The Merry Go was, to your surprise, the hideout of the Straw Hat pirates. Located in a forest in East Blue, there was an old, wide, squat tree with an old tree house tangled in the branches. There was a caricature of a ram's head, as far as you could tell, at the prow of the tree house, that was barely visible through the thick branches and leaves.

The longer you looked the more rooms, ladders, and ropes you could see twisted and wedged between the branches.

But what was in the branches wasn't the hideout. The tree just acted as a marker of sorts, as Zoro lifted a nearby mossy stump and revealed a metal tunnel.

"This leads into the actual hideout." He says, stepping back so you could look.

It had taken you a few minutes after the van had stopped to settle your stomach, and everyone else had gone into the hideout while Zoro had stayed with you. You step back from the tunnel entrance and rub your arms a little.

"Sorry... I just, want to stay outside for a little longer." You admit. "I feel like if I got down there I'm not going to be okay."

"... Claustrophobic?"

You shake your head. "No, I've done cave expeditions and underground shifts before. I just feel like I need to walk around a little."

"With or without company?" He asks.

You smile. "With would be nice."

You and Zoro walked around the forest in silence for some time. You kept one eye on the direction of the tree house, eternally grateful that your sense of direction at least was trustworthy. The weather was moderate, there was no hint of an impending autumn, there was no chill of a new spring. Summer was still a foreign sensation to you, but the air wasn't thick and heavy, whatever time of year it was, the day was simply comfortable.

"Is this island like this everywhere?" You ask idly.

"Mm. There's some snow in the mountains in the north, but most people say the only natural disasters in the Metro are the Warlords and Emperors." Zoro answers.

"Does it have seasons? I mean, uh..." You look into the tree tops with a smile. "The leaves on that one island were beautiful. Autumn was always so brief in the Duchy, but it feels like it'd be nice to appreciate that again."

"... Yeah, there is. This place changes for a few weeks." He explains coming up beside. "Just long enough to turn all the leaves and then it starts warming back up."

"So there's no winter to speak of?" You question, leaning toward him and resting your head on his shoulder.

"Not really."

"That... makes me a little sad, I think." You admit, an odd tightening in your heart is trying to squeeze tears out of you.

"You... we won't be on this island for forever." Zoro says after a moment. "I don't mind the snow."

"Making travel plans already?"

He grunts, and after a moment tilts his head to the side and rests it on top of yours. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah, but I still have this weird feeling." You say, brow furrowing. "I don't feel nauseous, and I think I could safely go underground, but it almost feels like..." You reach out with your hand and feel yourself take a step. "It's just... right there. As though I could," you're reaching out with both hands, and it almost feels like you could wrap your hands around the air itself and pull it.

"I could just... pull." The tugging sensation is stronger, and you almost feel like you're stepping away from yourself.

You take another step and feel an iron grip on your wrist that snaps you back to your senses. Zoro has a grip on your wrist and his other hand is already drawing a sword.

"What do you feel?" You ask, looking around with him.

"A predator."

You feel it a second later, and there's a puff of smoke from your lips as the air around you cools. You and Zoro leap back at the same time as a flash of ice and frost covers the area and snow pillows up from the ground.

You're yanked back hard and see a black, oily, hand rip through the air and swipe at you. You keep your eyes on the tear and see blood red eyes hiss at you from the tear.

"The hell is that?!" Zoro barks as the air mends. The feeling of being stalked doesn't abate.

You shake your head. "Arundel, maybe? A threat from the Duchy." You explain. "The last thing Duke Lucaren said was that something was looking for me. But that was neither winter magic as I know it, nor a portal as I've seen them."

Zoro yanks you again and you can almost feel the long black finger touch you as you're pulled away from it.

"Prophecy!" The voice demands, hissing as the blood red eye peers through the veil and the arm stretches toward you more. "Give me my prophecy!"

Prophecy.

The surge inside you surges so hard and fast your body curls in on itself before you've landed from Zoro yanking you away. As quickly as the surge twists through you, you feel the heavy oppressive weight of haki pressing on you. You're half buried in the snow and Zoro is over your body, pouring haki out to counter the turmoil inside you.

"Run!" You hiss.

"No."

"It's going to attack you!" You scream. You're surprised you can even speak. The demand of the creature, it's oily long fingers, it's crackling screeching voice, all of the power it held was demanding obedience from you.

"I promised." He says it with such force you swear you can see two dark eyes burning with conviction down at you.

"DAMMIT!" You want to beat him away, you want to hurl curses at him, you want to throw him to safety. Anything to make him preserve himself.

You start forcing your own haki to work for you. Almost as fast as you can wrap it around you body the turmoil inside you is scattering it away, only to be pushed back by the force coming from Zoro. You keep trying, over and over again and again. Use the chance to learn. If you can suppress the surge on your own then that's all the better.

The rush is quelled, and there were no more tears or demands from the air. Sweat drips off Zoro, breathing heavy and shivering over top of you. The exertion has you both tired, but only one of you is safe in the cold snow.

"Up." You say, gasping the words. "We have to."

He nods and you push him to help him get up onto his knees. He looks legitimately worn out. It's going to be a long walk back to the tree house. You couldn't have meandered more than twenty minutes away, but it was far enough that no one was going to come find you soon.

Zoro didn't let his exhaustion show, so you knew he had to be more strained than you were. You get to your feet and reach for him.

"If you can get to your feet, I can get us back." You assure him. "But I can't lift you."

"Rest." The exhaustion in his face is almost pulling energy out of you in response.

You shake your head. "Snow's going to get you. Rest later, move now."

