"They're still there," Katie said, frowning with her eyes shut tightly so she could concentrate better on the auras of her crew. "Well, the Dream is anyway. I can feel Azalea and the others—"

"Look!" Yalla suddenly yelled, pointing to the sky. She had already put Raz and Stormfall down. The first mate shot her eyes open, looking up to see a red flare shooting into the sky. It hadn't become visible until about twenty feet in the air, giving them an approximation of how high the invisible barrier was that separated them from their crew.

"Whatever is blocking us is going through the sea," Raz told the girls, pointing to the ocean. "See, the waves are hitting up against a barrier there. A devil fruit user shouldn't be able to do this, they would have to be out of sight and keep the barrier up underwater."

Katie and Yalla nodded. It wasn't impossible for a devil fruit user to be capable of this, or at least they didn't want to assume that anything was impossible in the Grand Line, but it was highly unlikely. That was good news, sorta.

"We didn't hear the flare, so there are probably noise absorbers or something added into the barrier," Yalla added. Katie sighed.

"If we had Maven, she could just cut through whatever it is," the blonde thought out loud. "But none of us are strong enough, physically, to do something like that. My arrows won't break something that big, Yalla sucks at blunt force, and Raz…" Katie suddenly turned her head to the doctor. "Actually, you wouldn't happen to have some kind of acid, would you?"

The purple haired man was already rooting through his bag, not even bothering to answer the younger girl. Instead, he pulled out a small orb and opened it. Inside was a pencil and a piece of paper, which he took out. "Message?" He asked, and Katie got the hint and knelt next to him. After deciding on their orders, he handed the orb to her. "It isn't acid, but poke an arrow through just the outer shell and try to send it over the barrier. It's leakproof."

Katie nodded, gently stabbing the head of an arrow into the outer wall of the orb, just enough to keep it attached, and pointed her bow up at the sky. Slowly, she pulled the string back as far as it could go, and released. The arrow and bundle soared higher than the twenty-foot barrier, making a lazy arch over it until it disappeared from view.

"Hopefully they got it," Yalla mused. She moved to sit down, never fully letting go of Stormfall. She had the weapon laid over her lap, and ran her fingers over it. Katie saw this, and frowned.

"Hey," the blonde girl spoke softly, sitting next to the pinkette and slinging an arm over her shoulders. Yalla's lips turned down, and her skin creased between her eyebrows. "Maven's gonna be okay."

"How do you know?!" Yalla asked harshly, whipping her head to Katie. "You don't! They were fast enough to take her away without a fight, what if they killed her too? What if they used some poison and are going to deliver her corpse to the marines?! We won't even be able to bury her at Hopeless Island! We—what if—" Yalla's voice died into a strangled whine as she ran out of words, surrendering to pure panic and worry.

But Katie snorted, making Yalla lift her gaze up and glare at her first mate. Katie looked strangely amused, which just made the younger teen angry. "What?! This isn't funny! She could be dead or dying!"

"Don't be stupid," Katie said easily, leaning back on the sand. Her bow was laid over her lap like Stormfall was over Yalla's, and her quiver was on the ground between the two girls. "Maven only has one more year before she joins her little brother's crew, remember? She's fought off death with her own willpower for eighteen years, and that is with the world trying to kill her," the woman shook her head with a small smile, gold hair flying in the air delicately. "Nobody's going to keep her from at least living to see her brother again, especially not some half-bit magician pirates who think they stand a chance against us with Azalea and you and Maven all on the crew," she raised her sapphire eyes to glance at their doctor, who was standing with his arms crossed instead of looking at the fauna. Raising a hand to her mouth, Katie whispered conspiratorially: "and they interrupted Raz's research. They are lucky if they end up only dead, and not tortured by him and Maven for several months."

Yalla relaxed slightly, taking a deep breath. She nodded slowly, looking over at Raz. Despite how scary he could be, she really liked him. He had been the first person, after Maven, who she had met on the crew when they had rescued her and Kilik back in East Blue. He had been the first doctor since the Government ship that had actually helped her instead of causing her pain.

