Chapter 30:
"Don't worry," the man standing on her left assured. The guy with curly black hair rested a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder and she looked up at him. He flashed her a smile before looking back at the rocky islands getting farther away from them. Usopp continued, "That kraken priest guy heard about what happened in the battle. None of their men knew it was really Bran controlling the kraken, so the stories all tell of it destroying their fleet to save us."
The younger girl nodded and looked back at the island. The Iron Islands fall back to the Starks in a single day. She thought back to the battle that to tell the truth she half thought she wouldn't make it through. Each of the comrades with her were amazingly powerful. Though I'm pretty strong myself, she thought with a small smile. The girl looked down at her waist at the empty sheath. Her smile faded off her face, her mind wandering to her fight with Victarion Greyjoy. Vengeance is still missing, she thought sadly.
While she was staring at her empty sheath, Usopp continued ranting while watching the islands fade behind them. "And that Euron guy was so surprised when he heard Theon was still alive. I'm sure Sansa, Rickon, and all of them will figure out what to do when they get the raven's message."
Since Balon Greyjoy met a brutal death by the sword a few days before, a new leader was necessary in the Iron Islands. Victarion or Asha would've been next if it weren't for their downfalls in battle. The only other Greyjoy in the Iron Islands was Balon and Victarion's younger brother, but Euron was a priest who gave up his claim. Although against the protests of her brother Jon, Arya suggested Theon's name. There was a big family argument, but in the end it came down to Bran's decision.
The young warg boy didn't seem thrilled, but he convinced Jon that they wouldn't be able to keep their victory without Theon's help. Bran argued that Sansa trusted him, so they should trust her. Arya agreed, and so did the pirates. The Straw Hats were quickly ready to leave the island full of people who hated them as soon as they were able.
Arya and Usopp finally watched as a small fog rolled in and took the Iron Islands out of their view. The girl sighed and turned around. "I'm gonna go get some training in."
The long-nosed man behind her grinned and called to her, "Good idea, me too." He watched her walk past Nami's tangerine trees and around the side of the cabin. As soon as she was gone the sniper dropped down so he was on his hands and feet. Nami, he thought, imagining her hanging off of the crow's nest. I almost dropped you. I had to fall myself because I wasn't strong enough. He dropped his arms down and bent at the elbows, then pushed himself back up. "One, two, three..."
Arya went around the side of the cabin and heard the sounds of cooking inside. It also sounded like Sanji was yelling at someone for trying to eat the food before he finished the meal. She chuckled a little hearing Luffy's moans and complaints.
When she rounded the front of the cabin, she looked down to the grassy deck. Just like most everything else on the ship, the deck was fully repaired. Even before working on his own body, Franky cared more about his ship. The Sunny was repaired in no time, with only the aquarium going to take a longer time to fix.
Other things needed fixing though, which was why Franky and Chopper were on the main deck in the first place. The cyborg and talking-reindeer doctor were tinkering with the former's body. Arya walked down the stairs to them and saw Chopper whispering loudly at the shipwright in an angry tone. "What's going on?" She asked them.
The two on the deck turned to her and Franky put his arms up above his head in his signature pose. "I'm Super alright. What's goin' on with you little sis?"
The girl groaned at the nickname considering there were already two people on board who were able to call her that. Even though Bran is younger than me, she thought with a frown. She noticed Chopper still looked aggravated and looked at the small creature, "Is everything really fine?"
"No!" Chopper exclaimed. The furry creature pointed at Franky, "He wants me to take his other eye out!"
Arya spun back to Franky with a look of surprise on her face. "Why?" She asked him.
The cyborg punched a fist onto his steel chest. "I'm almost completely protected from the front, but I've still got a few weak points."
"Your eyes are weak points?" Arya questioned, wondering how that could be possible. "But uh, don't you need those?"
"Nah," he replied in a confident tone. "A Super cyborg like myself can make better eyes! I could give them thermal vision and even make them zoom. They'd have farther range than even Usopp's."
Arya smirked, "I seriously doubt that."
