"𝓞𝓱, 𝔀𝓮 𝓶𝓪𝓭𝓮 𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓪 𝓶𝓮𝓼𝓼, 𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓮. 𝓘𝓽'𝓼 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓵𝔂 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝔀𝓪𝔂. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓯𝓮𝓼𝓼, 𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓮, 𝓲𝓷 𝓶𝔂 𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓼, 𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓸𝓾𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓶𝔂 𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓮, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓪𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓶𝓮 𝓲𝓯 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓪 𝓽𝓻𝔂 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝓪𝓵𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓭𝓸."

***

To answer her previous question, she almost didn't survive. Buggy was one problem, but the boys were a problem too. Buggy was to be expected. He would say almost anything and it made Artemisia want to pull her hair out. She couldn't stand being around him. The boys, on the other hand, just wanted to talk about her feelings. That's right. They wanted to talk with her about her feelings.

It was no surprise that everyone was affected by Nami's betrayal. But the boys seemed to think it was affecting her the most. Every once in a while, they would come to her to talk. They wouldn't say anything at first. They would sit in silence with her while she waited for whatever questions they fired at her that time. Then they would start trying to have a casual conversation.

How are you today? What are your plans? Oh, that sounds interesting. How are you feeling after... That's all Artemisia would need to hear to make up some kind of excuse to bail. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about Nami. It happened. There was nothing changing that. Feeling or talking about how she felt wouldn't change anything. It might as well be forgotten. That's how much she didn't want to talk about.

So, while the others talked about Nami and how to find her, Artemisia would do her very best to tune them out. She tried to tune out the conversation Usopp and Buggy were currently having. Buggy was supposed to be leading them to Arlong Park so the others could find Nami. Usopp was in charge of steering the ship since Nami left. He was the only one with the most experience out of all of them. Artemisia, while growing up on a ship, knew nothing about how to steer one.

With the confusing instructions Buggy was giving, it was hard for Usopp, "But you said five degrees starboard."

"Yeah," Buggy was sitting on a barrel that was looking out at sea. Artemisia and Usopp weren't able to see his face as he was turned away from him and Artemisia couldn't be happier. The last thing she wanted to do was acknowledge his existence. "It's the other starboard, Captain Shit-tastic."

"Thought clowns were supposed to be funny," Usopp muttered.

A snort came from Artemisia. She didn't think Buggy had a funny bone in his body. Not everyone enjoyed Usopp's comment. The clown didn't appreciate the statement, "What was that?" Buggy's head hopped as he turned it around to look at the two, "Why don't you say it to my face?"

The small grin that made its way onto Artemisia's face fell. She had about enough of this clown. Being stuck with him for one day was bad enough, but they've been stuck with him for much longer than that and she already wanted to jump off the ship, "He said..," She trailed off as she got right up into his face, "He thought clowns... were supposed to be... funny."

"Just you wait, sunshine," Buggy gritted his teeth. "When I get my body back, I'll-"

He was cut off by Artemisia jumping in once more, "Yeah, well, you don't have it yet," She pursed her lips and did an animated shrug, showing him how much she really didn't give a damn about him and his problems. "So there is nothing stopping me from dropping your head in the ocean." Except for Luffy. If Luffy didn't find Buggy useful, he would've already been at the bottom of the ocean. But he didn't have to know that.

And he didn't. He thought of something else entirely, "I thought you wanted to find your little girlfriend," It was now Artemisia's turn to grit her teeth. She wished that everyone would stop bringing her up. The world didn't revolve around Nami! "You can't just get rid of me. I know the way!"

Laughing loudly, Artemisia grinned at him, "You're out of luck. I don't even wanna find her."

Whatever higher power that was out there decided to give her a break. Zoro walked out from the hall beside the stairs. This, thankfully, caught the attention of Buggy as he stared past Artemisia at him, "Hey! Morning, champ." He chuckled. Glancing behind her, Artemisia was grateful that Zoro came when he did.

The swordsman walked up the steps toward them, "I know Luffy made a deal with you to find Arlong, clown, but if this is another one of your tricks-"

The words were cut off by Buggy asking, "What are you gonna do? Bleed on me?" He laughed at his joke. Zoro didn't find this funny in the slightest. Zoro walked over, past Artemisia, and went to pick the head up. Sensing the danger his head was in, Buggy started pleading, "Whoa! Whoa! Wait."

