Chaos in Dressrosa

Part Four

"I didn't ask for your names!" Luffy snapped at the two men behind him and Neo.

"Whoa, whoa! Take it easy, sir!" they replied.

Neo hummed softly as her gaze bounced back forward when the two men and Luffy shouting at each other. Her head pounded with each word they spoke. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, and wondered when these headaches of hers would stop. Through her pain and thoughts she could feel Law's worried eyes on her. She looked down at him with a weak smile before she felt someone else watching them. She turned away from him to find that Pica was looking right at them. She huffed in annoyance. She was hoping they had a little more time before the stone man noticed them there. But with his large eyes, she figured she shouldn't be surprised he found them within just a minute or two of landing on his arm. She wondered if he could possibly feel the vibrations through his stone body that Moocy's hooves were causing. She could feel them both from her connection to nature and physically from riding on his back. But she was different from devil fruit users. She was nature.

"Straw Hat!" Pica said, his high pitch voice striking into her head like a sharp ice pick.

Neo winced and pressed her fingers to her temples, wishing the stone man would just remain silent while they were this close.

"He's ticked off!" the two men behind Luffy shouted.

Luffy looked over at Pica.

"I won't let you get any closer to Dofy!" Pica said.

"His arm is growing back and-Ah!" Neo said just before another sharp pain stabbed into her head. She peaked through her eyelids, watching his arm getting bigger and coming closer to them. "Law! Let me help Luffy! I won't get any closer to Pica! Just let me help! I can't sit here and do nothing!"

"All right. You can help Straw Hat from here," Law said, reluctantly.

"I'll assist you as much as I can, but I might not be much help," Neo said.

"It's fine! I'll handle him! You do what you can!" Luffy said before he jumped off Moocy. "I'll be back soon!"

"All right! Be careful!" Neo forced out through her pain. She winced at the sharp stab and increased her solar crystal's glow. She readied her other crystals, guiding them along with Luffy.

"Straw Hat!" Abdullah said.

"Third Gear!" Luffy shouted as he ran towards Pica's stone face. He bit down on his thumb, blowing into his body, his fists grew large, he then coated his large appendages using his armament haki. "Armament Harden!"

...

"It's massive! We're finished! We have no where to run!" Jeet and Abdullah shouted when Pica's fist grew larger before their eyes. "Straw Hat!"

"Please stop yelling so much!" Neo winced. Pushing passed her pain, she gathered over a hundred earth crystals. She pulled up hundreds of vines from the ground below while creating hundreds from her earth crystals. She wrapped them around Pica's arms and torso. She knew they most likely wouldn't hold him for very long, but it would at least slow him down a bit. She then gathered her wind and water crystals together. Using them create ice as anchors to reinforce her vines and hold Pica's body down while twisting them together to create an ice funnel that drilled into Pica's fist. She used her fire crystals to try and blind Pica, but with his stone eyes she was unable to do much good with that. She focused more on the vines and ice around the stone body. Her vines were starting to snap at Pica's movements.

...

Law watched her. Feeling helpless, feeling her pain, and carefully monitoring for any other aggressive behavior that was out of place. He should have felt relief when he didn't find anything. But he didn't. That tickle in the back of his mind that said something was wrong wouldn't leave him alone.

"Gum Gum Grizzly Magnum!" Luffy cried out, eyeing the vines as they snapped away from Pica. He knew Neo was doing what she could to help. And he knew she was helping him even more when her crystals gathered close to him. From the corner of his eyes, he saw them move back behind him a bit. They flared up with their elements and circled around his arms and fists. A smirk appeared on his lips. This was similar to how they were training on the Sunny. With her backing him up, he threw out his enlarged, element engulf fists. Neo's elements rushed forward, striking and drilling into Pica's face just before Luffy's punch hit the stone man. A loud boom and crackling erupted through the air as the stone face shattered it into millions of pieces. Neo then continued to attack Pica. She threaded more vines down through the stone body, searching for the man but also trying to lock the stone body into place even more. In a fit of silliness, she grew a bouquet of large roses to take the place of Pica's missing head. Luffy laughed at the hit and at Neo's roses blooming as he fell from the air. He turned his body back towards his friends. Grabbing onto the stones, he flung himself back to his friends.

"Luffy, you are completely and totally insane!" Neo said when Luffy landed back on Pica's arm beside them. She placed her hands on Moocy's back to steady herself when her vision split.

Luffy smiled brightly at her before saying, "All right! Let's go straight to the palace."

"Yes, sir!" Jeet and Abdullah cheered again.

"No, I wasn't talking to you guys at all! I was talking to Moocy!" Luffy said.

Sighing, Neo pinched the bridge of her nose again before massaging between her eyes. Her double vision cleared and she started searching for Pica. She tried to connect herself to the stone body. She could feel a bit of movement from inside the stone shell, but she couldn't tell if it was just her vines moving around or if it was Pica. She knew he was there somewhere. There was no way a top executive was taken out that easily.

