A/N: I'm well into the next chapter. Hope to have another update next week as well. Hope you enjoy Helena's little adventure trying to rescue the crew here. She needed a win, don't you think?

Ch. 28 - The Shipyard Queen

"The beez are hungry. Let them feed!"

Ramzeez raised his khopesh into the air from where he stood beside Sphinkz on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. The mounts all knew what that meant, and left to start nibbling at whatever bit of the ship they fancied.

The leader of the Bee Riderz watched them pensively through his opaque goggles, still present though the sun had already set.

"They're nae th' ainlie ones wha need tae zloch," Wallaz pointed out. "We need tae feed th' queen. And zoon…"

Ramzeez nodded. "It was good luck we found thiz zhip when we did. If we had waited much longer, the Zhipyard Queen would have taken another Zacrifice, bzz. Ztill…" he trailed off.
"Thay zeem lik' guid fowk," Wallaz observed for him.

The youngest of the bee dancers turned so sharply toward him that she smacked herself in the eye with one of the two giant ringlets framing her face. "Good folk?" she scoffed. Though a child of twelve, she had no qualms with speaking her mind to her elders. Likely because she, like the other bee dancers, was daughter to the island's Mayor. "But they're piratez! Bzz bzz!"

"They gave uz the lazt of their food," Ramzeez pointed out, then cursed mildly for emphasis: "Fuzz, they were having a tea party for the toddler when I firzt met them, Beatrizz."

"It doezn't matter, bzzz," Beatrizz seethed back through the orthodontia in her teeth. "Piratez are piratez. Pick the biggest one and zave the rezt for later. The Queen iz hungry. If zhe doezn't eat them, zhe'll eat one of uz. You know how it workz."

"Yez, it waz a good thing you found them when you did," another bee dancer put in. She had a full, round frame like her bee, Bizzy, and more calm than her younger sister. Like many of the bee riders and dancers, she liked to wear some of her bee's shed blue fur braided into her curls. It brought out her intense blue eyes, and left her with a lovely azure halo around her head when light shone on her from the back, as it did now beneath the ship's lanterns. "Your report pleazed Father greatly. Eleven piratez! That zhould keep her zatizfied for a while."

"Ten," Ramzeez corrected. "We aren't going to zacrifize the child, Lizzy."

"We can't keep her," Lizzy pointed out. "Zhe haz a bounty like the otherz."

"Zhe iz wanted alive," Ramzeez reminded her, though in all honesty he was hoping to take it up with Lizzy's father, Mayor Induztry. Perhaps the child could be adopted into the island, as many shipwrecked children had been in the past. She was brave and plucky; fearless enough to be a bee rider herself. The bounty complicated things, though.

Another voice cut into his thoughts. "Did you zay we had eleven prizonerz, zir?" one of his search and rescue riders asked. "Becauze I count ten."

"We have ten," Ramzeez insisted, frustrated that they kept including young Kuina.

"Nine, then, excluding the child, zir," the same rider exasperated.
"Aye, ah count nine tae," Wallaz put in.

Ramzeez brow furrowed, and he began counting the pirates lying about the deck. A pair of bee riders had already chosen the first sacrifice for the Shipyard Queen. Given how long it had been since her last feed, they chose the biggest like Beatriz suggested: the blue haired cyborg. They had started to hoist him between them, ready to lift him onto Furguz, the largest of the rescue bees, but Ramzeez stopped his counting to interrupt them.

"No, he'z big but moztly made of metal," he pointed out. "Take the green-haired zwordsman. But make zure to disarm him."

Relieved, because the heavy cyborg had proven difficult to lift, the two other bee riders dropped the underdressed shipwright onto the deck without further ado and went for the suggested target. The loud clanging crash as the big man fell proved Ramzeez' point further.

A pang of guilt shot through him as he watched them lift the swordsman onto Furguz, knowing this was the little girl's father. The man no longer wore his tea party paraphernalia, but the image of the big, battleworn swordsman decked out in fairy princess accoutrement remained seared into Ramzeez brain.

He couldn't help but respect any man who would put on fairy wings and a tutu just to make his two-year-old smile. But the queen needed feeding, and this man would make the most satisfying meal. Ramzeez couldn't afford to play favorites, or another one of his own would fall victim to her voracious hunger.

