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: Foul language, gore, sexual tension out the wazoo, depression, Kelly deals with bad things Very Badly, self-hatred, vague suicidal thoughts

Author's Notes: Kelly is seriously messed up. Maybe my most messed up OC...Which is amazing, considering all of my OCs are really fucked in the head.

Chapter Eighteen:

Sorrow of the Serpent

At first, she hadn't registered it. Or anything, really, after Robin had spoken.

Then there was wind blowing gently over her bare arm, a gasp of shock from someone behind her, then she looked down, and…

Scales the color of the clearest ocean sparkled faintly in the dim light that illuminated the cavernous hall, exposed for the world to see. A hard lump lodging in her throat, she grabbed her bare arm, covering it as best she could with her hand.

Crocodile's voice was dim, barely registering in her mind, but his laugh was awful, tinged with a greed she knew all too well. "Well, well, well. You have a good eye, Miss All-Sunday, to spot such a valuable prize."

She looked back up at Robin, the air clogging in her lungs, her mouth working helplessly as she tried to say something, anything… A hiss dragged her forcibly out of her shock and she moved without thinking, dodging the strike of one razor sharp tentacle tongue and leaping high, high into the air.

The voice in her head, the one that had grounded her for years, the one that had given her the strength to crawl miles in the freezing cold night with injuries that would have killed anyone else, drowned out the shock, the hysterical terror surging up her spine, and the deep despair that had been with her ever since arriving in this world.

She was calm, a false calm that would not last for long, and when it would go she knew she would break, but it would do for now.

Kill.

She landed on the top of the thing's head, her Magic spreading out, searching for a weakness in the immense hide of the creature, and she found it as she landed atop the creature's head. It knew her, knew the taste of magic and hungered for it as only such a twisted creature could.

There.

There was a soft part between the two immense eyes that sat on that yellow head, a crag that gave way to a small, oozing, open sore that leaked pus. It was more than likely the place that the daemons had infected the creature.

It would do. She would need Rankyaku to break through, but one strengthened by her own Magic. As what felt like the sea's currents roared through her veins, chasing away the awful, dried feeling she'd suffered with ever since she'd stepped into this damned desert, she could see the way she should do it.

'Oh, so that's how it works,' she thought, mind as clear as crystal. 'That's fair simple.'

She leapt as the creature whipped its head wildly around, screaming that awful roar as it tried to throw her off. Her leg blurred as it flicked out twenty times, magic and sheer force leaving her foot in the shape of a crescent blade.

Blood gushed in rivers as the blade of air and condensed magic carved into the beast's neck, cutting through hardened muscle, sinew, and armor-like flesh with ease. Kel landed atop the corpse as its head rolled towards the bottom of the stairs, and turned to face the two Baroque Works agents. Robin's eyes were wide and Crocodile's narrowed.

"This is a battle you won't win," someone said, cold and strange and utterly alien – is that her voice? Kelly thought distantly. "And I am not enemy you want to fight. I suggest you leave right now and spare me the bother."

She could smell fear and rage and blood, so much blood, glorious blood, in the room, a heady scent that made her want to tear and rip, and…

Fear. So much fear. And it came from the people in the cage to her right and the princess who stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs.

She risked a look towards the Straw Hats, and felt her heart falter. Nami's eyes were clouded, locked directly on her exposed scales. The fear came from her, a bitterly strong taste tempered by confusion, shock, and a thread of disbelieving anger.

Kelly kept her face neutral as she turned back to face the two Baroque Works leaders.

Crocodile eyed her, then shook his head. "No, it's not worth the hassle," he said mournfully. "Let the banawanis eat it." Robin's face tightened, then she drew a small whistle from under her shirt and blew it.

Kelly slapped her hands over her ears as a high-pitched, extremely loud shriek blasted out, grinding her teeth as the noise rattled through the nerves beneath her teeth to the scarred tissue covering her back like a worm wriggling beneath the skin.

There was a thunderous splash as another mutated banawanis emerged from the hole the first had come from, then another, a third, a fourth, a fifth, all stinking of rage, Daemon filth, and pain. Kelly staggered, fighting to regain her composure as her ears rang.

Crocodile laughed. "You can join the snake in the banawanis' stomachs, Princess." There was a scream. Kelly saw Vivi hit the ground at the bottom of the stairs with a sickening thud. She had tried to sneak past the sandman and failed. Crocodile and Miss All-Sunday turned and left the room as the water levels began to rise, lapping at the ankles of those who stood in the cage.

"Vivi!" Luffy and Usopp screamed.

