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: Nothing too major
Author's Notes: I feel like a rather dramatic "DUN DUN DUNNNN" would be accurate. :D
Chapter 17:
Bitter Revelations
Well, that hadn't taken very long, Kelly thought with a sigh as she looked around the unfamiliar city with a great deal of confusion. Not even two minutes in Rainbase and she'd not only lost Ace and her cats, she'd also gotten lost herself.
"Mother of God, I'm turning into Zoro," she said with a sigh.
But having those abs would be pretty damn nice...
She shook herself away from thoughts of Zoro's frankly spectacular physique, and looked around. Maybe she should go find Vivi, make sure nothing had happened to her. Her memories were a little bit cloudy on the smaller events that occurred in Arabasta, especially before the Straw Hats went to Alubarna, but she did remember that Vivi met up with Pell and Robin-chan before she was taken to Rain Dinners.
Should she?
"It would make sense," she said. "If I want Vivi's help in getting a ship out of Arabasta after all's said and done."
But why did she even need Vivi's help? The Princess was fucking afraid of her.
Why did she even need to help any of them?
She remembered what Ace had said about her not trusting any of them and him questioning why she stayed with the other pirates.
"He's right," she said, scratching her head. "Especially after that shit with Shere. Why haven't I left yet? I know it would take me a little while longer, but I could get to the New World myself. If I worked on that teleport spell for a couple of weeks without, I know I could manage to get to Sabaody fairly quickly. So why the fuck do I stay?"
A little voice inside her whispered quietly We're lonely.
She stiffened.
We've always been lonely. The only friends who were ever loyal, ever true to us beyond Mama and Papa are Gin and Shere.
"I'm not-"
We watched the Straw Hats on the TV for years. We saw their camaraderie, their rapport, their utter devotion to one another. And we've always wanted it. After Nee-chan died. After Henry... After Lien denounced us. After Beth and Alex turned their backs.
"All I wanted was to get to the New World-I didn't need-"
Bullshit! We've never lied to ourself before, why start now?
Kelly blinked her suddenly stinging eyes rapidly.
Luffy declared war on the World fucking Government to save his precious nakama. We wanted that for ourselves.
"I…I…"
If you really want an answer to your question, admit the real reason why you joined up with a group of pirates who were destined to become the most infamous in all the world. Why you joined up with a group of pirates whose eventual notoriety would mean you couldn't possibly keep your race, gender, or power a secret.
Kelly leaned against a wall down a small alley, shuddering.
Don't have an answer? I do. We hoped we had finally found some friends who would stand by us. That maybe if we were strong enough, wise enough, funny enough, they would overlook us being a monster. We hoped that if there would be anyone in the world that could accept us, it would be them.
The Magus gave into the tears and wept silently in the shadows of the alley.
We just wanted to be nakama, too.
Robin was perhaps the most beautiful woman Kelly had ever seen in her life, and that was saying something, considering Kelly had known many great beauties in her long years. She was tall, willowy, with dark hair and eyes, dressed in elegant, skimpy clothing that clung perfectly to her curvy body.
Overall, it made for one of the most attractive pictures she'd ever seen, and she'd had the glory of seeing Portgas D. Ace in battle, with his shorts riding dangerously low on his hips.
Kelly had always held a fierce torch for Nico Robin. And who wouldn't? Any sane person would take one look at her and fall head over heels in love. The woman was power, grace, beauty, and elegance combined into one very dangerous, very perfect package.
Vivi tried to lunge at said perfect package and was swatted aside as though she were no better than a fly.
It was pathetic, Kelly thought idly, as Vivi screamed at the woman - like a child - about hurting Igaram. Kelly sighed. It would be wrong to get annoyed with Vivi for mourning her...what exactly had that weirdo been to Vivi? A teacher or something?
Who knew, and quite frankly, who cared.
Kelly knew the man wasn't dead because Oda couldn't make a proper sacrifice to save his life, unless it was Ace-no, they were not going to think about that-and Vivi's whining was starting to take a toll on her seriously frayed nerves.
This is boring, she thought, eyeing Robin's sinfully perfect rear end shamelessly. Everything was going as it was supposed to.
"As much as I would like to stay and deal with you, I simply don't have the time," Robin said to Pell, and something about the way she said it caught Kelly's immediate attention.
She looked closer, and gasped as Robin's Stepford Wife smile dropped.
Then Pell screamed as hands pulled his body back into an unnatural angle. A sickening crack rent the air, and only then did she let him drop, letting him fall to the ground in a ragged, bloody heap.