But even Yalla knew better than to interrupt his research. Those grey eyes of his promised hours upon hours of horrible agony to whoever had the audacity to cause this whole disaster.

"You have a point," Yalla said slowly, running a hand through her pink hair, which she had taken down from her usual pigtails. She was thinking of wearing it down more often, Kilik's death had her feeling more like an adult and the pigtails seemed too bittersweet and childish to hang onto. "Whoever our enemy is better be ready to beg for all their limbs to remain attached."

"Oh please," Katie looked over at Yalla with a raised eyebrow. "No amount of begging will let them keep their heads at this point."

—*—*—*—*—*

"An arrow!" Cala shouted, pointing up to the projectile that his sharp ears had heard coming before his eyes could spot what it was. "They're on the shore, Katie and the others must have noticed what's going on!"

"That doesn't make sense though," Gino said as he followed the arrow with his eyes. "Why is she sending an arrow over? Can't Maven cut down the glass?"

"We should be careful, it might be an enemy arrow," Dyan added his own two belli, but Synalla was shaking her head.

"No, the fletching is gold and blue, the stitching is obviously Yalla's," the snakeneck argued , reaching up once the arrow got close enough for the tall woman to snag out of the air. The boys were all staring at her, making the dancer roll her eyes. "Men," she scoffed. "No eye for detail."

All three of said men rolled their eyes right back, the buff fishman of the trio pushing his way forward. "What is the—" Gino blinked. "Huh? There was an orb right on the end of tha arrow, I swear I saw it!"

"Oh, I got it," Azalea said dismissively from where she sat on a nearby crate, the orb cracked open and set next to her with the note it had obviously held in her hands and opened up. "You guys were taking too long arguing, so I took it. Come here, this is important," the unusually serious look on their magician's face made the others swarm over. The redhead had to put the note down on a crate poised like a table in front of her so everyone could read it, an empty mug and plate acting as makeshift paperweights.

Maven was taken. We don't know how, but one second she was there and now we only have Stormfall. We think the rival crew took her somehow.

The only people we know for sure are nearby are these Pirates. First and foremost, we need to runite everybody so that they have less of an advantage. So, your first orders are this:

Break down the wall separating you from the shore.

We will talk about where to go from there.

-Katie, Raz, and Yalla

(And Stormfall)

"Did Yalla try to include Stormfall in the note?" Dyan asked with a raised eyebrow, pointing to the two scratched out words at the bottom that had clearly been in the youngest Hopeless Pirate's handwriting.

"Well, at least now we know it came from the genuine source," Azalea mused, rolling up the note once it was clear nobody needed it anymore. "Nobody else would try to personify an Axe in an emergency letter. As quickly as she is maturing lately, she's still a kid," the Magician sighed, standing up. "Well, we got our orders now. Ideas on how to execute them?"

"Me and Gino should be fine for the job," Synalla spoke up, hands already pulling out her tessen. "But we don't know if the walls can absorb attacks either, or if it's just sound, so you should all stay alert. Gino?"

The fishman nodded. "We got no idea how thick it is, so there's no tellin' how many hits it'll take," the man's deep voice admitted smoothly as he slipped on his spiked iron knuckles. "I can hit it from below the water. Azalea, spot me in case there's—" Gino's voice slowly tapered off as the shark fishman looked around at everyone aboard the ship with him. A long, silent second passed before he loudly cursed.

"What?" Cala asked, oblivious. Gino threw his hands in the air.

"Synalla and I are the only damned ones onboard without devil fruits!"

…

Oh.

"That's… an issue," Dyan agreed, wrinkling his little nose in distaste. "Synalla is the only one here who uses blades, so she has to try to chop at the glass above water. But if there's enemies waiting for you underwater, then…"

Yeah. Not good.

