[Author's Note: I know in past chapters I used the English translation spellings for some things, but when I do research on certain characters it's easier to use the Japanese spellings and I feel that's what most of you are used to. So some of the spellings have changed, but the characters haven't.
I've been really excited to get to this chapter. I have a few things planned for Pierce's devil fruit that get hinted at below. I'll talk about those things later on along with my reasoning for picking this particular type.
On a side note, I've got to holler out to my girls.
If you like authors who have their way with One Piece canon, you might be interested in Embers Among Gold by KeturahDiane. She and I have been discussing her story at great length and she has big things planned. Her fight scenes are very detailed and you can see her character growing with each chapter.
Another person I am greatly fond of is WyseInk who writes fics for Yuri on Ice and Psycho Pass, my favorite being Two Nights In Paris on her page in AO3. She gives the characters a reflective view with subtle information that emotionally envelopes you into the chapters and the characters within.
(Sorry if you don't like shoutouts. On to the story!)]
Valentine's Personal Log, Day 42:
I was able to remove the last of Pierce's stitches this morning. He stretched and flexed, trying to prove to me that his skin had healed enough to start training again. I could feel with my Haki that his spleen had stitched itself together again with strong scar tissue, but I still worry. Just because he can transform without dying doesn't mean he's completely healed. I see the scars marring his body, the glaring absence of his eyes, and I know that will take years.
He still asks me to check for eels every time he draws a bath. He still can't sleep with his arms outstretched but wraps them around himself or something else, anything that keeps them below shoulder level. Though he can transform now he practically refuses to unless I ask it of him, always reluctantly around the others, and yet now that he's relaxed about his health he still sprouts a little hair in his sleep. Sometimes he transforms when he thinks he's alone. I watch his hands change into heads with gnashing teeth, claws sprout from his spine. On one occasion I watched as he bashed one of the heads on his hands against the wall. It faded back into regular skin and his knuckles were left bloodied. He wrapped them and said nothing of it later and I made no sign that I knew. I know what he's thinking. I know how he feels. Neither of us can change what was forced upon him, but I want him to accept that it is a part of him, if not for the sake of his own strength then for mine. I can't bear to watch him go on like this for much longer.
Sometimes he hears a bird or a ray and he's convinced someone has found us, that someone is coming to ruin all that we've built. I keep thinking of the people who will be coming to the island in a few short weeks. To them he will not be my right hand. To them he will be just another patient trying to recover from the horrors he's lived through. I know that I have to be strong for him. For all of them. I'm just glad I don't have to to do it alone. I received a response from V today. I think a trip back East is just what the doctor ordered.
Winston and Pierce stand shirtless and barefoot in a large, open cave half a mile under Batoidea Island. "You're almost completely healed," Winston says. "But healing's left you weak. We're going to fix that."
"Take it easy on him," Saaresto says from his seat on a flat rock. "Two years chained to a wall atrophies muscles to no end. He's not going to be anywhere near peak condition."
"Come on, guys. It's not like I haven't been working out," Pierce says, rolling his neck and shoulders. He bends his knees and raises his fists, gets into a fighting stance. "Lay it on me."
And he does. Winston kicks his guarding hands away and plants a foot square in his chest, knocking him on his back several feet away and forcing all the air from his lungs. Pierce inhales deeply as he gets to his feet and takes another defensive stance. Winston sweeps his feet and plants an elbow in his stomach. Again, Pierce gets up, coughing slightly and wiping spittle from the corner of his mouth. This time he steps forward, taking the offensive, striking at Winston's head and chest with short, fast jabs. Every blow misses its mark and once again Pierce finds himself on the ground. "It's no use," Winston says after thirty minutes. "You can't go on missions like this. You'll be slaughtered in a heartbeat."
"I can still fight," Pierce says. His bare scars glisten with sweat. His breathing is labored and he looks shaky even stomach down, lying flat on the ground. "I'm not done yet."
