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: Blood, gore, minor (but very violent) character death, incestuous undertones (the Daemons)

Author's Notes: For chapters from here on out, I will include a Footnotes and Translations section at the end of each chapter, for words and phrases readers might not understand. I more than likely will not include translations of the attacks used by the Straw Hats in the canon story.

Chapter Twenty:

The Battle Begins

MISS DOUBLEFINGER

Unease snaked down her spine, tiny tendrils of ice that sent shivers all along her body. The Baroque Works' Officer Agents waited near the middle of the city, for the battle to start and the pirates to arrive. They had been commanded to wait here, in a perfect spot to intercept the pirates. Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 (and wasn't that still so strange, having to call those two by their new titles all the while trying not to think about just how those two had gotten them?) stood to the side.

Paula, who was called Miss Doublefinger, watched them warily, noting with a great deal of unease the way Mr. 5's face twitched with every complaint that Miss Merry Christmas voiced. She couldn't bring herself to tell the other woman to be quiet though, as some deep part of her screeched at the thought of bringing Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine's attention on her. And she also knew, from long experience with the rotund woman, that trying to quiet her while she complained did nothing but make her angrier. So she remained silent, thankful that her partner at least had some sense in his brain.

Even the normally obnoxious Mr. 2 was silent, eyes occasionally flicking to where Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine stood.

He feels it too, she realized.

"My back hurts! Hurts hurts hurts! Hu-! You ba-! Ba-!" Miss Merry Christmas complained, and Mr. 4 nodded slowly, his lips shaping each ponderous word in reply.

"I-'-m s-o-o-r-r-y."

Couldn't they feel it?! Paula wondered, fingers clenching with frustration and fear. The tension and not so subtle rage, the sheer inhumanity that draped over Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine like cloaks.

She wondered if she should at least try to warn the other woman, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks. She turned to Daz, who shook his head at her. Anyone else would have suspected the beads of sweat that dewed his dark brown face and almost-bald dome of a head to be a simple result of Arabasta's oppressive heat, but she knew his homeland in the West Blue had been much, much hotter.

He feared it too, she realized, and knew he was telling her not to draw their attention.

"Oh thank fuck!" Mr. 5 roared, after Miss Valentine had whispered something to him. "Finally, I get to do some killing and don't have to listen to this fucking hag anymore!"

With the horrified fascination of someone watching a shipwreck, Paula saw Miss Merry Christmas round on the man, and start ranting at him. Mr. 2 whispered a vague prayer in that strange language of his, and she felt more than saw Daz tense behind her.

"You insolent whippersnapper!" Miss Merry Christmas barked. "You should-! You're just an idio-! Idio-! Idio-! Fool! Foo-! Foo-!"

Mr. 5's head snapped around, and those strange, swirling eyes focused on the rotund woman. Then he looked at Miss Valentine and cocked his head to the side.

The woman sighed. "We really shouldn't…"

"We do have the Ārnēā. They should be doing something, after all."

"What about the Croc? Won't he be mad?"

Mr. 5 snorted. "What's he care, if we get the job done and fulfill our Contract? It's not like I'm going to do for them all, Ladon, please?"

"Why aren't you listening?! Fools! Imperti-! Ba-! Ba-!" Miss Merry Christmas spat, and that stupid dog of hers sneezed repeatedly. Miss Valentine's head turned to the woman, and her eyes bled to match the same color as her brother's, black-red-silver pools of swirling madness.

Paula closed her eyes as the tension in the air heightened, and she couldn't breathe, oh Gods, she couldn't breathe that stupid fool was going to get them all killed-

"Go ahead, Chimera. But only those two."

"Not just her?"

The woman smiled.

"It wouldn't be right, to punish only her, now would it?" The woman said. "Avau mēl utsava."

Mr. 5 let out a sound that was not human, that was not even remotely human, and the sound reached deep inside Paula and made something inside her screech and scream and nearly go mad with fear. And then she was turning and running, running for her life as a thing burst from Mr. 5's flesh, all black skin, many triple jointed limbs, and rows of gnashing teeth.

"M'biharūna!" The thing shrieked before it was on Miss Merry Christmas, two limbs reaching out to snare Mr. 4 and the dog in a razor-taloned grip.

As she raced past Miss Valentine, the woman turned to her.

"Go kill the pirates, little humans," the woman said, her voice doubled, a deeper, raspier voice intertwined with the light feminine one. "You wouldn't want to make us angry, now would you?" and Paula saw, for the briefest of seconds, an ink black tongue framed by a smiling mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

Then she focused on running, and on shutting out the doomed screams of her former colleagues.