Robin had not spoken a word, not said a thing, not indulged Pell in talk about Igaram or pretended to stab Vivi. She'd simply taken Pell and broken him like a bored child would break a useless toy. Those dark brown eyes that still showed only amusement turned to Vivi.
"Now, to the casino, Vivi-hime. Unless you would like to end up in the same manner your amusing friend has."
Kelly did not think about what she was doing, and she didn't hesitate for a second before stepping straight into Soru and appearing between Vivi and Robin.
"If you're to take Vivi to the casino," Kelly said dangerously, hoping Robin wasn't as nearly as mad as she sounded. "I think I'm going to have to go with you, Nico-chan."
The double doors opened before them and Vivi strode through them, Kelly right behind her.
"CROCODILE!" She yelled, and Kelly subtly sent her magic flickering to all four corners of the underground cavern as the princess and Crocodile began to converse.
Well, perhaps 'converse' wasn't the best word for it, as it implied a sense of mutuality present between both 'conversers'. And that was clearly lacking here, because Crocodile clearly didn't give a fuck at all about Vivi or what she was saying.
Something was very, very wrong here, and there was a taste on the air, a leftover scent from where something truly foul had passed. Where had she smelt it before? It made the skin on the back of her neck buzz and her skin prickle and her belly scream DANGER.
She was jerked out of her thoughts when Vivi lunged forward, decapitating the sand-man with her Slashers.
"Useless," she heard Smoker say as Crocodile began to reform behind Vivi. Ah, so it was time for her to move, then.
Dropping straight into Soru, the world blurred into a rush of color, only coming back to rights when she slammed her sandal-clad foot, strengthened with the power of the sea's currents, directly into the man's reforming face.
Crocodile was knocked back five feet, only managing to remain upright through sheer luck.
"Yeah, how about no," Kelly said quietly, landing in front of Vivi with her arms crossed. "Keep yer hands the fuck away from her, jackass."
"CIEL!" erupted from the cage behind her, along with cheers and cries of encouragement.
"She hit Crocodile!" Someone, she thought it was Usopp, said in awe.
(Kelly refused to acknowledge how good that felt)
"Who are you?" Crocodile snarled, a thin trail of blood dripping out of the side of his mouth.
"That ain't nunya fucking business, dumbass."
She was bitter, so damned bitter, and she was so tired. So tired. This country made her tired. Made her feel weak and watery at the knees. She didn't want to think about how good it had felt to have Vivi run so trustingly into her arms. It ached somewhere deep inside her, even now, as the princess pressed against her side, pale fingers curling into her shirtsleeve.
And there was fear, too, frizzing across her skull, down her spine and it made her impatient as anything. What was that smell, that foul taste that lingered despite her magic? Where had she felt it before?
Then, with a sense of dawning horror, she recognized it, even as Crocodile stood and fell back in his chair, staring at her coldly. Then he smiled, low and slow and evilly.
"Such stupidity from one so powerful. Why would you aid a princess and a country doomed to die? And trust me, they'll all die. Why do you put your life on the line?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.
"I don't know." Vivi stiffened and Kel ignored it, keeping her eyes firmly on the man who would enter into a Contract with Daemons for the sake of his own greed. "If I want to be honest, I don't know. I don't like the people, don't like the desert, don't like the people I've shacked up with, and frankly, I just see it all as a big fat waste of my time."
It felt so very therapeutic to say it out loud, like ripping a bandaid off a scabbed over wound, even as she ignored the protests coming from the people trapped in the cage.
"But I do so hate fucking morons, and you have just proven yourself to be one of the biggest of them all. How long have you been in a Contract, Alligator? And just what in the hell possessed you to enter into a fucking Contract with goddamned Highborn Daemons?"
Dead silence. Kelly began to shake as Crocodile kept smiling at her, as though he knew the inside to some joke she'd never understand. But she did. Oh how she did.
"You utter fucking bastard," she breathed. "You utter fucking bastard. You know what they're capable of. Of course you do. But it doesn't matter to you, now does it? You know that a contract with them entails and the heavy price you'll have to pay, but you're not worried, because you won't be paying that price. But what prize could you offer Highborn in a war-torn country to make them not take the Contract's worth from your hide?" Kelly's eyes widened in shock.
"My God, you intend to let them have what's left of Arabasta. You intend to sacrifice the millions of people left after the war to the mercy of the Highborn. What the fuck is wrong with you?!"