On the back of Moocy, Zoro was also stared intensely at Pica's now missing head. Studying it carefully, he slowly came to the conclusion that all Luffy and Neo did was punch and break stone. He then looked down at Neo. Despite the pain she was in, she was scanning her eyes over the rest of the stone body they were on. And if she was doing that, it meant she probably felt the stone man still moving around. It was the extra confirmation that he needed to know he was right. "Luffy! It's not over yet! The head you just shattered was nothing but stone!"

"What?!" Luffy asked.

"What we're running on is nothing but a stone shell!" Zoro said.

"He's right, Luffy," Neo said, stopping her vines. "I think I can feel Pica moving around. I'm not moving my vines anymore so it has to be him."

"So we've lost him again?!" Luffy asked, darted his eyes around in an attempt to look for their hidden enemy.

"No, he's coming towards us right now," Neo informed him. She looked straight ahead of them when she felt Pica there.

Luffy looked at her before following her gaze. He narrowed his eyebrows when Pica's head lifted up out of the stone arm.

"He looks ticked off!" Zoro noted the harsh glare Pica was giving them while his body continued to rise up from the stone.

"What? Where is he?!" Jeet asked.

"His real body is right there!" Zoro said. He nodded his head at Pica who was now completely out of the stone.

"What?! That's the stone man?!" Luffy asked.

"This is the first time we've seen him in a human body," Zoro said, eyeing the man when he reached into the stone and pulled out a huge katana. He smirked, knowing this fight was going to be his while Luffy went on ahead. It suited him just fine.

"Ah! He's got a massive sword!" Jeet said. "Stop! Turn around!"

Neo gritted her teeth. Repositioning her crystals, she fired them all at Pica. She wrapped vines around him, holding him in place while the rest of her attacks flew towards him. She growled when Pica formed a stone shield around his body, preventing any damage to him. "If I could only focus a hundred percent I'd be able to easily break through his defenses. What lousy timing to develop headaches like this."

"Do not attack me, girl! I am not here to fight you! I want Straw Hat!" Pica said. He snapped the vines from his body then banished his stone armor. Pulling back his katana, he readied himself to slice the large blade at his enemies.

"Hold on, Moocy!" Neo said, feeling the bull's panic as he planted his hooves into the stone to try and stop but all his hooves did was just slid over the stone. She moved to use her crystals against Pica again, but her magic faded out with another sharp stab of pain to her head. With a pain filled scream she fell forward against Moocy.

"Neo!" Law called, wincing at their shared pain before it faded away due to her magic loss. He felt extremely guilty that he got himself into a situation where he couldn't help her as he watched her fall against the bull's thick neck.

"I… I'm fine…" Neo's arms wobbled from weakness as she pushed up on Moocy. Glancing up through her blurry vision she still saw Pica's katana, glinting in the sun behind him. Her heart skipped a beat. There was no way Moocy was going to be able to stop without some help. And right now she was just as helpless as he was. "Law! Luffy! Do something!"

"It's too late!" She heard Jeet screaming from behind her.

Pica squeaked a weak grunt while swinging his sword at them.

Luffy gritted his teeth but laughed a bit anyway at the funny sound coming out of the large stone man's mouth.

"Luffy!" Neo shouted. She propped up on her left arm. Holding out her right hand, she formed an earth crystal. It flickered in and out of her blurry vision.

"Right! I'm on it!" Running forward Luffy dove under the bull and grabbed a hold of Moocy's front legs before jumping them all over the sword swinging towards them just in time to keep his friends from being sliced in half.

"The bull is flying!" Jeet and Abdullah exclaimed.

Neo looked back at Law to make sure he was still on the bull. She smiled weakly at him when their eyes met. "Sorry I'm worrying you so much."

Law just sighed. He was worried so what could he say to her?

Luffy laughed. "His voice is so funny!"

"Luffy!" Neo said. Feeling better she sat back up and looked at her friend. "Now's not the time to be laughing! Get back up here!"

"Coming! I'll see you later!" Luffy said as he jumped back on Moocy.

Feeling too tired to support herself anymore, Neo leaned back against Luffy's chest. His left arm wrapped around her waist when she did, securing her to him and on Moocy. She turned her head to look at him and asked, "See who later?"

"Zoro," Luffy said.

"Huh?" Neo looked back at Zoro to find the swordsman was no longer riding on Moocy. He was off the bull and facing Pica. "Zoro!"

Zoro's sword clashed with Pica's sword, sending the clank of steel vibrating through the air. "It's all right, Neo! Leave this one up to me!"

"Cool!" Abdullah and Jeet exclaimed.

"He'll be fine. There's no need for you to worry about him. You know how strong he is," Luffy said, looking and smiling right at Neo. "You fought with him a bit on the Sunny after all. And he wasn't even using his full strength then. He'll go all out here."

"Oh… right." Neo nodded. She then hooked her left arm over Luffy's shoulder and used him as a leverage to lean over the side of Moocy. "Hey! Zoro! You're not allowed to die! That's captain's orders!"

"What?! You're not my captain!" Zoro said, looking over his shoulder at her.

"I am too! You're on my crew now!" Neo said, causing Luffy to laugh. "So you have to do what I say! And I say you can't die! I really want to play with your hair and earrings again!"

"When did you play with him?" Law asked, giving her a quizzical look. "He let you play with him?"

