Asteria Nightmare

Part seventeen of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma

Note: Holy crap. I didn't realize it earlier, but the last chapter I posted put my official overall word count on this site at over half a million. That's pretty snazzy if I do say so myself.

Note the Second: A lot of you guys wanted a sketch of the Queen of the Night! All I can say is, she kinda...doesn't stay in any one form for long, she shifts all the time. I don't know how to draw it for you XD If anyone else is up to the challenge, feel free to draw your interpretation, though!

Music Box: Technically, this is already the theme music for another character in a different series, since it plays whenever she does very evil things. However, I pretty much listened to it any time I wrote a Nightmare-related scene at all, and repeatedly when I wrote ol' Queenie here, so I figure I might as well share it with you guys.
www (dot) youtube (dot) com (slash) watch?v=hg9XPcPKYAQ
Incidentally this is also my favorite arc music of the whole series...does this make me evil?

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.

"The Revenge of Hell boils in my Heart,
Death and Despair blaze all around me!...
Cast off forever, abandoned forever,
Broken forever are all bonds of Nature."
~Queen of the Night, The Magic Flute

Nami stared up and up and up at the Queen of the Night, frozen in place, unsure what to do, what to say, what to even think. The cheerful light cast from the dome above flickered over her, and the Dreamshards buried in the walls and piled on the floor sent beautiful rainbows dancing around the Straw Hats in a most reassuring way. And yet, the navigator felt nothing but dread as she stood inside the massive Temple of Dreams.

This was it. It was over. The Queen of the Night was too enormous, too powerful. Nami could feel how evil she was even yards away from her, could feel how utterly unconcerned the enormous creature was with them. For all the attempts of its hundreds of children to stop them, the Queen did not care if they came to her; because the Queen knew they would never recover what she had stolen, that they had only delivered her meals to her themselves.

The Queen of the Night, ancient and wise as she was, knew she had already won.

Zoro was still muttering behind Nami, on Chopper's shoulder, and the navigator realized with a sickening twist in her gut that he, too, was being heavily affected by the presence of the creature. Much like the terror-calls outside, it seemed those that were dreamless were heavily susceptible to the Queen of the Night's near-palpable aura of fear. And even though Zoro was one of the bravest people Nami knew (or perhaps just the craziest, but ultimately it was all the same), he was already regressing to the same eerie, trance-like ranting state that seemed to affect all the dreamless pirates at night.

In the sudden silence that had taken over the room, Nami realized that the not-swordsman's muttering sounded far too loud—and, worse, that it had drawn attention to their small group. With a sound much like wet cloth being dragged over gravel, the Queen of the Night extended dozens of its mismatched, badly placed limbs down to its nest of rubble, bones, and dead Dreamshards, and laboriously began turning itself to face them. It was still shifting constantly, loosing limbs that were suddenly replaced by new arms and legs and tails, and didn't appear to have a discernible front or back, and yet Nami knew that it was turning to gaze at them head-on all the same. As it moved she could hear a ragged, drawing hiss, as though the creature was breathing in deeply despite having no visible nose or mouth to speak of, and it seemed to swell slightly as it did so.

Sanji-kun was rigid beside her, but without warning he stepped forward slightly, putting himself in front of Nami and Chopper as he did so. "It's feeding," the cook said suddenly, glaring hatefully at the enormous creature ahead of them. His breathing was far too quick to be natural, and clearly the Queen's aura was forcing him to feel fear as well, but his clenched fists also said he was angry. "On Zoro. Stupid shitty Night Queen!"

"But...But I've got Zoro!" Chopper protested, looking anxious. "They haven't taken him, I won't let them!" He clenched his supportive hand more insistently over the unconscious Zoro's back, pressing him even further into his large, furry shoulder. Zoro did not stop ranting.

"Robin-chan translated it for us ages ago, in Remia," Sanji-kun said grimly. " 'She created Harvesters, capable of culling the herds of their dreams, stealing them away and taunting them to her for her to feed upon their fear and their despair.' We even guessed at it a little, but...shit, this isn't good."

"We can't fight that thing!" Nami yelped, staring up in horror at the Queen of the Night. It was still turning towards them, still breathing deeply, swelling further like a person holding their breath, and Nami was beginning to think Sanji-kun was right. It looked like it was sniffing appreciatively, and maybe it was feeding off the empty, purposeless void left in Zoro's very existence when his World's Greatest Swordsman dream was taken. His ranting certainly was becoming increasingly more frantic, and that couldn't be a mere coincidence. The creature never once bothered to approach them, and was careful to remain sitting in her macabre nest, brushing scattered bones and dead Dreamshards back into place with her twisted extra limbs; but if she could feed even at this distance, why would she ever bother to move at all?

