back to the lanterns, completely aware that she was exhausted and that she desperately needed a chance to rest so she could figure out that little niggling hint at the back of her brain. But it was useless. After laying there for an hour, her mind was still whirling, and every time she closed her eyes she could see the Harvesters charging towards her out of the blackness, or hear the Shepherd's barking chuckle. Or worse, the images the things had forced into her mind, when they used that wave of terror. She couldn't stand to see Bellemere dying again and again in front of her, and in the end she'd tiredly rolled towards the lanterns once more and offered her resting hours to somebody else.
No one else took them. They, too, always found themselves assaulted by nightmares and memories. In the end, they all agreed to stay up together, keeping an eye out for the horrible living Nightmares and trying to think to themselves how they could possibly get out of this situation alive—and intact.
Only a few hours after true dark had set, the first of the nightmares that they couldn't awaken from began to happen. Up above, sounding frighteningly more and more close, they started to hear movement. Slow scuffling noises, ominous clicking of dozens of arachnid legs, and long hissing screams were prevalent, and they heard the occasional muffled thud-scrape of heavy clawed treads as well. There had to be dozens of them up there. No, not dozens; hundreds. The noises came frighteningly close on a number of occasions, and during those times Nami felt as powerless as a child, just waiting for something horrible to come find them and tear them to pieces while they were completely and utterly powerless to stop it. She remembered, vaguely, when she'd been afraid of monsters in her closet and under her bed; Bellemere had reassured her then with an amused laugh, saying she was being scared of things that didn't actually exist, and wasn't that silly? But Bellemere was wrong, at least here on Asteria: the monsters were real, and if they weren't as still and as quiet as possible, those monsters would find them, and do terrible, terrible things to them.
It was at those times, when the noises came closest, that Nami clamped her own hands over her mouth, squeezed her eyes shut, bit her thumb in her teeth—anything, anything at all, to keep from screaming. The lingering, welling panic in her chest as those things hunted above threatened to get out, wanted desperately to escape, but if she let it happen she'd be killing them all. So she suppressed it, any way she could, with the frantic, terrified mantra of don't find us, don't find us, oh God don't find us revolving through her mind over and over. She saw Usopp just as desperately doing the same, clamping hands over his mouth as he shook so violently it was a wonder he didn't simply fall apart.
During those times, Nami found herself almost involuntarily huddling closer to the others, seeking out friendly, safe human contact as she had all those years ago when she cried for Bellemere to come chase the monsters away. Usopp was of little comfort, with both of them shivering so badly. But Robin's presence was warm, almost motherly, and while she didn't smile or laughingly reassure them, the fact that she kept her own expressions calm, even though she had to be just as afraid as them, did wonders for Nami's sanity. And Sanji-kun never objected when she squeezed a little closer after a particularly terrifying shriek or scraping scuffle from above; indeed, he often grinned reassuringly at her, delighted that she was actually clinging to him at all probably, although Nami could tell the reaction was a bit forced. Sanji-kun was afraid as well—she could tell every time he tensed when the noises came closer, when his teeth ground and his body shifted as though he was preparing to attack, to defend—but he was at least trying to pretend he was unaffected for the rest of them.
But thankfully, Robin's plan had seemed to work. Although the creatures came painfully close several times, and during one especially terrifying span of five minutes had even explored the entire building above, they appeared unable to locate the Straw Hats. Nami could hear them ranging all over Remia, but it seemed the abominations would not discover their little cellar hide-away unless the pirates themselves announced their presence.
Which, around midnight, nearly happened.
Until then, the terrifying experience of hiding had only really been felt by Nami, Sanji-kun, Usopp, and Robin. Zoro lay mostly forgotten against the far wall, outside the warm ring of light, and once the group had become accustomed to his eerily silent rest, it had been all too easy to put him out of their minds. There was nothing they could do for him, after all, other than keep the monsters away from him if they did attack. But as the Nightmares searching above began to close in again, creeping closer and closer to the building that held their pathetic little hiding spot, the swordsman heaved a sudden sigh and rasped—in a voice that sounded terrifyingly, impossibly loud to their fear-strained ears—"Dammit...lost...can't...find...it..."
Usopp started to yelp, and the noise was only stifled due to one of Robin's disembodied limbs, which suddenly sprouted from his chest and slapped its palm over his mouth. Nami had jumped as well, rocking backwards into Sanji-kun's back, and the cook was looking over his shoulder in wide-eyed surprise back at their prone first mate.
