Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sensei does.

Author's Note: I want to thank everyone who posted a review. They make me very happy. I owe all of you an apology for taking so long to update. I don't have a good excuse other than the fact that no matter how many times I reworked this chapter, I still feel like there is something missing. I finally just decided to post this. I hope you'll forgive me for the delay and the poor quality of this chapter and still read and review.

Diffraction
by Mako-clb

Chapter 8: Headwinds and Headway

As Robin stepped into the galley, she was greeted with the scent of freshly brewed coffee. Her eyes were drawn to the coffee cup resting on its saucer in her favorite spot at the table. Tendrils of steam were rising from the cup, showing it had recently been set there.

With a brief, almost involuntary smile at Sanji's thoughtfulness, Robin spread the map of Lynae out on the table before taking her seat. She sipped her coffee as she traced her finger along the map.

During first watch, Robin had been keeping several eyes on alert while she thought about where to look for Nami next. There weren't many options on an island as small as Lynae, and they had already searched most of them. Based on the information Sanji had brought back, another pirate crew had been to the island recently. The most likely scenario was that they had taken Nami, though if it was for the beri she had, to turn her in to the marines for the reward, or to blackmail the Straw Hats, Robin couldn't be sure. Though if it were the latter, they had made a very big mistake.

But that left only two likely places left to search. Of course, there was also the older, poorer neighborhood between the town and the woods, but considering the Straw Hats had questioned almost everyone in town over the past two days, it was unlikely someone wouldn't have mentioned seeing Nami there, unless of course one of the villagers was working with her kidnappers. Robin doubted her nakama were ready to forcibly search the homes and threaten the islanders, yet.

"Robin-chan, my sweet, a little snack for you while you wait for breakfast."

Robin looked up to see Sanji placing a plate of fruit slices down on the table with a little flourish before returning to his breakfast preparations. It wasn't quite the usual energy with which he presented her or Nami with anything, but Robin didn't mind. Even while he was worried about Nami and clearly not sleeping well, he still took the time for such a thoughtful gesture.

"Thank you." Robin glanced down at the map before looking back up to Sanji. "I hate to ask, but could you prepare some snacks and lunches for us to take today? Maybe multiple snacks for our captain."

"Anything for you." Sanji expertly flipped an omelet into the air and caught it in the frying pan.

"I want us to search the woods today, all the way to the far coast. If we're thorough, it should take all day to get there and back."

"And if we're lucky, we may be busy beating the crap out of the shit heads who took Nami-san."

"I certainly hope so." Robin sipped her coffee, hoping that Sanji was correct.

-N-N-N-N-N-

The creak of the door woke Nami from her doze, but she kept her eyes closed and feigned sleep. She tried to keep her breathing even as she heard the thump of a boot hitting the deck and felt a presence get closer.

"Time to wake up."

Nami recognized Remba's distinctive accent just before a hand gently nudged her shoulder.

Nami mumbled and shifted a bit as if she were waking up instead of having been awake most of the night. She opened her eyes slowly and was pleased to see that Remba was alone and holding a tray of food.

Nami shifted to sit up, the chain attached to her arm rattling a bit. She had to force herself not to flinch when her recently re-injured foot touched the floor, but she maintained her composure. Remba handed Nami the tray with a little smile. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but someone shouted for him and the man left without another word, shutting the door behind him.

Nami relaxed a bit. Although Remba was one of her jailers she could count on to be tolerable, he was still one of Nami's jailers. She was always on edge when she was within arms reach of one of them, or rather she was more on edge versus her normal level of alert and wary when living in enemy territory.

It was something she hadn't needed to be for months, since Luffy beat Arlong. Or maybe even before that. Sometime after she met Luffy and Zoro, things had been different. She couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but she had relearned how to be happy sometime after meeting Luffy and Zoro.

Nami scoped a spoonful of the mush on her tray into her mouth and frowned at the sour taste. She washed it down with a drink of water before eating another spoonful. As awful as it was, Nami needed to keep her strength up.

She had to be ready to make her move whenever and however an opportunity presented itself. That meant getting back into the skin of Cat Burglar Nami of the Arlong Pirates. It made her skin crawl, but it's who she had to be right now so she could get back to being Straw Hat Nami as soon as possible.

-N-N-N-N-N-

"Naaaaaaamiiiiiiiii!" Luffy cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted again. "Naaaaaaaamiiiiiiiiii, where are you?"

"Bro, she probably can't answer."

"Nah, Nami's smart and sneaky."

"Yeah, she's super sneaky. And you know, she's also a really good person. I guess I owe her a SUPER apology when we find her."