NAMI

They'd been forced to split up. A horde of those Thrall things had cut them off, and now they were on their own, Ciel and Ace having stayed behind to take care of them. Nami gripped the back of the duck she was riding, and prayed it could get her to the palace.

Hopefully she wouldn't run into any of the Baroque Works' officers, but…

-..."Remember, your first order of business is finding the Baroque Works' officers and keeping them busy. Vivi needs to get to the palace. Ace and I will have our hands full with the Daemons, and when Luffy arrives he'll be gunning for Crocodile, so we won't be able to help you if anything… goes wrong. You'll also have to deal with the Rebel and Royal armies, because I know the Royal army won't be able to keep them from getting inside the walls." Ciel's eyes were cold and hard, his tone business-like.

"Are we supposed to just go running all over Alubarna, trying to find them?" Nami protested, wondering if the man would ever look at her. He hadn't met her eyes once ever since she'd…ever since she'd told him he was a… monster.

"That won't be necessary," the man said, still not looking in her direction, as Luffy's brother unfolded his boat and set it down on the sand. "They'll be somewhere near the palace, trying to intercept us. If you head towards the palace, I guarantee you'll run into them."

He clambered up onto the boat behind Ace, Shere Khan clasped firmly in the arm that wasn't wrapped around the mast, Gin draped around her shoulders.

Then Ciel met her eyes, and Nami swallowed when she recognized the emotion in his eyes. Ciel was a… man… who had more strength than a hundred men, who slaughtered dozens of banawanis with barely a scrape to show for it.

And he was terrified.

Ciel looked at all of them carefully, strangely, as they clambered onto the backs of the Duck Squad.

"Good luck," Ciel said grimly. "You'll need it."

And as Ace's lower half turned to flames and the boat shot forward, they set out for Alubarna…-

Nami shrieked as the duck pulled sharply to the side, nearly flinging her off and almost yanking the reins from her hands.

"So you're one of those pirates," a deep male voice said, and Nami's head jerked towards the sound.

She swallowed as she caught sight of an enormous man dressed in an open black and yellow robe and the traditional pants worn by Arabastan men. He looked more like a mountain than a man, with layers upon layers of muscles straining beneath skin that was only a hair lighter than Vivi's. His face was dewed with sweat and his mouth strained. He looked like he'd been running from someone…

Then she saw what was inked into his chest: a large tattoo that read the word "One" in bold, black writing.

"Oh shit," Nami breathed.

Mr. 1 clenched his fist, and she saw the edge of his arm gleam like a sword in the sweltering sun.

"This shouldn't take long at all," he said.

ZORO

War gave the air a strange feeling, Zoro thought as he raced through the streets of Arabasta on the back of Carue's friend. He'd been through islands that had been embroiled in war before. Not too many, as East Blue was pretty damn peaceful, but he'd seen his share of war.

They'd gotten separated, when a bunch of those…those freaks had ambushed them. The Thralls, Ciel had called them. The things that had nearly killed them all. Zoro scowled, remembering what Ciel had yelled at him when he'd gone to draw his sword.

-..."D'ya honestly think you can touch them?" the man barked, eyes flashing. "For fuck's sake Roronoa, they could wipe the floor with you. Ace and I'll deal with them. Y'all need to handle the god damn Baroque Works' agents, we don't have the fucking time to babysit you. Now go!"…-

He was right, and that knowledge burned the green-haired swordsman.

Not strong enough, he thought. I'm not strong enough. I need to be stronger.

Then something that felt like a spike-covered cannonball was colliding with the side of the duck he was riding, and the two of them were sent flying. Zoro smashed into the side of a building and felt the mud-covered brick buckle beneath his back before he crashed to the ground. The duck lay over his legs, trapping them underneath the unconscious animal. Zoro felt for a pulse or heartbeat or something that could show him the bird was still alive (because he did not want to tell Carue he'd gotten one of his brothers killed) and found several bleeding, puncture-like holes in the bird's side.

Moving the bird off his legs, and setting him carefully to the side, Zoro looked at his own leg. He saw several scratches, like bullets had just grazed over the outside of his leg, and one coin-sized puncture that bled sluggishly. Most of the spikes had missed his leg

He got to his feet, testing his leg, and realized his ankle was twisted. He scowled at the inconvenience.

What the fuck had hit them?