"Of course he did. It happened when we were running through the town earlier today trying to catch the fairy that stole his sword," Neo said. She rested her chin on Luffy's shoulder and smiled playfully at Law. "He also carried me when I was tired."

Law's eyebrow twitched in heavy annoyance. "That's it. Once we're done with this fight, we're going to sit down and you're going to give me a detailed description of every single thing that you did and said today with those other men. You're also going to tell me everything they said and did to you." He paused and ran his eyes over her face, still bothered by everything that was going on with her. "And I'm going to give you a complete physical just to be safe, if I can get my hands on the necessary equipment."

"You're jealous! It's so cute!" Neo laughed, not caring who heard her bells, another thing Law found very odd about her today. She was usually more careful about laughing in public. But her secrets were blown anyway so it didn't really matter. She then shouted back to Zoro. "No dying, Zoro! I won't be happy if you die!"

"Fine! I won't die!" Zoro called back to her. "But you're not going to play with my hair and earrings again!"

"Good on the not dying part! We'll talk about the playing thing later!" Neo said, causing Law to give her a disapproving growl. She smiled innocently at him. "What?"

Luffy laughed at his friends before saying, "Zoro! I'm counting on you to take care of this and do as Neo said! I'm going after Doflamingo!"

"Got it, Captain!" Zoro said.

"I don't have any business with you! My business is with Straw Hat! Go away!" Pica said.

"Our captain has no business with a worthless rock like you! I'm all you've got! Deal with it! Soprano singer!" Zoro smirked.

The group riding on Moocy turned their attention forward once they were far enough away from Zoro and Pica. Moocy's hooves thundered along the stone path as they finally reached the top of Pica's arm. Neo connected to the stone body, checking to make sure there weren't any obstacles on the other side that would cause Moocy problems. When she sensed none, she said, "You're all clear to continue, Moocy. There's nothing directly on the other side until we get farther down. So you're clear to go right over without stopping."

"That's it! Keep going, Moocy!" Luffy cheered. "We're almost there!"

"Yeah! Go, bull!" Jeet said.

"Bull!" Abdullah added.

"How much longer are you two going to stay on?!" Luffy demanded. "Just get off already!"

"I know you're kidding, Straw Hat!" the unwanted passengers said.

Neo, ignoring the men behind her, watched the terrain in front of them as Moocy slid down the stone shell's back. Guiding him with her winds, she helped him dodge obstacles that were sticking out from the created body.

"You're doing great, Moocy and Neo! You two are amazing! We'll get to Mingo before anyone else like this! Wait for me, Mingo! I'm not going to let them do it! I'm going to beat the crap out of you!" Luffy said before looking back at Jeet and Abdullah when they didn't cheer again. He noticed they were staring behind them. "What are you guys looking at?"

"Straw Hat, your friend…" Abdullah said.

"He stayed all by himself to fight such a monster…" Jeet said.

"How manly!" Both gushed.

"Oh, you mean Zoro! He'll be all right! He's not going to lose!" Luffy said confidently and with a smile.

"What?" the men asked.

"He made a vow! He would never be defeated! At any cost!" Luffy announced. "He'll win this fight for sure!"

"Of course he's not gong to lose! I ordered him not to! I want to play with him again!" Neo said with a smile. "Right, Law?!"

Law shot her a disapproving frown, which earned him a raspberry from her, before saying, "Hey, Straw Hat. I know the only way for us to survive this now is to fight. I've prepared us for that. The plan I brought to you guys was to take Doflamingo down in a more round about way. But, to be honest, I want to take him down myself. I lost the last time, but I won't lose again."

"Law…" Neo said quietly when she noticed a familiar look in his eyes. Knowing where this was going, what he was thinking, she reached around Luffy and took a hold of Law's hand again. She tightened her smaller hand around his larger one, feeling him tremble slightly before he calmed himself.

"Thirteen years ago… Doflamingo killed someone that I loved." Law tightened his hold on Neo's hand when his memories passed to her, causing tears to gather in her eyes upon her own few memories of the man. "His name was Corazon. He was a former top executive of the Doflamingo Family."

"What?! He was one of Mingo's family?!" Luffy asked. He tightened his arm around Neo's waist in an automatic, protective gesture.

"Yes, he was. He also was the one who saved my life and was Doflamingo's younger brother," Law said.

"Law…" Neo said. She brushed her tears away as Law squeezed her hand for comfort.

"Straw Hat, we're almost to the first level!" Jeet said.

"Huh?" Luffy turned forward again. They were sliding down the last fifty yards of the giant stone shell. They all scanned their eyes over the small army waiting for them, their guns already aim up at them.

"There are so many enemies there!" Abdullah said.

"Yeah! We're the first to arrive! Those other guys aren't here yet!" Luffy patted Moocy's back in approval for the bull's hard work when he didn't see the men from the coliseum anywhere on the first level. "Well done, Moocy!"

"Yes. You've done well, Moocy," Neo said, her eyes still locked with Law's. She started when gunshots rang out into the air. She whipped around to stop them but found that Luffy moving quicker that she was and already was taking care of the situation.