"If we don't, Zoro's going to die!" Chopper shot back frantically, his voice high-pitched with fear. Nami didn't have the heart to tell him that they were probably all going to die at this rate. This thing was just as daunting as Oars back on Thriller Bark—maybe even more so. At least Oars' personality had still been Luffy's, straightforward and simple, while this thing exuded little more than pure terror and killing intent. It had taken all of them to beat the enormous zombie, with everyone at the top of their game. Now Luffy, Robin and Zoro were completely useless in a fight, and half of their crew wasn't even here. Sanji-kun might stand a chance for a little while, if he was lucky and didn't have to worry about protecting Nami and Chopper (unlikely), but she doubted he could take the thing down by himself, either.

She bit her lip and hoped fervently that Franky, Brook, and Usopp had managed to survive and would turn back, taking Luffy and Robin with them. There was no way any of them would survive this, and at the very least she didn't want their captain's and archaeologist's emptiness and despair being fed on in the last moments of their life. It would be too cruel a way for them to go.

Her hopes were in vain. As if thinking about them alone had triggered it, Nami was suddenly aware of a faint trace of music. It sounded as though it was coming from very far away, sluggish and muffled, but it grew increasingly louder as the moments passed, and the navigator realized that the rest of her nakama were coming to their deaths as well. Frantic, she tried to scream a sharp warning to turn back now, but it was too late. On the other side of the enormous room, just barely visible around the Queen of the Night's enormous bulk, several Harvesters and Shepherds vanished in a burst of oily smoke. Seconds later the rest of her nakama surged into the room, plank, kabuto, and violin at the ready.

With a wince she saw the same expressions of shock and horror bleed onto the faces of the three pirates that still had their dreams as they saw the thing they faced. Franky looked outright stunned, Usopp was shaking so hard Nami could see his limbs trembling from where she was standing, and Brook was so startled his wild violin playing ground to an abrupt, screeching halt in the face of such an enormous, terrifying foe.

And worse still were Luffy and Robin. Even from here Nami could hear her captain. He wasn't merely muttering weakly under his breath like Zoro was. Rather, like back in Oneirosa's streets during the terror-calls, he was screaming loudly about the something that had been stolen from him, how it would never be given back, and Nami could see one of Franky's fists fastened tightly over the sling's bindings to combat Luffy's maddened thrashing. And Robin drooped like a rag doll, corpselike in appearance; at some point during their fight either Franky or Usopp had managed to engineer a harness with leftover Sunny parts to allow Usopp to piggyback the historian while still giving himself use of both arms for sniping. From here Nami couldn't hear her mutterings, although the navigator was sure they were there, but she could see the empty, hopeless expression on the archaeologist's face as it drooped on Usopp's shoulder.

Nami grit her teeth. If Luffy and Robin were still dreamless, it meant that the Attendant Franky's team had been after hadn't had the Dreamshards, either. There was only one of the basket-carrying creatures left, but Nami was beginning to think they would never be able to find it now, not with the Queen of the Night before them. The situation was hopeless...and judging by the expressions on her nakama's faces across the way, they were rapidly coming to accept that fact, too.

Silence reigned. Brook's violin made not a sound, and neither did the dozens of Nightmares all around the room; even the click-clack of mandibles and rustle of legs was strangely absent. Stillness reigned as well. The Nightmares did not so much as shuffle or blink, and the Straw Hats remained frozen by their doorways. Only Zoro's continual muttering, and Luffy's outright screaming, broke the terrifying stalemate.

In that moment the Queen of the Night moved. She shifted her massive bulk, waved her dozens of mismatched, anatomically incorrect limbs, and seemed pleased with the unexpected arrival of five more humans into the heart of her nest. As before, she laboriously began to turn on her pile of bones and rubble, very careful not to leave its confines, sweeping everything back into place as she turned to face the new Straw Hats.

Too late, Nami realized Franky's team had not one, but two dreamless pirates, and the Queen of the Night would have twice as much to feed off of. Sure enough, the creature's strange rasping sniff began again, and once more the enormous bloated bag of mismatched limbs began to swell; Robin sagged further, and Luffy's now-hoarse screaming grew worse.

Nami opened her mouth to yell at Franky to take them and run, to drag Luffy and Robin and the others back to the Thousand Sunny and just sail and sail and keep sailing until they were gone. They might not have their dreams, but maybe they could teach Luffy to have his dream again, or find some other way to fix it—there had to be another way after all—

And then she saw it. It had been indistinguishable at first, hidden in the dark shadows of the Queen of the Night, but as the enormous creature finished turning there was the briefest glint of unnatural light in that blackness. Squinting her eyes, Nami focused as hard as she could to make out that shape—and saw the final Attendant, the same one she had fought yesterday because it was missing one whiplike limb. The basket it held was gleaming brightly from within.