Surprising everyone, Artemisia stepped back between Zoro and Buggy, "Oh, no. Please. You shouldn't do this." Usopp shot a confused look over Artemisia's way. He just heard her talking about wanting to drop Buggy in the ocean and now she was defending him? Had the universe ended or something?

Either way, Buggy was more than happy about the change, "Thank you! Thank you for saving me." He was going to live another day. That's what he thought at least. He was dead wrong.

That speculation of being wrong started when he saw the look on her face. It was the equivalent of a villain's grin, one could say it was a Cheshire Cat smile, "Allow me to do it." Buggy's hope was immediately crushed.

"Do whatever you want." Zoro simply stated.

The evil grin was turned onto Buggy. A look of terror overcame his features, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What?" Artemisia grabbed him by the head of his hair, grasping tightly to make sure that he felt some kind of pain. She walked down the steps. "Because I said bleed on me?" Oh, he knew damn well that wasn't the only reason she was doing this. Buggy tried to look at Zoro but it was hard with how Artemisia was holding him, "You can bleed on me if you want."

Upon seeing him trying to look at Zoro, she forced him to look her in the eyes, "Why are you looking at him?" She held him over the edge of the boat. He freaked out as he cast a glance down at the rushing water beneath him. Artemisia could only girn even wider, "I'm the one holding your head."

"But a deal's a deal, all right?" Buggy tried to negotiate. "You want your map back," Artemisia took notice of the change in his words. Before he said she was doing this for Nami and now it was the map. He must've really been desperate. "I want my body."

From behind her, Artemisia heard Zoro ask, "How do we know you're not leading us to a trap?"

"Zoro, buddy! Honor amongst pirates. Right?" Buggy shot a pleading look at Zoro. He motioned with his eyes to Artemisia before looking at the girl with the best polite smile he could muster, "Come on, Misi."

A look of disgust crossed her features, "Who said you could call me that?" She lowered him a little to have him freak out more.

It worked like clockwork, "Whoa! Hey! Listen! How about I sing a nice sea shanty to pass the time?" Artemisia got a bad feeling from his suggestion. She hesitated to see what he would do. Buggy started singing, "Oh, there once was a girl with tangerine hair."

"Right, that's it." Artemisia brought his head back up.

There wasn't a pause in Buggy's singing, "Stole my map and left me stranded somewhere," Artemisia brought him back to the upper deck where he previously was giving Usopp directions. Usopp seemed to realize what she was doing. "Truly crafty and crooked young lass," Usopp opened the barrel that Buggy had been sitting on before. "But you can't deny, she had a spectacular-" Artemisia dropped him roughly into the barrel. The boys swore that she basically threw him in. Buggy stopped singing as he hit the bottom of the barrel, "Ow! God, right on my nose!" They covered the barrel back up.

"Have fun, you bitchy clown." Artemisia walked away to the other side of the ship. She heard footsteps and knew that someone was following her. She didn't have much interest in seeing who it was. She felt like she could guess. With Usopp steering the ship, that only left Zoro to follow her.

On the other side of the ship were Luffy and Sanji. The two were fishing to catch something that Sanji could cook up for them later. Correction, Sanji was doing most of the work. He didn't seem to mind too much. He was going on about something, "A beautiful, talented woman does not choose to ally herself with a pirate like Arlong," That's all he had to say for Artemisia to realize who he was talking about. Seriously, she couldn't escape even the mention of her. "Nami clearly needs to be rescued."

"Please," Artemisia scoffed. "Like that's actually true."

"Her tattoo says different." Zoro agreed.

"Yeah, well, tattoos don't tell the whole story," Sanji told them. He was mostly speaking with Zoro. The others had told him not to mention anything about Nami and Artemisia. They told him that they were the closest. They thought that Artemisia didn't know this but she overheard them telling him. She hated the fact that everyone was walking on eggshells around her. "And like any woman, she's a mystery to be unraveled."

His words made Artemisia pull a face. She crossed her arms and leaned her back against the railing of the ship as she squinted her eyes to look at him through the sunlight shining in her face, "Tattoos kind of do tell the whole story. Why get something permanently tattooed on your body if you don't mean what it stands for?" You could argue that they no longer want it at some point but that didn't mean that they didn't ally themselves with the meaning of the tattoo when they first got it.

