Battle on Luminous
Neo took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She felt like she was going to be sick. Luminous was right there in front of her. They all were out on the deck of their sub as they closed in on their destination. This was it. The final, decisive battle. She was either going to regain everything she's lost or lose everything she still had.
"Stop that," Law's voice broke into her thoughts and made her jump. "Don't think like that. You're not going to lose anyone else. We are going to get our son and Penguin back right now."
"Right. We're getting them back right now. This all will be over soon," Neo took his hand. "But I know you are having your doubts too. It's only natural."
Law chuckled and leaned down to her. He pressed his lips to hers. Their kiss was slow, tender and comforting for both of them. "Captain? Neo? Um…Captain?"
"Yes?" Law asked, breaking their kiss. They both turned to the bear talking to them.
"We're here," Bepo said.
"Right," Law nodded. He held up his hand and warped his love and crew onto the beach of Luminous. The Straw Hats disembarked their own ship while everyone looked around.
"Sheesh. This place is even darker than the first time we came here," Usopp said, noting their surrounding environment.
"It feels so empty," Neo whispered low as she scanned her eyes over her home island. It was void of life. And so twisted up, literally and figuratively. The trees were a lot taller than they were before. The bark had been darkened to almost pitch black. They were void of leaves completely. The lush green grass had been turned yellowish grey. All of the houses, flowers and bushes were missing. The only building around was the castle. The only part they could see of it was the points that stuck up among the trees.
Neo couldn't tell from where they were standing how much the castle had been changed, but she was sure it didn't have spiky points like that before and it wasn't a grayish purple color. She pulled her eyes from the castle and looked around at the two crews. They all were ready to fight. They all were waiting for her to tell them it was time. She took another deep breath and slowly let it out. "Let's get this over with."
"Yeah!" Luffy cried, slamming his fist into his palm. He then ran towards the castle.
"Nothing's ever gonna change with him," Franky shook his head. "Well, might as well follow his lead."
"You sure you want to come?" Sanji asked the little sprite hiding in his breast pocket.
"I no leave you!" Celeste protested.
"All right," Sanji stroked her hair with a finger. "Just stay inside."
Celeste ducked down into his pocket as the groups proceeded to walk inland. Their walk was a creepily quiet one. The onset of an ambush was obvious. They all could feel the Warpers watching them.
"I wonder what they did with all the Elementals," Robin pondered.
"They probably drained their magic then tucked them away somewhere," Nami answered. "I wonder if they are going to use them against us somehow."
"Wouldn't be surprised if they did," Franky said carefully looking around.
"Oh! Just attack us all ready!" Usopp shouted. "I can't take the suspense anymore!"
"Shut up, you idiot!" Nami punched Usopp on the head.
"What? It's gonna happen," Usopp protested. "So why not just get it over with?"
"How in the world did these children take down my brother and his forces?" Corazon asked. He looked over at Law. "And how did you not go insane from dealing with them?"
Law didn't answer. He just let his hat drop over his eyes and frowned. Neo chuckled. "I'm not sure he didn't go insane from dealing with the Straw Hats."
"Can we just keep going?" Zoro asked.
"No point in stopping now," Robin added. "Besides, ambushes happen when you least expect-"
A sudden blast of wind washed over the group, knocking them all off balance. The wind was filled with something that lashed out at them. It hit them all over their bodies. They all tried to counter attack, but couldn't get a hit on whatever was attacking them.
Neo closed her eyes and concentrated on the wind. Using her mind, she was able to repel the wind away from them. She looked over the pirates. They were readjusting their clothes, examining the red spots on their skin and fixing their now messed up hair, but they were fine. Before anyone could say anything else, black holes opened up underneath everyone, but Neo. Long shadow like limbs grabbed the pirates and pulled them down into the darkness. She dove to the hole that took Law from her. It closed up before she could do anything to save him. "Law!"