"Huh? Did you take her mikan or money? Or did you get too loud or make a mess? Oh, I know, did you get food on her…" Luffy's voice trailed off before he stage whispered, "maps?"

"Nah, Bro. I just wasn't thinking super nice things about her." Franky moved his sunglasses to sit on top of his head. There was enough tree cover here to make some decent shade, so he didn't need them. "She and I have a lot more in common than I thought."

"Well, yeah, you're both my nakama."

"Yeah, that's important, but I mean like how we both hated pirates when we were kids, but now we are pirates. And how we both lost people we loved 'cause they were trying to protect us." Franky sniffed a few times. "I didn't know all that. And she probably doesn't know about me. Maybe if she did, she'd like me more, which would be SUPER!"

"Huh, Nami likes you just fine. And she likes me even though I didn't know all that stuff either until today."

Franky turned to stare at Luffy. "What do ya mean? Long-nose-bro said her sister told you all about it."

"Nah. I mean, I guess she told Usopp, but I didn't stay to listen."

"Oi!" Franky couldn't believe it. "Why not?"

"Didn't matter." Luffy stuck his pinky finger in his ear as he looked around the woods. "Nami's my navigator. She was willing to hurt herself to protect her nakama. That shark guy made her sad, made her want to hurt herself. That's all I needed to know."

Luffy frowned, and Franky had to hold back tears. His new little sis had…she had. Franky blinked. No, he wasn't going to cry. Those weren't tears in his eyes.

"Anybody who hurts my nakama," Luffy said, looking up at Franky with a dark expression, "I'll beat their ass."

"Yeah, I know." And Franky did know. He saw what Straw Hat had done for Nico Robin. He saw what the crew had done to the Franky Family in retaliation for Usopp's beating. They were willing to do anything to protect each other. It's one of the reasons Franky respected them all so much.

Franky and Luffy went back to searching the woods, although Franky suspected Luffy wasn't really searching for clues as much as he was just thinking about giving a beat down to whoever took their sis.

"Still, I want the chance to get my new nakama to like me," Franky said, feeling a bit guilty. He had respected Nami right from the start with the way she threatened him, a grown man who could knock her down with a single punch, to protect her friend. But then he started to think she was just bossy and mean. Now he was starting to understand that it was a lot more complicated than that, just like the situation with Nico Robin had been a lot more complicated than he was led to believe.

"I told you. Nami already likes you," Luffy said. "Maybe not as much as me or Usopp or Zoro or Sanji yet. I mean, she hasn't hit you with her fist of love, but she was yelling and bossing you around and her eyes were smiling, right?"

Luffy nodded his head as he said all that like it should be obvious.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not what that means. You don't go doing that stuff to people you like." Franky paused, thinking of Iceburg. "Well, mostly you don't."

"Nah, Nami trusts you. If she hits you and stuff when she's mad, then you know she really likes you. Nami can't like somebody she doesn't trust. She doesn't really hurt you when she hits you. I mean, it hurts, but it's not like an injury type hurt that Chopper has to fix. Nami's saying she feels like she can be herself around you, and she trusts you not to hurt her back.

"Sometimes Nami forgets stuff, like we're all here to help or that she's a pirate so she can feel however she wants to feel and she doesn't have to hide it."

"It's not super at all to pretend to be somebody you're not," Franky agreed, thinking of all the years he had given up on building things.

"I forgot once." Luffy pulled his straw hat down to almost completely cover his eyes. "I told Nami she couldn't feel how she felt, and her punches weren't as hard for a while."

-N-N-N-N-N-

"Enough lazing around," Fram said as some smelly member of the crew dragged Nami out of her prison. "It's about time you earned your keep."

"You act like I stowed away," Nami said as she wrestled her arm out of the man's grasp. "You kidnapped me. I'm pretty sure I don't owe you anything. And I certainly don't need to earn my keep."

"If you want a cut of the haul, you earn it, one way or another," came a voice to her right. She turned to see the captain giving her the once over. Nami was used to appraising looks from men, especially pirates. She had used her looks to her advantage often enough, but this felt different, more like the way Arlong used to look at her. "And I've decided exactly how you're going to pull your weight around here."

"Or more than your weight since you look like a strong gust could carry you off," somebody cut in from off to Nami's right.

"Let me guess," Nami said, dripping as much venom as she could. "I'm going to replace your worthless excuse for a navigator. I know you said you had one, but he can't be worth much if you needed to stoop to kidnapping just so you wouldn't sink."

The captain smiled, again reminding her a bit of Arlong. "I'll let that go, if you manage to do exactly what I tell you and do it well. If not…" The captain let the threat trail off, but Nami knew that whatever he had in mind wouldn't be fun.