Gino finally huffed, shaking his head. "Forget it. I'm a fishman anyway, as long as it's just humans down there I should be fine," he glanced over at the three devil fruit users. "No offense."

They all shrugged. "You're not wrong, humans suck in the water compared to fishmen and mermaids," Cala agreed with a flap of one hand. "Just do what you gotta do and call for help if you need to."

"If it helps, I don't feel anyone down there," Azalea offered, closing her eyes to focus her Haki again. "Not in our area anyway, but the others have a couple people waiting in… What I think might be submarines. But we are good to go."

"Stay on your guard," Synalla advised grimly. "We are the head ship, even if our oldest members are all on the island. If they didn't leave people underwater for us, they may have left traps instead."

Gino nodded back, cracking his knuckles. "Don't you worry about me, Granny. I'll be fine."

With that, Synalla got to high ground by jumping on top of their tallest sail and getting her tessen ready with one of the Pop Greens that temporarily enlarged them. Gino just stepped up into the front of the ship and on top of the middle Cerberus head, both of the Pirates leaping from their posts in sync.

Underwater, Gino found nothing visible around him. Really, really hoping that the other crew was just stupid, he swam forward with one armed fist at the ready. He didn't know exactly where the barrier was, but he had an idea. Once he got to where he thought was close enough, he let his fist explode forward in a thundering slam that was not at all inhibited by the water.

Glass shattered, the harsh sound bringing a predatory grin to Gino's face. But, before he could celebrate, the shards flew straight towards him like little razor sharp bullets instead of sinking down to the sand.

"Of course they had to be right about the fuckin' traps," he muttered in annoyance, trying to dodge the shards that seemed intent on skewering him. They followed him everywhere, and it wasn't until all ten were harmlessly tricked into embedding themselves in the ocean floor that Gino realized something:

The shards weren't near big enough to be the whole barrier he needed to break.

The bastards had set up mini barriers in front of the main one to act like deadly, invisible, razor sharp underwater mines.

And Gino no longer knew the exact area he had punched at as he stared blankly at the seemingly undisturbed sand of the ocean floor, normal fish having all scattered away at his (in their dull minds) lunatic actions. Only the now immobile shards of glass indicated that anything had just happened.

"Ah shit. This is probably gonna hurt," the fishman groused, pulling his opposite arm back to make another charge at the invisible wall. "This better be a lucky shot! Bloody Uppercut!" Trying to get it from a different angle than a straightforward right hook didn't seem to do anything, since Gino just ended up setting off another glass mine.

And the dodging game began again, with one fishman that the normal fish in the water were beginning to think was mentally challenged frantically swimming in circles and up and down to try to get the shards to stick somewhere other than his body or the ship's hull.

Of course, those same fish kept swimming in circles wondering why they couldn't seem to get away from the crazy man.

Synalla, from her spot in the air, was having a bit more luck. The wall was a bit thicker than anticipated, but a few armament-coated slices opened up a small window in it, revealing the trees of the island again. The tall woman landed on one of the Cerberus heads of the Dream nimbly, taking in her minor success. Even enlarged, her weapons were not big enough to slice through the whole barrier. Synalla had managed to learn flying strikes, but they only went a few feet at best and wouldn't be enough to break the giant obstacle in one go.

It certainly didn't help that the glass wasn't showing her reflection. It was easy enough for her to spot, the waves crashing against the base of the obstacle and giving it away, but it curved in order to make itself harder to hit. It was… waved, almost, like a funhouse mirror without the silly effect.

Azalea and the others on deck watched with clenched jaws. Cala wanted to help, he had his claws in his half-transformation, after all, but he knew he couldn't risk it. The barrier was too far over the water, the last thing he needed was to burden Gino with fishing him out of the water. Especially since none of them heard any word from the buff fishman for over five minutes— he could need every ounce of his concentration for whatever he ran into. And Cala couldn't do flying strikes for the life of him, so that was out.

