Title: On the Ocean Blue
Written By: NikoArtagnan
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship/Adventure
Rating: T, will eventually go to M
Summary: An outcast from Earth is flung headfirst into a hostile, unforgiving world, and finds themselves tagging along with a very particular crew of misfit pirates, and the boy who wants to be the King of them all. But this isn't the world of One Piece you thought you knew, and there are terrible things lurking in the shadows...
Chapter-Specific Warnings: None!
Chapter Sixteen:
I Can't Walk Among the Stars
Ace gently stroked the silvery blue pattern of scales as the Magus quivered. She wasn't used to such intimacy from someone else, especially from a human. Even Mina hadn't paid so much attention to her scales. She'd tolerated them, at most.
"I met one of your people in the New World," Ace said quietly. He'd caught her arm when she'd tried to hide it after her scales had been exposed. "Saved my life, he did. I'd seen mermaids and mermen of all types before, but I'd never seen any who could match him in beauty. Is that a thing of your people's race?" He asked, and there was honest curiosity in his eyes. "Beauty beyond compare?"
"…You're very good at flattery," Kelly got out once she'd managed to untwist her tongue. Ace's eyes – dark as obsidian – sparkled with amusement.
"Why thank you. But that's not what I meant to say. You are beautiful, and saying something so patently obvious is as much flattery as saying the sun is bright," Ace said rather nonchalantly. "What are you doing in the desert of all places?"
"Traveling to the New World," Kelly said, accepting the pile of clothes Ave handed her. "And what's the second captain of Whitebeard's fleet doing here, if we're going to be playing twenty questions?"
Ace's face went dark. "Looking for someone who killed one of my crewmates. You heard of a guy named Blackbeard, by any chance?"
Kelly looked at Ace, studying the man, wondering if she should tell him. She liked Ace, but she hadn't interfered at all so far in the story (at least, not with any lasting consequences). But she could feel something strange in her heart, as though she was standing at the middle of a crossroads, between a road she knew all too well and a road shrouded in mystery.
"I might," she said quietly, and his eyes locked onto hers. "I'll tell you what I know, but I've gotta get dressed and get back to the pirates I've been traveling with. Wouldn't want to get left behind, after all."
"Who are you traveling with? Most of your race wouldn't go near humans if you paid them all the gold in the world," Ace asked as she turned to head into the back room.
"The Straw Hat pirates," Kelly said, watching him out of the corner of her eye. He stiffened.
"What?"
Kelly was careful to keep her face neutral, only a little bit curious as she turned around.
"Well, yes. Do you know them? To the best of my knowledge, they're not a very well-known crew yet."
A grin spread across his face like the rising of the sun, and the Magus felt her voice strangle in her throat.
"Monkey D. Luffy's my little brother. D'you think you can show me where he is?" Ace asked.
What the fuck are you doing? A little voice in her mind screamed in fury. Weren't we supposed to not get involved? Now you've fallen head over heels for a rutting human who'll fucking die because his father was King of the thrice-damned Pirates. He's supposed to die, remember?! He dies so Luffy can become stronger, and so Sabo'll get the Mera Mera no Mi.
Don't you remember?
"Of course I can," she said with a smile of her own. As she left the room, she noticed Shere Khan and Gin both twining around Ace's ankles, purring fiercely. She smiled as the brawny young man knelt down and began to pet them.
'Bugger Fate,' she thought as she hurriedly got dressed. 'Bugger Fate and bugger inevitability. Ace doesn't deserve to die. He doesn't.'
She felt her back straighten as the two of them got closer to where she'd left the Straw Hats. She'd forgotten that they certainly hadn't parted on the best of terms.
"Ah, Ace?" she asked.
"Mmhm?" Ace replied, rubbing Shere's neck from where she lay draped over his shoulders.
"Don't mention my scales or my gender to your brother or the others, okay? They don't know and I'd prefer they never found out," The Magus said quietly, her hands clenching into fists.
Ace blinked at her. "But isn't he your captain?"
She glared up at him for a few moments before turning away.
"No. He is not," she said coldly.
Ace, Gods all bless him, let the subject drop after that.
The sounds of battle came from up ahead, a harsh clang of vibration carrying on the air, and she cocked an ear towards it. Ace watched her, interested.
"Hear something?" He asked and she nodded.
"Aye. Your brother's run into a Marine with smoke powers and is having a helluva time in throwing him off," Kelly said, and Ace smirked.
"Well, I can't be having that, now can I?" He smirked and held out a hand. "Wanna beat the shit out of some Marines, beautiful?"
Kelly cackled at that, then held a hand over her mouth in faux mockery.
"But how do I know you can…ahem, keep up with me, big boy?" she flirted back unashamedly. "I do have standards when it comes to those I go walking with."