Zoro turned to Sanji as well, "Nami made her choice."

"You don't know why." Sanji looked him up and down.

"The only thing I want to hear from you are dinner specials," Zoro all but growled out. A look of amusement was on Sanji's face at the words Zoro spouted. "You don't know Nami."

"Sounds like you don't know her either, mosshead," Sanji told him.

None of them knew Nami. That's what Artemisia had come to realize. They didn't know Nami. They never knew Nami. They knew a version of Nami. A version that she meticulously made to have them warm up to her so she could complete her goal. That's all it was to her. That's all they were to her. They were pawns for her to use as she attempted to achieve a goal. She didn't care about them.

And for some infuriating reason, Luffy didn't seem to get that, "I'm sure Nami has her reasons," Everyone fell silent. Artemisia gritted her teeth and sucked in a deep breath. She turned her face away so no one would see the expression on her face. "Whatever choice she makes... I just need to hear it for myself."

She couldn't stop herself from saying something, "Luffy, I really don't think-"

"Land ho!" Usopp pointed in front of the ship.

Their group of four split up once more. Sanji continued to fish while the other three turned to see what Usopp had pointed out. Luffy was the very first one to walk to the very front of the ship. They could all see an island getting closer and closer. Once they were close enough, they docked the ship and got off to try and find some kind of civilization. Artemisia wanted to stay behind but was forced off when Luffy wouldn't let her stay.

As they walked, Artemisia found herself becoming more and more upset at the situation they found themselves in. Why couldn't the others just accept that Nami betrayed them? She didn't care about them. Luffy and Sanji swore that she had her reasons but Artemisia only saw her own version of Nami's reason. She was greedy and only cared about herself.

The racing thoughts in Artemisia's head stopped when they eventually found someplace. It was a village that looked worse for wear. It was eerily silent and the place was practically a ghost town. The huts looked rundown and some even had holes. Something that surprised everyone was the look of one hut. It was turned completely upside down.

"Never seen that before," Zoro commented.

Eyes glazing over the sight, Sanji had a puzzled expression, "What could have done this?"

"Take a wild guess." Artemisia had a feeling it could be any one of the fishmen.

The group stopped in front of the hut. There was one person in particular who looked really nervous about the sight. Artemisia could see Usopp shifting anxiously, eyes shifting to each person. His voice was soft as he spoke, "Maybe I should head back, make sure the Merry's secure."

"Arlong did this." And we have a winner.

Tension dispersed when Buggy sounded, "Hey, shit-hat!" They all turn to look in the direction of the voice. His head was in the back bag they had him in before. Sanji was the one carrying it. Artemisia couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He would have to be the one to deal with all his bullshit. "I think we can all agree that Arlong's a bad fish. But why don't we quiet lollygagging and get my body back?"

"Pipe down in there." Sanji was already tired of the job.

"Or what?" Buggy yelled. "You gonna whip me up a soufflé?"

"This is why we should've thrown him in the ocean." Again, Artemisia would have done so if she knew that Luffy wouldn't be upset. She wanted more than anything to watch him as he got eaten by sharks or a whale... Maybe a dolphin. Whichever would hurt more. In that case, it would be better to go with the shark, right? Three rows of teeth can cause a lot of pain. Artemisia guessed so at least.

It was obvious what Sanji's intentions were when he looked to Usopp, "How about you take him for a while?"

Usopp looked like he was trying to stay far away from the bag, "Ooh, new guy carries the clown head." The answer was not one Sanji was hoping for. He pursed his lips in annoyance and adjusted the bag on his shoulder. Artemisia sent him a pitying look which made him believe that she wanted to take over. He went to offer the bag to her and she walked away as quickly as she could.

The five started walking again. It didn't take long before they found more. This time, they managed to find people. There was a group of people, varying in age and race. They were all chattering. Artemisia could see that they were worried about something. One man stood in front of them. He had a box in hand. Judging by his outfit, he was probably a cop, "Everyone! Please!" The five stopped, staying a fair bit of distance away. "Please, everyone. We don't have much time, and we're short again this month."