The blue haired zoan tembled, his nails biting into his palms. He hadn't had family for a long, long time, but that was what this crew had become for him. Forget the fact that he was the butt of a lot of jokes lately. Azalea's and Raz's pranks, Maven's... Maven-ness. Yala had him wrapped around her little finger, Synalla always jokingly flirted with him despite them all knowing she was lesbian, and Dyan was always able to force him to make eye contact and use his devil fruit on him way too easily. Cala found himself giving the little ex-king foot massages before a sharp hit from Gino woke him up from the mind control far too often.

But this crew protected him in a way nobody had looked out for him since he was a kid— better, even. And here he was, a weapon that could help Synalla cut down the obstacle in their path and he couldn't even use it because he was a dead weight. Just like always. He could fight, but he also couldn't because his bones were too fragile. He found himself benched from fights far more often than he was comfortable with. He could scout, but was always searched over thoroughly for any hidden wounds when he got back. He had all this power, but was too easily breakable to use it.

It pissed him off.

Synalla had been at it for ten minutes by then, her chest heaving with exertion. Ten feet of glass had been cleared, but that wasn't nearly enough to let their ship pass yet— and still not a sound from Gino.

Synalla shouldn't have been in charge of something so big. Her lungs were just as fragile as Cala's bones, they could all see the difficulty she was having just getting tiny breaths already. They wanted to tell her to stop, to rest, Cala knew that they all did. He could tell in the way Azalea's arms remained stubbornly crossed, in the way Dyan tapped his foot, in the way none of them ever dared let their eyes stray from the snakeneck jumping on and off of the ship to attack a barrier they could barely see.

A drop of blood dripped to the deck of the Dream as Cala's nails finally broke skin.

She shouldn't have to fight so hard. None of them should have to, but this was the world they were in. None of them said a word, because fighting was so much better than being compliant and letting life wash over their heads.

Laying in bed was unbearable, being told to take it easy was unbearable, but fighting was easier. Nobody told Synalla to rest.

Cala didn't want to rest either, though. Fuck his bones mimicking the glass synalla was busy smashing. Fuck the worry of his family. It was time to stop being a dead weight— it was time to be a fighter like the rest of them.

When he saw the dickheads that separated his family, he'd rage.

—* — * — * — * — *

Conill was in a bit of a pickle. Jinny told him that they were going in circles, but he was absolutely certain that they hadn't passed that rock in the water yet.

Wait, rock?

"Slow down!" the bunny mink yelled, rushing to the front of the ship to peek over. "We're gonna crash! If there's one rock, there might be more. Luna," he turned to the angelfish mermaid on board. "Would you take a look to see if the water is safe for us?"

"Don't!" Jinny argued, the short woman rushing over, one hand on the side of her head as she tried to talk and focus her admittedly shaky observation at the same time. "We've already passed this area, we've just been making a huge loop. If we were gonna crash, we would have already."

"But the rock—" Conill argued. Jinny shook her head adamantly.

"It can't be real, I know we've been here before. Azalea and the others haven't moved an inch, but their auras are still behind us, and they were to our right just five minutes ago. But I can sense people under us, in— something. They might be swimming, I can't tell. But people are waiting in the water for us. If you send Luna, she'll be mobbed!"

"Ah, relax," the mermaid brushed off with a wave of one hand. "If it's just humans, I'll be fine. They won't be able to land a hand on me."

"But if they're in a submarine, they might be able to shoot you. Or they might have traps," Conill argued, tapping his foot anxiously. He didn't like this. He wasn't made for complicated thinking, he was never the most intelligent person around especially when traps and puzzles were involved. He was more of a languages person, which is why he was the crew's primary translator for when they encountered someone who didn't speak the common language, or when they needed to read something in a different language. In a situation like this, he was completely at a loss. He didn't know how to anticipate people's moves or actions. He still thought they were not going in a circle, how could somebody just conjure a rock out of nowhere in the middle of the sea? But Jinny was the only one on the ship with observation that was reliable, so he had to believe her.