"It's not happening!" Chopper shouted, seeing that Arya didn't look as concerned as he did. He looked at the two of them like they were crazy, "Getting a new eye because you lost one fighting is one thing. You can't take your own eye out, on purpose!"
"I'm doing it with or without your help Chopper-bro." Franky stated matter-of-factly. "But you'll help, I know." The reindeer buffed out into his heavy point and growled at the cyborg for a few seconds before turning around in frustration and marching off.
"Does Chopper seem, a little off today?" Arya asked as she and Franky watched him leave.
The large metal man frowned, "He's probably still upset about getting captured. He thinks he's weak, and seeing me trying to get stronger..." Franky sighed, getting up to his feet. He realized how he must be making the little guy feel as he'd already felt it a lot since the battle ended, and more since Ghost died. "I'll go talk to him," the cyborg muttered.
"O-okay," Arya replied and watched as he left the same way Chopper went. The girl looked behind her at the mast, then walked over and started climbing it. "Weak" What Franky said echoed in her mind as she climbed up the mast. They both think they're weak, but they're each stronger than I am. The girl reached a small platform under the crow's nest and reached her arms up, grabbing the platform and swinging herself onto it. She climbed up the ladder into the open hatch and stepped up on the outer edge of the tower.
The girl's eyes caught something and she looked down at a crack on the side of the training room wall. It wasn't big, it just looked like maybe an arrowhead got stuck in it. She bent down and slid her finger over the crack, feeling the smooth wood on either side of it.
Arya wasn't ready for it. Her body suddenly convulsed and both her hands flew to her stomach. "Ahh," she half-yelled, trying to keep herself quiet despite the pain. "Why does this keep happening?" She fell to her knees and bowed her head down into her chest. Arya clenched her teeth, fists, and growled as she glared down at the floor. Soon, the agony in her stomach left her and she was left panting on her knees with the look of pain plastered to her face.
That's three times today now. More than yesterday and it isn't even noon. What's happening to me? The girl used to wall for support and pulled herself back up to her feet. "Just ignore it," she mumbled, "it's not like you lost an eye, or a leg."
Bran's face appeared in her mind as she walked over to the door to the training room. She was thinking about him and his dog-wolf when she walked into the room, but then her thoughts changed as she saw Zoro staring at her. He was sitting over on the bench to the left of the door, with a white towel over his neck hanging down on either side in front of his sweaty body. His shirt was off and he was panting even harder than she was a few seconds ago. "Uhh, hi," she greeted, not realizing he was up here. Though where else would he be? Besides napping that is.
Zoro watched the girl walk over towards the weights. She reached down to grab a pair of forty pound weights when Zoro asked, "Where's your sword?"
The girl froze up with her hands hovering right above the weights. Zoro noticed her tension and he stood up off his bench. She looked over at him nervously but he had a furious expression on his face. "I can explain," she started.
"I told you over and over," he stated, his anger showing on his face as he continued, "your sword is your life."
"I know!" She shouted back at him. She was on the defensive, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse for why she didn't have her weapon anymore. "But-" she started to shout the reason, but then closed her mouth. What happens when I tell him about the darkness? I lost control of my power, and now my weapon is gone.
"That's what I thought," Zoro scolded, seeing how she wasn't able to come up with anything. He had to make himself angry to cover up how he really felt which would show underneath. He was disappointed. "Start your training, I'll be up here in a few hours for a spar." He walked over towards the door, then looked back without the anger on his face. Arya saw his look of disappointment and her heart fell. He shook his head at her and walked through the door.
Zoro left the training room and walked around the outside of it. His fists were clenched hard at his sides and the anger came back as he stormed around the room. Unknowingly, he made a full circle around the building and came back to a stop at the door. "What? When?" He turned around and marched the other way, but a few seconds later wound up right back in front of the door.
Through clenched teeth he growled, "Here's as good a place as any." Then he dropped to the floor and passed out.