At the same time she turned around, Luffy had jumped in front of them, holding on the Moocy's horns for support. Using his body as a rubber shield, he shot back the bullets at the men who fired them. "Gum Gum Fire Salute!"

Neo snapped out her vines. Pulling the guns away from Doflamingo's soldiers while they danced around in attempt to not get shot with their own bullets, she ignored their colorful curses at her when she ripped their guns from their hands and burned them into ashes.

"All right! Keep up the pace, Moocy! Let's go!" Luffy said when he jumped back on Moocy's back.

"Luffy!" Neo said when more of Doflamingo's men gathered in front of them.

"Let's do this one together!" Luffy said.

"Yeah." She looked back at him, nodded, and then faced forward. Feeling out Luffy's rubber body, she waited for him to attack.

"Gum Gum Gatling! Out of my way!" Luffy cried out.

Watching Luffy's moves carefully, she glided her own attacks along side his arms like she did on the Sunny. She carefully aimed the fire away from his skin before flaring it up to catch the enemy's clothes on fire. Turning her water freezing cold or burning hot, to freeze or scold them. Using her winds to knock them down or several feet away if Luffy's punches didn't do the job. Growing large flowers and having them clamp around the men as if they were being eating by the large plants. And all while doing this, she was unaware that she was enjoying it. She was reveling in seeing the men's shocked faces as they got gobbled up in her flowers, caught on fire, or were scolded or frozen. She enjoyed hearing them screaming things like "It's hot!" "It's cold!" "It hurts!"

Law noticed. For the second time he noticed that she was uncharacteristically enjoying causing such pain and panic to the enemy. No one else seemed to notice the change in her as they continued to yell at the enemy or each other.

"You're in Straw Hat's way!" Abdullah said.

"Don't stand in his way, you idiots!" Jeet added.

"Don't you stand behind me, either! Get off!" Luffy said to the two unwanted men.

"Don't say that! Let us follow you!" Abdullah said.

"Straw Hat!" Jeet cheered.

What was wrong with these guys? Law wondered. He knew they didn't know Neo like he did, but if anyone was following the newspapers they would know this wasn't her normal behavior.

"Gum Gum Stamp Gatling!" Luffy shouted, kicking out his foot and stomping on the enemies faces.

"Yeah! Nice! Straw Hat!" both men cheered again.

Law didn't expect much from these three, but surely he wasn't just imaging everything with Neo. Or maybe, like he thought before, just maybe this was normal for an elemental pregnancy. He gritted his teeth and mentally kicked himself once again for being so stupid, over confident, and ill prepared for this type of occasion. He was never going to do that again. Ever. Neo was far too important to him. He wasn't going to fail her again.

"There's just so many. I really haven't done much yet and I'm just so exhausted," Neo said. She leaned back into Luffy with a tired sigh before turning around to check on Law. "How are you doing? I know it's not very comfortable lying across a bull's back for so long. At least my solar crystal is helping you."

"I'm content. Your solar crystal is doing just fine. I would suggest a quick nap since you're so tired, but I doubt you could sleep through all this ruckus," Law said.

"You're right. At least I'll sleep well later," Neo said with a tired smile.

Law nodded. He knew she'd over sleep at least a couple hours after this was all over. And he'd guarantee no one disturbed her while she did.

"Here I come, Mingo!" Luffy cheered.

Law sighed. He figured he was going to have to gag Luffy if Neo was going to get the rest she deserved and needed after this.

Neo giggled. "You're really enjoying this aren't yo-Huh?!"

"What is it, Neo?" Luffy and Law asked at the same time.

"A whole lot of fire just flared up in the town. But it's not out of control. It feels like someone's controlling it. It's moving to specifically to be a wild fire," Neo said. She kneaded her eyebrows and concentrated on the fire.

"Controlling fire?" Law asked.

Neo closed her eyes. Focusing more on the fire, she noticed a familiar feel to it. It felt like Luffy only with fire instead of rubber. "I think it's a devil fruit user."

"A devil fruit user? It must be the flame flame fruit! I sure hope that it's Sabo!" Luffy said. "I hope he won it!"

"Who?" Neo asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.

"Sabo! He's my brother! He was going to win the flame flame fruit for me since I had to leave the fight!" Luffy laughed. "He must have won it! I bet he did!"

"Oh, you have another brother then," Neo said.

"That's right! There were three of us!" Luffy said. "We shared ritual cups! So that's how we're brothers!"

"Oh, I see." Neo nodded before another familiar feeling of nature shifting suddenly came to her. She shot her eyes to the clouds upon feeling a meteor coming down from the sky. Frustration and anger flared up in her chest at the though of the nice admiral bring a meteor down in the middle of all this. "That jerk! What is he thinking?! Being down a meteor in the middle of a town!"

"Neo? What are you-Grab her, Straw Hat!" Law said when he felt Neo's angry building up in her chest.

"Ah!" Luffy tried to lock his arms around Neo's waist, but she slipped into the wind stream to free herself from his hold. "She got away!"

"Neo! What are you doing?! You come back here right this second!" Law shouted.

'No!' Neo thought back to him before blocking him from her thoughts.