Zoro gets to his feet just long enough to buckle against you. You barely get your legs set under you before the weight crumples into you. You muster up what strength you can and begin to drag yourself and your prophecy stopper out of the snow.

"You... are... nothing... but... muscle!" You gasp, trying to give yourself something to focus on as you struggle forward. "Mountains... take you," you grumble. "Cause you... are one."

You feel him twitch and you're glad to know he's conscious at least. The first time he had stopped you from being overtaken it hadn't required so much effort. The force behind the red-eyed creature's demand might have caused your final prophecy. The power that roiled in you was far more than you had felt at any point before now.

"You... saved my life." You say in realization and you feel him twitch again. You take another step and your body tenses.

You can't move.

"Zoro." You whisper, relieved that your words were still your own.

"Fufufufu," a laugh cuts through the cold air and you feel Zoro's body tense. He's trying to move, but your body moves without your say and you let him slide off you and into the snow as you turn to see a man along the canopy. He's tall, not like a giant, but taller than Brook, and the first thing you notice is the strained manic grin cutting across his face.

"(Y/N)... run." Zoro grunts, and you can hear him in the snow trying to get to his feet.

You turn your head toward him, tearing your gaze away from the shifting pink coat and the face you recognize from Usopp's posters. The form looming over you was terrifying, and not because of your current predicament.

"Don't let that fool you, the Warlords aren't to be taken lightly." Usopp warns. "No matter how odd they look."

"I can't control my body." You whisper, taking steps away from Zoro before you were brought to your knees in the snow. Looking up at the pink mass of feathers as the Warlord descends down to meet you, and a familiar form rises up from the snow to stand beside him.

"Monet." You say, inclining your head a little. "Well then." You turn your attention to the man you already know. "You must be the young master I heard about. Donquixote Doflamingo, Warlord of the Grandline Metro." You sigh.

Your options were gone. Zoro could barely stand. You'd seen haki exhaustion lay Luffy low for a good ten minutes. You didn't know if the flood he had used to suppress your prophecy earlier was more or less of a strain than Luffy's technique, but there was no way you could buy ten minutes. You had control over your words and your head, but from the neck down you couldn't even twitch a finger.

You could likely break the control with haki, since you were certain your predicament was another strange devil fruit power. But you had already been burning from nothing to try and get Zoro out of the snow earlier. All you could do was talk to stall for time, and the great unknown variable you were dealing with right now, was whether or not you could out-talk a Warlord.

"It seems my reputation precedes me." He says, amusement dripping from his tone. "Did you see me in a vision, little prophet?"

"In a manner of speaking," you say, and feel your stomach drop as the manic grin falters. "Someone drew me a picture." You amend hastily. No amount of snow or ice had left you feeling as cold as the shiver that had tore through you a second ago.

"The Straw Hats educated you." He frowns, but this expression is less terrifying than the earlier one. It fades quickly, replaced by his earlier grin. "How well, I wonder!"

You feel yourself hauled out of the snow and are dangling in front of him. The shift is enough for you to realize there are several strings or wires stuck to your body. One at the base of your neck, and several along your shoulders and other points. You were a marionette.

The frustratingly terrifying feeling of being unable to control your own body was off set a little by how comfortable you were suspended like this. Either by necessity or conscious design, you were not being hurt, and your body was still healing from before – five days wasn't long enough. Your bruises were mostly gone, but the stress fractures and your rib were still issues.

A motion from Doflamingo and you hear a strained grunt from Zoro. You don't turn to look. You could, but you can't right now. Instead, you keep his gaze, as much as you can from the behind the odd-shaped tinted glasses he's wearing.

Every twitch of his fingers you can hear him elicit another sound from Zoro, and you quickly realize that's the conversation. That's how the Warlord has decided to communicate with you. No witty banter, no exchange of words, nothing you were hoping for.

"Spare him." You say evenly. Doflamingo's fingers stop moving and his smile brightens. "He lives and in exchange I won't retaliate against you or your people."

"You think you could take us?" He questions, and you hear a soft thud and grunt from Zoro. Probably dropped back into the snow.

"I think I'm more valuable alive, and alive I will become stronger." You reply. "Spare him and I'll even be convivial."

"Mm, we do have much to talk about, you and I." Doflamingo says, looming over you as a chuckle rumbles through his chest.

"(Y/N)..." Zoro growls, but you keep your eyes on the glasses in front of you.

"It's not like Mr. Donquixote is going to torture me," you say in response, keeping your gaze forward. "Luffy has no need for a knight, so it's okay."

You can sense Doflamingo's gaze shifting, and something in his amused expression hurts your heart, but it's the reaction you needed. Zoro wasn't good at covering up his knee-jerk reactions, and your hope had been that he'd take your words at surface level for now, and realize their meanings later.

"We're to be on our way then, Mr. Donquixote?" You prompt.

"Please, call me Doffy."

"I promised conviviality, Mr. Donquixote, not friendship." You assert, trying not to flinch as one arm moves around your waist and tucks you against him. There's a tug as strings pull your sword free and toss it into the snow.

You risk a glance at Zoro, catching his gaze for a brief moment. You wanted to apologize, you wanted to explain that you knew everything he wanted to do, and you wanted to say that you would've stood beside him and faced Doflamingo and Monet unto your inevitable deaths.

Mired in such exhaustion, there would've been no other outcome, and as a knight you would've had no issue with that.

A Knight would've held the line.

But now you walked a different path.

~Fin.

A/N - That's it for Book 1! ♥ Which makes this my first (unintentionally) multichapter fic to not have any sexy times in it O_O But there was just SO MUCH ELSE to deal with XD

And now this ending >.>

But, with what I have planned, I'm sure you'll forgive me.
Eventually. XD ♥