"Is he awake?" Nami asked softly, tentatively.
Robin was regarding the swordsman curiously now as well, brows creased in concern. She dispelled the hand clasped to Usopp's mouth quickly and grew a second near one of the lanterns, which picked the object up and shifted it so that the glow cast further back towards the wall.
Nami's eyes widened, Usopp clapped his own hands to his mouth this time, and Sanji-kun barely suppressed a loud curse.
Zoro wasn't awake. His eyes were still fastened shut, and his skin was still as ashen as it had been hours ago. But he had spoken, they hadn't imagined that. And what was more, he was still speaking, with a low, rasping, pained hiss, like he hadn't drunk anything in days, like it hurt to speak. "Can't find it...d-dammit...it's gone...the...bastards...gone, lost...stolen. The bastards...stole it...damn it...stole it...stole it...stole it...stole it..."
He locked onto the phrase like a lifeline, repeating it over and over, and with every repetition his voice grew stronger, and more worrisomely, louder. It was creepy and frightening enough already, sounding eerily un-Zoro, so empty and dead and pained, but if it continued it was also going to attract the Nightmares upstairs.
"Marimo," Sanji-kun hissed, a low rasp as he glared across the cellar at their unconscious swordsman. "Shut the hell up, right now!" And although there was anger in his tone, his voice quavered slightly, as if he were afraid. A sharp glance at stairs and the rubble-covered doorway above was all Nami needed to see to know just what he was scared of.
But Zoro didn't listen, just continued to rant over and over— "stole it, stole it, stole it—" and Nami seriously wondered if Zoro had even heard Sanji-kun, was even capable of hearing him.
"Zoro, please," Usopp begged, and Nami could hear him fighting the hysterical rise in his voice. "Please just be quiet or you're going to kill us—"
But Zoro was apparently just as incapable of hearing pleas as he was orders, and continued his nonsensical, spine-chilling rant all the more.
Another of Robin's disembodied hands sprouted on the ground near Zoro's neck, and bent to cover the swordsman's mouth just as one had Usopp's moments before. Zoro's ranting became more muffled, but did not stop, and Robin said quietly, but with a definite sharpness to her tone, "Zoro-san, if you continue in this manner, your nakama may die. Please quiet yourself."
The eerie recitation cut off abruptly. Nami wasn't sure if it was Robin using Zoro's name, and not his title, that did it, or if it was the explanation, or if it was simply because Zoro had stopped all on his own by coincidence. Whatever the case, he became silent once more, and a few minutes later the scraping and clicking above faded as the Nightmares moved on.
Sanji-kun ripped a cigarette out of its pack and lit up furiously, hands shaking.
By four in the morning, the pack was empty. Sanji-kun had been smoking like a fiend, and Nami couldn't really blame him; that had not been the last of the eerie incidents. Every time one of the creatures came too close, Zoro's nonsensical ranting would begin again, until Robin could muffle him into silence or the Nightmares moved away. Sometimes Robin could convince Zoro to quiet down again, if they were lucky. Other times, they held their breath and hoped desperately that the things above couldn't hear the rasping, moaning accusations that something—they still did not know what—had been stolen. Combined with the constantly searching, clicking, dragging, screaming creatures above, the last half of the night had been positively nerve-rattling, keeping every single one of them on edge.
Then, at about four-thirty in the morning by Sanji-kun's watch, the noises above—all of them—began to fade away completely, even the distant ones. With it went Zoro's strange ranting moments, and the swordsman once again fell unnaturally silent, with only the faint rise and fall of his chest indicating that he wasn't simply a corpse. The absolute, complete silence was welcome at first to Nami, but after barely ten minutes she found it almost more terrifying than the noises of the hunt above them, or Zoro's rasping chants. Because now it was easy, far too easy, to imagine that something was laying in wait above for them, that hundreds of the disgusting Harvesters and Shepherds and who only knew what else were lingering above to ambush them, enormously patient, perfectly silent—
"Perhaps we should do something to keep ourselves from panicking," Robin said suddenly. Nami started; the archaeologist's words had cut through her increasing panic like a knife through cord, effectively snapping that train of thought out of place. Shaking her head hastily to wipe away the last vestiges of panic, she raised her eyes and looked her fellow pirate in tired confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"It is important that we maintain some semblance of calm and order," Robin said slowly. "The creatures obviously benefit from our fear and our panic, or they would not employ such maneuvers in their combat strategies. We are exhausted and our morale is low, which is dangerous for us, and beneficial to them. We must do something to combat that, or we will most certainly lose."