Inside the room next to the napping man, Arya was staring at her hands angrily. "Why did I do that?" She shouted, clenching her fists. "It was my own sword, so why did I get rid of it?!" She focused on her hands, trying to make something happen, anything happen, but it was pointless. "And you never want to work when I want do you? Well that's fine," she started grumbling at the end as she realized she was yelling at herself.
If I can't rely on this power, I need to be stronger without it. I can't lose to anyone. Arya looked back over at the weights and reached down for the forties. Her hands hesitated above them, and then she lifted them up and grabbed the fifty pounders above them. It wasn't hard to lift them and get them on the bar, but once she started lifting it up above her head for strength workouts, the strain was clear. It hurt, but she clenched her teeth and accepted the pain in her muscles.
The teenage girl worked tirelessly in the training room with higher weights than she'd ever tried before. Her workouts were to the max, and at one point she collapsed as a muscle in her left leg gave out.
Lying on the floor, rubbing her left leg, she wondered what her comrades would do if this happened to them in battle. She imagined Zoro standing right back up, and Luffy pushing through it with a loud yell. "Rrgh," she groaned, lifting up her injured leg and putting weight on it. "Don't stop now. Who said you could take a break? RrrRRGGHHH!"
Arya lifted back up to both feet and was actually amazed. She fought through the pain and got on her own two feet without anyone around helping her. Grinning, she reached down to grab the weight she dropped before. The second she bent over, her other leg gave out and as all her weight was put on the already injured one, she yelped out in pain and fell to the floor.
"Ahh, ah ah," she reached down and grabbed at her legs searing in pain. She didn't hear any cracks, so she didn't think it was her bones. It felt like horrible cramps ripping through her muscles over and over. It hurts, she rolled over onto her stomach, but silenced her voice. I can't let pain get to me. She closed her mouth and made no sounds as the pain rippled through her. The rest of her muscles burned from the workouts, but whatever she pulled in her legs made her feel like screaming in pain.
The silent girl sitting still on the floor of the training room was left with only her thoughts. It's impossible. I can never be as strong as Zoro, I can't even match Jon or Gendry. While she sat there, deep in pain, thinking her dark thoughts, she didn't notice the floor beneath her start to get darker. Her legs suddenly became the least of her worries as her stomach clenched with pain, much worse than the three other times she'd felt it today, and more than the other times she'd felt it after the battle combined. "What's, happening, to, me?" she dropped down on her stomach and crawled forward, but now that her face was close to the floor she could see the darkness spread out around the room. "What?" she said in a confused voice as the darkness got to the walls, but her confusion was quickly replaced with only pain.
"Ahh-" she yelped, turning over so she was on her back face up towards the ceiling. "AHH!" she yelled, and the darkness erupted around her. Bubbles started popping out of the darkness and a deep rumbling sounded all around her. The pain in her stomach escalated to its height, making it impossible for her to even scream out the pain was so severe. Her mouth opened with no words able to come out as her body arced, and then all around her, out of the darkness, men came flying out of the floor. Her eyes widened even as she arced in pain, staring in horror as twenty men wearing leather armor and one wearing full steel erupted out from the floor and into the training room.
The pain in her stomach subsided, but her breaths were ragged and she was exhausted. "Y-You," she whispered, seeing the Ironborn soldiers all around her. Most of them dropped down to the floor with pale faces, shivering in fear, looking so cold with far away looks in their eyes.
"So d-dark," one of them whispered in a horrified voice. He was curled up in the fetal position near the side wall, and when he saw the girl in the middle of the room, the one who trapped him in the dark void, he started to cry and crawled away as fast as he could.
Aya was staring at the man in steel armor though, the only man capable of getting off his knees and up to his feet. He didn't have his helmet on, but Arya could see it resting over near the wall behind him. She saw something else near the helmet too that made her eyes go wide. The darkness covering the floor dispersed, along with the remaining lingering pain she felt. The girl tried to stand up, but the pain in her legs coursed through her again and she remembered collapsing a few minutes ago. Shit, she thought, looking back up to the man wearing armor from his neck down, staring at her like she was a demon.