Winston steps on Pierce, preventing him from getting up again. "You can't even get my foot off your back." Pierce struggles to push off the cold stone floor, but he's right. He doesn't have the strength to even lift him or roll to the side. Frustration fills him. He can feel it swelling deep inside him. Outside him. All over him. His skin bubbles with it as the transformations begin. Winston inhales sharply. "Pierce?" He stumbles backwards.
A strange and all too familiar scent reaches his nostrils. Blood? He can feel his body jerking at odd angles but he can't seem to control any of the changes happening to him. He hurt Winston. He's sure of it. His pant legs rip as something emerges from his shin. He curls into himself until he's on his hands and knees. One leg of his pants are completely shredded now but he can't stop transforming. His skin feels liquid and his heart beats a heavy buzz in his ears.
"It's alright." A soft hand is suddenly between his horns. Flowers overpower the blood and the transformations instantly stop. He can hear Saaresto rushing to Winston's side as the tailor sits down, favoring one side.
Pierce draws in a shaky breath. "Karmen?" He hadn't sensed her as she approached. She must have been cloaked. Maybe she'd been watching the entire training session. He extends his arms into a full bow, lowering his head to touch the floor. "Forgive me, Mistress. I cannot protect you as I am now."
"Winston?" Karmen asks.
"I'm fine," he says, his voice light. Too light. "He just scratched my foot is all. What was that, a claw?"
"He'll be ok," Saaresto confirms. "I've never seen a Zoan transformation like that before."
"It wasn't full, that's for sure," Karmen says as she smooths his hair. "I'm glad this happened now that your body can handle it," she continues. "You haven't done this since I took you off that wall. We'll train more tomorrow."
"Stop!" Pierce yells, voice echoing around the chamber. "Stop ignoring the issue. I'm weak and out of control. If I can't grasp my power then I am just the freak weapon they created."
Karmen's gentle hand moves to grind his forehead harshly against the stone. "If I hear you speak about yourself that way again I will poison you, do you understand me? It's only when you talk like this that you look weak."
"How can you say that?" he asks, spitting dirt from his mouth. She isn't letting up at all.
"You've been getting up again and again for the last thirty minutes. You keep saying you can still fight," she says. "So fight. If you can't stand what you've become then turn yourself into someone you can face in an echo chamber."
So she had been watching. "I can't even control what they did to me. Not well. Not when I'm upset," he says as she finally reduces the pressure on his head. "You see someone in me that I don't know how to become."
"Then you're lucky I have this," she says, waving something thick and crinkling in his face. Paper. It sounds expensive.
"Stationary?" he asks, his voice muffled by the floor.
"Raja himself delivered it just this morning. It's a letter from a friend of mine in the Grand Line. She knows someone who has transformations like yours. His is a regular Zoan, but he should still be able to help you," she says. "To be honest until I saw her response I thought he was dead. I thought that they might know a few techniques from working with him that might help you, but this is definitely in our favor. He's a sweet guy. You'll get along well, I think."
Pierce rolls over onto his back. "When do we leave?"
"As soon as you get packed. We're going to see royalty, so bring something nice, but pack light. We only have two weeks."
"What happens in two week?" Winston asks as Saaresto treats his cut.
"Mating season is over, of course," Karmen says as if they should know this already. "When we get back we'll be preparing for our first mission."
"Don't tell me…" Pierce groans.
"Yep," she says happily. "Kudra's coming." When the pups are old enough to leave the island and head on to Chiyome Island on the other side of the Red Line, Kudra doesn't feel obliged to stay close to home, making her a powerful ally. They'd need her for the plan.
"We trust your judgement," Winston says. They hadn't warmed up to the giant stingray as much as Karmen had. No one else has her affinity for fish, especially after three broken ribs.
Karmen turns to leave the room and points to the shadows. "You're making progress, I see. Your job while we're gone is to spar with Winston. Hit him as hard as you can, if you'd like. Pierce even gave you a handicap." The men draw their attention to a dark corner where Camilla sits wrapped in a dark cloak. Now that they can see her they realize she hadn't disappeared like Karmen does, but she had masked her presence just enough to slip in unnoticed. Winston isn't sure that her mastering reverse observation Haki will be a good thing, but if it keeps her from stabbing him in his sleep… He'd make some special meals to prevent that from happening. Maybe he'd let her hit him a few times, just to be safe.