The only thing Neo could hear was Nami shouting out to Usopp. "Usopp! You're going to pay for this! I told you to shut up!"
"Law!" Neo pounded on the ground with her fists a couple times. She then shook her head and took a couple deep breaths. "No! Calm down. You are fine. Law has prepared you for this. You knew this would happen."
She stood up. "Just head to the castle. Law will find a way back to you. Focus on Isleen. The others will be just fine. They are strong."
With another slow deep breath, Neo turned back towards the castle and started walking again. She could feel the eyes of Warpers watching her, silently mocking her from the odd forest around her. She rounded a tree and paused. A shiver ran up her spine when she finally saw the castle. It looked like someone froze an explosion in place. She had to force herself to move again.
As she got closer to the castle, she noticed the gray and purple colors were twirling around inside the clear crystal walls of the building. The ground underneath her feet shifted. It was replaced with a red narrow carpet that lead up to the two large steel doors of the palace. Neo huffed lightly. "Very funny. Feels like this is nothing but a joke to Isleen."
Still, Neo started walking again. The carpet was eerily soft and welcoming to the contradicting harsh cold environment of the island. She was staring to miss how her home island use to feel. She missed all the flower scents, the variety of food the Elementals cooked, the music, dancing, the laughter…Neo suddenly snapped opened her eyes that she didn't even know she had closed.
She noticed she was headed towards to the left of the castle. The carpet had split. She was going towards a dark path instead of the castle. Isleen had gotten into her mind without her realizing it. She shook her head and started back down the right path. "Focus. Don't let your mind wonder. Don't think about what use to be here. Think about what's here right now."
Two minutes later, Neo was standing at the doors. She swallowed and placed her hands on the door. Despite their extremely large size, they easily opened with a light push. A cold whoosh of chilly wind greeted her as the doors swung open. She could only see about ten feet inside. The rest of the room faded away into shadows.
"Well, here goes nothing," Neo then stepped inside. The doors slammed closed behind her. She walked into the shadows and was soon covered in darkness.
…
"Where are we?" Chopper asked as he sat up. He looked around his grayish surroundings. The other pirates were starting to pick themselves up too. "Is everyone okay?"
"I think so," Nami said.
"We're still together?" Brook asked. "But why?"
"Why bother asking that? We're not going to get an answer," Zoro complained. "Nothing about this whole thing makes any sense. They should just fight us and get it over with."
Law frowned as he looked around. He quickly glanced over his crew, they were fine, angry and worried but fine. Shachi then said, "Okay, we've been successfully separated from Neo. Now the only thing missing in this is the surprising twist."
Eerie silence fell over them for a couple minutes before Bepo spoke up. "I think I figured out the surprising twist."
"And what's that?" Sanji asked.
Just then all the elements fired at them. They all jumped out of the way then looked up to see Elementals appearing in the room. Usopp blinked. "Are they real or an illusion?"
"I think they're real," Bepo replied.
"In deed they are," A Warper appeared. She smirked. Slowly more Warpers appeared in the room. They all were wearing victorious smiles.
"Yeah, because you've never lied before," Law grumbled. "Everyone, be careful. We have no way of knowing for sure if these are really Elementals."
"Huh? Why?" Luffy asked.
"Because, we don't want to really hurt them if they really are the Elementals. It's not their fault they're being controlled," Nami explained with a frustrated sigh.
"Right!" Luffy grinned. "I don't want to hurt Neo's people. Let get it started now."
Luffy cracked his knuckled then charged into battle. He punched several punches at the Elementals. The Elementals disappeared. Luffy paused and blinked in disbelief. Suddenly vines raised up out of the ground and trapped him. "Hey! Let me go!"
"He's still trying to use his strength," Nami shook her head.
"Might as well save him," Franky said. They all charged forward.
Law paused and glanced over his shoulder. Bepo caught this move and turned to him. "Captain? Is something wrong?"