"And what do you want?"

"First, why didn't you tell me about last night's storm?"

Nami glared at the captain. "It was mild by Grand Line standards. I knew it would be rough seas and heavy rain but short-lived and not enough to sink a ship this size." Nami shrugged. "Plus, nobody asked."

The captain stared down his nose at her, literally. "Are there any storms coming right now?"

Nami gave him a look, trying to see if he was serious. Was that all he wanted? Deciding it was worth it to humor him for now, Nami focused on the feel of the air around her—the temperature, the humidity, the direction and strength of the wind, the scent and taste.

"No. The wind might pick up a bit later. I can't be sure about that." Nami tilted her head to get a better look at the sky. "I don't sense any storms coming this way. But this is the Grand Line. The weather can change pretty fast."

"Good enough for now," the captain said, giving a subtle nod of approval. "Now, close your eyes."

Nami just looked at the man, not sure what his game was and absolutely sure she didn't want to play.

"Captain Blu said to close your eyes," Fram ordered. "Do it or I'll have Rupa do it for you."

Nami frowned, but she closed her eyes. As much as she didn't want to give in, it would be worse to be manhandled even more by this scum.

"Keep them closed until I tell you," Blu said in a voice that sounded almost friendly, and it gave Nami the shivers more than his earlier threats.

Silence accompanied her self-imposed blindness. She could hear breathing and the occasional hum from someone, but that was it. It made the time seem to stretch out longer than it probably was, but eventually the captain told her to open her eyes.

Directly in front of her, and to the ship's starboard, was a bank of heavy black clouds, lightening dancing between them. The clouds were moving in their direction and at a fast pace. She knew storms formed out of almost nothing on the Grand Line, but even Nami was surprised. And worse, she hadn't felt a thing the entire time her eyes were closed.

Wait. She hadn't felt anything. It was just like before. Looking again, she saw that the waves and the wind didn't match the clouds.

"This is another one of those weird storm mirages," Nami said, looking away from the clouds to the faces of the pirates surrounding her. None of them seemed scared or surprised. "Is that why you want me? Because I can tell a real storm from the mirages that appear in this area."

"Yes and no." The captain waved his hand and the storm mirage disappeared. "I create these illusions."

"You're a devil fruit user," Nami said, suddenly much more wary.

"Indeed. Paramecia type." Blu waved his hand again and a large, black dog appeared where the captain had been standing. Then it disappeared. "The Sakka Sakka no mi to be exact."

"You created that fake storm when we were on our way to Lynae."

"I did." The captain moved forward until he was right in Nami's face. "And did you know that since mastering my abilities and starting my little enterprise, your ship was the first ever not to fall for my illusions?"

Nami didn't flinch.

"At first, I was angry and a bit curious." Blu pulled back slightly and gave Nami a smile that he probably meant to be friendly. "Now, I'm curious and pleased. I didn't know there was a devil fruit that let the user predict the weather and sense a storm, but I know exactly how I'm going to use that ability."

"I'm not–" Nami bit her lip. She had almost told her captors that she wasn't a devil fruit user, but there was no reason to share that information with them. She would find a way to use their mistake to her advantage.

"Not what, my dear?"

"I'm not interested in helping someone who kidnapped me, had me shot, and has barely been feeding me."

"If you cooperate and prove your worth, you'll earn your fair share of rations." The captain reached for Nami, but she took an involuntary step back. Blu frowned. "If you don't, you'll be punished. It's your choice."

-N-N-N-N-N-

Usopp steadied himself on one of the top tree branches before lowering his goggles so he could get the best, clearest view of the woods possible. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he was hoping to see something, anything that might help them find Nami.

Usopp wasn't thrilled with the idea of potentially facing whoever the enemy was, especially since he had no idea who or what had taken his nakama. In fact, not knowing made it worse. Usopp's imagination kept coming up with crazier, more dangerous scenarios the more he thought about it.

There were two things that kept Usopp from having an attack of his I'm-allergic-to-unknown-danger disease. One was that Robin had paired him with Sanji. Being partnered with one of the strongest members of the crew, one who didn't become lost or easily distracted, provided some comfort. Although, when it came to women, most of Sanji's good qualities went out the window, as evidenced by the way he had been whining on and off for hours.

"The shit heads who dared take my Nami-san better be treating her like the goddess she is," Sanji mumbled around his cigarette.

Some ash floated down to the ground, and the cook stomped on it aggressively. Usopp was afraid Sanji would start a fire, but the glare Sanji had pinned him with when Usopp mentioned it earlier was enough to make Usopp keep his mouth shut now.