"Where's she going?" Luffy asked. His eyes roamed over the sky above them, looking for Neo despite knowing he wouldn't be able to see her.

"I have no idea," Law said.

"She said something about a meteor," Luffy said.

"A meteor?" Law wondered. She must be going to Fujitora then.

Neo exited the wind stream when she felt she was far enough away from Law. She wasn't sure why she felt like she needed to hide from him. She knew she couldn't since he could sense her, but she still did it. Turning her thoughts from Law, she searched out for the gravity the navy man was giving off. Locating him, she found he was near the person who was using the flame flame devil fruit. She faltered a bit in her flying when she realized she should have asked Luffy what his brother looked like. If she had to fight, she didn't want to accidentally hurt him if he was friendly. And she assumed he was since he was Luffy's brother. But she was still going to be careful in case he wasn't.

Refocusing her flying and attention to the navy admiral, Neo finally located him about three quarters of a mile south of her position. Picking up on her wind speed, she flew right to him in three seconds. Scanning her eyes over the blaze before her, she saw the admiral and the other devil fruit user facing of against each other. At the moment, they were clearly just talking about something but it was obvious they had been fighting. She took the opportunity to make her presence known to them. She dropped down right in-between them, surprising all of the men from her unexpected arrival. She glared right at the blind man, wishing he could see so he could see how angry she was at him. But she figured his others senses would pick up on that. If not, her yelling would do the trick.

"Hm? Well, there's a presence I didn't expect to see here," Fujitora said. "What are you here for, Neo?"

"I came to see what the heck is wrong with you! That's what I'm doing here!" Neo snapped as she stomped right up to him. "What were you thinking?! Wasn't it enough that you dropped two meteors in an attempt to kill my lover?! Did you really have to drop one here in the middle of all this?! And with those stupid strings of Doflamingo's up there that can literally slice through anything?! Did you forget about those?!"

"Uh," Fujitora drawled, fairly shocked about her outburst. "I'm sorry."

"You better be sorry! And you better hope that you didn't hit anyone with the several pieces of that stupid meteor you just had to bring down!" Neo said.

"Trafalgar Neo! Hold it right there! We're taking you into custo-Ah!" a soldier said before Neo cut him off by growing a large yellow flower out of the ground, right underneath his feet. It then clamped its petals over his body so only his head remained visible. He screamed and shoved fruitlessly against the plant. "Hey! What are you doing?! Let me out of this thing!"

"Hold it!" Neo said to all the other soldiers when they advanced towards her with their guns pointed right at her head and shouting at her to surrender. She shot them a glare, positioning her fire crystals right at the bullet chambers. "Unless you want me to cause your guns to explode right in your faces and hands, I suggest you stand down!"

"Do as she said. There's no point in trying to stop her," Fujitora said.

The soldiers looked at their leader then looked nervously at the fire crystals. When they didn't lower their guns, Neo lit her fire crystals with the flame the size of a candle's. The soldiers lowered their guns.

"Good!" Neo said before turning her attention back to the admiral. Closing the last four feet that remained between them, she continued to yell at the navy admiral and started poking him in the chest as she did. "Now you listen up, mister! I do not want to see or sense another meteor coming down so long as we are both inside the country limits! If you drop another one, I'll personally carry it back to you and drop it on your head! Do I make myself clear?!"

"Yes, ma'am. You have my word that I will not drop another one as long as we're here in Dressrosa," Fujitora said, shocked at both her yelling and poking him. She didn't like being touched after all. Perhaps this situation was different since she was the one doing the touching? Or perhaps she was just too angry with him to notice that she was doing it?

"Good!" Neo huffed. She spun around on her heels to look at her next target.

Sabo blinked in confused upon seeing the arrival of Neo. He knew she and Trafalgar Law was inside of the country with the Straw Hats, but he didn't expect to see her. And since he knew of her existence, he really hoped one day he could at least catch a glimpse of her. Quickly going through his memory files of what he knew about her, he couldn't help but watch in amusement as she verbally berated the navy admiral. There was just something funny about someone Neo's size and usually calm demeanor verbally ripping into man such as Fujitora. It was equally amusing finding that the admiral was easily bending to her will. But that amusement was short lived as Neo turned her striking electric blue, angry eyes to him. He swallowed nervously at the storm he saw brewing in her eyes. For the first time ever, he knew exactly what kind of danger she could really be if she were to have an aggressive nature and a taste for blood. She was a storm waiting to happen. He flinched when she started verbally ripping into him.

"And you! I know you're new to the devil fruit thing, but take it easy with that fire of yours! You can cause some serious damage to people with it! Fire is dangerous and hard to regain control once you've lost control! Believe me! I know!" Neo snapped. She pointed her finger at Sabo and stomped closer to him. She stopped advancing on him when there was three feet between them. "I don't want to be pulled back here to fix your mess if you lose control! Do you understand me?!"

"Yes, ma'am," Sabo said, forcing himself to remain standing still instead of pulling away from her. He didn't want to give her any reason to attack, despite believing she wouldn't if he did step back.

"Good!" Neo glared at each of the men one last time before lifting herself back into the air, releasing the trapped soldier as she went, and disappearing from their view as she flew away.