"I don't know what you did to us," Victarion Greyjoy growled, his voice cracking a little towards the end. He reached down and picked up his sword at his feet, "But I need to kill you." His eyes were full of fear now that Arya looked into them, he was terrified, but also furious at the same time.
"D-Don't," Arya whispered, her voice hoarse as she started dragging herself across the floor. Her whole body felt weak, and she now knew why she was having all those strange stomach pains, Were they all, inside me? This whole time? Wh-What did- she heard footsteps behind her and looked over her shoulder to see the large man walking towards her. She bumped into a kneeling man who she wasn't paying attention to, and when she looked behind her, the man had a crazed look in his eyes. Her bumping into him seemed to shake him from his daze, and with a crazy smile he turned and grabbed her by the throat.
"What you did…" the man said, his voice unnaturally high-pitched, his hands freezing as he grabbed the girl by the throat. "It was unnatural," he clenched harder and Arya started to choke. A few others in the room who were stronger willed, managed to lift off their stomachs, or knees, and stand with their Commander. They'd been through Hell, but here was Victarion Greyjoy, their leader, standing tall with them.
"Kill the bitch," another man snarled over, his eyes glazed over as he watched his comrade strangle the teen girl.
Victarion said nothing as his man thrashed the girl's neck. She was trying to say something through her chokes and the guy loosened his grip a little, "What was that girl? I couldn't hear you."
"I've," she gasped out, his hands still around her neck but a little looser now. She had her eyes closed, and her face was pale, but a small grin came to her face making the Ironborn man lying over her go wide-eyed. She opened her eyes and said, "I've got your knife." The man looked confused for a second, then snapped his head down as he felt a jab in his side. He watched as the girl dragged the blade from the left side between his front and back leather pads, ripping open his side from waist to shoulder, and letting everything pour out.
Arya got soaked as the man's entrails fell out on top of her, but she didn't have time to waste. Ignoring the pain in her legs, which she managed to do now that she was surrounded by enemies, she got to her knees and scampered across the floor while the other men were still shocked about their comrade's death. He gasped a few times, spitting up blood before resting still on the floor, an empty knife sheath on his side. The group of Ironborn soldiers turned and followed the girl as she crawled quickly to the side of the room, and reached for her sword which she saw right next to Victarion's discarded helmet. She reached for it, her fingers almost touching, when a steel boot slammed into her left side and sent her tumbling across the training room floor.
The girl hit the opposite wall with a thud, making her wince and clench her eyes shut. As she opened them, she watched Victarion, now with his helmet on, pick up her sword to hold it with one hand and his large broadsword in his other. "It's time for the two of us," the man stated in a harsh voice, "to finish our fight." He started walking towards her, but the girl was helpless as she leaned back against the wall. Her body was sweating like crazy, and she had barely exerted herself at all. It's not from the training before, at least not all of it. Whatever I did that sucked those men into the darkness was sapping my strength. Before she could get happy about how her workout was being hindered, so maybe it wasn't totally her fault she couldn't stand back up before, she first had to focus on the enemies in front of her. One man in particular was scaring the crap out of her as he walked forward, lifting up his broadsword in both hands.
"Hey Arya I-" Zoro stopped talking as he opened the door. He'd woken up for some strange reason while he was outside, and hearing the way things were crashing around inside the training room, he suspected the girl was beating herself up over losing her sword. He imagined the look of disappointment he gave her was partly the reason for that, so he was going to train with her for a while and see if she could redeem herself, but the scene going on inside the training room was more than he could handle in the moment. The green haired swordsman went wide-eyed at the sight of twenty men in his crow's nest. There were still about ten on the floor, but as he walked in, two more were getting up to their feet slowly, and another who was on his knees was lifting up his sword. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING ON OUR SHIP?!" he yelled at all these people who somehow got into the training room while the were sailing. He had no clue how they would have gotten past the rest of the crew, or him, and make it up to this room where they were clearly beating Arya.