Nami nodded shakily, and alongside her, Usopp did as well. "You're right, I guess...but what can we do, stuck down here?"
"Breakfast?" Sanji-kun offered. "We still have an hour or so until sunrise and we can even think of leaving, but...I have a feeling we're gonna want to move out as soon as we can."
Nami definitely agreed with that. There was no way she wanted to spend a minute more in this little hellhole than she had to. "Breakfast sounds like a good start," she said slowly, and had to admit with some surprise that it actually did. Her stomach was rumbling hungrily after a long night of strain with little rest, and Sanji-kun's food—even day-old packed lunches—was always delicious enough to cheer one up a bit.
The cook set to work breaking out the rest of their food stores and dividing them up, hesitating only momentarily when he came to Zoro's share. A quick glance at the prone swordsman told them he probably wouldn't be waking up any time soon, but Sanji-kun packed his rations back into one of the bags, just in case. Nami didn't blame him. Zoro had been exhibiting unusual characteristics far different from Luffy's poisoning, or whatever it had been, and so it was still entirely possible that he would eventually wake up, and he'd likely be hungry when he did.
Their breakfast rations were meager, considering it was half of yesterday's intended dinner, but even so getting a little food into her system made Nami feel better all the same. And as they ate, they tentatively broke into conversation—still with low, wary voices, just in case—to try and figure out what to do next.
"I believe I know where the creatures originate from," Robin began, her voice grim as she approached the topic with straightforward starkness.
"You do? How?" Usopp asked. He was still shaking, even as he ate, causing crumbs to scatter everywhere (and subsequently drawing Sanji-kun's irritated stare).
"The writing in the temple," Robin answered quietly. "Just before the Nightmares attacked, I was able to make out a single phrase that looked different from the others. The temple's caretakers were clearly very careful with their recordings, but this one was engraved as though in haste, and the glyphs were less perfected. It said simply, 'They came from Oneirosa.' There were a few more phrases, but unfortunately the Shepherd's attack destroyed what remained of the wall." Robin's eyes narrowed in a rare show of anger, but none of them were truly surprised. All of them knew Robin loathed the wanton destruction of ancient ruins and old histories.
"Oneirosa," Nami said slowly. "That's the city in the middle, right?"
"Correct," Robin said with a nod. "Truthfully, I am unsurprised that the creatures likely originated from the city. Based on the other recordings found here, Oneirosa contains the Temple of Dreams, and was the island's center for its religion. These Nightmares seem heavily tied up in Asteria's mythos, in some way. The city is the most likely place for them to emerge from."
"If that's the case," Sanji-kun said, staring disappointedly at his empty pack of cigarettes, "then the city is probably a nest of them by now. There were a lot of those things up there..." He trailed off, and almost everyone in their little group shuddered.
"But why would these things just...appear all of a sudden, out of nowhere?" Usopp asked, frowning in confusion. "Even if we believe all the stories Robin was reading us, and accept them as real, they always say these Nightmares live in this 'world of dreams' place. So why would they be at this city?"
"As to that," Robin answered quietly, "I believe the reason is, once again, connected to the visitors that arrived during the Void Century. The records in the temples did not begin to change drastically until these visitors were mentioned, and only then did more Nightmare mythos begin to take shape." She frowned, and then said with a trace of what Nami could have sworn was frustration in her voice, "If only we could find some of the records of those visitors themselves...supposedly they stayed here, in Remia, and this would be the ideal place to locate them. But I've seen no trace of written records, which means they were probably recorded on paper or parchment, and that will have long since been destroyed without the proper care..."
"Maybe they preserved things better in the city, Robin-chan," Sanji-kun immediately offered, voice hopeful.
But Usopp's eyes widened in horror at the very thought. "Go there? No way! Sanji, you said yourself it was going to be a nest of those things, and we could barely fight three, even with a weapon that could hurt them!" He glanced over at Zoro's prone form, then back to the cook. "We can't go there, it's too dangerous!"
Sanji-kun looked about to argue, but Robin smoothly interrupted, holding up one hand. "Usopp is right," she said simply. "There is always a possibility that the records were, once upon a time, better preserved in Asteria's capital—that much is true. However, if you are correct, Cook-san, and the creatures now infest Oneirosa, then it is likely any records were destroyed already—if they even existed to begin with. At the present time, trying to enter the city might be dangerous. Especially with one of our number incapacitated," she finished delicately.