That was it. Right there, not even fifty yards away in that dark basket, was what they had risked so much for: the Dreamshards of her crew, the very gems that would save them and make them real and whole again. It was truly, cruelly unfair that after all these hours of combat, after days of struggling to help their nakama, that they would finally find what they were looking for in the very shadow of the creature that was probably going to kill them all.

But that crazy little voice in the back of her head, the same one that supported the wild maneuvers that even Luffy would approve of, reared up again. If we're going to die anyway, better to go down fighting than cowering in terror. Maybe, just maybe, they could get a hold of those Dreamshards, and maybe if they did something would change. So she forced her frozen, trembling limbs to obey her and pointed at the Attendant, saying, "Sanji-kun, Chopper, look!"

They both squinted in confusion at where she pointed. Nami couldn't blame them; the dark shadow-like substance of the Attendant against the dark viscous material of the Queen of the Night practically blended the two together, making them difficult to pick apart. But after a moment Sanji-kun's one visible eye widened and he hissed sharply, "Is that—"

The Queen of the Night pushed itself up with its multitude of ever-changing, mismatched limbs, and screamed.

It was the same challenging call as before, consisting of hundreds of terrifying animal cries and thousands of despair-filled human screams, and this time Nami did not wonder for an instant how the Queen of the Night was able to make such a noise, or what it was for. Almost as one the Harvesters, Shepherds, and Generals around her raised their voices to join her own, a cacophony of shrieks, barks, and rumbling hisses as they shifted and stamped and clicked in an unnatural display of unison. With a lurch in her stomach Nami was suddenly reminded of the hive-mind that ants or bees were said to possess, and had a feeling she understood the puzzling 'heart-mind' phrase Robin had decoded two days ago (had it really been that long already?) Then the creatures swiveled and, with fierce, screeching battle cries, they charged.

Nami took an automatic step back as the Nightmares plowed towards them, raising her Clima-Tact instinctually in defense. There were still a lot of Nightmares ahead to defeat. We've done it before the crazy voice insisted, but there were just so many, too many, and the numbers were overwhelming even if you didn't count the massive, bloated creature sitting in the middle of the room—

The creature in question had sprouted more limbs now, long, gangly ones that would reach the doors without the creature ever having to move from the safety of its nest, limbs that looked vaguely familiar; there were a pair of crooked human-like hands that sported ten long swordlike fingers, an arm that looked oddly mechanical, and several other bony, ripped protrusions that could have belonged to a living corpse. These stretched out, thin and brittle, and slashed down at Franky, Usopp, Brook, and their dreamless burdens. The three of them dodged aside with yells of panic, dragging the bound-up Luffy and Robin with them, and somehow in the confusion Brook managed to raise his bow to his violin and begin playing once more.

The music sent a shiver up Nami's spine as it bounced and echoed around the wide room eerily, and she felt an unexpected warmth move through her whole body, like sitting in front of a crackling fire after being outside in the snow and the cold for hours on end. With a shock she realized she'd been suffering the effects of a terror-call, much like the ones the Harvesters had used on them so many times now...but the Queen of the Night had never made such an attack!

Or had it? Bewildered, Nami suddenly realized that the bloated creature's almost tangible aura of fear was far more subtle than she had originally realized. Unlike the Harvester's heavy-handed, brute-force manipulation of her emotions, actively dragging terrifying and sorrow-filled feelings and memories forward, the Queen of the Night instead seemed to manipulate the emotions that were already there. The despair, terror, and helplessness Nami had felt the entire time they had been attacking Oneirosa had been strong, but relatively easy for her to force to the back of her mind when she thought of what was at stake. Yet the Queen had somehow managed to take those already-existing emotions and thoughts and amplify them considerably, until Nami had been ready to give up without a second's thought. Such powerful manipulation, all without her ever realizing it was manipulation...truly this creature was more dangerous than she'd first thought.

But Brook's music had freed her from that, and she could see Sanji-kun and Chopper looking startled as they, too, recovered their senses and were freed from the heart-chilling effects of the Queen of the Night. As the Harvesters, Shepherds and even a few Generals charged straight for them, Chopper shook his head and yelled, "Not yet, not while we still have a chance!" And securing Zoro more firmly on his shoulder, he reached into his pocket and pulled free one of his Rumble Balls, popping it into his mouth with a crunch and a roar of "Rumble! Jumping Point!"