After changing into a fresh pair of water-resistant pants, Pierce finds Karmen at the ocean entrance to the caves tying equipment to Raja's harness and making final adjustments to air tanks and rebreathers. The giant male stingray waits complacently for her to finish. She turns to face Pierce as he enters, waiting for him to add his supplies to the luggage. "Transform," she commands. He obliges without a word. His nose and jaw extend, curling upward slightly, his ears elongate and flatten, moving up next to his horns. His hips loosen and his knees reverse. His fingers stretch along with the skin between them, lining the interior of his arms, stretching until they are almost unrecognizable as arms at all. His whole form shrinks to just over three feet and gray fur sprouts all over his body. The man in front of her is now a bat in pants. This is the SMILE fruit that Doflamingo and Ikaika had forced him to eat: the artificial Bat-Bat devil fruit, Gray Bat model. Her eyes linger on his empty eye sockets and up to his curving horns. She has to resist the urge to call him a bat-a-lope. "Mount up, fuzzy," she says instead.
They'd practiced this before, but never for long term travel. They both slide rebreathers and air tanks onto their torso's, Pierce's onto his back and Karmen's onto her chest. Pierce's setup has a long full-facial mask that slides easily over his snout, wrapping under his ears and latching around the base of his head. Karmen's has a simple respirator. When all their equipment has been adjusted Pierce climbs onto her back, setting his feet around her waist and hooking his clawed thumbs around her shoulders and neck, cloaking her with living leather. Sometimes, if they're just walking, he'll hook his arms under her armpits and tucks his head into her back, effectively hiding it. Camilla jokes that he looks like a fuzzy backpack. Even with all his equipment he only weighs forty pounds in this form. He sits around twenty-five unburdened. Karmen draws a strong red ribbon from her pocket and secures his wings in place before doing the same with his feet to her belt. Normally this step isn't required, but even artificial devil fruit users lose their will in water. This bypasses his immobility and allows her to maneuver the water for him, letting her protect him in his time of vulnerability. She threads her respirator under his wings and steps onto Parvati's back to depart.
"Here's a few more things you might need," Winston says from behind them. He walks into the chamber on a bandaged foot, carrying a mid-sized hatbox which he ties to Raja's back.
Saaresto follows him in, carrying three full wineskins and does the same. "This is my special protein mix," he tells Pierce. "It should be enough to get you through the desert and back."
Camilla steps in. –Don't leave me alone with these people.-
Karmen gives them a smile. "You all try to get along while we're gone," she says cheerfully. "Camilla, remember the rules. Don't go stabbing anybody that I wouldn't. And train hard. I'll be assessing you when I get back. If you've improved you might even get to come along."
-Whatever.- The teenager groans and stomps from the room. With her Haki Karmen can sense her stop just around the corner and do a happy little dance, practicing her fade all the way back to the gardens. Karmen shakes her head slightly and smiles. Spending some quality time with the guys would do her some good. She'd get tired of not being able to sign at them. Or she'd have fun signing rude phrases. Either way, it would be an interaction.
"We'll be back in a couple of weeks."
She sets the respirator in her mouth, inhaling her first mouthful of 50% oxygen, 50% canistered air, and gets a tight hold on Parvati's harness. The ray dives, closely followed by Raja. Karmen uses her Haki to make sure that Pierce's mask hasn't slipped and he's breathing well. The mask not only keeps his face enclosed in a pocket of air, but it keeps his eyes dry. They hadn't had any fungal flair ups recently and they don't want to chance it. The cold water quickly lulls him into a hibernation state. His six hundred beats per minute heart slows to ten. His body temperature drops until it is barely above the water temperature. His breathing slows. A regular bat can sleep for months like this. They hadn't tried it, but she thinks it's probably the same for him. The only problem is that, after sleeping for so long at a low metabolic rate, waking up burns a lot of energy. Saaresto had been very thoughtful to include the protein mix. Pierce would need it once they reach their destination.