"Isleen's doing something to Neo," Law frowned. He took a deep breath and released it then turned to the bear. "But our focus is needed here. She'll be fine. Let's attack."
"Aye, Captain!" The two then charged into battle. Using their minds to try and face off against the Elementals. The pirates, who were better at using their minds, tried to turn the elements against the Elementals to immobilize them while the others tried to use physical attacks.
…
"Neo?" A familiar voice called out. "Neo, time to get up."
"Hm," Neo moaned and shifted on the soft bed underneath her. She cracked her eyes open. "Huh?"
"You going to sleep the entire day away?" Law asked.
"What?" Neo sat up and looked around their room. Law was bustling around the room getting dressed and drinking a cup of coffee. Corazon was in his crib playing with a teddy bear. She jumped out of bed and ran over to their son. "Cora!"
"Is something wrong?" Law paused to look at her with his hands on his hips.
"No, nothings wrong," Neo said. She looked at their son then looked around his crib. Something seemed to be missing from the baby's bed. "Wait...Something's not right."
"What do you mean?" Law asked.
"I don't know," Neo picked up Corazon from his crib. She held him tightly too her chest. "Something just seems to be missing from Cora's crib. It was a gift, I think."
"Well, his teddy bear was a gift from his Uncle Shachi. And it's right there," Law pointed to the bear in the crib.
"No, it wasn't a toy. It was something else. Something rounded. And I think it played music," Neo turned to Law. She studied him. He was wearing a white button up shirt, with a black tie and slacks. Something about that wasn't right either. "When did you start wearing clothes like that?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Law chuckled and walked over to her. "I've always worn clothes like this. Did you have a weird dream or something?"
"Something," Neo dropped her eyes back down to Corazon. He smiled up at her with his steely grey eyes.
"Don't worry about it. It was probably just a strange dream that left you feeling dazed when you woke up," Law said with a wave of his hand. "You should get dressed now."
"Just a dream?" Neo mumbled. "That doesn't sound right either."
"Get dressed, honey," Law plucked Corazon out of her arms.
"What did you call me?" Neo's eyes shot to Law's.
"Honey. Why? Do you not like me calling you that now?" Law smirked.
"You never call me honey," Neo narrowed her eyebrows.
"What are you talking about?" Law asked. He sat Corazon down on the floor and straighten back up. "I always call you honey."
"You always call me love or my love," Neo shook her head. "You're not real."
"Of course I'm real," Law began to walk towards her. "Stop acting so strange."
"No," Neo shook her head again. "You're not real! Isleen got into my head again."
"Isleen? Who's that?" Neo closed her eyes and ignored him. She felt him grab her shoulders. Slowly she worked on gaining control of the world around her. She could feel Isleen easily and her over confidence. Soon she was back in the hallway of the castle. She sighed. "Enough of this!"
She opened her eyes and rushed down the hall. The doors to the thrown room opened on their own for her. She rushed through them and paused a few feet into the room. Isleen was sitting on her throne. It looked like a smaller version of the castle. The back was all pointed. It was also the same swirling colors as the rest of the castle.
But it was what was above the throne than made Neo almost throw up. She shot her hand to her mouth and tried to prevent that from happening. Penguin was above the throne. Laying in a crystal clear coffin. She wished that it wasn't him. That he wasn't really there, but she knew it was really him. It wasn't an illusion. She shook her head and calmed herself. Penguin was really right there. And she knew Isleen had him there to throw her off, to freak her out.
Isleen smirked. "I was so sure that you would never figure out that was an illusion. I was hoping being with your lover and having your son back would have convinced you it was nothing but a dream. How did you know it wasn't real?"
Neo forced herself to pull her eyes from her brother's seemingly lifeless body. "If you're really going to use someone's lover against them then you really should pay more attention to details of how they treat each other and how they dress."
"What do you mean?" Isleen asked, looking as if she was bored of this conversation.