"Well," Sabo said, adjusting his hat. "She's not really quite what I was expecting."

"Indeed," Fujitora said.

"The nerve of them! I know their enemies but come on! They don't have to go completely wild like that and destroy an already damaged country!" Neo grumbled while she flew through the sky. She scanned her eyes around the country below her. She was too high up to hear the screams of the people but the sounds of guns being fired easily reached her. Watching the destruction below, her brain finally registered her recent actions of flying off from Law, cutting herself off from him, and yelling at two people she didn't even really know. She halted in midair. Her hands shot to her mouth with a gasp. "Law! There's something wrong with me! I have been acting very, very strange today! I've been very childish! I practically flirted with Zoro! I flew away from you and cut off our connection! I just yelled at Fujitora and that blonde guy with the flame flame devil fruit! And I actually poked Fujitora in the chest while I was yelling at him! I think I'm sick! I must be getting sick! I just don't do these things!" She dropped her hands to her stomach, feeling suddenly tired and hungry. "I've also been getting very tired! I'm hungry too! But I just ate a little while ago! Law, what's wrong with me?! What's happening?! I don't understand any of this!"

'Calm down, love.' Law paused. Thinking about how he could word what he wanted to say so he wouldn't scare her. 'You're just fine. There's nothing bad going on with you. You're… you're just a bit sick. That's all. Everything that you're feeling is perfectly normal for this type of... sickness.'

"How can being sick cause me to yell at people and act out of character?" Neo asked. She summoned an earth crystal and created herself an apple when her stomach grumbled for food. "And craving food. I've been having different food cravings all day."

'I can't explain it right now. We'll talk about this later. Just come back to me, okay?'

"All right," Neo said. She sunk her teeth into her apple and started flying again. Warm tears gathered in her eyes from both her pregnancy and the stresses of the day. They leaked over her eyes lids and were cooled by the wind whipping in her face. "I'm sorry, Law. I didn't mean to take off like that. I'm crying again. I'm so sorry."

'It's fine, Neo. You don't have to cry. Come to me.'

"I'm coming," Neo said. She brushed the back of her arm over her eyes, drying her tears. With a relaxing breath she flew back towards Law and Luffy, sniffling and munched on her apple as she went. A few seconds later, she finally made it back to her friends. She reached them just in time to see Moocy was barreling through several men.

"Go! Go! Go!" She then heard Luffy cheer when she dipped low enough. "Don't mess with Moocy! Yeah! Moocy! Go! Go!"

"Yeah! Bow down to the might Grim Reaper! Bow down!" Abdullah shouted.

"Out of our way! Out of our way!" Jeet added. "We're going to go straight to the palace!"

Neo just ignored the two men. She flew over to Moocy's left side so she could see Law. She really needed to be near him, to be held by him. But that was a bit difficult with him chained up like he was. Still, she felt better flying so close to him. She smiled through her misty eyes when their eyes locked. "Hey."

Law peered into her eyes, knowing how she was feeling, feeling it all. He felt so guilty for pulling her into all of this.

"Law, don't. Nothing is your fault. You know I'd follow you anywhere," Neo said. "Like I have said before, if we live, we live together. If we die, we die together, bond or no bond. You are my life, my light, my love. And you always will be no matter what happens to us."

"And you are mine." Law nodded. "There's just something really important I need to talk to you about. I'd love to do it now and get it over with, but we have to get rid of Doflamingo first."

"All right," Neo said. She wanted to kiss him, but wasn't sure if it was appropriate right now.

"You know you can kiss me whenever you want," Law said with a smirk.

Neo smiled, a light pink flushed across her face. And there in the misted of all the fighting and destruction, she flew closer to him and pressed their lips together. The kiss tasted of blood. But they didn't care. The touch, the kiss, the intimacy was needed for both of them. The stresses of the day melted away with that simple, tender touch. Unfortunately, it couldn't last forever. A loud bang and Luffy screaming, "Ah! Cabbage!" brought the two crashing back to reality. It was time to fight again. She looked up to see that Cavendish had caught up to them.

"Straw Hat! I'm going to go first!" Cavendish said on the bullhorn he had with him. The beautiful pirate then laughed, sliced two men away from him, and took off.

"Who carries a bullhorn around with them?" Neo asked curiously as she watched the man and his horse ride off amongst the chaos.

"Dang it! I thought we were taking a shortcut! You need to go way, way faster, Moocy!" Luffy said. Moocy agreed with him by increasing his speed. A moment later the giant from the coliseum ran past them. "No, everybody's catching up to us! Just great! Everyone's going to get ahead of us now!"

More of Doflamingo's soldiers thundered towards them. They raise their guns and fire at the pirates. A man shouted out, "Shoot the bull!"

Anger swelled up in Neo's chest once more. She was getting really tired of having people shooting at her loved ones. If anyone hit Law, she didn't know if she would be able to handle it. He had already been shot in front of her, three times. She didn't want to see that again. She didn't even want to see Luffy get shot despite the bullets just bouncing right off of him like they were doing now.