Chopper's much taller new form leapt high into the air as the wave of Nightmares hit them, and Sanji-kun hastily snatched Nami up in his arms and did the same, though he couldn't jump quite as high. The assortment of mismatched creatures crashed past where they had been, slid to a stop, and waited hungrily for their prey to drop.

Chopper gave them what they were waiting for, though not quite as expected. He switched back to Heavy Point, increasing his weight considerably, and dropped past Sanji-kun and Nami as they reached the height of the cook's jump. The currently human reindeer slung Zoro around his neck like an old fur scarf, drew both his sailcloth-wrapped fists back, and slammed them downward with full force at the Harvester and Shepherd he'd been about to land on.

The creatures vanished with surprised screeches into wisps of smoke, and Chopper landed in the middle of the rest of the swarm on the one patch of floor not taken by the hellish creatures. Too fast for Nami to follow, the doctor laid Zoro out on the shattered bones and with a roar of "Horn Point!" shifted again, crouching forward over the not-swordsman as he gained much thicker shoulders and arms and enormous, spiny, sailcloth-wrapped horns.

He looked like an enraged bull ready to charge, and as Sanji-kun and Nami descended he did just that. "Roseo Colonnade!" he screamed, and hurled himself forward into the mass of surprised Nightmares, tossing his head and bringing his massive, dream-enhanced rack of horns to bear. Harvesters and Shepherds were tossed, screeching and barking, into the air and vanished in bursts of flames, and others vanished at the heavy impacts. Nami was impressed to see even a General thrown wide before it burst into smoke, twisting in pain.

Sanji-kun landed over Zoro as they came down, careful (for once) to not actually step on the not-swordsman, and set Nami down gently on the stone. By then Chopper had run two full, increasingly larger circles around the unconscious Zoro in his Horn Point, driving back hordes of Nightmares and clearing out a small space for them to make their counterattack from. Panting slightly, the reindeer nevertheless leapt over to join them, shifting forms with a quick "Arm Point" as he came to stand defensively near their still-ranting not-swordsman.

The Nightmares paused only briefly after Chopper's onslaught before beginning to shuffle forward again, fangs, claws and scythes gleaming; the attack had barely deterred them at all. Gritting his teeth, Chopper said, "You guys go after the Dreamshards!"

"What? We can't leave you alone," Nami began, bringing her Clima-Tact smashing down on the head of an unlucky Harvester. Beside her, Sanji-kun's legs kicked out wildly, sending another pair of Shepherds to their deaths.

"I'll be fine!" Chopper insisted. "I'll find a corner where I can keep up a solid defense and protect Zoro until you get his Dreamshard back. Hurry, we don't have much time!"

Nami bit her lip again for a moment, but then nodded. Zoro could be a very helpful addition to the fight, and once his Dreamshard was back they wouldn't have to babysit him anymore, freeing up their ability to fight back and help Franky's group on the other side. "Okay," she said, "But give me that, quick," and pointed at Zoro's white sword, still tied with the other two on Chopper's back.

The reindeer let fly with a hoofed punch that sent another Nightmare bursting into flames, and then gave her a surprised look. "Zoro's sword? Why?"

"I'll have to steal the basket," Nami said. "It'll take up one hand, and I need two to use the Clima-Tact. I can beat the Nightmares off with Zoro's sword in one hand if I have to, and if I remember right that one's the lightest."

"I won't let them get near you, Nami-san!" Sanji-kun swore. Nami was sure he would do his best, but privately decided a backup plan wouldn't hurt. Chopper seemed to understand and tossed her the white sword quickly, sheath and all. She shoved it through her belt at the small of her back, where she normally stored the Clima-Tact pieces when she wasn't using them, and nodded.

"Right. Be careful, Chopper! We'll be back fast, I promise. I'm a very skilled thief." She flashed him a far-more-confident-than-she-felt smile, and the reindeer nodded, shifting back to Horn Point quickly. Another use of his Roseo Colonnade sent more of the creatures reeling and sent an obscuring smoke into the dusty air, and both parties took advantage of the cover and the confusion to make a break for it.

Nami and Sanji-kun moved quickly now, carving their way through the hordes of Nightmares before the creatures could spot them in the haze of smoke and reorient themselves. They charged straight at the towering, bulbous mass of the Queen of the Night, and Nami was screaming to herself that this was insane and they were going to die, over and over. But they were going to die anyway, and she'd be damned if she'd go down without a fight, so she kept charging and swinging out with her Clima-Tact and wishing deep in the back of her mind that she had never, ever laid eyes on those dead Dreamshards back on Adamantina Island.