Karmen's attention is pulled away from the deep-sleeping bodyguard by several large presences up ahead. They're still far away, but they could pose a problem. She can feel that Parvati and Raja have sensed them too. She makes a circling hand motion, asking if they'd prefer to circle around. Raja races forward in reply. Karmen grins around her respirator. The rays love an ocean challenge as much as she does. Leaning forward, she prompts Parvati to catch up to her mate. They spiral through the water heading straight for the nest of baboonfish Sea Kings. The pups are almost grown, rough scales turning into fur around their torsos and cascading back into scaled fins. Their little blue faces, puckered lips, and sharp fangs look so cute. And hungry. Raja acts like a decoy, drawing their attention and darting through their grasping fins and mouths. Parvati rides in and out of the current he creates, swimming through gnashing teeth and questionable projectiles. Karmen synchronizes with her and they move as one.
Far beneath them something larger stirs. It seems the activity of the young fish has caught momma's attention. The giant baboonfish races up, obviously a skilled hunter. She darts through her young, forcing Raja to make a sharp U-turn. Karmen stands on Parvati's back, drawing a quill, silently urging her to head straight for the wrinkled nose in front of her. The nose pulls upward, placing in their path sharp, glaring white teeth. At the last moment they dive out of the way. Karmen brings her quill up and pricks the fish's jutting chin with her quill. "Sleeping Spindle," she says, naming the poisonous flower she derived the toxin from. She can barely form the words around her respirator. She wonders how Zoro is able to talk so clearly with a sword in his mouth. She'd have to ask him in a couple years. The baboonfish lets out a large yawn and slowly sinks to the ocean floor in content slumber. Its children chase after her, still longing for a mother's protection. Karmen gives a rounded, sad smile and wishes them luck.
The rest of their trip East is fairly uneventful until they begin reaching warmer waters. Karmen can sense Pierce beginning to wake up behind her. Coming out of his hibernation state always takes about twenty minutes, depending on how fast he warms up. There is one cave that they use for food storage because the temperature always stays cold. Pierce's transformations use a lot of protein, causing him to want to snack on jerky almost constantly. One day he had been gone for a few hours. Karmen had found him curled around a sack of food. Law had warned her it might happen, but she was still… concerned. Not only was he extremely difficult to wake up while still in the store room, he is extremely difficult to drag in human form. Atrophied as they are, his muscles add on the pounds. When she had gotten him to a warmer cavern he had groggily opened his eyes, perfectly fine, and ate three times as much as he had originally gone after. His recovery appetite is nothing in comparison to Luffy's, but he could probably give Sanji and Zoro a run for their money. She wonders which one Usopp would be cheering on.
Pierce opens one socket in time to sense Karmen reaching up to pet a Sea Cat that is trying to simultaneously claw at Raja and swallow Parvati, and them, whole. This wakes him up in record time. Following Karmen's direction, Parvati sweeps smoothly over the cat's face, Karmen trailing her hand across its fur until her fingers slide off between its ears. They travel to shallower waters where the giant sacred fish can't follow. Karmen can taste the water change from salty to fresh. The rays wouldn't be able to stay in this area for long, but they'd last long enough to drop them off at the closest shore.
Karmen wonders how Alabasta has changed since the Baroque Works incident that had let the nation finally start to recover. Crocodile is gone so the sandstorms will have died down. She wonders if that old man had been able to dig out the oasis again. The revolution, no longer having a reason to fight, will have disbanded. All the citizens would have returned to their families to aid in rebuilding the country. She hopes the people are happier now that they can receive rain. She can feel the life that's returned to the land in the strength of the river current they're swimming against. It's much stronger than when they had passed through it months ago. She wonders how green the palace gardens are, how vibrant the deserts.