One man came up to him. He dropped what looked to be money into the box, "Is it enough?" The cop shook his head. Artemisia had an idea of what was happening here. Arlong was probably getting them to pay up. He probably owned this place in one way or another. That's what she assumed.

"Do we have time to get some more?"

"No," The voice made Artemisia freeze. She felt like everything stopped as she and everyone else turned to see who it was. Artemisia didn't need to look to know who it was. A familiar girl with orange hair stood behind the group with her arms crossed. As she walked forward, the group cleared a path for her. "You don't."

There was something about seeing her again that made Artemisia... She didn't know how to describe it. There were so many negative emotions. Hurt, anger, sadness. Then, deep down, there was a yearning that couldn't be killed no matter how hard she tried. Artemisia blinked as she felt her eyes stinging. She gritted her teeth and dug her nails into her palms. This was not the time and place for that.

People whispered as they stared at her. A woman with dark skin and blue hair stepped forward. Artemisia felt movement beside her. She looked over to see it was Luffy. She wondered what he was thinking, seeing this. Nami doing Arlong's bidding. She didn't have to hide it anymore. She was showing them exactly who she was. What she always was. This was her.

The straw hat-wearing boy didn't get too far. He was stopped when Zoro placed a hand on his chest. Luffy looked over at Zoro. The two shared a look. That seemed to be enough for Luffy to get what he was doing. Luffy glanced at the ground for a moment before he watched along with everyone else.

The same woman from before stepped in front of Nami's path, "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face here." She spit at her before walking away. The only thing Nami did was watch. She looked unphased by the behavior. It was probably something that happened frequently. Artemisia didn't blame the woman for her reaction.

Looking to the cop, Nami inquired, "Got something for me?" The two stared at each other for a moment. No words were exchanged. Everything could be said without words. The cop held out the box to her, waiting for the inevitable response. Nami grabbed the box from him. She opened it and looked inside. She looked back up at him with disappointment, "You're short."

"Nami, please," The cop begged her. "This is all we have," The group started to disperse, all going back to their homes. Artemisia could only watch along with the others as the cop pleaded with Nami, "Arlong has bled us dry."

"Then find more blood."

"And this is what she always was," Artemisia stated.

From the corner of her eye, she could feel Sanji staring at her, "You don't know that."

No attempt was made to meet his eyes, "The evidence is right in front of you."

There was silence once more. The cop stared at Nami, trying to find a hint of humanity in her. When he saw none, he turned and left. Nami turned as well so she could leave. She stopped when she spotted the group. She was surprised to see them staring right at her. To see that they came after her. She walked up to them with shock on her face, "Luffy? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Luffy met her halfway.

"This is where I belong," Nami stated.

"I don't believe that," He shook his head. "This is not you."

"No," Nami's voice was stern. "This isn't the me you want me to be."

Slowly blinking, Luffy looked at her in disbelief, "Nami... If you need our help-"

Part of Artemisia wanted to hide away. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't seen. She didn't want to be perceived. But part of her wanted to be noticed. That part ended up taking over, "Luffy, why would she need our help?" Everyone turned to her upon hearing her voice. Artemisia couldn't bring herself to meet Nami's eyes. She opted for staring at Luffy instead, "She's clearly made her choice. She looks perfectly comfortable doing this. Why get in the way?"

It seemed to be the same case for Nami. She only stared at Luffy, "Artemisia's right. I don't need any of you," Artemisia couldn't help it. She found her eyes drifting to look at Nami. Her eyes ended up meeting Nami's. The girl had already been staring at her. She continued to stare at her as she said, "Arlong wanted the map, and I conned you into getting it for me. And you bought it. I was never part of your stupid crew."

Shaking his head, Luffy spoke in a low tone, "You don't mean that."

Nami gritted her teeth, "Take the rest of these clowns and sail away from here. I never want to see you again." Nami walked away from them.

As she walked away, Artemisia could only see the scene from the dock. She saw herself on her knees, watching Nami walk away from their drowning captain. From her. All those feelings arose in her once more. She felt herself getting overwhelmed with the emotions. Those feelings of sadness and despair translated into anger as Artemisia walked in front of everyone and called out to her, "I didn't want to see you either! I told them this was a bad idea!"

Those words made Nami stop, "Then they should've listened to you." She didn't look back.