As one, the group glanced at Zoro again, and shivered. Robin was right—trying to enter the city now, when they were exhausted, frightened, and forced to carry their inert swordsman around, was all but asking for death. Especially when they still had no real weapons to use against the creatures, and didn't have anyone left capable of using the single defense they knew they did have.
Sanji-kun nodded. "Of course, Robin-chan," he agreed immediately. "You are absolutely right, as always!" He smiled at her, and while Nami thought the expression looked as goofy and lovesick as always, it also seemed a bit...relieved? Which was surprising, coming from Sanji-kun, although she really couldn't blame him for it. They'd barely come out of that last encounter in one piece, and with the clacking and screaming and scraping above that they'd listened to for hours after, it was no wonder none of them ever wanted to meet one of those horrible Nightmares again.
Silence fell for a few moments, and Nami was once again reminded of just how quiet it was. With the creatures no longer roaming about up above, and the unnatural absence of Zoro's snoring, the lack of noise felt almost oppressive, the tension and fear thick. Nami shifted uncomfortably, and around her the others seemed to do so as well.
Usopp broke the silence abruptly, almost blurting out his question in his haste to make a little reassuring noise. "Did you guys see what actually happened to Zoro?"
The others blinked, frowned. Nami's brows knit together in confusion, and she asked slowly, "What do you mean exactly?"
"I mean..." Usopp hesitated, seemed to struggle to get his thoughts in order. "When that thing...grabbed him...it stuck all its pincer-things into Zoro all at once. And then...there was sort of a flash, and I could've sworn it pulled something small out of his body."
Nami hated having to think of that terrible, mind-numbing moment, but she forced herself to remember as best as she could what she'd seen. The creature had snapped Zoro up, and there was that horrific scream as Zoro arched back, and the creature plunged its eager mandibles into his chest. Nami thought, at the time, it was trying to rip open his chest, or tear his heart out, or do something equally violent and fatal...but once again, her mind flickered briefly to the three minor puncture wounds the swordsman had taken, instead of the sliced skin, cracked bone, and buckets of blood she had initially expected. It hadn't tried to kill Zoro at all; not that way, at least. So what had that attack been for?
She thought more carefully still about what came next, and realized with a start that Usopp was right. There had been a flash, and the creature had pulled something out of Zoro's body, like a pebble or small rock that had glittered and flashed in the late afternoon sun. And then it had protected it afterwards, hiding it inside its own mouth while holding it in a careful grip with two of its mandibles, as though it didn't want to touch the object with any other part of its body.
"You're right," she said with a frown. "Call me crazy, but I think I saw the same thing."
"You're not crazy at all, Nami-san! I saw it too. And what's more, it happened to Luffy, too," Sanji-kun noted suddenly, with a frown. "The flash was brighter because it happened in the dark. And the...the Harvester...it was carrying something glittering in its mouth after Luffy dropped. I barely noticed it at the time since I just jumped in to attack, but..."
"You're right," Nami agreed. "Now that you mention it, the same things happened when Luffy was attacked, too."
Usopp was frowning still, and said slowly, "Nami, don't...don't get mad at me or anything, but...I think...I think the things it stole from Luffy and Zoro...I think those were Dreamshards."
Nami's eyes widened, and then she shook her head frantically. "No, no way! That can't be possible. Minerals don't form from people, and there's no way you could tear a gemstone out of somebody's chest without causing way more damage than what either Luffy or Zoro have right now!" Her voice was angry, but she noticed with a mental wince that there was almost a note of hysteria in her voice as well. It couldn't be true. It would just make no sense.
Usopp held up his hands placatingly, but still said insistently, "Calm down, okay? Look, I know it's a grisly sort of thing to have to accept, but it can't be impossible. A person made out of rubber should be impossible, too, but we've got Luffy, don't we?"
Nami opened her mouth to argue, but Robin once again smoothly interjected. "I believe Usopp has a point," she said. "The stories that we've heard, both on Adamantina and in the recordings on this island, have frequently spoken of Nightmares stealing dreams. The jewels are known as Dreamshards...did we not question earlier where they obtained such an unusual name? The connection now seems obvious."
"It could just be because they're dreamy to look at," Nami tried to counter lamely. "Or because they're lucky and make your dreams come true...or..." But she was only fooling herself, and she knew it. Robin and Usopp were right: the fact that Dreamshards probably came from people made more and more sense, the longer she thought about it. The stories matched up to the existing gems today, and the thing she'd seen stolen from Zoro was about the same size as some of the larger Dreamshards she'd seen on Adamantina in the jewelry shops, and had flashed as brightly as those did, too. It made sense. It made too much sense.