Kelly leapt off the immense corpse and staggered a bit as she landed – had that thing been a dog whistle? Why the fuck was it affecting her so much – before hurrying to the fallen princess's side. She knelt, still swaying, and felt for a pulse, sighing with relief when she tasted Vivi's heart beating strongly beneath her chest. There was no blood that belonged to Vivi tainting the air, and she could feel no breaks along the fragile lining of her head. No head injuries, then.

"Small favors," she said wearily, and gathered the princess in her arms as the first mutations lumbered towards her. She danced through the first rain of strikes that dug foot-wide craters in the floor, flicking her leg out, cutting through muscle, flesh, sinew as easily as a hot knife through butter. The world blurred into a whirling mass of blood, flashing colors, and dying screams until she landed by the cage, the last corpse of the mutated banawanis collapsing to the ground behind her.

"Y'better duck," she said gruffly, and flicked her leg at the bars above their heads once, twice, three times in rapid succession and quickly moved back as the entire front of the cage hit the floor with a clang. She set the unconscious princess down by one of the cage walls.

"We're more 'n likely going to have to swim our way outta here," she said, handing Vivi to Zoro, as Luffy and Usopp cheered their freedom. She mentally cursed, noting the presence of Smoker. She'd forgotten he was there.

One more person who knows! A voice in her head moaned with sick fear and desperation, and she promptly shoved it away. This was not the time to have a break down. She could do that later.

"What are those things?" he asked, his voice devoid of any telling emotion.

"You know what Daemons are?" she asked, managing to force herself to meet his light green eyes head on. They were calm, without judgment, and unwillingly she felt herself ease just a bit.

His mouth tightened. "So it was true? What you were saying to him?" he asked.

"What are Daemons?" Usopp asked, curious.

"Monsters," Zoro and Kelly said in unison.

"They eat humans," came Nami's faint voice. "They're shapeshifters, mind-stealers, flesh-renders. They hunt anything humanoid with a voracious appetite."

Everyone turned to face her. Her face was pale, and she stank of fear now, even more than she had before.

"I came across two in my travels," she said, rubbing her mouth with a trembling hand. "They hunger for human flesh, for any flesh. Some can disguise themselves as humans, and others look like warped animals…Is it true?" She demanded, turning to Kelly. "Is what you said true? Does Crocodile have Daemons?"

Kelly swallowed at the raw anger and fear in her words. "Only the most powerful of the hierarchy could have created those things. Most Daemons would have either eaten or ignored them. Only the Highborn would have gone to the trouble to warp them like that – hey, stop that!" she said, yanking her bare arm away from Luffy's questing fingers. He had been rubbing them over the exposed scales with curiosity in his eyes.

"Why? They're so pretty!" he protested and she glared at him.

"Why did you hide it from us, Ciel?" Usopp asked, peering at her scales by Luffy's side.

"Yeah, Ciel," Nami said, her voice cold. "Why did you hide?"

Kelly stiffened and shot her a look. The signs were subtle, but they were there. More pronounced lines around Nami's eyes, a slightly flared nose, and thinned lips curved with just a bit of disgust. Not the first time she'd ever seen such a look leveled in her direction and it wouldn't be the last, undoubtedly, but from Nami?

Kelly looked away. "I-I had my reasons," she said lamely, her hands tightening. There was a harsh thrumming in her head and her lungs couldn't suck down enough air.

"We can talk about this later," Zoro interrupted, picking Vivi out of the water as she groggily opened her eyes. "The water's rising."

Sure enough, it was up to everyone's knees by this point. Usopp got his arms around Luffy as the other boy slumped, the water's power leaching the strength away from him.

"Ohhhhh…" he slurred, eyes rolling comically as Usopp fought to keep as much of him out of the water as he could.

"Zoro, help me here!" the dark-skinned boy said, swearing. "Luffy, you need to stop eating so much!"

"Meeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaattttt," the punch-drunk pirate said, grinning stupidly.

"Nami-swan!" a very familiar voice called from somewhere above the stairs, and Kelly froze.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

Sure enough, Sanji's blond head appeared of the top of the stairs. Kelly pressed her bare arm against her side, as though that would somehow hide the shiny swath of scales.

"Nami-swan!" the blond man called as he started down the stairs, only to stop at the sight of the carnage below, his eyes widening.

"What the fuck?" he breathed. "Shitty swordsman, did you-?"

"Nah, he did it," Zoro said, jerking his head towards Kelly as he helped Vivi stand. "Killed them all by himself."

The Magus swallowed painfully. Sanji's eyes locked on Kelly and narrowed on the exposed scales. Then they traveled back up to her face, and the two of them locked eyes for a few brief, agonizing moments. Air stuttered in her lungs and throat. Her hands were ice cold and clammy, everything felt too sharp and her belly rolled with nausea.