"Law's a pirate. He doesn't dress like a business man. And he never calls me honey. He always calls me love or my love," Neo clenched her fists.
Isleen huffed. "Well, aren't you two just so sickeningly close."
Neo couldn't help but smile. "You have no idea how close we really are. Now, stop trying to stall."
"Well, aren't you in such a hurry?" Isleen smirked. "Someone who hates to fight?"
"I might hate to fight, but that doesn't mean I won't defend my family," Neo summoned all of her strength and tried to take control as much of this world as she could. She raised the ground up around Isleen and tried to trap her. She did, but Isleen easily broke free.
Isleen then turned the attack on Neo. She trapped Neo's body and slammed her against the wall. Chuckling, Isleen walked over to Neo. "Silly little princess, did you really think you could beat me? I've had years of practice controlling my mind and magic. I'm a lot stronger than you. I already hold the keys to your defeat."
"What are you talking about?" Neo demanded.
"Naive little princess, haven't you wondered where your people are?" Isleen reached out and stroked Neo's cheek. Neo tried to pull away, but didn't have much room to move away from the woman. "Honestly, I wanted to kill them for what you all did to me."
"We didn't do anything to you. Our ancestors did," Neo pointed out.
"Details," Isleen tossed her hair over her shoulder. "You're still the descendants of those who imprisoned my people. Anyway, do you want to know where they are?"
Neo gritted her teeth, already knowing she won't like the answer. Isleen leaned into her ear and whispered in a victorious tone. "I saved them so they could fight against your pirate love. That's right. Your family is fighting your family."
Neo closed her eyes to keep her tears from falling. She felt she was going to be sick again. She tired not to gag with each breath she took. "Stop it. Let them go. Just leave them alone and take me."
"That's very noble of you, but it's not happening," With a small flick of her hand, Isleen tossed Neo to the other side of the room. Neo slammed against the wall. It knocked the air out of her lungs. "You really should just give it up. You can't win. You know you're not strong enough to defeat me."
Block her out. Neo thought to herself.
"You know you're weak. You always have been. Your family always does the fighting for you, don't they? Have you ever done anything for them? Just think about your past. What good have you done?"
She's just trying to mess with you. You can handle this just fine. Neo struggled to stand up. When she turned her eyes to Isleen, the Warper Queen immediately showed her a picture of her family and friends fighting. And they were loosing. "That's not real!"
"Are you sure?" Isleen taunted.
There's got to be a way to distract her. She's got to have some kind of weakness that I can take advantage of. That's what Law would do. But what is her weakness? Neo dove to the side when Isleen tried to stab her with a spear she conjured up. Several more attacks came. Neo could do nothing but dodge them.
"Give it up, princess. You aren't going to win against me. I'm not as weak minded as you are," Isleen chuckled.
Neo panted hard. She was starting to think that Isleen was right. She was weak minded when she wasn't under the protection of Law and her crew. Her eyes then snapped open with realization. Isleen did have a weakness. Isleen was weak minded too, against the right thing. That's it! Isleen's prison! She's afraid of going back to it. But I don't know what it looked like.
Neo shook her head. It didn't matter that she didn't know what the prison looked like. Just the idea of being locked back up should be enough to throw Isleen off her guard and trap her. Neo pushed herself to her feet. She looked at Isleen. "Tell me something, Isleen."
Isleen cocked her head. "What is it?"
"What was is like?"
"What was what like?"
"Your prison?" Neo saw a flash of concern in Isleen's eyes. It only lasted for a split second before the creature regained control of her emotions.
"What does that matter?" Isleen asked, trying to cover up her insecurity. But she couldn't hide it from Neo. Insecurity was something Neo was all too familiar with.
"Was it all dark inside?" Neo grasped ahold of the area around them. Slowly the light began to fade away.
A couple sweat drops appeared on Isleen's forehead. "I-I have no idea what you're planning but it won't work. I'm stronger than you."