It takes thirty minutes to reach the upper river. Karmen can sense banana gators around them, but none seem hungry enough to attack. She hopes Parvati and Raja make it back to the ocean alright. The fresh water is beginning to take its toll on them. They breech onto a warm sandy bank that Karmen finds very familiar. She traces her fingers over the scalding sands of the shore before untying their things from Raja's harness and before remembering that Pierce is still tied to her. She releases the knots on the ribbons and he rolls to the ground with a sopping plop. He scrapes off their diving gear and ties it to Parvati's harness before plopping down on the hot ground.
"Good morning," Karmen says. "This place is perfect. I can get so many poisons in a desert and I can go get plant samples from Little Garden for Camilla to cultivate." Her eyes sparkle. "Have you ever heard of a Desert Strawberry?" she asks. "They can kill a person without any symptoms twelve hours after the initial bite. I can't imagine what kind of time delay components I can derive from its toxins. This is going to be so much fun. Do you know they have giant scorpions her? Giant. Scorpions. And snakes. Sooo many snakes. While you train with Pell I'm going on a field trip. You can't stop me, so don't even try." She sets their stuff on the bank and watch Parvati and Raja swim at top speeds downstream. "Pierce, aren't you going to say goodbye to… Pierce?"
Karmen turns around to find him panting, shielding himself the best he can with his wings. Despite their brief departure from the water Karmen is already almost dry. Pierce, however, is still soaked. Horrified, she realizes it's sweat. "Too hot," he pants. Karmen curses under her breath. She'd forgotten that while gray bats hibernate in cold temperatures, most bats die in extreme heat, especially those already in a weakened state. She curses a little louder and begins tossing things from the bags until she comes to her poisons. She takes a syringe and a vial and injects him with a blue liquid. She can feel it lower his temperature almost immediately. He breathes a little easier and steams slightly. "What… was that?"
"Algidity toxin derived from the snowberry," Karmen says, sighing with relief. "It gives the victim symptoms of hypothermia. It should keep you alive until we reach the palace." She pulls him into the shade of a rock and uses the lid of the hatbox to dig down to cool sand. She then drags Pierce into the hole to cool him further. She tosses a bag of the protein mix at him before turning to the contents of the hat box.
"This stuff tastes like chalk," Pierce says as he drinks.
"It's life-saving chalk," Karmen says as she digs through heavy red fabric to find a hand crafted tricorn hat with silver scrollwork. It's roomy in the crown, obviously made to fit over Pierce's horns. She throws the cloth over Pierce and puts the hat on her own head. "I'll be back. Stay in the shade." She reaches under the cloth and hands Pierce the syringe and toxin. "If you start to overheat again use this." She digs through her poisons again and hands him another bottle. "If you think you're freezing to death, use this. It's the antidote."
"You must be desperate if you're trusting me not to overdose myself by accident," Pierce mutters.
"I'll be back for you, I promise."
"Wait. Where are you going, Mistress?" he asks weakly.
"To hitchhike."
There's a pause as he tries to figure out if she's joking or not. "I trust your strategy, Mistress," he says finally.
Karmen latches her poisons to her belt and sets off into the desert with a little water and a bunch of rope. She checks his vitals one more time with her Haki before setting into a run. Her knee-high boots keep out the sand, but not the heat. She doesn't care how much her toes sweat or how badly her feet blister. Time can't be wasted. She follows her Haki into the desert, scanning the rock formations for large life signs. After two hours she comes across an area that's littered with boulders. There are several life signs amongst them, but Karmen focuses on one. It is fifteen foot long from head to barbed tail. She uses her Haki to sneak around the rocks until she can see it. A giant star-clawed scorpion, named for the yellow burst patterns on its pincers. Its long legs pound the sand as it walks, devouring some giant insect it had captured. These scorpions are said to have venom that could kill a banana gator with one drop. Karmen gives it an exhausted grin and wipes sweat from her eyes. She's beautiful.