"Excellent observation, little bunny!" an unfamiliar voice crowed. It was a female, dressed in a horrendously frilly dress and suit jacket, all in hot pink with maroon trim, and a ridiculously tall hot pink top hat. She lifted one arm up like a girl showing off a prize at a competition or game show, her tiny hand almost hidden by the large frills on the suit jacket's sleeves. The woman was standing on top of the water— no, on top of a submarine. An almost invisible thing, completely made out of glass so that it rose out of the water. They never would have seen it coming if they had dived under. For all Conill knew, they could have sailed straight over it and never known. They only saw it now because light shone from inside the vehicle, making the sharp edges glow with maroon light and outline the object. She smiled widely with lips painted over with maroon lipstick, her hot-pink shadowed eyes half-lidded with sly mirth. "We have an entire battalion of stealth submarines hiding in the water. Your friends on the opposite side of your lead ship have another battalion of invisible ships on top of the water, with a few underwater operatives hiding under the surface for prime ambush material," The woman winked. "So just continue following the carrot into the trap, little bunny~ Your crew was doomed from the moment you chose to sail to this island."

Conill palmed his sais, spinning them in circles as he tried to think. His long black ears twitched to and fro, betraying his anxiety. His foot never stopped thumping— in fact, it only got worse. Jinny stepped up, the cook glaring at the woman with righteous fury in her eyes as she pulled out her bladed whip from where it was coiled on her hip.

"What about our lead ship, eh? You just leave them a red carpet to the island. You guys have to have a base there right, or else how could you afford to stick around an island with so many glass ships to maintain? And we have people on the island already!"

"They're even more doomed than you are," the woman cooed with false sympathy, her smile still in place. "Your captain was already caught by our captain. He had a set of seastone handcuffs prepared just for her, you know? Guess the famous Usurper Maven isn't much of a threat without her devil fruit, huh?"

Conill blinked. Maven, have a devil fruit? Did these people really know nothing?

"Honestly, sexism is such a pain in the ass," Luna growled from where she was still perched at the side of the ship, her tail hanging over the water. "But even with as strong as she is, seastone is as hard as diamond."

"But she won't be kept down," another member whispered from his spot near the helm. "If they think seastone can hold her for long…"

"Oi, oi, oi," the magician woman reprimanded, stomping a foot angrily and puffing out her cheeks. "You shouldn't talk like I'm not here, that's rude! My point is, my captain is on that island and our base is a maze of life-threatening traps! Even if your other main crew members manage to escape our traps and make it to land, they will never reach her room at the highest tower. Only us high officers know the entire way to reach the tower, everyone else only knows a portion and has to pass messages through to the other members hidden inside at different intervals to stop trespassers. And—"

"Oh look, boss isn't anxious anymore!" Luna noticed happily, smiling wide. Sure enough, Conill's ears were laying relaxed behind his head, and his foot had stopped thumping. The sais in his hands were gripped firmly, no longer spinning. The black bunny mink looked over at the mermaid, shrugging.

"I guess her telling us all of her secrets without us even asking relaxed me. Fighting an idiot isn't so bad."

"Why you— I heard that!" the enemy, apparently a high ranking member of the magician crew, stomped her foot angrily again and seemed to almost spout steam from her ears. "I heard that! Be nicer to a woman, damn it!"

"Sexismmmm," Luna muttered with an eye roll.

"My name is Iluzi, but you can call me Zizi! Oh, and I feel like I should mention that…"

Shadows fell over the Dying Rabid, making the small crew look up to find the hilking forms of two more glass submarines rise up, lights flashing around their hulls and cannons aimed. Iluzi's voice grew dark and low.

"I only tell secrets to dead men, since they can't talk. Don't you know listening to an illusionist is playing into their hands?"

Iluzi disappeared, sliding out of existence behind the changing colors of her submarine's walls. Suddenly, the three ships were indistinguishable from the water around them. Conill's sais began to spin again.