Wallaz mounted his bee about the thorax, with the sacrifice snoring peacefully, sprawled out in Furguz' fluffy blue fur. He looked back at Ramzeez, sensing his reticence. At a nod from the captain, Wallaz spurred Furguz into flight.

"Oan tae oor grizzly wirk, Furgzz," he called, "Thare wull be plenty o' th' ship left tae feazt oan whin we git back."

"If they'll eat it," Lizzy pointed out to Ramzeez cocking her head, "Have you notized the beez are acting kinda funny?"

To her point, the bees, who had been starving for a proper meal moments before had backed off of the ship, sputtering.

"They don't zeem to like it," Beatriz agreed. "Maybe it'z the wrong kind of wood…?"

"The zhipwright told me itz made from Adam wood," Ramzeez said, "It zhould be a delicazy for them. It'z the hardezt tree in the world, but they're jawz can handle it….wait, do you zmell that?"

"Pepperment," Lizzy noted with a sniff, "Ginger? Lemon?"

"Oh no, I bet the beez don't like that," Beatriz noted, "But where'z it coming from?"

"Could be from anywhere," Ramzeez noted. He removed his goggles, revealing his eyes, milk white but for two black Xes where his irises should be. The two sisters exchanged glances, but didn't speak while he scanned the ship with his devil fruit power: the X-ray X-ray fruit.

It always took him a moment to grow accustomed to seeing the world without its outer layers. He could mentally program what he needed to look through, though the more solid surfaces in the way the harder it got. As he could never turn the power off completely, his ultra opaque goggles made it easier to see the world in a more normal way. But now he needed to be able to search through the ship.

After a moment his eyes widened, "I found our mizzing zacrifize," he cried, for one crew member remained awake aboard the Thousand Sunny to defend her.

Helena had thought at first that Sphinkz had gone rogue, remembering Wallaz' promise that the bees wouldn't eat the ship. But then more followed near her, tearing into railings and the deck, and the ominous song of the bee dancers rang in her memory there amid the graveyard of ships. This wasn't mutiny; the bees were following orders, and clearly happy to do so. The Straw Hats and the Sunny were about to become their next horrid tragedy.

Sorely outnumbered, her energy sapped by the pregnancy and morning sickness, Helena reached for blades that weren't there. Her hand bumped a little pouch in her pocket instead. Morning sickness pills. Peppermint, ginger, lemongrass. She wasn't entirely sure of the ingredients, but something came back to her. A memory from her childhood.

She'd been fifteen and freshly part of the regiment her father had made her join after all her pride and taunting. – Polydorus, one of the members of her regiment, had just found and eaten a devil fruit to the cheers of his fellow soldiers, Helena included. The honey badger transformation to follow had made him aggressive, and overwhelmingly hungry for something sweet. He'd charged into the woods, his regiment trailing behind him, only to watch him bust open a tree full of honeybees.

Polydorus had been infamous for his fear of bees prior to that moment, and despite his new devil fruit power, was still deathly allergic. Hector knew this. The wood wood man rescued his younger brother and got him to safety by first using a peppermint branch from his spear to repel the bees.

Peppermint. She didn't know if it would do anything to carpenter bees, but she had to try.

She lobbed one right where Sphinkz was about to drill next, catching the small pellet in his mandibles. The moment the bee cracked the pill open, a sharp, fresh stench of herbs and oils filled the air, and he recoiled in disgust.

It tried to fly to another spot on the deck but Helena rolled another pill beneath his ready maw, leading to another release of the heady smell. It actually made Helena's nausea recede – perhaps Usopp really did know what he was doing – but Sphinkz did not seem to appreciate it the way she did. Before long, the bee lost interest in eating the Sunny at all, and Helena turned her strategy on the rest of its buddies.

It had been quite the task. Twelve bee dancers, ten bee search and rescue; twenty two bees in all. She had kept out of sight of the bee riders, trying to ascertain why the rest of the crew hadn't started to fight back. Sticking to the shadows and hearing snatches of their captors' plotting as she dodged about the ship, she made sure to poorly flavor each bee's sampling of the Sunny.