Usopp scanned the woods, or what he could see of it from his high perch, as Sanji continued to complain. Not seeing anything unusual or even remotely like a clue to finding Nami, Usopp shimmied down the tree.

As Usopp's feet touched the ground, Sanji said, "I can't believe I have to spend the day with you instead of the lovely Robin-chwan."

"It's not like we're on a date. We're looking for Nami." Usopp adjusted the shoulder strap of his bag. "Besides, it was Robin who decided how we would split up to search the woods."

Sanji clasped his hands to his chest. "Robin-chan is wise, so I'm sure we're in just the right combination to save Nami-san." Then his entire body seemed to sag in on itself. "But why did I have to be separated from all of my lovely ladies?"

"Robin explained it at breakfast, how searching the woods on the way to the coves made more sense than sailing around and–"

"I know that!" Sanji shouted. "I paid attention to every word Robin-chan said. I would never ignore a lady."

"Okay, then why are you making such a fuss?"

"Because I miss Nami-san. I'm worried about her." Sanji took a deep drag of his cigarette to calm himself. "And none of you shit heads seem to be doing anything to find her. Robin-chan is the only one who cares."

"That's not true."

"Really, then what exactly are you doing to find her?"

"This!" Usopp gestured around him. "I'm searching the woods. We all are. We're worried too."

"Shit." Sanji's shoulders drooped and his head dropped, so Usopp couldn't see his face. "I'm just as pathetic as you. How can I ever look Nami-san in the face again when I haven't really done anything to help find her?"

"We're all doing our best. You know we are, but…" Usopp reached out to Sanji, but pulled his hand back at the last moment. "We just don't know what to do."

"Well, we should be doing more," Sanji said, his voice was quieter, more sad than angry if Usopp had to guess. "Nami-san needs us, and we're failing. She's all alone. If she wasn't alone…"

"You blame me, don't you? For leaving her?"

And that was the other reason Usopp was out here, forcing himself to be brave. He'd failed Nami. He'd failed his nakama, again. But this time he wasn't going to run. He was going to face his failure head on.

"Yes." Cigarette smoke wafted on the breeze as Sanji gestured toward Usopp. "No. I don't… I don't blame you for leaving her when she told you to. You should never argue with a lady."

"You say that," Usopp clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms, "but I can tell you blame me."

"Yeah."

Sanji sunk to the ground, and Usopp was impressed at how the cook could just drop on his ass and still somehow look graceful. Sanji rested his left elbow on his bent knee and tilted his head back. It might have looked as if Sanji was taking in the scenery if not for the fact his eyes were closed.

"I blame all of us, except the lovely Robin-chan." Sanji brought his cigarette to his lips and then exhaled a stream of smoke before he continued. "We made Nami-san feel like she was alone, like she couldn't come to us. What kind of men make a lady suffer in silence?"

"But…but you said it yourself yesterday. Sometimes Nami just thinks she has to do things on her own," Usopp said.

"And a real man would make sure to show a lady every day that she could count on him, trust him, so she doesn't believe she's alone." Sanji looked to the sky again, but this time his eyes stayed open. "I've failed as a man. We all have. We know what Nami's been through. We know she's like that sometimes. But we didn't even notice she was going through something."

"So, you don't blame me?" Usopp asked, although he wasn't sure how he wanted Sanji to answer. It was easier to defend himself when Sanji was blaming him than when he was blaming himself.

"Weren't you listening?"

Sanji shifted his feet slightly and seemed to just lever himself to a standing position. Before Usopp could decide if he was jealous of Sanji's strength and grace or angry at Sanji for his non-answer, he noticed something silver-ish moving up Sanji's pant leg.

"Um, Sanji…"

"Let's go. We're not helping Nami by talking."

Usopp refrained from mentioning that Sanji was the one doing most of the talking. "Just hold still for a moment."

"What? Why?"

Usopp bent over to better reach the rather pretty arachnid. "There's a spider crawling up your leg."

Sanji's eyes went wide. He looked down and saw the silver, spindly bug crawling up his black slacks and kicked into the air, trying to dislodge the spider and almost kicking Usopp in the process.

"Get it off! Get it off!"

-N-N-N-N-N-

Nami was back in her little closet prison. As she usually did upon being locked back in, she had picked the lock on her wrist shackle and checked for the hammer she'd hidden in her pillow to make sure it hadn't been found and confiscated. Then she lay down on her cot and closed her eyes while she tried to think through what she had just learned.