"...She told her secrets to women too though. Honestly, sexist... "

"Not the time, Luna."

— * — * — * — * — *

"HYAAAAH!" Lilly shoved her fork down, but the mentalist in front of her just avoided the strike as easily as breathing. He tutted.

"Honestly, I don't even need to read your mind to tell what you're going to do next. You're such a simpleminded little girl, aren't you? I suppose that's a giant for you, though."

"Stop! Fucking! Moving and let me skewer you!" Lilly's fork was a blur of movement, but the man just kept dodging. He even had the gall to look bored.

"That seems rather counterintuitive for me, don't you think?" he drawled lazily. "But oh well, you're separated from your crew now anyway."

Lilly stopped dead, whipping around. Sure enough, the Dying Hope was nowhere in sight. She had hopped on board to whip some sense into the idiot that kept taunting her, but now her ship was missing. She knew her crew would never abandon her on purpose, so something had to be wrong.

"You really are oblivious," the man sighed, shaking his head. "Did you not notice that we are not visible anymore?"

Lilly looked around, not understanding. What she didn't notice was that it wasn't her fault at all. He was just goading, doing what an evil magician does best.

He spread his arms wide open. "Your friends cannot see us anymore. While you were busy attacking me like a rampaging bull, our ship turned invisible. That was a pretty impressive tunnel vision you got there, for you not to notice," the man tutted. "Meanwhile, one of our other ships that was also invisible closed in. We used our projectors to make it look like that ship was this one, and that you had followed me inside to keep fighting. Your friends followed that ship instead of this one."

Shit. That was all Lilly could think. Shit. She wasn't very good with long drawn out battles, her disease meant that the longer she was active the worse her metabolism was— even if only briefly. The more hungry she got, the more she had to eat, and eventually her body would process it too fast and she would starve no matter how much she ate. Such is the fate of somebody with ever-increasing metabolism. Lilly had to do her best to make this fight short. Her disease was still in the relatively early stages, but she still had to do her part to look after her health.

"You're really useless, aren't you?" the man thought out loud, making Lilly jolt out of her thoughts. The man wasn't attacking, just standing with a disappointed look on his face and his arms clasped behind his back. "I mean, you fell into our trap hook, line, and sinker. And now your friends are without their leader, because you were too quick to jump into a fight."

Lilly lunged, only for her fork to slam through empty air. The area she thought the man was at flickered, but stayed projected.

Yes, projected. Lilly pulled back, starting to realize the full scope of her fuck up. This was a crew of magicians she was dealing with, and he had already mentioned projectors on several occasions. And she just blundered in—

"Like an idiot, yes. You did just run after me like a simpleton, huh? Finally realizing your own mistakes, are you?" his voice echoed around her, and Lilly was always better at Armament than Observation. She had no idea where he could be hiding. That was when an area of wall opened up.

"But you did do something almost right, I suppose. You chose the right ship to jump onto, lucky you."

There, unconscious and restrained by what looked like seastone, was the slumped over form of her captain.

"MAVEN!" Lilly ran forward, instinctually shrinking down to her few-inches-tall form despite the extra effort it took to breach the distance that way. "Maven, wake up!" Lilly didn't even think twice about the seastone. People always underestimated Maven, restraining her like she was a devil fruit user was probably just their ignorance. But even Maven wouldn't be able to escape those cuffs without help. "Captain! Big sis! Mave, wake up!"

An arrow pierced through Maven's chest, and Lilly froze. As blood began to pool, Maven's unconscious face barely twitched. Lilly didn't notice that though, eyes stuck to the blood. To the pool of it growing bigger, deeper, darker.

"But too late. Not that an idiot like you could have saved her even if you had seen through me, anyway. I don't think I'll ever understand why she made someone like you a ship leader. That Azalea girl, though, she has potential. But I suppose that's the fault of someone far too… lenient. Accepting fishmen and giants and minks, I suppose she was just delusional despite her strength. Strength that didn't get her very far once she let her guard down, of course."