I didn't want them to know I didn't want any of them to know please dear God why-

"How the hell did you kill them, you shitty scoundrel?" Sanji asked, looking incredulous.

"He's a monster, of course he could," Nami said quietly and covered her mouth with her hand, as though she hadn't meant to say it. Usopp gasped.

Kelly felt her eyes water and gritted her teeth.

I knew it. I shouldn't be surprised.

Zoro cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. "We're going to have to swim out of here as fast as we can. I don't want to run into anymore of those things. Ero-cook, grab Luffy. And you, Marine." He turned his attention to Smoker, who'd been watching them all carefully, and had managed to stay mostly out of the water. "I'd suggest you go out the way the cook came in. If you go under, we're not pulling you out." His voice was calm and cold, and Kelly knew that unless Luffy said otherwise, Zoro would do exactly that.

She would admire that pragmatism later, when she didn't quite feel like she was going to fly apart at the seams.

The windows splintered as Smoker ran up the stairs, getting out of the water's way.

"Shit!" Zoro swore. "Usopp, hand him here-"

He managed to get his arms around Luffy just as the windows exploded inwards, water pouring into the room with a roar that shook the air. Kelly closed her eyes as the water swamped her, ignoring the yells of shock from the Straw Hats, and let it wash the filth from her body and mind.

She hadn't killed all of the banawanis, Kelly realized as the group made a mad dash for land. Only a small portion of the mutated creatures had come at the whistle's call. Most had obviously preferred to stay in the water, allowing it to sooth their pus-filled, ever-bleeding wounds.

But now, lured by the massive amounts of blood leaking into the water from the destroyed underwater building, some were swimming upwards in vaguely ominous spirals. Others were being whipped into a feeding frenzy by the corpses of their fellows, tearing off huge hunks of meat with their wickedly serrated teeth and piercing tentacles.

A shriek drew Kelly out of her thoughts, and she whipped around to see Nami being yanked back, a purplish black tentacle wrapped around her ankle. The navigator gagged as the water rushed into her mouth and clawed at her throat.

Kelly swore and took off, slamming into the bananwani with a shoulder reinforced by all of the Magic she could muster, leaving a crater like a wrecking ball in the creature's side. The tentacle released Nami as the unconscious creature slumped and began to float to the bottom, where a bloody cloud of gnashing teeth, writhing tentacles, and dead meat obscured what banawanis remained. But Kelly could see that eight or so had not been drawn into the feeding frenzy, as Sanji grabbed Nami and swam for the surface.

The Magus grunted in pain as a tentacle from a banawani she had not seen sneak up on her pierced her side. With a snarl she tore it from her flesh and as her blood mingled with the already blood-soaked water, the banawanis' attention was forcibly drawn from the escaping Straw Hats.

Kelly swallowed painfully as those maddened, blood-hungry eyes focused on her, her blood drawing them as inexorably as a moth would be to the flame.

She only chanced the briefest of looks at the pirates swimming towards the surface. They didn't spare a single look back.

It was surprising how much that hurt.

ZORO

"Zoro, where's Ciel?" Luffy asked, in between hacking out water and bile. Zoro kept a hand on his captain's back as he rid his lungs of the liquid that could have killed him.

The crap-cook was fluttering his hands over the money-witch's ankle, which was horribly bruised and slightly swollen.

"Those things are like vices," Nami said, trembling visibly, face creased with pain. "It would have broken my leg if…if Ciel hadn't…"

"What the hell are those things?" Usopp screeched, his face full of fear.

"They, they looked like banawanis, but what was wrong with them?" Vivi said with a shudder.

"Zoro, where's Ciel?" Luffy ordered.

"He stayed behind to give us time to get out," Zoro said quietly.

"WHAT?" Luffy shrieked, and would have leapt back into the water if Zoro hadn't gotten his arm around the shorter boy's waist and hauled him back. "ZORO, LET GO!"

"Luffy, stop. Getting yourself killed won't do shit to help him," he said. "Ciel took out six of them without breaking a sweat. Do you honestly think he needs us?"

He would never have admitted it out loud, but he was worried as Luffy was. Not because he didn't think the other man could handle himself, he knew Ciel could slaughter the monsters with little trouble. But he also knew the stories.

His mother (and he almost smiled at the memory of her) had told him as a young boy of the Snakes, those who lived on the land and in the deep sea, with their luminous scales and flowing hair and unbelievable speed and strength. She'd also told him of how they'd been hunted into near-extinction, their flesh, hair, scales, and blood prized medicines on the black market.

Ciel's eyes had been terrified, a sort of fear he'd never thought he'd see in a…well, Ciel wasn't a human, but in anything that so resembled a human. He'd seen that same fear in hunted animals' eyes, the knowledge that if they slowed down, if they stopped for a second they would be dead to benefit another creature, their meat in someone's belly, their hide hacked from their flesh.