That only angered Artemisia even more. She wanted to yell at her to face her. Tell her to face her after wrecking her. Not even hours before Nami left, Artemisia had poured out her heart, telling Nami that she was in love with her. She got nothing in return. She was given the cold shoulder. It would be one thing if Nami wasn't interested. It would hurt but Artemisia would accept it. But the truth was so much worse.

Nami let Artemisia get close to her. She let Artemisia tell her things she would never say to anyone. She let Artemisia lean on her. She let Artemisia do all of these things because it would benefit her. She didn't give a damn about Artemisia. She was only playing into the feelings Artemisia had to get what she wanted. She let Artemisia develop feelings for her knowing that she would only throw them back in her face.

"They should've," Artemisia hated how her voice sounded shaky. She was strong. Much stronger than anyone who would let something like this get to them. A strong person wouldn't let this bother them. She tried her best to sound more assertive, "We shouldn't be wasting time on people who don't matter anymore."

That was what made Nami turn. Artemisia's eyes met Nami's. For a fraction of a second, she wanted to take everything back. She wanted to beg her to come back and they would forget everything. She wanted to tell her that things could go back to how they were. She would sweep it under the rug without a second thought. All thoughts of that happening disappeared when Nami turned back around and walked away from her and then out of the village.

A chuckle filled Artemisia's ears, "Okay, that went about as bad as it could," It was Usopp. "So back to the boat before the fishmen find us? Sail the hell out of here? Okay."

"I'm perfectly fine with that." Artemisia felt exposed. It felt like she was stripped naked and she felt like everyone was staring at her for her display. She wanted to get away.

"There's something else going on here," Sanji stated.

"She was very clear she wants us to leave." Zoro refutted.

"You don't know women," Sanji turned to look at him. "They never say what they mean."

God, Artemisia was hating this. She wanted everyone to stop arguing about what it was that Nami did and didn't mean. She wanted everyone to see the truth. She wanted everyone to see that Nami never wanted to be their friend in the first place. She was using them. That was it. There was no deeper meaning. That was it.

"Tell me again why the cook gets a say."

Raising his head from his hand, Usopp asked, "Don't you guys get it? She's one of them. She's a bad guy. The villagers are terrified of her."

Glad that someone was seeing it for exactly how it was, "And with the way she walked in here like she owned the place and demanded money from them, I can see why."

"Not all of them," Luffy looked in the direction that the cop went to. Artemisia sighed as she realized exactly how this was going to go. "Hey! Scar guy!" Luffy walked over to him. The others shared a glance before begrudgingly following after him. The cop stepped out of the hut he was in upon hearing his description. "Who was that lady? You know, the one with the cool hair?"

"Who wants to know?" The cop inquired.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy. I'm a pirate-"

Before Luffy could ruin his place, Zoro saved it, "Hunter," He took a step forward. "Pirate hunter. We're here to collect Arlong's bounty."

"You?" The cop didn't seem to be sure of their skill. Artemisia wasn't either. She doubted she stood a chance against Arlong himself. She could definitely take down a few fishmen thought. That was something she was sure of. "I've seen men twice your size and with twice your number go into Arlong Park. None of them ever came back."

A grin grew on Luffy's face, "We just want to talk to her."

"Trust me, you don't," The cop started. "But if it'll get you out of my town," He pointed to his left, "Try the house down that road, on the edge of the tangerine grove." Luffy smiled at him once more before following his directions.

The others followed after him. It was a pretty quiet walk. A few words were shared here and there but not many. After a while of walking, they ended up at the tangerine grove that the cop had mentioned before. They were getting close. That's what Artemisia's thought was. Usopp had a more pessimistic look of their walk, "I think I got more of a boat body than a long-journey-on-food kind of body. Anybody else missing the ocean?" There was no response. "No? Okay. I could go bring the boat around if we don't want to walk all the way back."

"Do it if you actually want to walk that far again." Safe to say, he didn't.

It took a while to reach the end of the tangerine grove. It felt like it went on forever. They had walked down the path until they caught a glimpse of a house at the very end. Luffy was leading the way for everyone. That meant that when the woman came out of the house with a shotgun, it was pointed directly at him. Usopp made a noise of surprise and ducked behind Zoro.

"Turn around and leave. Now."

~~~

So what are y'all thinking of their angst era? 👀