The Queen of the Night let out another wild scream, this one higher-pitched, more feral sounding, its human voices more enraged than before. Nami realized with a horrified start that it was still furiously attacking the rest of her nakama even from afar in its nest, and she could hear screams of pain and terror from her friends as they were boxed in by the attacking Nightmares and threatened by the Queen's enormous limbs. It was hard to see around the great creature's bulk, but looking up Nami could see something that looked oddly like an arm made of barbed wire sprouting from its back. It stretched out, its joints brittle as it reached its limit, but when her arm dropped down to slap at the ground and Franky's team it was stunningly fast for such an otherwise lumbering creature, and it was all they could do to dodge. Another limb, this one looking for all the world like it was built out of hundreds of razor blades, sprouted from what might have been the Queen of the Night's side as the barbed-wire arm withdrew and vanished, and that too came chopping down at the Straw Hats with shocking speed. It was only thanks to Brook's music, which stunned the additional Nightmares and made them temporarily harmless in their frozen state, that they were able to skirt around the creatures and dodge the Queen's attacks at all.

"Sanji-kun, they're in trouble!" Nami yelled. "That thing has them completely blocked in, they'll be killed if they don't get any help!"

"You're right, Nami-san," the cook agreed, but then hesitated. "But will you be safe without me?" He looked genuinely concerned, torn between his very real desire to protect the women of the crew in particular, and the crew in general.

"I'll be fine," Nami said immediately. "I can take on Nightmares, but there's no way I can help against the Queen of the Night." And then, just to clear up any doubts the cook might have, she added quickly, "Robin, on the other hand, can't even defend herself, and she's still out cold—"

"Ah...Robin-chan!" Sanji-kun gasped, and nodded. "Right, then that shitty Night Queen is going down! Please be careful, Nami-san, I would never forgive myself if something were to happen to you." She nodded even as she smacked another approaching Shepherd with her staff once, and again to kill it.

Slightly reassured, Sanji-kun spun rapidly in place, once again funneling heat downward as he moved, and slid to a halt with his right leg once again ignited. He leapt forward, over the crowds of Nightmares onto a low-hanging limb attached to the Queen of the Night's ugly body, and leap-frogged his way up from there, often balancing precariously on rapidly vanishing limbs just long enough to make the next jump forward. Nami saw him vanish over the rise of the creature's bloated back out of her peripheral as she fought her way forward, and although she didn't see his next attack, she did hear him yell "Flambage Shot!" and saw the gout of flames come rolling over the creature's sides.

The Queen of the Night screamed, this time in what was obviously pain, its thousands of voices rising in ear-bleeding agonized shrieks as the powerful dream-enhanced attack struck it. The bloated body reared back and bucked slightly, twisting into a more humanoid shape for half a dozen seconds, and Nami vaguely thought she saw something glinting beneath its belly. But before she could investigate further she heard Sanji-kun yelling in pain from above as the creature turned its ill-formed, mismatched limbs on him and attacked.

Nami grit her teeth together, but held her focus, and turned her eyes away from the towering form of the Queen of the Night. She had to trust that Sanji-kun could take care of the others, and himself. She could already see Franky, Usopp, and Brook scattering thanks to Sanji-kun's timely intervention, and hopefully he would be able to distract the creature long enough for them to succeed. And in order to achieve that success, she had her own work to do. Eyes narrowed, she set her gaze on the final Attendant hiding in its mistress' shadow, and charged.

The creature saw her coming, and backed further into the shadow that its Queen cast over it, wiggling and flailing frantically as she closed in. It released the same high, piercing whistle she had heard it make several times now when calling the other Nightmares, and right on cue several of the hellish creatures stormed into her path, raising claws and scythes menacingly.

A day ago she would have fled. But now she was mad, and these unforgivable things were standing between her and some of the most precious gemstones she had ever laid eyes on, and she was not going to stand for that. "Better look out," she growled as she rushed forward, shifting the Clima-Tact into position. "I hear there's a strong gust coming. Cyclone Tempo!"

She hurled her weapon, and the resulting wind blast cleared her path of most of the creatures, sending them scattering to the left and right. She snatched the connected Cool and Heat poles from the air as it snapped back to her wrist, and then took a leaf from Sanji-kun's book: crouching, she leapt onto the back of one of the few Harvesters that hadn't been scattered, and vaulted off its back straight towards the final Attendant, reconnecting her Clima-Tact as she did so.