Luffy stilled, then pulled away. His captain's eyes were solemn and a little sad.

"He's always needed us, Zoro."

The swordsman sighed, and ran a hand through his hair in aggravation. He knew that, he wasn't an idiot.

"Luffy-"

"Look at the lake!" Someone screamed behind them, and both swordsman and captain snapped their heads towards the lake. Blood was covering the lake, staining it a nasty brownish-red.

"What the hell-" Zoro grabbed Luffy and hauled him back as the lake's surface exploded upwards, mushrooming into a ten foot tall tower of blood, water, and viscera. Usopp shrieked as a decapitated head of a banawani nearly flattened him. The Straw Hats made a dash for cover as what remained of the banawanis rained to the ground, hunks of eviscerated meat that a casual observer never would have guessed had once belonged to such a whole animal.

"Holy fuck," someone breathed after a short time.

Zoro really couldn't blame them.

NAMI

She'd been in worse pain than this many times before, she thought with a sigh, trying to distract herself from the throbbing in her ankle. She'd managed to escape from actual Daemons and lived, the navigator told herself, with much worse injuries than a broken ankle.

Her fingers trembled weakly as she leaned against Sanji's side, her belly rolling with nausea, pain and something else that felt a lot like regret.

Ciel had looked terrified. She wasn't used to that. A fishman, snakeman, whatever he was, actually showing fear? None of the fishmen back at Arlong Park feared anything. Or if they had, they certainly had never shown it around-…the scream had been terrible. Nami peered out of her door, wondering who had made the sound, and saw a group of fishmen kneeling around one who rocked on the ground, moaning low in his throat. One of the others picked him up, cradling him close, and carried him away.

"What's going on?" she heard Ao, a sturgeon fishman, say to the pufferfish man on his left.

The pufferfish, who went by the name Nikozeru, shook his head. "Got a letter from home. His mate was taken by humans and butchered after trying to protect some mermaids that a pirate took interest in."

Ao gasped. "Shit, are you joking? You mean Sonya, the Snake he's always going on about that he married before he joined the crew?"

Nikozeru sighed and nodded.

"Poor bastard," Ao said with no little sorrow. "All Moi wanted was to make sure his wife could walk on the land that belonged to his people. He didn't even like hurting humans. Will he be alright?"

"Would you be, if you were in his place?" Nikozeru asked dryly.

"Fuck, if some pissant piece of shit human went after my girls back home I'd kill every human in sight," Ao snarled.

"It's something every member of this crew with a family has to live with. Humans are the real monsters, after all." Nikozeru said, and Ao nodded.

Later, Nami would hear of how Moi managed to escape the watchers Arlong had put on him and had wiped out a small town to the west of the Park, butchering every human there, from the elderly who could not run to the smallest babies wailing in their cribs, tearing them all apart in his mindless rage. The carnage lasted for hours before the other fishmen managed to subdue him and drag him back to the Park, still wailing and thrashing like a doomed animal.

And much later, Nami would hear of how Moi had hung himself in the kitchens he had spent so much time in, a picture of his wife lying tattered and tear-soaked on the floor below his feet…

-…around her. Nami breathed slowly, the memories of that day flashing through her mind.

That didn't mean anything – but it did, though – Ciel had lied to them all – with good reason – lied to her – maybe because he knew exactly how she would react – and he wasn't human – what did that matter, in the end? – he'd massacred those banawanis – and if he hadn't, they would all be dead.

Nami breathed slowly, then realized her ankle had stopped hurting so badly. She looked down and realized that swelling had gone down, the bruising had lightened, and it was no longer broken.

What in the world?

"It's the Marines!" Usopp yelled.

Zoro swore and hauled Luffy to his feet. Nami clambered upright as well, waving off Sanji's offer of help.

"Zoro, what about Ciel? He's not here yet!" Luffy protested, and Nami stiffened, looking around. Sure enough, the man had yet to appear. She didn't know what to make of that.

The swordsman shook his head. "If he wants to, he'll be able to catch up. But we need to move, right now."

Then they were running down the streets, and Nami tried not to think about the man who'd lied to her.

She didn't succeed.

ROBIN

There was something like shame in her belly. She wasn't a stranger to the emotion, nor to its cousins, regret, worry, and fear, but this was different. Deeper, darker, more awful.

What have I done? A soft voice in her head asked her. What have I done?

Those flashing eyes that had looked at her with such defiance, speaking of Ohara as though he had any clue what it was like to be a child of those shores in today's world.