A woman's laugh caught his attention and his head shot up as a woman emerged from the shadows on the opposite side of the street. She was taller than him, with a wildly curly mass of blue hair, paper-pale skin, and clothing that was wildly inappropriate for traveling in the desert, though Zoro suspected that her clothing had been chosen more to draw attention to her shapely body and the exaggerated swing of her hips than for any practical reason.

"The hell are you?" he barked and the woman's mouth curved into a wry smile.

"Sorry about this, kid. I don't wanna fight you, but it's not like I have a choice," she said and flexed her arm. Zoro's eyes widened as spikes exploded from it, and she launched herself forward.

He got his sword up in time to parry the blow and give himself enough time to leap out of the way before her spiked-covered fist crashed into the wall, shattering it. He landed and drew his swords, ignoring the sharp twinge in his ankle. He'd been through worse after all.

"You Baroque Works?" He asked, even though he already knew the answer.

The woman smirked. "I am. And you're faster than I thought you would be."

"Which one are you?"

The woman flexed a fist, and Zoro's eyes widened as he realized the spikes grew from her flesh.

Vivi hadn't mentioned that when she'd told them about the main Baroque Works' agents.

"I'm Miss Doublefinger, kid. And I really am sorry about this, but you're going to die today," she said, almost nonchalantly. Zoro placed the hilt of Yubashiri into his mouth, feeling the static in the air and the distant cries of the clashing armies.

War made the air strange, he thought grimly, readying himself for the battle ahead. It always did.

CHOPPER (& USOPP)

Chopper rested against a tall slab of broken stone, a part of the immense ruins that lay outside the walls of Arabasta. He and Usopp managed to escape the Thralls that had ambushed them, though they had lost track of the ducks that had brought them to Arabasta in the confusion.

Usopp, who lay on the ground beside him, was trying to catch his breath.

"Chopper?" he said, looking up at the sky. It was perfectly blue for miles around, not a cloud to be seen.

"Yeah, Usopp?"

"I…" he swallowed. "I'm scared."

Chopper shuddered. The fear that coated every inch of Usopp now wasn't the speckled fear he wore whenever they went onto a new island or when Luffy did something stupid and put their lives in danger. This fear was newer, brighter, the prey-terror Chopper felt deep inside whenever he faced a predator.

"So am I, Usopp," he said.

-…it was an attack none of them expected. One moment there were blue skies and nothing by the distant sounds of the royal army and approaching rebel army. Then the skies were full of hundreds of shrieking Thralls, descending towards them with the speed of hundreds of cannonballs.

Ciel let out a feral shriek in return and leapt into the air, catching a Thrall seconds before it could have made contact with Vivi and tore it apart. Shere Khan and Gin – now full-sized and snarling with rage – joined her, ripping through mutated flesh with razor-sharp claws and fangs. Ace was a spinning knife of pure flame, doing as much damage to the Thralls as Ciel was.

But the Thralls kept coming and coming and coming and there was no end in sight of the thrashing, demonic beasts. But when Nami nearly had her head taken off by a Thrall, Ciel – eyes blazing – yelled a command at the ducks just as a leech Thrall latched its suckers onto the man's neck.

"Get them out of here!" The snakeman screeched, thrashing as the Leech gorged itself on his blood, its mouths moaning in ecstasy.

The ducks took off in different directions, Chopper and the others hanging on for dear life. Behind them, he heard Ciel screaming in fury, and then he had to focus on getting away…-

A strange, chittering noise and a very familiar smell brought him out of his trance. Chopper felt his insides freeze with panic and he jumped up, pulling on Usopp's arm to get him to stand.

"Chopper, let me lay down, I'm tired!" Usopp whined.

"We need to run, I smell the Thralls!" Chopper yelled, and that got his friend up in a flash.

They began to run towards the walls of Arabasta – Ciel had told them that if they ran into Thralls, their only viable defense would be to get away from them as fast as they could – only to skid to a halt as a line of cackling, blurring forms cut them off.

Chopper heard Usopp swear, the smell of his fear spiking, and they turned to flee in the other direction. The reindeer saw the blur before his friend, and latched his teeth in Usopp's belt and hauled him back just in time as a centipede-like creature erupted from the spot where the sniper had been only a second ago.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Usopp was whispering frantic, involuntary prayers as the Thralls formed a circle of cackling, twittering abominations around them. These were different than the monsters that had come to kill them while they crossed the river. These were dull-eyed creatures that watched them with gaping mouths full of razor-silver teeth.

There was no way out, no path past the dozen or so monsters, Chopper realized with a dawning sense of horror. They were going to die.