The fact that the captain was a devil fruit user was an unexpected complication. Nami thought that maybe she shouldn't be that surprised. It seemed there were a lot of devil fruit users on the Grand Line—there were three on her crew alone. The good news was that meant Nami knew a surefire way put the captain out of commission. The bad news was his powers of illusion meant he could easily trick Nami. She could see through his weather illusions, but she wasn't so sure about any other illusions. Nami was beginning to suspect his power is what kept anyone from noticing her being dragged at gunpoint down a public street.

Were there any other devil fruit users on the ship? If so, she needed to find out what their powers were.

She was glad to know these pirates didn't want her for her cartography skills. The thought of being forced to make maps for pirates again literally made Nami sick to her stomach. She turned on her side and curled up, hoping it would soothe the nausea that had suddenly hit her.

Nami wasn't sure it was much better that they wanted to use her to help them commit piracy on the high seas. Stealing from other pirates wasn't something she had too many qualms about, but as the captain explained what her cut would be if she cooperated with their plans, he made it clear that they weren't just attacking other pirates. That did not sit well with Nami. Even when she was at her most desperate to earn the money to free her village, Nami had refused to attack or steal from innocent villagers and merchants. Oh, she had no problem negotiating prices down for her benefit because that was just business. But Nami drew the line at extorting or harming hardworking people.

The question was, what could she actually do about it?

-N-N-N-N-N-

"Thank you, anyway," Chopper said to the gopher. Then turning to Robin, he said, "He doesn't remember seeing any humans like Nami at all. The only humans he remembers are the villagers that usually come into the woods to cut down trees or hunt."

"We'll just have to keep looking," Robin said.

"I hope we find Nami soon," Chopper said sadly. "I miss her."

"I miss her, too." Robin crossed her arms over her chest to generate dozens of eyes on the higher tree branches so she could get a birds' eye view. "But we will get her back."

"We will. I know we will," Chopper said, sounding a bit more confident. "I just…I want to know she's okay."

"It's impossible not to worry," Robin said, not looking at Chopper but out across the forest through her many eyes. "But we must remember that Nami is strong. We learned that yesterday. If she could survive all those years alone, stealing from pirates, I'm sure she will survive whatever situation she's in now. And unlike before, she has a wonderful doctor and nakama to care for her once we find her."

"That doesn't make me happy!" Chopper sang as he trotted around in a little circle.

As Chopper calmed down and returned to questioning the local fauna, Robin's thoughts could not help but turn down a darker path. She believed every word she had spoken to Chopper—Nami was a survivor—but if they did not find her soon, the odds were very high that she had been taken from the island.

That would leave all of them directionless in more ways than one.

-N-N-N-N-N-

Nami woke up, not sure exactly when she had fallen asleep, but she was still tired. It took a moment for her to realize what had woken her, and when she did, she started pounding on the door and shouting.

"Change course! Thirty degrees starboard! Hurry up! Do you hear me? We need to change course, thirty degrees starboard. NOW!"

Nami kept pounding on the door and screaming. Didn't those idiots realize they were running out of time?

"We need to change course!"

"Shut up!"

"There's a cyclone coming! We need to change course, now."

"We're not stupid. Nobody can predict cyclones," said a voice Nami didn't recognize from the other side of the door. "They're super dangerous but rare. This is just some kind of trick."

"It's not! I know weather. A cyclone is coming."

"Open the door." A moment later, the door started to open, and Nami pushed her way through. "Lower the sails. Forty degrees starboard."

"Humor her for now," Fram said as casually as if he were discussing what to wear tomorrow. "Lower the sails. Turn to starboard."

"We're not going to make it!" Nami shouted. They had waited too long. Even as someone finally started to turn the ship, Nami knew it was too late. "Hard to starboard!"

Nami could feel the ship rock as the sea below them churned and the wind whipped around them. Over the next few seconds, the crew suddenly realized that something was wrong as the sky got darker, the wind stronger and the sea rougher. And Nami knew they weren't going to fully clear the cyclone.

The wind and ocean merged into a column of churning weather. The ship suffered a glancing blow that sent it skimming along the waves, tilted at a forty-five degree angle.

Nami's screams were lost among the shouts of the Diamond Pirates as they went tumbling around the ship and into the sea.

to be continued

More Author's Notes: One of the reasons this chapter was delayed is due to the moon or moons. I was working under the assumption that there is a single moon in the One Piece world. However, the GrandLineReview, which is an awesome One Piece YouTube channel, proposed that there could be multiple moons in One Piece. The source of this idea is the model of the world shown during Robin's flashback of Ohara. I did a LOT of research for this, because I'm a writing geek and I like my fictional worlds to be as accurate as possible. However, I couldn't find a consensus on how many moons in the One Piece world, so I'm sticking with one for now. If it turns out there are many moons, let me know and I'll try to update/edit this accordingly.