The Attendant made another trilling whistle that Nami was sure was the equivalent of a frantic scream, and it slithered aside as she struck out with her Sunny-enhanced weapon. Its one remaining whiplike limb twitched as though it wished to strike out and defend itself, but it held itself back. That limb was the only one left the creature had to hold the dark basket and its glowing stolen treasures within, and to strike would be to willingly hand them over. It turned to glide away towards the nearest Shepherd, basket extended as far away from Nami as it could manage. But by then it was too late, and Nami was charging towards it again over the bones and dead dreams of hundreds of other lost, forgotten souls, Clima-Tact drawn back to swing.

"Those aren't yours," she snarled angrily. "Those are the most precious, most important belongings of the Straw Hat Pirates, and I will never, ever let you have them!" The Clima-Tact struck true, and the dream-wrapped Thunder pole cracked into the whiplike creature's small, fragile head. Its high-pitched death shriek was painful so close, and Nami half expected her ears to start bleeding, but she'd willingly go deaf for the chance to steal those three gems back from the creature. Then it vanished, basket dropping uselessly through the air, and with a lunge Nami reached out and snatched the handle, bringing it protectively close to her chest.

They were there. All three of the Dreamshards were there, glowing brilliantly from their own inner light source, flashing through colors so fast it was almost mesmerizing to watch them. Each one was larger than Sanji-kun's had been, and in the darkness the basket cast on it's confines they looked almost suppressed, like not even their full brilliance was being permitted to escape.

Her nakama's dreams. To find the True History, to be the World's Greatest Swordsman. To find the One Piece, and be King of the Pirates. They were all here, finally, after so long, and seeing them gathered together like this made her unexpectedly possessive, protective, of them. She'd rather die then let those disgusting creatures have them again; she'd willingly face an army of the creatures if it meant keeping these three little gems out of their claws. Was this how Luffy felt, every time he collected a new crew member, when he accepted their ambitions, crazy as they might seem, without hesitation? Was this how he felt when someone slighted his crew's dreams, when he defended them so furiously, so unhesitatingly, against whatever challenges came their way?

She didn't know. But she did know what she felt was absolutely the truth, and she was not releasing these Dreamshards again for anything until they were back with the people they belonged to or she was dead. Narrowing her eyes in determination, she gripped the basket's handle in her teeth long enough to holster the Clima-Tact and pull Zoro's shining white katana from her belt, sheath and all. Then she hugged the reed basket close to her chest, turned to face the screaming, enraged Nightmares, and leapt off the edge of the Queen of the Night's nest into their midst.

She made towards Chopper and Zoro, backed into a corner of rubble not too far from the doorway they'd come through earlier. The doctor and his charge were closest, and even with her newfound determination to protect the Dreamshards to the death Nami was still operating within the bounds of reason. There was no way she could force her way through the massive numbers of stronger Nightmares and around the Queen of the Night herself to Franky, Usopp, Brook, and their two dreamless charges on her own. But with Chopper's help, and Zoro's—minimal as it might be after being dreamless for so long—her chances would improve considerably.

So Nami made her way with all the agility and skill she possessed as a thief towards Chopper and their downed not-swordsman. Fighting was no longer imperative. Every second she took to beat in the head of a Shepherd or a Harvester with Zoro's sword was another second the creatures had to steal back the Dreamshards clutched tight to her chest, and she was not giving them that option. Maybe she couldn't protect them the way Luffy or Zoro or Sanji-kun might, by mercilessly beating down anything that tried to get in the way, but she had her own skills and her own ways to help her nakama, and she was going to do her damned best at it. The Shepherds sliced at her, the Harvesters snatched at her, but Nami was clever and quick from her days of stealing from pirates and darting through crowds. She ducked under their scythe arms and dodged their grasping mandibles, and if one came too close she lashed out viciously with the sheathed white katana, sending them smoking to their deaths.

But they were getting smarter. She was still too far from Chopper's admirable defense—he was in Heavy Point now, Rumble Ball long since finished off, swinging out with Zoro's two remaining sheathed swords to keep his little corner clear while the not-swordsman sat sprawled against the wall behind him. The doctor was doing well, but not well enough that he could come to her aid, and the creatures seemed to know it as well. Leering evilly, the creatures knotted before her, blocking her way to Chopper's corner with such a thick gathering of Harvesters there would be no way for her to dodge through them, and there were too many for her to take on alone without risking the basket and its precious cargo clutched to her chest.

If only Sanji-kun were here...but he wasn't, and wouldn't get there in time even if he wanted to and understood the danger she was in. She could still hear the wild, fear-drenched screams of the Queen of the Night behind her, and knew Sanji-kun was fighting for his own life and the lives of half of her crew mates against the thing, trying to buy them time.