Karmen holds a quill in one hand and the rope in another as she steps openly towards it. "Sync." The stinger comes down heavily into the sand as Karmen leaps over it and runs along the sequences of the tail. She looks for the weak points in her armor as she goes, tying to keep most of her Haki trained on the next attack, but also probing for a vital point. She runs out of tail and leaps. The scorpion turns as she lands. She quickly ties a lasso and casts it over a claw that is thrown out to crush her torso. She puts all her weight on the rope and uses the momentum to slide in the sand underneath it until she feels the rope get snapped in half instead of her. The scorpion dances side to side, trying to move out from above her. Karmen slides from side to side to prevent it from catching sight of her again. Sand pours into her clothing, but she can't stop to shake it out now. She ties another loop and pays close attention to the strain and movement of the animal's muscles as it preps for its next attack. Karmen quickly checks the amount of armor above her head. The scorpion's underbelly is softer to absorb heat during the day. She levers an angel trumpet variant into her quill and pokes it into the softest tissue she can find. The scorpion prances angrily around her and, in between rolling to avoid being impaled, she lassos the rope over the claws and scrambles out, feet kicking up sand as she pushes herself upright.
She'd been working on this toxin for a few weeks now while she waited for Pierce to recover enough to travel. It took the mind-numbing effects of the angel trumpet and removed the self-mutilating tendencies. It left the victim in a semi-hypnotic state that made them highly suggestible. She'd coined the name "Flexile Somnolence" but tended to shorten the name to "flexomn" for time's sake. For now she finds it too hot to name any of her attacks. Instead, she waits for the toxin to kick in. She hates having to use one at all, but she doesn't have time to tame it properly and unfortunately it would be dangerous and troublesome to bring her back to Batoidea. Too bad. Camilla would probably get a kick out of it. Soon the angry scorpion becomes docile and stops stomping around, swaying gently and seeming to admire the trailing rope bracelets. Karmen hops onto her back and rides her back to Pierce.
The bodyguard is not doing well, she finds. His shallow pit had warmed up and the Algidity toxin is half gone. "What is that?" he asks, teeth chattering slightly.
"Serket here is going to give us a ride to Alubarna," she says.
"You named it?" he asks incredulously.
She hops down and begins transferring their things to the scorpion's back. "It's a she, dearie. Now let's get going before you really get sick."
He climbs onto Karmen's back and she throws the heavy red cloth over them both, securing it in place with the tricorn hat to block the aggressively bright sun. As they travel across the desert Pierce's chilled fur goes from tepid to steamy to almost downright unbearable. She silently urges him to hold out a little longer, afraid to give him any more of the poison. While it helped him, too much could cause lasting damage. She's not sure which harm she'd rather risk.
Karmen checks Pierce's vitals again as they approach Alubarna's giant walls. His heart is racing at 1,200 beats per minute, putting strain on his barely healed spleen. Much more of this heat and all the healing he'd done over the past month will be reversed. She prompts Serket faster, approaching the capitol at a full on sprint. When they reach the wall they climb it instead of going through a checkpoint at a gate. With a snap of the reigns the giant scorpion leaps to the nearest rooftop, scattering a few ceramic tiles, sending them crashing down to the streets. They move through the city this way, causing small frights in the streets and ignoring the calls of cease and desist from the spear toting guards. Expecting most problems to occur at street level, none of them can make it up to the rooftops in time to catch up with them, so they run along the ground ensuring that no citizens come to harm. Karmen appreciates this. She can't help where the tiles fall and would rather not give anyone a concussion. She does call "sorry" a few times.
The irony is not lost on her in the difference between her visits. The last time she'd been to the city she'd been trying to avoid attention at all costs. Now, quite frankly, she doesn't care if she had a waving banner tied to the scorpion's tail. Accepting one's role as a pirate and being a part of Luffy's crew will do that to a person. It is not until a line of guards block the rooftops in front of her that she thinks she might be drawing a little too much attention.
"Stop!" the apparent leader calls out.