"Actually, I think we're pretty much the same," Neo said, making the room grown even darker. She could now only see the faint outline of Isleen's body. The erratic movements the Warper was making with her body told Neo that she was loosing control. Then Neo completely got rid of all the light in the room and plunged them both into darkness. "At least where our insecurities are concerned."
"No!" Isleen cried out in desperation. Figuring out what came next, Neo quickly made clones of herself and placed them around the room. She then summoned her wings and took to the air so she wouldn't get hit. Isleen summoned a light that was almost as bright as the sun. Once the room was lit up, she struck out at all the Neo clones. Isleen's voice was desperate. "No! No! I won't go back!"
Neo hovered safely in place as she watch Isleen attack her clones. With each clone Isleen destroyed, Neo created more. She knew that she had to get Isleen to use up as much magic as she could. Isleen cried out again. "Why won't you die?! Enough of this!"
Isleen suddenly stopped attacking. Neo saw the desperation in the woman's eyes. Her chest tightened with the realization that she had forgotten one important thing in the room: Penguin. Isleen turned back to the throne and looked right up at the unconscious man. "If you won't die then I'll just kill the one I know who will!"
Isleen summoned a large pointed spike and shot it at Penguin. Neo cried out. "No!"
Neo struggled through her panic to grab a hold of the spike with her mind. The two locked into a strange battle of tug of war on the spike. Isleen screamed. "I won't go back! I won't go back!"
"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Neo screamed back at her. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "This is between you and me! I won't let you kill my brother!"
Using all the mental strength she had, Neo shattered the spike. She then flew down towards Isleen. Isleen tried to hit Neo with more mental attack, but they were sluggish. Neo dodged each one easily. Her plan to wear Isleen out was working. But she still couldn't let up on her own attack and landed a punch on the creature's cheek. Isleen flew backwards. She landed on the ground and skidded a few feet.
Neo landed. Her feet planted on both sides of Isleen's body as her fist throbbed from the punch. She wiped her tears away, but more took their place. She summoned every single crystal she could. Each one snapped with their respective element. She dropped to her knees. Starting down at Isleen through her tears, sharp pointed vines pointed at Isleen's throat.
Tears dripped from Neo's chin. They fell carelessly on Isleen's face. Isleen didn't notice as she continued to taunt Neo with a wild, desperate look in her eyes. "Go ahead, Luminous Princess! Kill me! You know you want too! I took your brother! I tried to drain your son of his magic! I've repeatedly attacked your family and friends! And I'll do it again! It won't matter how I get locked up this time! I will get free! And I will come after you again! The only way your are going to be free is if you kill me! So do it! KILL ME!"
"Stop it," Neo pleaded. Her body trembled. Her crystals trembled and shook with their elements ready to kill the woman beneath their mistress. She wanted to drown her with her water crystals, burn her with her fire crystals, blow her away with her wind crystals, bury her with her earth crystals.
Neo's vision blurred as her head swam. She was scared. She wanted to kill this woman who attacked her family and friend repetitively. She wanted the woman dead. She didn't like the feeling. She didn't want to do it. She wanted to do it. "Stop it. I can't…I can't…LAW! HELP ME!"
Neo's solar crystal then appeared in the room. It slowly radiated its warm, healing glow over Neo's body then over the entire room. With a bright flash of light, the solar crystal lit up the room.
…
Law growled as he dodged another attack from the Elementals he was facing. They weren't getting anywhere. No one was winning, but no one was loosing. They were in a stalemate. They were being detained on purpose. He gave a quick glance at his crew and the Straw Hat crew. From the looks on some of their faces, he knew they had come to the same conclusion that he had: This wasn't about them. It was about Neo. They were still only a tool to use against her.
Law needed to get back to Neo. He could sense her fear rising. He could also sense her intent to kill, something he never felt coming from her. Something obviously happened to cause Neo to become like this. He knew it couldn't have been because of him and the others in this room. They were in life threatening danger. It had to be Penguin. He was the only one missing here. And the only one who couldn't defend himself. That would cause Neo to want to kill, if he was in life threatening danger.