If only Chopper could get away! she thought next, as she charged ever closer to the wall of Harvesters; she couldn't stop moving, or the ones behind her would seize her as well. But the doctor couldn't leave his place to help her without risking Zoro, vulnerable as he was, and—

Realization dawning, eyes widening, she stuffed Zoro's white katana under one arm and plunged her newly freed hand into the basket.

She knew it was going to burn after her experience with Sanji-kun's Dreamshard, but apparently the sensation increased considerably with more than just one of the gems. Her eyes watered in pain as her hand almost immediately felt like it was catching fire, and she grit her teeth to keep from screaming. She mentally prepared herself for whatever she was going to feel from the Dreamshard's contents, too, and yet even so she wasn't ready for the sheer strength and power that flooded into her senses as she touched them. The sensations of not one, but three, extremely powerful lifelong dreams hit her in the head like a mental Gomu Gomu no Bazooka, and she rocked to the side despite herself, stumbling from the shock. She recovered quickly and hastily withdrew her hand, panting hard.

But for all that she still didn't know which Dreamshard was which, and she was rapidly getting closer to the Harvester wall. Grimacing again, she plunged her hand once more into the basket and gripped each of the shining gems individually, apologizing profusely to the three dreamless pirates for delving intimately into the depths of their souls.

Luffy's was the first one she grabbed; the sensation was unmistakable, could be nobody but her captain. Unlike Sanji-kun's dream, she wasn't assailed by scents or images. Instead, raw, undiluted feeling hit her instead, so powerful she almost stumbled again. It was pure determination, pure ideal, so strong it was almost tangible, and it felt almost too solid, too real, to be a mere dream. She had always wondered how Luffy could state with such certainty that he was going to be the Pirate King, not that he wanted to be one—but if this was what filled his heart every second of every day, then it was no wonder he was so positive about his goal. Such strength of mind felt...reassuring, familiar, and to Nami it almost felt like Luffy was running right alongside her, cheering her on, giving her strength, even though she knew deep down that it was because of this very gem in her hands that he needed her help, and not the other way around. She murmured a quick thanks to her captain—almost instinctively she felt that Luffy wouldn't really mind that she had touched upon his dream so closely—and dropped the shard back in the basket, picking up the next one.

This one was almost certainly Robin's, she knew, bare seconds after touching it. Horrible images invaded her mind as she grasped the next one in her palm, memories of destruction and fear and constant betrayal. But there was a determined link between all of those, a rock-steady drive to achieve, to find, to explore, to discover, and always when those horrible images returned that determination resurfaced, stronger than before. Nami could feel growth, strength, and near ruthless determination held together with cool, calm logic, and tied still further with vast stores of information. Catalogues upon catalogues of information poured into Nami's head, and for a moment she felt like she understood everything about how the world worked, could find her new memories interpreting her old ones from a new view, even translating the odd characters she had seen in Oneirosa for her. This was a dream that kept rebuilding itself, fixing itself, strengthening itself, no matter how many times one tried to beat it down, that endured even after twenty years of horror. Nami grit her teeth, feeling more than a little sick at the invasion of privacy but also proud of her roommate's strong ambition, and dropped this Dreamshard as well.

That made the last the one that she was looking for, and she snatched it up quickly, drawing it free from the basket. She didn't want to pry into Zoro's mind any further than necessary, either, especially considering how close-mouthed he was about his past, but it was impossible to block out the memories that assailed her senses. She was surprised at how much there was. She didn't peg Zoro as a sensory person, but she could hear the constant clang of steel or swish of bamboo training swords, smell the sweat and the blood as she struggled, feel the soreness in her muscles as she pushed herself just a little bit further, the agony of deep-biting wounds and—worse still—of defeat, the satisfaction of winning and growing stronger. Blanketing all of it was something deeper; something sturdy as a rock, brutally determined, surprisingly disciplined, and recklessly stubborn, a mesh of values that felt very familiar and exactly like him. And even deeper than that something churned below the surface, a face that was oddly familiar, like Nami herself had seen it before, and a vow fueled by intense rage and raw, powerful sorrow—

I don't want to see this anymore! Nami shrieked inside her own head, and out loud she screamed, "Chopper, this is Zoro's, catch it!" and hurled the glittering Dreamshard as far as she could.

It arced over the startled Harvesters, shining brightly in the light of the crystal dome above, and Nami hoped desperately that her gamble had been worth it. Every instinct of hers screamed that it was a foolish thing to do. Even her treasure-hunting senses were screaming at her that hurling something so valuable away like that was a foolish waste. But she was out of time, and wouldn't be able to protect all the Dreamshards at all, the way things were going. Better for at least one of their nakama to get theirs back.