She'd quickly noticed her crewmates lying still about the deck, and drew only some comfort from the perceptible rise and fall of their breath. She'd heard something about a shipyard queen needing a live sacrifice, which meant a sleeping draught, surely, not poison, right?

It must have come from those trumpet flowers. Helena had thrown it up, which made her the only one able to protect the Sunny and her crew. She never thought she would see her morning sickness as a blessing before now.

From a perch above the sail of the mizzenmast, whose vantage allowed her to easily launch more seasickness stars at any bee who might try its pincers at the ship again, Helena saw Wallaz and the others settle on Zoro. Stiffening with anger, she watched them remove his swords and toss him over the back of Ferguz as though he were a sack of rations.

She wasn't about to stand for that.

She hated to leave Kuina, or any of the crew behind in the clutches of their enemies, but from what she had picked up they weren't the ones in imminent danger anymore now that a sacrifice had been selected. And now that the Sunny wasn't about to be sunk into the ship graveyard by hungry bees.
One problem. Wallaz had taken off with Zoro by now. How was she supposed to reach them in the air?
If Chopper hadn't taken her swords, she might have been able to throw a slash. She knew that some cipher pol agents could throw slashes with a strong enough kick, but hidden in her current perch up on one of the sails, any attempt to do so in her weakened state would be laughable at best.

There was only one thing left for it. She needed to become airborne herself.

At precisely that moment, a loud buzzing announced the presence of Ramzeez and Sphinkz. Bee man and rider had apparently found her hiding spot up the mizzenmast. They landed on the yardarm, the bee showing impressive balancing skills as it's six legs clung to the small beam. Ramzeez drew his kopesh.

Another bee and her rider; Bizzy and Lizzy, if Helena had caught their names correctly, landed on the opposite side of the yardarm. The two riders had effectively trapped Helena between them where she stood on guard, holding to the mast for balance.

"I thought I gave you a Juliet Flower," Lizzy informed her. "Why aren't you dead to the world like the rezt of your crew?"

"Just lucky I guess," Helena replied, and then she made a mad dash.

She didn't know if she could trust her balancing skills at present, but she had to take the risk. Of the two bee people, the weaponless Lizzy seemed like the lesser threat.

None of Robin's shoes had quite fit her, and so it was barefoot she ran on well trained and battle hardened toes across the yardarm. Helena jumped and kicked Lizzy hard in the chest, knocking her off of her bee. Too winded to scream, the bee dancer plummeted toward the hard deck below.

"Fuzz!" Ramzeez cursed, spurring Sphinkz to dive after her.

Meanwhile, Helena had settled onto Bizzy's back just above the wing joints as she'd seen the other bee riders do. Did bees work like horses? She spurred the bee with her knees, hating the sensation of hard exoskeleton against her legs.

The bee did not respond.

Ramzeez had rescued Lizzy by now and was in the process of lowering her to the safety of the deck below. Helena knew she didn't have much time.

"Alright you," Helena growled, grabbing the bee by the antennae and forcing its head back to look it in the multifaceted eye. "I have had one Hades of a day, and I hate this as much as you do. But you are going to take me to my husband before he gets sacrificed, or so help me Zeus I will pop these antennae straight out of your head and feed them to you. You got that?"

Bizzy blew a raspberry at her, clearly unimpressed with her threats. Who knew bees had tongues?

Helena pulled on the antennae harder and glared Bizzy in the eye as though it were an insubordinate soldier. They had to hurry! What had they said would happen to Zoro? He'd be eaten? – An intense energy welled up inside her at the thought of her indestructible Zoro in danger. – Was it that conqueror's haki everyone kept telling her she possessed? More than at her threats, the bee seemed to shrink beneath her unblinking glare. Finally it took to the air, allowing Helena to slacken her grip but still guide it by the antennae as she'd seen the other riders do.

What a rush! Helena didn't think she could find anything pleasant about interacting with these insects, but Bizzy flew with such a steady gait! She cut through the air with the speed of a four horse chariot, but without the bumps and jolts of such. And the magic of it, rushing above the still, star scattered ocean! Like the nights out at sea in the Calm, starlight enveloped the entire ship graveyard, illuminating a clear path though broken masts and prows. Though Helena hated to admit it, riding on the back of the bee was superior to any other mode of fast travel she'd experienced.