The black haired teenage girl leaning on the wall saw Zoro walk in, and when he did all the people in the room looked towards him. She opened her eyes wide seeing him reach for her swords, and she moved fast. Victarion heard movement behind him when he turned towards the older swordsman, and he spun back around to see Arya diving for his left hand. She grabbed his hand with both of hers and bit him on the wrist, making him open up his fingers to release the grip on her sword. As he released the grip though, he spun his main weapon towards the girl. Zoro drew a sword quickly to send a flying slash cannon her way, but the girl surprised him by grabbing her weapon with both hands as she fell and holding it up on her side. She got hit by the broadsword at full speed on its slash, and her feet weren't on the ground to steady her, but she avoided getting cut by blocking with her own weapon. The power of his slash still sent her flying across the room into a wall where she clenched her teeth and seethed in pain with her whole body already aching, and now hurting more than ever.
"Take care of the other one," Victarion commanded, "and the rest of you," he kicked the man to his left who was crawling away. Zoro saw something in the eyes of a man on the floor that confused him. He didn't see any injuries on the guy, but his eyes showed he was in so much fear, more afraid than anyone Zoro had ever seen. His skin looked pale and he was crawling with the eyes of a man who'd seen a ghost. Victarion shouted at this man and the others who would cower like him, "Get up and fight, or get out of my way." He marched towards Arya who was slowly pulling herself up to her feet.
Zoro drew two swords as a cluster of men walked his way. "You don't want to do this," the swordsman said in a confident tone as he got ready to cut these men down. He looked over at the guy approaching Arya, getting ready to attack and go straight for the leader, but he saw Arya look past the man and all the way to him.
"Victarion is mine," Arya growled over at the green haired man. Zoro's eyes widened as he'd heard Arya had killed Victarion Greyjoy during the battle for Ironman's Bay. Looking at the guy in full armor walking towards her now, he could see the resemblance. The descriptions of this Ironborn warrior were that he was the best of the Iron Islands. He was amazed Arya had managed to take him down on her own, but now he was thoroughly confused.
The green haired man couldn't interrupt this fight, but the rest of these men weren't off limits. He glared at the guy closest to him who looked the most daring, and he growled at him, "How did you get aboard our ship?"
Behind the halting man, Zoro could see a disemboweled man lying in a puddle of his own blood with a knife sticking out of his ribs. The guy who froze looked scared, but also a little confused, "We boarded your ship-"
"Days ago," Zoro stated, then saw the men in front of him shaking with scared looks in their eyes.
One of them, a skinny man with messy long brown hair whispered, "We've been in there for days."
"It, was so dark," another whispered, his eyes shutting as all that time came back to him. Hours, upon hours, days of nothing but the darkness.
"And cold," another Ironborn said, tears coming to his eyes.
The man in front closest to Zoro looked back across the room where the sound of steel slashing on steel rang out. He was a large man with vertical scars on either cheek, and he stared over at the girl with long dark hair who sent shivers down his spine. Zoro saw the terrified way the man was looking at his pupil, and it unnerved him to say the least. The guy looked back at Zoro and lifted his sword, letting the green haired pirate know it was time to finish this quickly. A few seconds after the scar-faced man lifted his sword, Zoro stood in the center of the room, and all men who dared to stand up to him were lying on the ground squirming with shallow wounds all over their bodies.
Victarion pushed Arya's Vengeance away with his sword, and before she could bring it back around, he smacked her across the face with his free hand that still had a steel glove on it. Blood splattered from Arya's mouth and she hit the floor on her knees. Her lip was bleeding and she felt like she cracked a tooth, but when she looked back up, her mouth pain was the least of her worries. She barrel-rolled to the right and Victarion's sword got stuck in the wood, but he saw her rolling and stepped her direction, kicking with an armored boot and nailing her in the side he hit her before, bruising her even worse while cracking something inside. Zoro heard the loud crack and watched as his pupil lifted off the ground and slammed into their weight rack on the other side of the crow's nest.