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Ace asked as the two of them began to run towards the sound.
Kelly laughed and laughed and laughed and tried not to show how homesick she was feeling.
She had seen it on the TV and she'd seen it in the book. She knew Ace was a commander of Whitebeard's army, second only below Marco the Phoenix and Whitebeard himself. She knew he was strong.
But it was one thing to see it on the screen and yet another thing entirely to see it in person. To hear his roar of "HIKEN!"
To see the wave of fire smash into the Billions' ships, crumpling them into ash like so much wet paper before his power. To hear the terrified, oh so brief screams the Baroque Works agents were allowed before they were eaten up in a split second by the flash fire.
To feel the immense rush of heat against her cheeks, her braid being blown back by the shockwave.
:That's a lotta fire, isn't it Mama?: Shere Khan, her voice dazed, and if Kelly wanted to be honest, she was in a little better state than her Familiar.
It is, darling, she whispered in her mind. That certainly is a lot of fire.
Her fingers trembled against the railing as she watched the fire consume what remained of the Billions' ships.
(Well, I'm certainly impressed.) Gin's voice was vaguely shocked in her mind. (I doubt even She would disapprove of someone as powerful as him, even though he's one of the Cursed. Well done indeed, Mistress)
Later she would think about the meaning of those alarming words. But for now her attention was focused on the man who leapt back onto the railing, and was smiling so sweetly down at her.
"Does that meet your standards?" he asked.
She blinked up at him for a few moments before realizing what he meant.
And then she howled with laughter, clutching her sides as they began to ache.
"You son of a gun, of course it did," she said.
NAMI
He'd laughed.
It had surprised them all how easily the dark man got along with Ace, Nami thought with a sigh as she spared a glance at the Log Pose, though it wasn't strictly necessary. It gave her comfort, was all.
Ciel had laughed so joyfully, so warmly, so openly when Ace had flirted with him and had more than returned the favor. Nami sighed and rubbed her face. He'd never been that way with any of them. He looked at Ace like…like…like she herself would look at an enormous statue made from gold. With affection and the tiniest hint of this can't be real and someone's going to take this away from me, so I better grab onto it fast before they do.
Ciel had smiled, and it had been so beautiful that Nami had almost fallen in love. Why did he never act that way with them?
-…the door crashed open beside them, and both of the girls let out shrieks of shock as crazy-eyed Ciel slammed into the railing. His hair was unbraided, roughly tangled. He must have come straight from bed, then.
He looked around, then his eyes narrowed on Luffy and Usopp, fishing at the railing, and it occurred to Nami then that perhaps letting the two boys use Shere Khan as bait had not been the smartest thing in the world.
Then Ciel roared with fury, a deep, bestial sound that made her bones rattle and the hair stand up on the back of her neck, and he was over the railing, heading towards the two boys below. Nami was frozen where she stood, even as Zoro bolted to his feet when Ciel grabbed Luffy and Usopp by the necks.
His normally handsome face had twisted into a grotesque mask in his fury and he was snarling, snarling like an animal would, and all Nami could remember in that moment was seeing Arlong's face in one of his rages, when he'd torn apart a man from another town in front of them all.
And it was terrifying beyond words…-
Nami rubbed her face again.
Ciel had quite literally gone mad when he'd seen what Luffy and Usopp had done. But…there had been grief in his eyes. And when he'd calmed down, Nami had seen the betrayal and the utter, utter fear as his trembling hands clutched the cat to his shoulder.
Nami wondered if the man knew he'd been shuddering as he walked past, whispering "I'll protect you" to his cat with the desperation of a man stranded in the desert for weeks.
Nami sighed as they began their trudge through the desert, Ace and Ciel chatting amiably at the rear of their group.
What in the hell were they going to do?
Meanwhile, at the city of Rainbase….
"How goes it?" A man's voice, deep and almost sultry, filtered through the air to the woman standing before the window. A creature that looked much like a crocodile lounged in the shadows near her, eing her carefully.
"I have had no difficulties. 200 of the Billions are on standby in Nanohana, and well over 400 of the Thralls have also been stationed where they would do the most damage. Mr. 2 along with Miss Mother's Day and Mr. 6 have been recalled." The woman smiled as the water rippled in the wake of some enormous beast's passing outside the window. "Miss Mother's Day reported they were successful in their mission and would like to be known as Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 now. They have news that Princess Vivi is in the care of the pirates who defeated Mr. 3 and his partner, and that if our plans are to progress, that the pirates must be eliminated immediately."
"Where are they now?" The man asked again, taking a long drag of his cigar.
"The pirates?"
"No."
"Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine will be meeting with the rest of the Officer Agents at the Spider's Café. They… have their orders not to kill any of the others."
"Very good."
"It's past six already. They should be meeting by now."
The Spider's Café
8 o'clock
"So you wish to die."
