'This was a horrible plan!'

Your crazed yowls were swallowed by the gale swirling all around you as your team drove recklessly through the darkened forest.

Night had long since fallen, and without the moon to guide you through the thicket of things, you could only sit paralyzed as your friends jerked around trees with only the headlights to guide them.

By now you were already burnt out as it was, even without considering the emotional exhaustion, however, with every sudden lurch or scream that was whisked past your ears by the wind, all you could do was sit and continue to be drowned in insurmountable terror.

Sometimes a beam of light would shine behind you from the pursuing Charlottes, and someone else would always shoot back in an attempt to get them to shove off, they never stuck around long though.

You watched as other stolen cars would zig-zag alongside you, blurred chunks of metal jerking around like deer in a mad chase.

Sometimes the urge to cheer on, grab a gun, do something that could help in the escape, just to do about anything would nag at you angrily, causing you to snarl at yourself in your inaction.

Whenever you resolved to act upon them, however, there would be a particularly striking screech or a loud crash as a jeep failed to dodge a tree, and all of your collected bravado shattered across the forest floor.

Both the uncertainty, and the helplessness of the situation, had you solving to curl up on yourself and moaning to block everything out until it was over.

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There wasn't really any way to know how long it's been, the grip on time you had even when you were alive was shaky, nevertheless, it was worse as a ghoul, and this escape already felt like days.

Once in a while, when the fear of not knowing reached its mark, you'd peek up from your little ball, and frown at the blurred vision all around you before returning.

There was no way of telling up from down or bright from dark, and the fact that you had no idea if this was just you being disoriented or something more dire had you nearly wailing.

"(Y/n)"

A calm, young voice pierced through the panic, and with a small peek from behind your arms, you were met with two small, brown eyes.

"(Y/n), it's Chopper, I think you're having a panic attack" oh, so that's what this was? It feels a lot different from every other one you might've had in the past..

"(Y/n), I'm gonna need you to come out please, it's over, we're back at the Sunny, see?" A small hand pressed itself against your leg, and it was only in that moment that you realized that you were rocking back and forth.

Steeling yourself before taking the dive, you unfurled your body and blinked, finally seeing clearly again since the jeep first sprung to life.

As Chopper stated, the jeep was parked just a few feet from the Sunny, which was lit up like a superstore as people ran all around, presumably treating the injured and giving out rations, the talk floating all around you was a far cry from the roaring in the woods, and the gentle glow of the Sunny couldn't be compared to the flashes of headlights.

Fully relaxing into your environment, Chopper began to beam at your visible relief and turned back to Law with pride.

As you continued to unwind, the older doctor approached and analyzed you as you flopped onto your back in exhaustion.

"Are you sure that was just a panic attack?"

Chopper nodded, "I'm starting to think that her changing didn't just alter her physically, but its also affecting her emotionally.. when we first met (Y/n) she seemed fine, but now that she's being thrown in all these intense situations, her body isn't working right anymore, so chances are her chemicals and hormones are probably all out of order.."

Chopper cupped his chin and pursed his lips, smiling a bit as you began to drool over yourself without knowing, "I was thinking we could get her antidepressants but that might just make it worse, unless we know how her chemical balance has changed and what exactly has happened to do this, and how it happens..."

Law frowned, "I don't have access to any technology that could help with that.." the raven walked up to the jeep and sat in the trunk, letting you curl up into his lap in your dazed state.

Chopper nodded, "me neither.."

The silence was heavy with an unspoken frustration.

"Best case scenario, her body adapts to the changes and her chemicals balance out somehow"

The raven smirked, "I don't think that's how it works, but her body has proven to do weirder things that science as it is right now can't quite explain" Law began to stroke your head as you snuggled into his groin, causing a warm flush to keep him warm in the night.

The Heart leader brushed aside a strand of hair to watch you mumble and yip in your sleep, and a fond snort was winded from him, "you think this chemical change has something to do with the difference between zombie and ghoul?"

Chopper contemplated the question, "maybe, but we'll just have to see I guess"

Law smiled down at you, giving you brief scratch along the temple before carefully gathering you into his arms, "yeah, can you help me bring her to her bed, she fell asleep on me"

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You felt especially comfortable in your bed this morning, it just felt so nice..

Ignoring the commotion somewhere else in the building, you buried yourself into the sheets and fell into cloud nine, letting the rest of the world dissolve into nothing.