The creatures screamed angrily now. Some turned to follow the glittering Dreamshard, but most turned on her, their multitudes of glittering eyes burning with hate. With a fierce glare of determination Nami turned on her heels and darted sideways, trying to outrun the creatures, run somewhere clearer—if she could distract the creatures long enough, perhaps one of the others could come to her aid—

Something slammed into her from behind, and with a yell of pain Nami crashed forward onto the bone-covered ground, wincing in pain as several of the splintery remains jammed into her skin and cut gashes along her body. The Dreamshard basket was still clutched close to her chest when she fell, and now jammed awkwardly into her stomach. She curled around it instinctively as she dragged Zoro's sword closer for protection, tried to beat off her attacker long enough to rise and run—

Something heavy pressed her down, and she could see one unnaturally long catlike leg spread out before her, and other clicking tarantula legs at her peripheral as the weight increased. Panic seized her as she realized there was a Harvester holding her down, and dread chilled her whole body as she felt its hot breath on her back. She knew what was coming next. Frantic, she tried to raise Zoro's sword to reach behind her and beat at its head, but the creature was so heavy and the angle so awkward she could barely raise the sword at all. One spider leg pinned her arm down a moment later, and another was creeping toward her stomach, trying to hook around the basket to draw the Dreamshards free. She screamed, both in fury and in fear, and tightened her grip on both the basket and the sword; she would not relinquish either, refused to. She could feel fangs at her back now—

The weight disappeared abruptly as the creature screamed in her ear, and seconds later something was dragging her up by the back of her collar. Something else tugged at the sword in her hand. In a daze she tugged back, struggled to free herself from the grip of her latest attacker; she had to get away, and Zoro would kill her if she let his precious sword get stolen by a Nightmare—

But somebody was yelling in her ear now, hoarse but irritated, and with a start she realized the voice was familiar. "Damn it, woman!" it growled, "Give me my damned sword already if you want to stay alive!"

"Zoro?" She asked, startled, and released the sword from shock more than because he was telling her to. The swordsman—and he was definitely a swordsman again—was standing next to her now, still holding her up by the scruff of her neck as he snatched up the white sword before it hit the ground, and his fingers didn't burn when he touched the hilt. He still looked pretty sickly—his breathing was heavy, his skin was far too pale to be natural, like he was still recovering from a major illness, and she was sure the dark circles still under his eyes were not caused by the bandanna he was wearing alone. But he was standing under his own power and alert, which was more than she could say for him for the past few days. His two other swords were already thrust through his haramaki, and he looked furious, like he was seriously raring for a fight. Chopper was nearby in Walk Point now, charging down angry Nightmares with his cloth-wrapped antlers to buy them some time and clear them a little space, and Nami could see the doctor looked just as relieved as she felt.

"Of course it's me," Zoro answered, shaking his head at her in exasperation. "Who the hell else would I be? You okay?" He finally set her down, and she stumbled slightly as her heels hit the pavement before hastily checking the basket still clutched to her chest. Luffy's and Robin's Dreamshards were still safe, thankfully.

"Fine," she answered. "Just a bit shocked." Zoro nodded and began drawing his swords from their sheathes, watching the crowd of Nightmares around them. He still looked a bit wobbly, but at this point that wasn't really any different from his condition in dozens of other fights, and he certainly was bleeding a lot less than usual. Although he did seem a bit out of the loop for most of the discoveries they'd made about the Nightmares.

"Keep your swords sheathed," she told him, and he gave her a confused look. "The sailcloth wrappings on the sheathes is what will damage them for your other two. Only the white one can damage them on its own." He frowned a little, but nodded, re-sheathed his red- and black-sheathed swords, and then raised all three weapons for fighting.

"What do we do now, Nami?" Chopper asked, darting back to them. His Walk Point wasn't quite as effective for clearing out Nightmares as his Horn Point had been, but they had a little breathing room for the moment, and that was all that mattered.

"We need to get to the others," Nami said, gesturing in the direction of the Queen of the Night. "On the other side of that...thing. I've got Luffy's and Robin's dreams. If we can restore them, maybe..."

"Lead on," Zoro said curtly around the white sword, now rightfully restored to its place of honor between his teeth. "We'll guard."

And she did.

The quote at the beginning was not in fact where I got my Queen's name. It's just a bizarre coincidence. But once I saw the quote, I had to use it, y'know? :)

It might be the better part of a week before I update next, but I'll try to get it out as soon as I can. NaNo, y'know?

~VelkynKarma