Law had to get back to her and stop her from killing. If he didn't, he knew she wouldn't be able to live with killing someone again. And it didn't matter if the Warper deserved to die or not.
Law started to try and formulate a plan when he was suddenly stopped by a bright light that flowed into the room. The Warpers shield their eyes. It was too much light for them. Law turned to it, not noticing the light didn't effect him like it did the Warpers. "Neo's solar crystal?"
"Hey, they're not attacking anymore," Luffy said. Law turned to the straw hatted man then looked back at the Elementals. Luffy was right. The Elementals had stopped attacking.
"But how?" Brook asked. "Why is the light only blinding them and not us?"
"Neo's crystal is supposed to push the darkness away from their bodies. Perhaps it's not just from the darkness crystal. Perhaps it works on other types of darkness," Robin surmised.
"I suppose that's possible," Sanji said. "But I don't think this works like it did back then. Look at her people. They're not returning back to normal. They're just pausing in their places."
Before anyone else could formulate a response, they all heard Neo cried out, "LAW! HELP ME!"
"That was Neo," Chopper said. "She sounds so scared."
"But where? Where do we go to get to her?" Usopp asked.
"We follow the light," Law said before running towards the light. "And we use our minds to get back to her."
…
"Do it!" Isleen cried out again.
Neo closed her eyes. She felt her body give into the desire to kill this woman who hurt her so much. Her stomach lurched as her crystals went on the attack. Suddenly, a familiar hand grabbed her wrist as an arm wrapped around her waist. Her crystals immediately stopped attacking. Familiar lips then pressed against her temple. "It's okay, love. You are not going to kill her."
"L-Law…" Neo, still with her eyes closed, continued to plead. "Help me. I need you. I can't see you."
"Open your eyes, Neo. And look at me, not at Isleen," For a moment, Law wasn't sure she was going to. He thought she was so lost in the fear of having to kill Isleen had far too strong of a hold for him to break. But she did. She turned her head to him and slowly opened her eyes. He smiled sweetly at her. "There she is. There's my sweet princess."
"Law…I almost…"
"Shh," Law pulled her into his arms and off Isleen. "No, you didn't. You weren't going to kill her."
He grabbed his sword before helping her stand up. She clenched a hold of his shirt and trembled in his hold. He kissed her hair. Isleen sneered. "I knew you were too weak to actually do it. Now lock me up. Get it over with."
"No, Isleen," Law hissed. "You are not going to any prison this time."
"Of course I am," Isleen smirked. "It's the punishment the Elementals and Time Empress will bring down on me. Your princess isn't strong enough to create a prison like the one that held us before. You won't even let her try because it will hurt her. So we'll just sit around in whatever prison the Time Empress has."
"That might have been their punishment, but it's not mine," Law raised his sword. "I won't let you have the chance to escape again."
"You won't kill me," Isleen continued to smirk even thought her eyes betrayed her confidence.
"Neo, cover your ears," Neo immediately did what he said. Even though she had her ears covered and her eyes closed, Neo could still feel Law moving his arm. She could still feel the blade sinking into Isleen's chest. And she could still hear the muffle sounds of Isleen crying out before her voice was cut off forever. Then she felt both of Law's arms around her. "It's okay, love. It's over. She's never going to hurt you again."
…
Author's Notes: Ugh, I still don't like writing fight scenes. I need to get better at them. Hope this was okay. And, wow, one more chapter and this is over. :/ But still going with the rewrite ^.^ so we'll still have plenty of lovey dovey moments with Neo and Law. Still debated on doing another Law/OC and Luffy/OC fic. I'm wondering if many would be interested in them. Might go ahead and post the first chapter of each soon to see if any likes it then continue the outline if enough like them.