It had pleased her beyond words to see the bravado, the confidence stripped from the arrogant Snake's face, to see the raw vulnerability exposed like he'd done to her, but…

She knew what became of Snakes. Professor Clover had refused to let her see the more graphic books dealing with the race after she'd discovered one that all too gleefully talked about the slave trade and the "proper method for skinning a snake without damaging the prized scales."

It had given her nightmares for months, what she had seen in those books.

-…The woman laughs, a big sound, booming and happy. She's never heard anyone laugh like her before. Women are supposed to be meek and quiet, with soft girlish giggles hidden behind their hands in a gesture of modesty, or so Robin's aunt has always said.

"You're not freak, darling," the woman's voice is deep and warm and sounds a little like the way Professor Clover's bottles of honey mead look when the morning light hits them in just the right way and Robin is maybe a little bit in love.

"But I can sprout limbs wherever and all the kids say I'm a child of the Devil!" Robin protests, wincing as the woman doctors her bruises and scrapes. Fury passes over the taller woman's face, though her dark hands are still gentle as they rub the cream into one particularly vicious bruise.

"You are not a child of the devil, little one. You were given a gift, one for you to use as you see fit. What you do with your life will determine whether or not you truly have the Devil's curse. And besides, that's one unbelievable talent you've got there little lady," the woman says, then sighs.

"You wanna hear a secret, Robin-chan?" Robin looks up at her and nods. The woman pushes back one sleeve of her oversized jacket. There, glittering faintly in the noon-day sun on that muscled arm, is a pattern of dark green scales that extend up the arm and out of sight.

Robin's mouth drops open and she looks up into eyes that are so familiar it hurts, and whispers "You're a Snake."

"That I am," the woman says with a wide grin, "And much more besides. You are no child of the devil, just as I am no vicious freak of nature. And," here her voice turns wistful, and there is a longing in her next words that will take Robin many, many years to understand. "I knew your Mama long ago."

Robin's eyes widen. "You-you did? Can you tell me about her?"

"But of course, mim ze-Robin-chan," she says, and there's a catch in her words. Robin wonders what her friend called her, wonders why this strange and brilliant woman has taken such interest in an outcast freak like her, but she doesn't care.

As the two of them walk towards the Tree, with people glaring at them on either side, the woman swings her up onto her broad shoulders, and Robin wonders if this was what it was like to have a family.

And she cries, just a little, because she is so happy…-

Robin was, above all things, a consummate actress. Not a single shred of the emotion that raged in her heart showed on her face as Crocodile chased after the mysterious "Mr. Prince".

-…"How can you call yourself a child of Ohara!"…-

She closed her eyes, and did not think of those that had perished that day, of what they must think of her now. She closed her eyes and thought instead of the two who Crocodile prized over all of his subordinates, and their mad, inhuman, perpetually hungry eyes. She thought of his connection to the hated World Government and firmed her heart. She did what she had to do in order to survive. Nothing more, nor less.

But that knowledge did not lessen the shame.

KELLY

She leaned against the wall of the alley she'd escaped to after getting out of the lake, the ground hard and bumpy under her ass. She was still drenched in water-diluted blood, her gore-covered hair unbound and tangled around her face. She idly picked at a bit of intestine that had gotten caught under her pinky claw and flicked it away.

"Mama?" She didn't look up as her familiars landed on either side of her. Just kept picking at the viscera that stubbornly remained under her nails. Blood ran down her hands as she picked and picked and picked at her flesh with her claws.

"Mistress, what are you doing?"

She didn't want to talk. She firmly kept up the wall in her mind between them and her. For a few moments she simply wanted to be alone. Alone. She had not been properly alone in her own mind for years and years and years and years and years and years it seemed and it was wearing on her nerves.

And then hands, very gentle and warm, human hands curled around her wrists and held them, keeping her from hurting herself further.

"Stop that," Ace said quietly. "Come on, Ciel, look at me."

She looked, because she had no self-control when it came to beautiful people who had a strange fondness for her. She'd always made friends with people who outclassed her in every way, what she had long since assumed was some latent desire of masochism rearing its ugly head. She'd been desperate, always been, for people who were sweet and lovely and better than she ever was to look at her and like her, because maybe then that would make herself be better of a person. Maybe.

(Probably not, but there was always that hope.)

Her parents, Beth, Alex, Henry, Lien, Erin, Nee-chan, the men and women she'd seduced, Mina, the Straw Hats…even when she'd failed them in every way possible, she had always been so covetous of them. Hiding her faults and fears and desperate neediness down below a layer of sarcasm and charm and stupid jokes so could she could have someone look at her and pretend that they loved her for a little while.

She was too raw and vulnerable and her heart ached, and most of all she was tired. So tired of living and of being a freak, a monster.