"Dang it! I'm not going to let them shoot him!" Luffy said, pulling back his fist. "Gum Gum-Huh?" He paused when Neo landed in front of him.

"Stop shooting at my lover and friends!" Standing on Moocy's shoulders, Neo glared out at the men shooting at them. She gathered her fire crystals near the guns. Melting the guns from the barrels to the butt, causing the bullets to explode and expel gunpowder and smoke in the air and causing the Doflamingo's forces to scream like little girls.

"Yeah! Neo!" Luffy cheered.

"She got them good!" Abdullah and Jeet added. "She's so cool!"

"I see no end to this at all," Law said when more of Doflamingo's soldiers came running towards them.

"How many men does that guy have?!" Neo shot a glare towards them. She shifted her crystals from fire to wind, readying herself to blow them all away and confiscate their guns. The wind picked up at her silent command. She started to lift the shocked soldiers off their feet as they held onto their guns in desperation. A sharp stab through both her temples caused her crystals and magic to fade and her to collapse.

"Neo!" Law screamed. His heart leaped into his throat when he saw her fall. If she landed wrong on the ground the bull would trample her.

"I got her!" Luffy's voice said, piercing through Law's panic.

Law sucked in a desperate gasp of air, unaware he was holding his breath to begin with. He's body relaxed, his head light from the panic, as he watched Luffy grabbed Neo and pulled her close to his chest. He had never felt such gratitude for someone before in his life. Luffy just saved his love from who knows what kind of damage. "Thank you, Straw Hat."

"Any time! Now, you just hold still, Neo! I'm going to take them all out!" Luffy said, viewing down at her at the same time she peeked up at him. She nodded weakly at him. He looked back up when Moocy suddenly came to a stop. Several of Doflamingo's men suddenly went flying through the air. When all bodies cleared he found himself staring at one of the coliseum fighters. "Who's that?"

"Hey, am I really that forgettable?! I was a contender in Block C, the same as you, Straw Hat! I'm Kelly Funk!" the man said.

"Were you?" Luffy asked.

Neo glanced over at the new man. Through her throbbing head, she carefully scanned her eyes over him. He looked like a gangster. She knew she couldn't judge people by how they looked, but something about this guy felt off to her. She felt they couldn't trust him.

"Of course I was! And my brother and I were saved by God Usopp like the others!" Kelly Funk said before elbowing a man in the face that was sneaking up from behind him. He then ran passed Luffy and the others. "I found a shortcut so you can reach the higher levels! You can make it directly to the Sunflower Field, right in front of the palace!"

"What? Really?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah, just follow me. I want to help you," Kelly Funk said as he ran off.

"All right! We're going to overtake Cabbage and the others in a single spurt!" Luffy said.

"Let's catch up with him, Straw Hat!" Abdullah said.

"We got such a great ally on our side!" Jeet added.

"No… don't follow him," Neo said. She sat up straighter, pushing past the pain she looked right at Luffy. "Something's not right. I know he's one of those that were turned into a toy if he was really saved by Usopp. But still… we can't trust him."

"Then we shouldn't follow him," Law said. "Go some other way, Straw Hat."

"What? Why? It's a short cut," Luffy said, looking over his shoulder at Law.

"Neo has really good instincts, Straw Hat. You need to listen to her," Law said. "If she doesn't trust that guy, then we shouldn't either."

"Don't worry about it. It'll be fine," Luffy said.

"Well, I could be wrong. I mean, I have been acting really strange today after all," Neo said. She glanced back at Law, unsure of her own feelings and instincts. "Maybe I am wrong?"

"I still don't like it," Law said, staring into her eyes, trying to search for the correct answer to this, trying to see if her instincts were still correct or if the stress of everything was effecting her judgment. He couldn't tell, but he still felt like he should trust her instincts. They shouldn't follow this man.

"It'll be fine! Let's go, Moocy!" Luffy order. The bull turned and followed after Kelly Funk.

"All right," Neo said with a sigh. She leaned into Luffy and watched as Moocy skirted around scattered debris as they followed after Kelly Funk.

"Hey, Straw Hat! When am I going to get these cuffs off? With these sea prism stone shackles on, we might as well be marching to Doflamingo to die," Law said a minute later.

"It'll work itself out! Let's just go!" Luffy said.

"No it won't! Let's go back to the plateau!" Law said.

"What for?" Luffy asked.

"So we can look for the key! Either we win or we die! And I really don't feel like getting Neo killed!" Law said.

"It'll be fine!" Luffy said. "No one's going to die! I won't let that happen!"

"This way!" Kelly Funk said. He waved to the small crew, guiding them to him despite Moocy running past him. When they came back, he pointed to an opening in a stonewall. "See? There's a shortcut!"

"Kelly Funk you're such a nice guy!" Jeet said.

"A very nice guy!" Abdullah added.

Neo stared at the entrance with doubt while the two men praised Kelly Funk. Something about it didn't feel right to her. And without her magic there was no way she could tell what was in there. Where they walking into a trap? Was there an ambush waiting inside for them? She activated her haki. Carefully peering inside the opening, she didn't see anyone's spirit. There could be people farther inside so she kept her haki activated so she could see if anyone was coming. She just wished her magic were working so she could feel out if there were any elements inside and check to see if there really was an opening at the other end of this tunnel.