But then the Thralls stopped chittering and…moved back? What?...admitting another at the head of their circle. Chopper felt a cold brush of fear ghost down his back at the sight of the new Thrall.

It was the most humanoid of the monsters, appearing to be a light-haired, pale-skinned, curvaceous woman that stood well over seven feet in height, with multi-faceted eyes like a tarantula.

"Today, we feast," the woman said in a strange, warped voice. "Not a sump-tu-ous feast, but I think we can make it stretch, mājhī muē, no?"

In unison, the Thralls let out a horrific, piping chitter in agreement and turned their attention back to Chopper and Usopp, staring at them with bright, swirling eyes full of rabid-animal-madness.

"We're going to die," Usopp whispered, and the Thralls lunged as one.

Elsewhere…

The two Daemons in human flesh stood over the scraps of flesh and splatters of blood that remained of the former Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas.

"So…are we now Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas?" Chimera asked, licking his lips as he folded himself back into his human flesh. Ladon shrugged.

"Does it matter? It is time for us to move on to the hunt. I will have the rēkiga, and you will carve the Magus and feast upon her blood," she said, smiling almost dreamily at the thought

"Don't you want to feast?" Chimera asked, and let out a surprisingly human giggle as she pulled him close and kissed his mouth, a deep, languorous kiss that made him moan greedily.

"I like my Magi dead, their blood coagulating in their veins. Besides, our Kārānēsta'ā'ī insisted that you have the next Magus we came across," Ladon said, pulling away and smiling when her brother made a faint noise of protest.

"I'll save you as much as I can!" He chittered a soft laugh and turned his eyes to the sky.

"Is something the matter?"

"I'm still so hungry," he said, and his skin bulged strangely, like ill-fitting and too tight clothes. "Ladon, I'm still so hungry…"

"Then go. The Magus should be at the palace soon," she said and stood aside so he could leap onto the roof.

"Now," Ladon smiled, and her own skin began to shift, becoming smoother, and her body curved in strange ways. Now she did not need to hide among other humans…to begin the rēkiga, she knew she would need to draw attention.

She thought about the fear and pain the Magus would feel, about the grief she had been centuries since she last tasted. She thought about the sorrow the Magus would feel once they lost their anēkśna, and her chittering laugh carried to the perfectly cloudless sky.

In a pane of glass that had fallen from a window in the alley and shattered into a thousand pieces, the curve of a pale, gorgeous leg and the sway of a womanly hip could be seen as the Daemon made her way out of the alley.

FOOTNOTES AND TRANSLATIONS

*The language of the Daemons, their followers, and is called Tējavī ēkabha, which in the Common Tongue (the language normally used by Humans and those sentient beings not of the Magi race) loosely translates to something approximating "From the tongue of the bright one". Colloquially known as Tējavī. The mention of "the bright one" has been assumed that it could perhaps be describing the God of the Daemons, who turned away from his brothers and sisters to forge a peoples that would belong solely to him. It was said that from the blood of his tongue the first intelligent Highborn were created, along with their all-consuming hunger for Magi flesh and blood.

Ārnēā – Tējavī; noun: A colloquial term which can be translated as either servants or slaves, depending on the speaker's inflection and tone of voice. Most often used when referring to Thralls.

Avau mēl utsava – Tējavī; phrase: Intimate words spoken before a hunt, usually exchanged between mates. Best translated into "May your hunt be plentiful, my other half."

M'biharūna – Tējavī; exclamation: Colloquial, a war-cry used by higher-ranking Daemons, though not often by the Highborn, as it is considered crass and impatient. Closest translation: "My hunger consumes me, therefore I must feed."

Mājhī muē - Tējavī; possessive noun: Term of endearment used by med- to high-ranking Daemons and high-ranking Thralls, usually in reference to treasured offspring or those created from one's own blood and the stolen magic of Magi.

Rēkiga – Tējavī; verb/noun: Means "to break" and "the breaking". Used to describe the process utilized by Daemons to "break" a captured Magus's mind without losing any of the power in their blood, essentially to render them unable to fight back. Usually involves the torture and slow death of fellow Magi and/or the captured Magus's family.

Kārānēsta'ā'ī - Tējavī; noun: It loosely translates to mean something along the lines of "the one who I come from". It is thought to be used when addressing a respected parent or elder.

Anēkśna – Tējavī; noun: "Connection" Means a number of things, but is mostly used to describe those who are not Magi but have a strong (usually sexual/romantic, but not always) bond with them, resulting in their blood becoming strongly flavored with Magic, even granting their blood the similar, but much reduced attributes that make a Magi's blood so desirable.