"Maybe I should have died. Maybe it would have been better for everyone," she said to Ace, her voice strangely conversational, and his hands tensed on his wrists. Shere let out a pained sound, trying to rub her head against her arm. Kelly pushed her away.

"No, don't do that sweetie, you'll get dirty," she said in that same strange, unrecognizable voice.

"Mistress, don't do this," Gin whispered, his voice almost pleading.

Ace's hands cupped her face and forced her to look up, into his eyes. They were dark and kind. She trembled.

"We're going to go get you washed up, all right? Gin, Shere, go find Ciel some clothes, if you would," he asked of her Familiars and they quickly acquiesced, darting off in the direction.

"Why do you call me Ciel?" Kelly asked, curious, feeling dazed and. He did know her name after all.

"It makes you more comfortable," he said, and her heart jolted uncomfortably at that.

Because it did make her more comfortable. She didn't mind her name, never had, it had been a family name after all, and meant something cool in Celtic or Irish or something, but Ciel…Ciel wasn't quite so, so feminine. It had a little hint of it, just enough to please her, but it was a masculine word. She had always liked that.

How had he known?

"Come on, let's go get you washed up. Can't go around soaked in blood after all," Ace said soothingly. He drew her to her feet and she let him lead her towards…somewhere. They walked for a few minutes, until Ace spotted a shower hidden in a small alley, like the sort of shower found at beaches so people could wash their sandy feet, but this was hidden back, surrounded by a wooden wall that could give a person a bit of privacy.

She didn't know why it was there. Didn't care. She wanted to be clean. Had to be clean otherwise she would break even more. She shuffled behind the wall and quickly undressed.

"Hand your clothes here, and I'll get rid of them." Ace's voice was so gentle.

Why was he doing this? Why was he caring for her? He had nothing to gain. Why would a pirate do this? Why would a human do this?

She handed the blood soaked clothes over the wall, leaving only her binder and briefs in place, which had both been spared the bloodbath. As she turned on the water – it still worked, a stream of lukewarm water hitting her in the face – she smelled the scent of fire and of her clothes burning.

Burning, burning, burning away to ashes, she thought dazedly.

She stepped out from behind the screen, a great deal steadier than she had been before, dressed in the clothes Shere and Gin had brought her. It consisted of a black long sleeved tunic-coat and dark silver trousers, sturdy boots, and a keffiyeh of dark blue.

If she'd been capable of it at the moment, she would have laughed at how bad an influence she had been on them. They must have stolen it from some poor shopkeeper, though why any shopkeeper in Arabasta would have such dark clothes was beyond her.

Ace, who was sitting on the ground, petting Gin, stood when he saw her.

The Magus gave him a shaky grin, then knelt as Shere approached her, eyes big and watery. "Shere, darling, come here," she said softly and opened her arms as she slowly peeled back the walls she'd hastily erected in her mind since Miss All-Sunday had blown her cover. Shere butted the top of her head against her chin, purring almost violently, and Gin promptly deserted Ace to join his fellow Familiar in lavishing love over their Magus.

Tears pricked at her eyes as a wave of love and warmth and closeness surrounded her mind and pulled tight, almost like a hug.

Thank you, her mind whispered to them. I love you, and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for shutting you out like that.

"Thank you…Ace," she said quietly, and he grinned.

"No problem. What brought this on, anyway? I'm surprised you left the crew behind. Do they know where you are? And why were you so bloody, anyway?"

Kelly bit her lip.

"I thought it would be a good idea if I started to make my way out of Arabasta on my own," The dark-haired Magus said, looking down at her boots.

"Mistress, what in the hells-?"

"Mama, why-?!"

"What brought this on?" Ace asked, looking surprised.

"It's," she sighed, took a deep breath. "They found out, about," she gestured lamely at her arm, "About my…not being, well, human," she finished weakly.

Gin sighed.

"Oh no, Mama…"

"I find it rather hard to believe my brother reacted badly," Ace said.

-…"They're so pretty!"…-

"Well, he's not the only one on the crew, now is he?" she snapped, her words harsher than she meant them to be. "And I'd always planned on leaving, I'm just speeding up my schedule-"

The air quivered. Kelly's head snapped up.

"What is it?" Ace asked.

There was a scent on the breeze, one she recognized only vaguely.

"Mistress, can you-?"

She let Gin leap to the ground, and nodded. "I do."

"Mama, it smells foul," Shere complained, burying her sensitive nose in the Magus's neck.

It smelled like the taint of Daemons, of dead flowers and pus-filled ooze, but mingled with that was the new stench of rotting human flesh, a smell Kelly had become quite familiar with over the past decade. It was growing closer and stronger with every second, and she could hear the shuffle, shuffle, click of unsteady, stiffened limbs.