But Nami didn't want to accept it all the same. Because if it was true, then Dreamshards could only be taken from people, at a horrible, unforgivable cost. Every single one of those glittering gems she'd nearly swooned over back on the other island had been formed to the sorrow-filled screams of a suffering human, leaving them empty, ashen, ranting over their own unexpected loss. She'd thought the monetary value of the shards back on Adamantina had been ridiculously high, but if their origin was true, then it should have been hundreds—no, thousands—of times more expensive. They were beautiful beyond compare, but if they were stolen from humans, reducing them to such empty, pathetic shells without an ounce of mercy, than not even that beauty, or that enormous monetary value, was worth it.
And it would also mean that Nami had connived, wheedled, and threatened her crew to Asteria for nothing. The price to find their own Dreamshards would be far too high, and not even that much money was worth her losing Luffy, or Zoro, or any of her other nakama. It wasn't worth stealing their dreams.
The others understood the impact of Usopp's grisly theory as well, and understood especially just how hard Nami was taking it. They fell silent, each withdrawing into their own thoughts as they tried to come to grips with the unfortunate truth circling the very reason they'd come here in the first place.
Nami ran it through her mind over and over, in a wild blur. Now they understood—somewhat, at least—the reasons for Luffy's and Zoro's unexpected 'nightmare sickness.' Now that they knew the source, there had to be some way to cure it. It would be cruelly unfair for them to have found what ailed their suffering nakama, but to never have found a way to fix it.
But life isn't always fair, is it? a taunting little voice in the back of Nami's head whispered to her, and unbidden, that horrible image of Bellemere's last moments played in front of her eyes once again. The Nightmares weren't even present, and yet even so their insidious attacks were still working, tearing her apart from the inside—
"What was that?" Usopp asked suddenly, eyeing the staircase fearfully. Nami's head snapped up in surprise, and she watched the stairs warily, hands already reaching for her Clima-Tact. The barest flicker of shadow was visible up the dark stairs, even though Nami had heard nothing—
"I will investigate," Robin said, and immediately sprouted several arms, with an eye planted in each hand's palm, at the top steps. The arms and eyes rotated around carefully through the cracks of the makeshift rubble doorway for several moments before vanishing, and Robin said with a soft smile, and an almost relieved tone, "The sun is beginning to rise."
Usopp let out a delighted whoop, and a wide grin spread across Sanji-kun's face. Nami found herself grinning delightedly as well. Although the light wouldn't completely protect them from the horrible Nightmares, it would at least give them a little bit of an advantage, now that they knew the creatures couldn't see well in strong sunlight. That the sun was rising meant they had survived, that they had beaten the creatures in a small but nevertheless significant victory, and meant, too, that they could keep surviving in the future. That thought alone was relieving and revitalizing.
"Time to get ready to go," Nami said, and everyone set to work immediately, extinguishing the lanterns, packing up their bags, clearing away the rubble blockage, and preparing for battle. They hoped a fight wouldn't come, but they knew better than to move unprepared after yesterday evening.
They were ready to go in five minutes, but at Robin's suggestion waited half an hour more, to give the sun further time to rise. It was the longest half hour of Nami's life, and she felt like they were wasting precious time that they could be using to leave, but Robin was right as well. The time would be well spent waiting, if it would provide even the slightest advantage in their escape in the end.
At last the time passed, and everyone set their packs on their backs and prepared to move out. But as Usopp and Sanji-kun headed over to their prone swordsman to lift him up the stairs, something new and unexpected happened: Zoro gave a loud, entirely natural-sounding groan of discomfort and slowly cracked his eyes open.
Everyone stared, stunned. Nami expected Zoro to strike up a new bout of wild ranting about how something had been stolen (she tried very hard to not think about what), but instead he merely blinked tiredly and stared at the ceiling in confusion. "Wha...where th'hell am I..."
"Zoro?" Nami said in surprise, and heard the others, in varying stages of shock and confusion, saying the same right alongside her.
The swordsman blinked again, this time in reaction to hearing his own name in stereo, and turned his head to look at them all. "Oh...you guys," he muttered under his breath, and then, with a sharp heave, he dragged himself into a sit. "Dammit," he groaned, and painstakingly lifted a hand to his other arm, where the vicious Nightmare-bite was tightly bound. "I feel like complete shit..."