Lilly couldn't breathe. Were her lungs working? She didn't know anymore. Her eyes were still stuck to the blood, the man's voice ringing in her ears. She failed. Lilly failed. And Maven's corpse was sitting right in front of her, her body large and looming in Lilly's current size. A mountain of failure. What would the crew do? None of them could get by without Maven. Even after she left the crew, they all had agreed that she needed to stay alive for them to run a chance of staying together. Maybe that would change eventually, but for now Maven was immortal. Was supposed to be immortal. She beat the odds for nineteen years, she beat Usurper's every day, she worked so hard to live through every day. And here she was, with an arrow through her heart and doing what not even the world had accomplished.

Oh God, what would Lilly tell her brothers?

And her younger brother, he would need a new first mate. She would have to tell Maven's younger brother that her sister died because she was too slow. She would have to tell her brother that Maven was dead.

All because of her.

The blood had reached her feet by then, instantly rising higher than her tiny shoes could cover and staining her ankles. She knew instantly that she would never forget that viscous, cold sensation.

Lilly broke.

—*—*—*—*—*

Synalla was bent over on the deck of the Dying dream, heaving heavily. She had finally managed, after thirty solid minutes, to slice open enough glass over the surface of the water to allow their ship to sail through. The downside? Now she couldn't breath. Azalea was rubbing her back as Cala held a mask over Synalla's mouth, allowing her to breathe in the airborne medicine that Raz had created for her. It wouldn't be a long term solution, but it helped relax her lung's muscles to allow her to breathe and soothed the pain. It was purely reactive, meant to make her more comfortable during the worst attacks of her disease. Meant to relax her when she eventually reached her limit.

Thankfully, that was still a time away. For now, the medicine just served to get her back into some semblance of fighting condition so they could get back to rescuing Maven.

"Better?" Dyan asked, green eyes worried but firm as he looked her over. Synalla found herself grinning. No pity was to be seen in any of their eyes, and even though she knew why she still found that the realization slapped her in the face every now and then. In the most pleasant way, of course. They were worried, but wouldn't coddle her.

The snakeneck nodded, straightening her long neck and slowly sat up, vertebrae by vertebrae. The mask stayed on though, Cala holding the machine that turned the liquid medicine into gas easily in both hands. She raised her eyebrow at him when he didn't make a move to disconnect the machine, instead hoisting it so it rested on top of his shoulder gently.

"You're wearing this until Katie and the others have a plan for us to carry out. You don't have to stay completely still or anything, but take a breather for now. You'll need your strength soon enough."

Synalla nodded, hating that she had to rest but knowing it would just be temporary. She also knew that none of them would stop her if she actually tried to argue.

She didn't argue.

Instead, the tall woman walked over and perched on the edge of a crate. Cala followed so that the machine remained connected to the mask, and put the thing down on the ground next to her. Gino still hadn't come back up. Azalea assured them, though, that he was alive. Overflowing with so much annoyance that it gave her a headache, but alive.

Sure enough, it only took another five minutes for a very scratched up and angry shark fishman to haul himself back up to the deck. Just like his female crewmate, it didn't take long for him to keel over and start coughing. The main difference? Black petals came surging out of his mouth. While Trafalgar had managed to mostly cure him, the vines in his lungs didn't take long to start growing back. Though the petals were much smaller now than they had been, they were still a clear sign that he was dying again. Trafalgar had extended his time greatly though, which was something they were all grateful for. It wasn't perfect, but it would suffice for now.

Unlike Synalla, there wasn't much that could be done but to wait out his coughing fit and sweep the petals overboard when it was over.

"You okay?" Dyan asked, looking over his large friend. The scarred fishman nodded, grimacing.