"What in the hells?" she whispered, and she looked up just in time to see a figure falling from the sky. She lunged forward, hauling Ace over one shoulder, and raced up the side of the building in front of her. She landed on the roof, Ace still slung over her shoulder, as Gin and Shere landed beside her.

"What the fuck was th-" Ace's voice was breathless, but a fierce, chittering noise erupted from behind them. Kelly barely dodged out of the way.

Gin roared as he shot forward, growing as he went and latched his teeth on the neck of many-limbed creature that had scuttled up the side of the building like some demented spider. The thing shrieked, the sound curdling her blood, and managed to break free from Gin's grip.

It scurried away, out of reach on the far side of the roof as Kelly set Ace back on his feet. Fire flickered at the pirate's fingertips as the two of them stood side by side, and got their first clear view of it.

Ace swore and Kelly felt her eyes bulge as the thing uncoiled its limbs and stood up. It looked like a human, about six feet in height, with humanoid features and a shaved head. But it had a short, squat body bulging with muscles that rippled unnaturally below the skin, and were covered in a dense, dark hair. The thing's six arms (three on each side) ended in a set of razor-sharp falcon's talons that glinted wickedly in the afternoon sun.

There was a sharp, chirring sound behind them. The pirate and Magus leapt away as something crashed down in the spot where they'd just been, landing back-to back in the middle of the roof as a dozen other creatures that resembled the first surrounded them.

Gin and Shere, full sized and bristling with fury, guarded their blind spots, Gin to Ace's left and Shere to Kelly's.

The creatures all smelled of Daemons, and of the Daemon taint, but they weren't Daemons. Their eyes were still human, though pain and the foulness that had mutated them to this state having replaced what intelligent thought and humanity might once have laid within.

"What the fuck?!" Ace and Kelly gasped in unison.

"Have you ever seen these things before?" Ace asked, and Kelly shook her head frantically.

"No, never! They aren't Daemons, but I think a Daemon made them," she cursed.

"Thralls, Mistress. Kureha-sama told you of them back on Drum," Gin growled, his voice tight. "They once were human, but were changed by some dark rituals of the Daemons, in much the same manner as some Daemons change animals they take a fancy to."

"We got lucky!" That screechy voice came from an ape-ish looking woman with pale skin and too many legs. "The Highest left us here to guard the city while our hundreds of brothers and sisters went after the prey, but we have found a plentiful feast we need not even share! And a Magus of such power in the bargain!" She cackled and her fellows joined in, the sound akin to chalkboards being dragged across thousands of decaying fingernails.

Kelly pressed against Ace's back, taking comfort from the sudden flare of warmth beneath his skin and her Familiars' warning growls.

"What prey?" Ace demanded. "What prey is so important that you'd send a fleet of you monsters after them?"

The first creature, the spider-like atrocity, curved his mouth in a wide mockery of a smile, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth dripping with poison.

"The pirates and a long lost little princess! They'll taste extra yummy in our family's tummies!" A bird-like creature with the multi-faceted eyes of an insect chirped.

Both pirate and Magus stilled, and she could feel the worry for his brother in every tensed muscle. Of course the Daemons would send their goons to stop the pirates, Kelly thought with a dawning sense of horror. They wouldn't bother going themselves, not for what they would assume was little prey, but Crocodile wouldn't be so stupid as to not use them and their resources whenever he could. Whoever these Highborn were, they had some serious power backing them up, as these Thralls were strong, almost as strong as one of the Animalistic.

"Ace, we need to get to the others before their army does," she whispered, pitching her voice as low as she could. "Where's that little speedboat of yours?"

"In my bag. It can expand when I want it to."

"Does it go over sand?"

"Of course. Do you know where my brother and his crew are heading"

Magic sparked at the edges of her body as she let her body fall into a fighter's stance.

"We'll need to make this quick," she commented, and could practically feel Ace's feral grin.

Both pirate, Magus, and jungle cats leapt as one towards their attackers with a battle cry that shook the air.

Black blood splattered the ground as her claws tore into and through a windpipe that gushed disgusting ooze as she dodged around a mantis-man's lion like paws. Gin leapt over her head and smashed into the thing with a snarl that gave her a brief flash of white-hot pride. Shere careened through the air, tussling with the ape woman who'd spoken earlier, while Ace squared off with a man who was a disturbing mix of dog and scorpion.

Kelly staggered as something crashed into her back. Dozens of vice-like centipede limbs wrapped around her waist, legs, and pinioned her arms to her sides. A mouth with teeth like a vampire bat's bit deeply into her neck and she felt the hot gush of blood as whatever held her moaned deep with enjoyment.