He sighed. The Greyjoy commander looked over to see the green haired man standing in the center of all his defeated men. The swordsman didn't look tired at all, and Victarion narrowed his gaze. He looked over towards Arya, and the thought of taking the girl hostage crossed his mind for a second, but he decided against it. "We do not sew," he muttered, lifting up his blade. "If I want off this ship, I will do it on my own. After killing this bitch."
Arya could barely open her eyes. She was lying in a pile of weights and her body screamed with pain all over, especially in her side where her ribs cracked. She could see her enemy walking towards her, and Zoro didn't look like he was going to step in to help her. I'm going to die here. I can't die here! Cersei, The Mountain, the Red Woman, Thoros of Myr, Cersei, The Mountain, Beric Dondarrion, Walder Frey, Cersei, Walder Frey. Walder Frey. WALDER FREY. The thought of that old, disgusting man, killing her family at a wedding, murdering them under his own roof, under his protection, her vision went blurry. The floor around the girl started to lose its color, and the man walking towards her saw the signs of what happened before coming again. Victarion charged, not going to let it happen a second time. Around the room, the men who were already down started crawling away and panicking as Arya's power reemerged.
"No," one of the men who never got up to fight Zoro whimpered, crawling towards the door Zoro came in from. The Ironborn soldier left the Crow's Nest and finally got up to his feet, so that he could dive over the edge of the crow's nest. Usopp was standing down on the deck below, talking to Nami, when both of them jumped in fright seeing a man slam into the railing near them and do a flip before falling off the ship and into the water below.
"Ahh!" the navigator shouted seeing the blood splatter on the railing where the guy's head hit pretty hard.
Usopp lost his shocked look after a few seconds and looked up to the crow's nest where more men were coming down, though these were smart enough to use the ropes. "Where did they come from?!" he exclaimed, pointing and screaming as a dozen armed men were coming towards him. He drew his bow, but then froze as the men climbing down all had the same terrified look in their eyes. A few of them started shouting in fear and when they got near the bottom of the ropes, they dove right off the side of the ship. "What the Hell-" the sharpshooter whispered, looking up at the crow's nest that he had no idea how these men got into it while they were standing at the bottom.
He and Nami looked at each other with confused glances, and they gulped together before making for the ropes and ladder to head up to the crow's nest. What the Hell is going on up there? Usopp thought as he climbed as fast as he could. He reached the top only a few seconds before Nami and stood in the doorway of the training room with a dropped jaw. "What is it?" Nami asked him as she got up top as well. The long-nosed man spun to Nami and put his arms out to either side, blocking off the entrance from her.
Nami was about to complain and tell him to move, but the man shook his head at her. She looked up in his eyes and from the look of his eyes, she knew she didn't want to see what was inside that room, but that just made her want to look even more. She was about to push past him, when her eyes caught a glimpse of the floor just past Usopp's feet. She stared down at it and watched as the red liquid seeped out of the door and out on the edge of the crow's nest. The orange haired woman grabbed Usopp by the arm and pulled him a little to the right. He was confused at why she did that, but then he turned and looked down at the puddle of blood coming out of the training room that she pulled him away so his feet wouldn't get in it. "Nami," Usopp said in a calm, but serious voice, "go back down."
She wanted to argue, but she just nodded her head and turned around, grabbing the ropes and heading back down below.
"What's going on up there?" Sanji asked as Nami climbed all the way to the grassy deck. They'd heard shouting and come out to see men swimming away from their ship, panicking and scared.
The teenager shook her head, looking around at her confused crew with wide eyes. Sanji looked up like he was going to go up there, but Zoro leaned over the edge of the crow's nest and looked down at the crew below. "No one come up here."
The swordsman made eye contact with the rubber captain down below, and Luffy saw the look in his first mate's eyes. "Alright!" the captain clapped his hands together. "Sanji! Lunch!"
"Ehh? I just finished breakfast!" the chef shouted back at the captain. Franky and Chopper went back to discussing Franky's replacement-eye-surgery, the others all split up to do their own things, but Bran kept staring up at the top of the mast for a few seconds longer than the rest of them.