The air was thick with the heat that would plague those who lived in Arabasta for well into the night for months to come. It was doing nothing to calm any of them down, Paula – who was better known as Miss Doublefinger – thought with a sigh as she threw out a hand before Mr. 1, much less this testosterone pissing match the two men were indulging in.
They had other things, more important things to be doing than fighting amongst themselves.
"Stop this, Mr. 1," she said.
"Get out of my way, Miss Doublefinger. I'm going to kill him," her partner said, his face as stoic as ever. Only someone who'd known him for a long while could tell the furrowing of his brow was as close as he ever got to erupting in rage.
Mr. 2 was swearing from where Mr. 4 had pinned him to the ground as Miss Merry Christmas looked on.
Miss Doublefinger spared him a look of disgust before saying "Will you calm down Mr. 2? It's 8 o'clock and all the designated Agents are her-"
"Not all of them, perhaps. Were you going to start without us, Miss Doublefinger?" An amused, female voice came from behind them, and instinctively all the Agents stiffened.
The second highest female Officer Agent looked up at the roof of the Café just as two people leapt to the ground. They were perhaps the most ordinary looking people a person could ever see in their lives, not very tall and not very short, with dark hair, tanned skin, and faces that were easily forgettable.
Miss Doublefinger would have commended them for their subtlety and their dedication to appearing harmlessly normal – which was a trait that none of the rest of the Baroque Works seemed able to grasp, herself included – but for their eyes.
Deep, deep pools of red and black and purple and gold, inhuman eyes, eyes full of madness and lust, with only the thinnest veneer of faux-humanity to hide them.
Those eyes – and the knowledge of what lay behind them – gave the woman formally known as Paula the major shakes. After all, she and Mr. 1 had been called to do damage control over a town those two had ravaged. She'd seen first-hand what those two were capable of doing.
She knew who – and more importantly, what – they were. They were frightening intelligent and able to blend in with other humans effortlessly, but they were not human. At all.
And it was that simple fact that made them so uniquely terrifying.
The ordinary woman with the inhuman eyes smiled at her, and Miss Doublefinger fought down the shakes.
"Ah, we did not expect you here, Miss Mother's Day-"
"Miss Valentine, please," the woman said pleasantly and the darker woman blinked.
"What?"
"I go by Miss Valentine, now," the woman said.
"And I by Mr. 5," the man said, tilting his head to the side as if he watched small defenseless rabbits scurrying before him.
"Is that not how things are done?" the woman asked with that falsely sincere smile that showed far too many teeth.
Miss Doublefinger felt an involuntary shudder work its way down her spine as she eventually understood the meaning of those words.
The woman laughed, obviously noticing. "Do not worry, we too have our orders," she said. "You're safe from us."
"Unfortunately," the man said with a sigh.
And the two of them laughed perfectly normal laughs at the thought of cold blood murder and cannibalism, as the other Officer Agents tried to unobtrusively inch closer to one another.
The Oasis of Yuba
"You should get some sleep," Ace said from behind her as she gazed off into the distance. She snorted, still stroking Shere's fur with an idle hand.
"I doubt I'll be getting much sleep in that madhouse," she said with a sigh, gesturing towards the mass of noise that came from the pillow-fight below.
The two of them fell silent for several minutes, Ace looking down at Luffy helping the old man in the dried out water pit below, while Kelly kept her gaze on the expanse of stars dotting the night sky for miles around.
"It's so dry here," Kelly said as Ace sat on the edge of the roof beside her.
"Not used to it?"
"No. I mean, I have been to places in South Blue that are a lot like this, but I haven't stayed for such a long period of time in them. It's drying me out."
"Why do you stay, then?" Kelly blinked, and looked at the man. He was watching her, dark eyes solemn.
"What?"
"Why do you stay? You hate this place, you aren't exactly fond of my brother and his friends and you don't owe them anything, as far as I can tell. My brother put your cats' lives in danger. So why are you still here?" He asked.
Kelly looked away. "I have to get to the New World. I know they'll make it and I don't exactly have a choice in the matter. So I'll put up with whatever they say or do until I get there. And," she said with a derisive snort. "It's not like they're the worst people I've ever had to deal with, after all."
"But you don't trust them."
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Humans have given me plenty of reasons not to, and the only humans I ever trusted are a very long ways away, anyhow."
"You don't trust me?" He didn't sound all that surprised.
"You're very attractive, funny, and powerful, m'dear, but no, I don't trust you," the Magus said idly. "I don't know what part of 'I don't trust any human" you didn't get."
There was a deeper silence now, a less comfortable one, and Kelly mentally sighed.
"Sounds like a lonely life," Ace said after a while.
Kelly bit her lip, smiling sadly as she looked back up at the stars.
"Well, you're not wrong."