"Sorry, dear," she calls back. "Medical emergency." She places a hand on Serket's head and expands her fade, extending her Haki to cover the scorpion as well as its two passengers. Karmen finds the looks on the guards faces simply adorable as they disappear. They're able to loop around a few balconies to pass the guards but Karmen can't keep them faded for long. Two people puts enough strain on her Haki but Serket's size alone would have put excessive strain on her without a passenger. She can see the palace only a few blocks ahead. She can keep up her efforts until then. The reigns snap again and the smarter guards follow them by the trail they leave behind. Soon, if they hadn't already, they'll figure out the general direction and try to run ahead.
That's when Serket begins to buck. Not much, but enough to get the message across that her toxins are wearing off too. She changes her plans, instead leading the scorpion to the tallest nearby building and leaping the palace wall, skidding to a halt in the courtyard amongst the sound of alarms. "Carue!" she yells as she unfades, yelling as loud as she can to cut through the horns and bells. Not more than a second after she is visible again is she surrounded by forty palace guards, all pointing their spears at either her or the scorpion. Beneath the cloth she unbuttons her left sleeve and rolls it up past her elbow. She uses her left arm to reach out behind her and grab a bottle the size of her torso from their luggage. Once this is secure she uses a quill to cut the ropes securing the rest to the scorpion's back. Their things clatter to the ground as the alarms stop, guards seeming to feel the only threat will soon be contained. "Sync. You all might want to step back, dearies." She can sense the duck running down the palace hallways while the scorpion fights for control of its mind, claws already snapping in frustration. Carue leaps from the palace steps, rushing through the guards towards her. Serket's tail rears to strike at the movement. Karmen unhooks Pierce's clawed thumbs from her shoulders and flings him at the duck, red cloth and all. "To the basement! Hurry!" Once he cools off he'll be ok, she thinks. She knows. As soon as Pierce is free she turns on the scorpion, hat flying from her head, and leaps directly into its stinger. Her feet are skidding across the ground and the stinger is digging into her side as Carue catches the sack of bat and skids around to run back towards the palace.
The guards stare at Karmen, shocked. She'd sacrificed herself to get whatever that was to Carue. It must be of vital importance. She has a satisfied grin on her face and determination in her eyes, even as her body fills with toxins. They can hear it pouring into her. She'll be dead in seconds.
Wait.
The guards take a closer look. Karmen had caught the stinger in the bottle. The yellow venom pours into it. When it's almost full the scorpion rears back, flinging the bottle with it. Karmen refuses to let go, corking the vial mid-air before landing on the stinger itself. She balances there on the tip of her boot before sliding down the tail and grabbing the cut rope. Serket focuses on her, snapping her claws and stabbing with her stinger. The guards back away, terrified of the sudden turn. Karmen protects her new resource more than her own body as she dances around the claws and legs and tail. With one final push of effort as the stinger shoots forward for another strike, she slides underneath the scorpion between her legs and leaps over it from the other side, pulling the rope with her and hog tying the creatures' main weapon to its body. Karmen sits on the arching tail, hugging the bottle to her. She can't wait to taste it.
She senses Vivi, Chaka, and Pell before she can see them. She doesn't turn around to face them, mostly because she's still riding the bucking scorpion as it arches its claws, trying to reach her and tear her in two. It dances in a circle with effort but her claws are unable to reach her. Karmen tucks the bottle under one arm while gripping a section of the tail and thrusts her left fist into the air, showing the "X" that's still tattooed on her forearm.
"Are you trying to make good on your obituary?" Vivi jokes.
"Sorry about the commotion," Karmen says between giggles. Realizing they at least know each other, the guards lower their weapons slightly. "We came as soon as we got your letter, but we had a few complications." She leaps down and stabs the scorpion in an armpit with another dose of venom. Soon it's complacent enough to stick a person's head safely into her pincers, not that anyone other than Karmen and Vivi would try it. She sits comfortably on Serket's back and cuts the ropes loose again. "I'll escort this dear back outside of the city and make my way back here. Can Pierce rest up in your basement until I get back? He and the climate don't seem to agree. We can catch up when I get back."
Vivi closes her eyes and gives Karmen her characteristically warm smile. "I can't wait."