Nami hadn't thought she could be more surprised than by Zoro's waking, but she was proven wrong in a heartbeat. Her eyes widened, and she exchanged stunned glances with Usopp, Sanji-kun, and even Robin. Zoro had complained. About being in pain. He never did that. Ever. Not even when he'd nearly cut his own feet off, or Mr. One had nearly sliced him to ribbons, or even after the horrific injuries he'd taken on Thriller Bark. And not just complained, either; now he was curled forward, leaning tiredly against the back wall, with one hand clutching his bite wound and the other pressed to his forehead, like he had a headache. There were dark rings under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in days even though it was all he'd done all night, and combined with his still-ashen skin and pained pose, he looked absolutely terrible...and acted it, too. What the hell was going on?
The others felt unnerved by the strange reaction as well, that much was obvious. Robin was frowning, watching Zoro with puzzled concern, and Usopp wasn't even trying to conceal his dropped jaw or staring eyes. Sanji-kun, almost predictably, responded to the anomaly with his rival by trying to start a fight. "What the hell, marimo? I thought anyone aspiring to be the world's greatest frikkin' swordsman isn't supposed to let something as ridiculous as pain get him down?"
Nami grimaced; the last thing that they needed was a fight right now. She started to raise her fist, to intercept as the argument that would inevitably turn into an actual battle began. And Zoro did, predictably, raise his head and glare daggers at Sanji-kun, with the psychotic, wild expression that was all too familiar despite the gray face and deep shadows under his eyes.
The swordsman winced and opened his mouth to retort, and before Nami could intervene, still managed to say scathingly, "What the hell are you talking about, love-cook?"
Everyone, even Sanji-kun, froze.
Usopp recovered first. "Haha, good joke, Zoro," he offered, laughing lamely. "We all know you're good at dealing with injury, but don't prove it, okay? You've just had a bit of a bad day is all."
"No," Zoro scowled, "Not that. I do feel like shit. I meant, what the hell is dartboard going on about, with all that—" he winced again, but managed to rasp out tiredly, "—world's greatest swordsman crap?"
It was like getting punched in the gut. Nami actually staggered backwards a pace, Usopp gaped, and Sanji-kun hissed, "What the hell kind of crap are you pulling, you shitty swordsman? Whatever it is, it isn't funny!"
This didn't make sense. This didn't make sense at all. Robin's eyes were narrowed in fierce concentration across from Nami, and the navigator's mind was thinking furiously as well. There wasn't anything to cause this. Zoro didn't joke; she knew that, knew almost instinctively he was being dead serious and perfectly straightforward, just like he always was. But nothing could do this to him. He'd gotten hit on the head, sure, but she'd hit him a lot worse without him even breaking a sweat. Maybe it was some sort of side effect, of the Nightmare stealing his Dreamshard—
Dreamshard.
Dream.
"Oh, God," Nami rasped suddenly, putting her hand to her mouth in horror. She felt rather suddenly like being sick, but managed to suppress the urge with sheer force. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no way, not possible..."
Robin nodded at her grimly. "I think you've come to the same conclusion I have, Navigator-san," she said, her voice quiet. She looked a bit pale.
"I haven't," Usopp said in exasperation. "One of you want to explain what's going on?" Sanji-kun nodded fiercely in agreement, too caught up in his own confusion to even lecture Usopp about his language towards the ladies.
"We've had it all wrong from the beginning," Nami said slowly. "The stories kept going on about dreams, dreams being stolen by Nightmares, and Nightmares roaming the island, and because of that we never considered anything else. We've been thinking of 'dreams' as visions we see at night, while we sleep, this whole time. But the people here—they tried to tell us even, in writing—they never meant night-visions, ever. These things don't steal our dreams."
Eyes still wide in horror, she met each and every other pirates' eyes, and said softly, "They steal our goals, our ambitions. They steal our Dreams."
Alright, all of you who've been theorizing this for a while now in your reviews, give yourselves pats on the backs. Good job. :)
The other day a family friend's seven-year-old caught sight of my stack of One Piece DVD's and started asking me questions about all the chars on the cover. He thought Chopper was cute, Zoro (and his 3-sword style, but ironically not his hair color) was 'weird,' and seemed excited that they were pirates. But the best reaction of all was when I told him "This guy is a pirate captain and he's made of rubber, so he stretches really far!" And I got a very, very familiar reaction:
"O_O :D AWESOME!"
Thereby proving Luffy appeals to all ages, haha!
~VelkynKarma