Too bad it took a crisis to get her to even consider it. And it would take a crisis to get her to consider it again. Thankfully the lingering fumes of Usopp's seasickness stars helped keep her nausea down, or she'd have lost whatever bile she had left at the mere thought of what she was doing.

Ramzeez and Sphinkz zipped after them but Helena had a good lead with the dirty trick she'd pulled. She and her bee dodged agily between the remains of the bee-riders' past conquests. As a lighter, smaller rider, she easily gained on Furguz, disadvantaged by carrying too large men.

Helena carefully got to her feet on Bizzy's back, her bare feet gripping into its fuzz for security. One good leap would close the gap between her and Furguz now. She prepared herself, balanced like a surfer on the steadiest wave imaginable.

Wallaz caught her gaze and let out a stream of what had to be profanities. Helena didn't understand a word of them.

"Wanna give back my husband now, sweet cheeks, or do I have to do this the hard way?" Helena called to him. The nickname had come from the unpleasant view she'd just gotten, flying behind the bekilted rider.

Wallaz smiled. That couldn't be good. "Yer too late, lazzie," he buzzed. With a heave, he yanked Ferguz sideways, dumping his unconscious passenger.

Helena let loose a curse of her own and, already prepped to jump, sprung without thinking after Zoro's falling form. Maybe if she'd given it another moment, she'd have realized that Bizzy might have been able to reach him in time. Instead she had joined him in his gut wrenching freefall.

Wallaz hadn't just dumped Zoro into the ocean. He'd guided their little race toward an enormous, gaping hole at the roots of Ryuuboku's giant tree. Arms closing about his torso, Helena rammed into Zoro with enough force to knock him away from the blackness. They barely landed in the shallows near the mouth of the hole, luckily missing partially submerged tree roots.

It took a moment for Helena to get her bearings, submerged in the cold, starlit ocean. She tightened her grip about Zoro's torso and stood, hauling him upright and dragging him out of the water as far as her shaking muscles could manage. Stupid morning sickness. Stupid bugs. Stupid everything.

Their dunking had done nothing to wake the man. He really could sleep through anything! Shivering against the brisk night air Helena lay him against a nearby root and, kneeling over him, checked his pulse. –Still alive, despite all appearances.

Helena turned to assess their situation, hackles ready for a fight. She couldn't help a sense of awe at Ryuuboku's enormous tree. Hector would probably appreciate a twig to add to his spear. If Helena had hoped to see the man again, she might have thought to grab one for him. It towered above them like his Monster King mangrove form, great branches blocking out the stars

Though she had seen the lights of houses in the upper canopy and wrapped around higher up the tree's trunk, any houses near this particular part of the tree must have been abandoned. Helena had also noticed that Sphinkz, Furguz, and Bizzy didn't come any closer to them. Their riders made hand signals to one another, then seemed content to watch. This made Helena gaze into the giant cave nearby with no small trepidation. Even with the doubly reflected moon at her back, no light seemed to breach that dark hole.

Then she heard it. A skittering sound from deep within the blackness, thin and hollow. An occasional chitter or click. A small buzz, like the wings of the tug bees, but deeper, more threatening. And a scrape like blade against stone.

Scuttle scuttle. Chitter. Bzzzzz.

Scrape! Scrape!

Scuttle. Click, click. Bzzzzz.

Scrape! Scrape!

Helena's hands flew to swords that weren't there, jumping from her knees into a ready stance for a fight she knew she didn't have the health or energy to win. Eyes wide, beating down panic, observation haki lifted the dark veil hiding the creature before it stepped out into the starlight, but even then, it was far more terrible to behold with her actual eyes.

Scythes twice as long as Mihawk's swords hooked the lip of the cave, pulling the creature though. A great pair of emotionless, faceted black eyes wreathed in a flower like face. Chittering black mandibles. A hairless exoskeleton, likely blue though hard to tell in the starlight, with dark stripes, a thin line connecting abdomen to pulsing thorax. A wicked stinger longer than Helena's leg.

A giant wasp. A giant wasp with the scythes of a praying mantis. The Shipyard Queen of Ryuuboku.
And it had its glossy eyes fixated on herself and Zoro.

.
.

.

A/N: Hey guys! Remember to leave a review so I know yall are still there! XOXO!