"Now, go ahead, Straw Hat. We'll guard the entrance for you," Kelly Funk said while pointing to the opening.

"All right! Thanks! Moocy! Let's go!" Luffy said, as trusting as ever.

Neo watched Kelly Funk as they passed him. She carefully searched him for any signs of lying. She couldn't find anything. That either meant he was telling the truth, which she figured he wasn't, or he was very good at hiding his true intentions, which she believed he was.

"Good job, Kelly Funk! Make sure to guard the entrance! Thank you for your work!" Abdullah and Jeet cheered.

Neo's attention was pulled off Kelly Funk when she heard a thud and saw the two men falling off Moocy.

"They fell off. Did they even really want anything?" Law asked.

"All right! Don't worry about them and keep going, Moocy! Straight to the Sunflower Field!" Luffy said.

Neo sighed. Pulling her attention away from the entrance, she turned her haki vision back to what was in front of them and laid her head on Luffy shoulder in exhaustion. Moocy's hooves beating against the stone floor was the only sound that passed between them until Law's transponder snail started ringing.

Ring, ring, ring… ring, ring ring…

"Your transponder snail is ringing," Luffy said, looking over his shoulder.

"Here. Answer it," Law said, pulling the transponder snail from his pocket and holding it out for the Straw Hat captain.

Luffy took the spotted transponder snail and answered it. He said, "Hello! This is Luffy! The man who'll become king of the pirates!"

"Luffy, it's me," Robin's voice said from the small device.

"Robin!" Luffy and Neo said.

"We're currently at the plateau where you were before. Where are you?" Robin said.

"We're at the first level of the other plateau and heading to a place called the Sunflower Field," Luffy replied.

"Viola found the key to Tra's cuffs," Robin said.

"Oh yeah?!" Luffy asked.

"Really?!" Neo said.

"Nico, get it to me as soon as possible! What do you want me to do?! How can we get it over here?!" Law asked.

"Hello, this is Leo of the Tontatta Tribe. We're going to escort Lady Rebecca, the big Rooster human, and Robiland over there at super high speed!" Leo said.

"Let's meet up at the Sunflower Field on the fourth level!" Robin said.

"What? How are you guys going to catch up with us?" Luffy asked.

"I could come fly you all, but my magic is still fading out on me," Neo said.

"It's all right, Neo. You don't have to worry about us. You just stay there and conserve as much of your magic and energy as possible," Robin said. "Don't risk yourself for our sake. We'll meet up with you soon. So just stay with Luffy and Tra. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Robin," Neo said with a nod. A small smile formed over her lips. She felt like Robin was being a big sister or a mother figure to her again. She really liked it. "I understand."

"I'll get them over there. Just leave it to me," Leo said. The transponder snail then clicked from being hung up on Robin's end.

"See? I told you it would work out just fine!" Luffy said with a confident smile.

"Only by coincidence!" Law said.

"At least you're going to be freed from those cuffs," Neo said with a teary smile. "I expect a huge hug when you are."

"Of course," Law said, returning her smiled with one of his own.

"All right! Moocy, run!" Luffy said.

"Hey, Straw Hat. Isn't this path going downward?" Law asked a minute later.

"Come to think of it…" Luffy said.

"Is that water?" Neo asked when Moocy's hoof beats were accompanied with splashing sounds. She held on to Luffy and leaned over. "There's water in here!"

"Stop! He's getting into the water!" Law ordered. But it was too late. Moocy entered into a pool of water that was at least three feet deep and getting deeper as they moved forward.

"Huh? But he told us this was a shortcut to the Sunflower Field…" Luffy's voice trailed off. He leaned forward a bit, taking Neo with him and took a closer look at the end of the dark tunnel. There was no exit. "What?! It's a dead end!"

"Clearly he was lying," Neo said with a tired sigh. She looked down at the water that Moocy was bobbing in. It looked like the water was a lot deeper than she thought. She wondered how deep it went. "Sorry. If my magic was working I would have been able to notice this was a dead end. It looks like this water is over four feet deep."

"It's not your fault, Neo. It's Straw Hat's for not listening to you when you told him that man couldn't be trusted," Law said, aggravation clearly in his tone.

"It's fine, Law. It doesn't matter now anyway. All we can do is turn around and go back," Neo said.

"Hurry up and turn around, Straw Hat!" Law hissed.

Moocy mooed in panic of being in the water.

"Easy, Moocy! Don't panic!" Luffy said.

"Do you hear that?" Neo asked. She looked back down the tunnel. Law and Luffy looked too when they heard footsteps coming towards them. "Someone's coming."

Inazumame1997: Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. It is a hard arc to do since a lot of time all they're doing is running. I just hope I'm not having Neo being too annoying with her head pain and constant magic loss. I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot with it. But with her magic it would be too easy for them to just fly to Doflamingo. At least we're almost to the Sunflower Field. The running's almost over and we can finally move on.

Apple Bloom: Yeah, they are funny. Oda did a very good job at giving them their personalities and quirks.