Nami could see the boy looking up there nervously, and she walked over and pat him on top of the head as he sat on Summer's warm back. He turned to her and she faked a smile for him, "Come on Bran," she said, you ever seen the Mini Merry?" The younger teen shook his head no, and Nami grinned, "Let's go for a quick ride," she offered, and he smiled back at her wondering what this Mini Merry could be.
Up in the crow's nest, Zoro walked back in and over to Arya who Usopp was kneeling in front of. He had her shoulders in his hands and was shaking her to get her to focus on him. Her eyes were pointed straight ahead at the cluster of bodies on the floor. Not just Victarion Greyjoys, but all the others who didn't get up and run soon enough. They all lay there cut to death, the amount of blood in the room and on her own clothes scaring her. "It's okay," Usopp told her, the same thing he'd been repeating over and over.
"It's not," she said, finally speaking after staying shell shocked for a few minutes. "I-" she stopped, looking Usopp in the eyes and wondering if she should say, remembering how he looked at her back when she killed Meryn Trant. "I-I-" she spoke quieter and said, "I didn't have control."
"These men got Ghost killed," Zoro stated from where he stood behind Usopp. "They cut off your brother's leg-"
"But that's not why I did it," Arya said, looking up at her teacher with scared eyes that didn't fit her personality at all. "I didn't, have, a reason. I just, killed them. I killed them without any control over myself." She lifted up her hands and stared at them, turned her head and looked at her soaking red Vengeance lying at her side. "Vengeance," she whispered, "I wish that was why I did it."
Usopp didn't give the girl the look she thought he would, he just looked at her with a worried expression. The sharpshooter and Zoro just watched as the girl reached down and grabbed her thin blade by the bloody hilt. "I've felt good killing before, because it felt right. I love killing. But this didn't feel right, it felt like, like I was quenching a thirst." Her hand started shaking and her sword fell from it, leaving her to stare at her empty, bloody hand. "I wish I had never eaten that fruit," she whispered, her eyes darkening. No you don't, she thought in her head, you loved feeling like that. Sticking your blade in their throats when they couldn't even move, it felt GREAT! Her mouth twisted up into a smile, and then distorted into a horrified frown that had her scooting back into the wall behind her even harder, curling up into a ball.
Zoro stared at the girl with, concerned eyes. She got her sword back. Must have returned with those men. I should have let her explain what happened to it. His eyes narrowed as he watched Usopp console the girl, telling her it was going to be alright. Can… Could a Devil Fruit, be evil? Could it change a person's character? He didn't have an answer, and he couldn't even tell the girl in front of him that it would be alright, because he had no idea if it would be. "Arya," he stated, making the girl look past Usopp and at her sword master, "for now on, we will not just be training your sword skills. Every day, you will train your ability. You will learn how to control it." Her sad eyes looked at him in despair and he said sternly, "I won't give up on you, so you are not allowed to give up either. Got it?" he asked sternly at the end, giving her a sharp glare he normally gave during training if she looked about to complain, or if she messed up with a simple mistake.
The girl saw his light glare and she sucked it up. She rose up one hand to her face and wiped the tears, which got blood from her hand all over her face. Despite how gross it was, Usopp actually chuckled to see her make herself even messier. The girl punched him with her free hand, then reached forward and grabbed the front of his overalls, wiping her face on them to get the blood off. "Hey! I just washed these!" Usopp exclaimed, pulling away and making the girl chuckle.
Glad you're up here Usopp, Zoro thought as he watched the man start bringing Arya's spirits back up. He glanced around him at the red room and grimaced, Now I've gotta clean this up.
A/N Oh, so that's where Victarion and those guys went. Haha, remember how Blackbeard used his black hole and then sent everyone flying afterward? Yeah, since Arya didn't know how to send everyone back out, she had those guys... stuck inside her? XD. Get ready for the next arc of this story, Dorne! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review telling me what you thought or any questions you've got down below!