"I'm fine. They had a whole bunch'a glass mines set up down there though, it pissed me off. Everytime I thought I hit the wall, one would blow up and I had to get outta the way of glass shards. I got nicked by a few, though."

"Yeah, we can tell," Cala drawled dryly, one eyebrow raised as his eyes scanned over Gino's many scratches. Not many of them still bled, but there were still a lot nonetheless. "How'd you get around the mines?"

"I didn't," Gino huffed. "Pretty sure I just punched them all. Finally got the wall though, I can see the beginning of the island from underwater now. Should be more than big enough of a hole for us to sail through."

Azalea nodded, taking a deep breath before heading to the helm.

"Let's go then."

Following Cala's navigation, they made it to shore just another few minutes later. They had hung back a bit before so that the ship didn't beach, but now they didn't really care as long as the ship wasn't damaged. Gino and Maven could always push the ship out again later. Sure enough, the bored forms of Katie, Yalla, and Raz (don't forget Stormfall), sat in the sand not far from the water's edge. They all stood up, abandoning what looked suspiciously like sand-filled dolls with felt top hats. The dolls were overfilled with pins, and the five pirates who had been on the Dream the whole time decided silently not to question it.

Yalla stomped on one of the dolls viciously for a moment before smiling and running to tackle her five crew members in a giant hug.

"You made it! I thought we were gonna have to wait forever!"

They decided not to ask why Yalla never let go of Stormfall even while hugging them, but for a much more somber reason than ignoring the dolls.

Seeing the axe in person was like a slap of harsh reality. Hearing it was one thing, seeing it was a confirmation none of them wanted.

"Hey," Katie spoke up, sapphire eyes blazing ferociously. "Let's save our idiot captain. Here's the plan…"

—*—*—*—*—*

Maven had been left alone in the dungeon-like room that the magician captain had her chained up in, her teeth gritted almost painfully as she tried to wrestle out of her chains. The longer she stayed locked up like a useless damsel in distress, the more danger her crew was in. She couldn't just leave them. They needed her.

If she died here, what would happen to Luffy? To Ace?

No. She wouldn't be the one dying today.

Her eyes landed on the hook that her chains were anchored over. The hook was almost a complete circle, but there was a small gap that the chain could be slid out of. The hook stood about a good thirty feet high though, so it would be hard to get up there. But her feet were not chained down, so it wouldn't be impossible.

A smile slowly curled over her lips, cruel and dark and promising a lot of pain.

Step one? Getting out of this damn room, even if she had to carry the chain and handcuffs with her the whole way out.

Just wait for me, she prayed to her crew. I'm coming back, and we'll burn all their ships down to Hell.

Shrugging off the lingering grogginess out of her limbs, too easily affected by whatever drug they used to knock her out, Maven turned to the wall and tugged the chains attached to her wrists taut. Slowly, she placed one leg on the wall and began to climb.

—*—*—*—*—*

Heyyy, almost a year later and I finally managed to work out how I want this arc to go! Yes, partially inspired by a certain superhero movie but don't kill me for it. Anyway, I'm back and hopefully I can start updating a little more often again now that I've gotten through the most difficult part of this arc. Hopefully this is more epic and reminiscent of an actual One Piece arc, I want the action to be overflowing! I'm thinking maybe two or three more chapters solely focused on this miniature arc/ adventure? We'll call it: How the Magician Pirates Died, lol.

Also! I finally started a tumblr for this story since it's easier to talk to you all on there. I got readers both on here and Archive of our Own, so we can all talk together on there! Also, I'm looking for OCs to become minor characters to flesh out the Dying Hope and Dying Rabid crew. So visit the tumblr, or you won't be able to send them in! :D

The tumblr link is:

Hopeless-island dot tumblr dot com.

Hope to see you there, and I hope you enjoyed this! Thank you guys so much for sticking with this story even though it's almost been a year since I updated. I also just started working at Starbucks back in May, so a lot of my time is eaten up by that. But I'm still here and still writing this!

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I will see you next chapter!~