The Magus let out a roar of fury and pain that split the air, sending cracks through the very fabric of reality as Magic surged like a freight train beneath her flesh and exploded outwards. The vampiric centipede had time for one doomed shriek before the magic crisped it to ash. The flash fire shot out, snaring each Thrall and destroying it utterly.

The spider-falcon was grabbed last, but spoke before the fire reached him, uttering a heinous, crowing burst of laughter.

"Our masters will feast on your flesh and the flesh of all stinking humans!" It screeched. "We will feast! Our time is coming when all of humanity will bow before us as they did before! YOU WILL ALL PERISH, HUMAN SCUMmmmYEEEEEEEEEEEEAGHHH-" Its scream was mercifully cut short as the last of the fire consumed him.

Kelly staggered, Ace's arms wrapping tightly around her before her face had an impromptu meeting with the ground.

"I'm alright," she said, as she got her legs back under her, though Ace seemed highly reluctant to let her go, keeping his arms around her waist.

"Ace, I'm fine," she insisted, and she was. She felt better than she had in weeks, to be perfectly honest. She looked into his eyes – in her boots they were the same height - and her breath caught at the look in them.

Desire and fire raged in them, a burning spark of flame deep within. He wrapped his arms around her neck and his mouth was on hers. His lips were chapped and soft, and his tongue brushed teasingly against her mouth, and it was as though a switch flicked on in her head.

Her hands gripped his hips, pulling him close, and she returned the kiss, grinding up against him. There was lightning sparking everywhere they touched, she could have sworn, and it was as though the two of them were naked, pressed so tightly together. He whimpered as her fingers tightened on his hips, and she pressed even closer, the clash of their mouths wet and sloppy.

She craved and craved and craved and craved him, her mind almost wild with lust, and wished she could press him to the ground and consume him, claim him utterly. Her mouth suckled at his jaw and he arched, baring his neck to her, his legs trembling. She'd never met someone so wonderfully yielding as him, and it appealed to her most primitive self.

Kelly wanted to climb inside him, to curl herself around his heart and hold it so no one could take it from her. She couldn't get close enough to him to satisfy the desire that pounded through her veins-

"Ahem."

She pulled back, mouth swollen and tender from his kiss, and glared at Gin. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"There will be time for such activities later, Mistress. You need to focus on getting to the Straw Hats right now, or do you want the Thralls to catch up with the Straw Hats? They are powerful, but they have no idea how to deal with Thralls," Gin said, a gentle reprimand in his voice.

Her face heated and she stepped away from Ace.

"Sorry," he said, with a sheepish laugh. "Don't know what got into me."

She shook her head. "It's nothing. I was just as…anxious as you," she said ruefully. "Do you want to continue this later?"

He grinned, bright eyes flashing.

"It would be my pleasure," he purred, his voice low and almost sultry.

"And mine, I hope," Kelly said as the two of them went to the side of the roof.

He held out his hand and she took it.

"But of course," he said, and the two of them began leaping from rooftop to rooftop, moving faster and faster as they went, to an open place where he could take his boat out, Shere and Gin close behind.

Why do I trust him so? She wondered, watching him out of the corner of her eye. Why do I feel as though my soul needs him? Why do I crave him? I've only known him for such a short period of time. And he's human. A pirate. I should know better, I do know better! So why…?

She shook it off. There are other things to be focused on, she thought as they landed on the sand and Ace took out a folded contraption that looked like a small engine attached to folded metal. He put it on the sand.

The metal began to expand and widen, unfolding over and over for several minutes until his speedboat lay there, gleaming and perfectly crafted, the sail furled.

"A Magus in the New World made it for me," Ace said as he stood in the middle of the opening, his voice tense. Whatever madness of the blood had struck them both was wearing off, leaving in its place a slowly encroaching fear for the pirates who had no clue of the threat approaching. She clambered up behind him, and curled an arm around the mast. Shere leapt into Kelly's arms and Gin curled around her neck.

"Let's go!" He yelled, and his legs became flame. The boat shot forward, skimming over the sand, and the Magus held on for dear life.

Please let us make it in time, she prayed to whatever god would deign to listen. Please don't let us be late! She thought of the fates that usually befell those who found themselves with a Highborn's attention on them and closed her eyes.

May the gods grant us wings below our feet to speed our journey, and strength for the fight ahead.

She'd made her choice. She could not bear to have the deaths of those who'd been her one true friends as a child (even though then, they'd just been fictional) on her head. She thought about Nami, about Sanji, and about the fate they would meet at the hands of the Thralls, at the hands of the Daemons.

"Over my fucking. Dead. Body," she hissed as they sped towards the setting sun.