Then there was more silence, ringing through the cavernous hall, was only broken by Luffy's questions and Nami's shuddering replies. Vivi had moved closer, shaking with fear.
Kelly whirled, turning on Robin, mind awash with the memories of a village that had been ruled by that fucking tyrant Aholo, memories of the day she'd managed to escape, breaking the Contract Aholo had entered so willingly for gold. Memories of the day she came back and found herself upon a scene of death and bloody carnage.
"And you! How can you call yourself a child of Ohara if you'll take part in such a thing? You must know the level of destruction this bastard intends to bring down on this country! You've been on the run for even longer than I have, Nico Robin. You know what Daemons are capable of doing," she practically begged the older woman. Robin couldn't be that heartless, could she?
Please, no, I can't take it. She's Robin! She's not a bad person, she's good, she has to be. Right? Please?
"We have to head to Alubarna," she told Crocodile, only the tiniest spasm of her face showing that Kelly had gotten through to her. "Operation Utopia is beginning now."
Crocodile laughed, and it was so wrong, so awful how much genuine joy was in that sound.
"I'll take what I want from this country, and I don't care who must die to make that happen! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He threw back his head, as Vivi began to shake even harder.
"You bastard!" the princess sobbed, fingers fisting in Kelly's sleeve. "You bastard, I'll stop you! I swear-"
Things were moving fast, so fast, as Crocodile pulled a key from his coat and stood, baiting Vivi. But of course he "dropped" the key into the pit of bananawanis…she looked closer at the beasts and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand straight up.
"Vivi, ya need to run," she said, reaching forward and grabbing the princess's arm, pulling her away from the hole where a…thing…was slowly emerging.
Crocodile laughed. "I was going to ask if you wanted to come with us to Alubarna, Vivi-hime, but no. I think I'll just have you killed here, along with your impertinent friend."
Kelly felt her eyes bulge as the immense beast came into view, towering many meters over her head. It looked like an ordinary bananawani, yellow, huge, and with the ubiquitous banana on its head. But it stank of death, of pain, and of awful things she couldn't name, and moved with a slippery sort of grace a creature of that size shouldn't have possessed. She kept Vivi behind her as she backed up.
Then it opened its mouth, letting out a bestial roar as hundreds of enormous purple tentacles exploded where there should have just been a tongue. It made a picture that seemed to be taken straight from HP Lovecraft's worst nightmares, and Kelly knew that the Highborns in Crocodile's service had created it.
"Fuck," Kelly whispered, wishing she had a blade on her, which would allow her to defeat the monster without using her claws. If she survived this, she would never go anywhere without a blade again!
Vivi screamed in terror, her cry mixing with the horror from those still locked in the cage.
"One moment, Boss," Robin said as Kelly began running through possible ways to take down a daemon-mutated bananawani without revealing her magic or her race. The thing lunged, and Kelly dropped straight into Soru, one arm firmly locked around Vivi.
The moment she got clear, she dropped Vivi to her feet, and grabbed her shoulders. "I'll distract it, you run for your life, you got me?"
Vivi shook from the thing's residual terror-aura, her legs locked together from the overwhelming sense of PREDATOR that the bananawani gave off. Kelly promptly slapped the woman across her face and cursed as a hard, rubbery band curled around her stomach.
"RUN, YOU IDIOT!" Kelly roared as the tentacle slung her through the air, only coming to a stop when she brutally smashed against the bars of the cage. Everything whited out for a few agonizing moments as she slid down the bars.
Someone – Luffy? Nami? – was screaming her name as she struggled to her feet. In her hand – when had she picked it up? – there was a piece of wood about an arm's length, with a jagged end. It must have come from the table when it smashed under that thing's weight.
"I do wonder, Boss, if we shouldn't leave him alive," Robin said as Vivi inched closer to freedom. Kelly couldn't spare much attention to the two, and promptly turned back to the monster.
She looked up at the beast as Magic stole through her ribs, healing her wounds and preparing her for the battle ahead. She smiled. It would be hard. It would be very hard, but she could do it. She'd faced Highborn with even greater disadvantages than the ones she had in this fight now.
She was going to kick this thing's ass into next week.
"I got this," she said with a smile. "I got this."
Then she felt the slightest pressure against her wrist, heard the tearing of cloth, and then Robin spoke, her voice as calm as it ever was.
It was at that moment that Kelly realized how bad an idea pissing off Nico Robin really was.
"After all, I do wonder how much an adult Sea Snake would be worth on the slave market these days."