Moments like this, where you couldn't think, couldn't care less about your surroundings, felt like utter bliss, it was the closest you could ever feel to being alive again.

You probably stayed like that for a good few hours before somebody opened the door to your room and entered without as much as a word.

Despite the automatic desire to face your guest- if not just to reaffirm you were in good company, you felt it more necessary to get as much sleep as you could, and instead just shuffled away from their sight.

There was a dip in the bed, and the intruder gave your back a firm pat, "Killer told us what happened to Kidd"

Luffy's voice was a true neutral, reassuring and gentle for you, but furious and harsh if it was directed at his enemies, and it only prompted you to curl up on yourself underneath the sheets before tears threatened to break.

"We'll get Big Mom for this, but right now, you gotta take a break"

For the first time since his arrival, you peeked out from the cocoon of blankets you've inadvertently entrapped yourself within, and felt physically weak against the utterly exhausted smile returned to you.

Luffy was worn to shreds.

There was a bruise forming near the ridge of his nose, which prompted you to stumble upon the busted lip, still a cherry red and looking ready to start bleeding again.

The commotion from earlier was probably a fight..

Warbling invitingly, you unwound your blanket cocoon and presented the leader with open arms in a silent offer, to which he answered by diving into the crook of your neck without fully facing you.

The two of you laid there like that, in mutual exhaustion and grievances before the weight of sleep came teetering within the realm of your awareness once more, and your head began to cloud.

"We're not gonna fight Big Mom right away.."

You pried an eye open and groaned, understanding and hearing, yet not quite listening to what the teen was saying.

"Jinbe was right, she has too many strong guys on her side for us to handle alone.. with what happened during our escape, Law said she probably won't try to come at us again for a while.. so we just gotta focus on getting stronger before then"

There was a soft sensation pressed against the beginning of your jawline, to which you would later realize was Luffy's lips, "starting tomorrow, all of us are gonna train like crazy, and Jinbe said he's got an idea so we'll be ready next time"

The words were reassuring, and with all of the tension you didn't even notice before melting away, you easily fell back into a deep slumber, to which Luffy joined you in with a whisper.

"I'll be sure to protect everyone next time"

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The next time you woke up, it was morning once again, a full day went by and you still felt no temptation to leave your bed.

With a lazy croak, you moved to roll over and bury your face into the pillows, but was prevented from such by a large weight.

Slowly raising your head, you blinked a few times to dash away the bleary sand in your eyes and blinked at the clump of green hair.. Zoro..?

After a quick assessment of your surroundings, yep, you found that he wasn't the only one to have snuck into your bed.

Across from the two of you was Luffy and Usopp, curled up together in a messy spoon that resembled more of a braid than an actual spoon- and were those cuts and bruises?

Further down was Sanji and Law, the raven dangerously hanging on the edge with Tama sprawled over his back, Sanji seemed to have been pushed off the bed entirely, with his own pillows and blankets provided on the floor.

Somewhere deep within the base you could hear far off activity, probably everyone else going on with their morning as they should, preparing for the counter strike? Plotting up ways to get at Big Mom?

"Go back to sleep"

You were startled by the deep and clear baritone, and jerked to see Killer propped against the door, seemingly having been self stationed there all night, "Chopper says that with everything that happened last night, your body might've gotten a bit out of it.. you need to sleep that shit off"

You would have argued that you were fine, sleeping an entire day had to be enough for anyone, but already you could feel your train of thought dissipate and the pillow called your name again.

With a subdued whimper, you surrendered to the pull and huffed at the amusement it got from Killer, "(Y/n), its okay to take a break, there's no rush.."

There were all sorts of reasons why you should be out and running, Big Mom had no intentions of getting back at you yet, but that didn't mean you should be just lounging around as she twiddled her thumbs.

It was only more frustrating with how deeper the exhaustion became the more you thought of making a counter attack.

"(Y/n)"

You nearly jumped as a lithe arm curled around you from behind and pulled you into a warm chest flushed with life, however, when you turned to bark the interloper off of you, the look in Luffy's eyes sure made you think twice.

"Just sleep" with that, the leader followed his own advice and conked the hell out, you were incredulous for a few moments, but upon checking to argue with Killer, found that the blonde was also equally as gone.

You didn't like it, doing nothing with everything going on, the situation, how useless you've been as of late, but.. perhaps, just this once, leaving things be for now wouldn't come bite your ass.

With a conflicted hum, you snuggled closer to the raven and let your eyes shut.

And just slept.