Chapter One

The Masque of the Red Death

Summary: Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing. Kim discovers this when she's torn away from all she knows and thrust into a world where danger and death is an every day occurrence. Now she has to find away back to her family and there's only one way she can do that. Travel the Grandline in search of some answers.

Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters are copyright to Oda-sama and Funimation (plus all the other companies who have the rights, lucky bastards). OCs are copyright of me along with anything else the general public doesn't recognize, apart from certain characters that have been borrowed with explicit permission from the creators themselves.

Beta'd by Omicron the IceQueen (now, go give her praise and affection because she always reminds me to add stuff in!)

"Demon eyes, of a wild and ghastly vivacity, glared upon me in a thousand directions where none had been visible before, and gleamed with the lurid luster of a fire that I could not force my imagination to regard as unreal." – The Pit and the Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe

Alchemy. The science of understanding the structure of matter, breaking it down, then reconstructing it into something else. It can even make gold from lead. But alchemy is a science. It must follow the natural laws. To create, something of equal value must be lost. This is the principal of equivalent exchange. (- Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist)

But what is equivalency is a world where boundaries fail to apply? When a single life means more than anything combined? What is equivalency when the price of a soul comes into question? Can a soul really be worth anything?

The street was bathed in the warm light that came with dusk and a gentle breeze drifted over the small town, causing the leaves to rustle quietly in their trees. It was beginning to get colder and the chill would be welcome after such a hot summer day. The somewhat ragged looking town was quiet and peaceful for the most part, relaxing in wait for the summer night.

However, it wouldn't be quiet for long.

Loud footsteps slapped against the pavement and the panicked breathing of someone filled the air in the abandoned part of town. A great deal of people had moved out of here years ago when the mill closed down and workers were no longer necessary.

A girl turned around the corner of Fifth and Shire, nearly slipping at the abrupt change in direction and catching herself just before she hit the ground, and she kept going.

The thought that came to Kim in that moment was: Damn persistent bastard.

Her predator stood at an unnatural height (maybe over eight feet!), in a slight crouch that reminded her of an animal – and not the cute and cuddly kind.

He was a man made of sinewy muscles that rippled when he moved – Kim could easily see the way they moved beneath his shirt. Normally that thing would have intrigued her – she liked guys with a bit of muscle on them, it was her guilty pleasure – but now it just made her think about how easy it would be for him to hurt her with the power behind those muscles.

To make matters worse his hair was the color of blood, not that of a scratch or a casual prick of a finger that the doctors took. It was nasty crimson-black, the kind of blood people saw at a murder sight– they'd see it at hers, especially if he kept this up– and it made her stomach knot up. Kim never liked to see blood. His hair spiked out from his skull in a gravity defying manner Kim was accustomed to seeing in cartoons and comic books, anime and manga. It only added to his unnaturalness, much like those glowing green eyes did. They reminded her of a blood thirsty and starving panther.

Deadly.

Dangerous.

Her breathing came out in panicked gasps of terror and exhilaration. Beneath all the fear she felt it there was something else, an unexplainable thrill of being chased. Her exhausted body slammed into a filthy alley wall and her legs finally gave out, causing her to sink to the ground. Something sticky covered her hand and, had the situation been different, she would have found this to be disgusting. As Fate would have it, Kim had more pressing things on her mind.

Her tormentor had finally caught up to her.

She turned her head upwards, feeling rather small before the giant, blood haired man. She hunched her shoulders and pulled her legs close to her chest in an attempt to look smaller and more pitiful than she really was – an attempt to make the man feel bad and leave her alone, not that she thought it would work. However, her eyes were defiant; their golden hue gleamed with a determination. A determination to live.

In that moment of seeing that, a flicker of emotion passed over the man's face.

"You are Kimiya Leonore," he said in a dry deadpan of a voice, it grated on Kim's ears like nails on a chalkboard and she flinched violently. Her long brown hair stuck to her sticky, sweat covered arms and one strand in particular kept falling over her forehead. Amazingly, she found the time to be annoyed with it in such an oppressing situation. Turning her attention away from her annoying hair, she stared at her attacker.

He could be called handsome, she supposed, if he wasn't so damn frightening.

He had a strong jaw and a straight nose and– God, his eye lashes are long! Kim shook her head violently, nearly head butting the red head, as he had somehow moved in closer without her noticing and was less than a foot from her face. Kim resisted the urge to smack him – he wasn't one of her friends invading her personal space, hitting him would only make her situation worse.

The hot feeling of embarrassment flooded through Kim, causing her peachy colored face– which was rather blotchy at the moment from fear and all the running she had just done – to flush brilliantly. She looked as if she had dipped her head in a barrel of rouge.

"Destiny," the stranger said, his dry, dead tone making Kim want to scream, "Will never be kind to you. It has never been pleasant in the past and will continue to be that way in the future. But you are strong. I am curious to see what you will turn out to be and, if Fate allows, what you will turn into."

The dark haired teenager let out a startled gasp as the red head put an icy cold palm to her forehead. She lifted one of her arms – they felt like lead! – to shove him away, not caring if it would make things worse. She hated being touched by strangers.

Violent streaks of crimson began crawling down his skin from the inside of his sleeves and shirt collar. They twisted and writhed across his face to create a grotesque mask of death.

The Masque of the Red Death.

It frightened her and pained her to look at it. She whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to avoid it. Those whimpers of fear turned into a cry of pain as tendrils of pain slid into her skin, over her forehead and chasing each other down her face. Twisting and writhing as she did in the red head's gasp.

It hurt– oh God it hurts! – and made her want to die just to stop the pain. Make it end!

The pain didn't stop though.

In a last attempt to escape the pain and the stranger's touch, Kim reached out blindly and grabbed for his face. Whether or not she intended to claw his eyes out or just push him away would forever be a mystery. She was in too much pain to remember and passed out.

And as her limp hand fell to the ground – a marionette with its strings cut – a great, blinding light filled the dirty alley way, washing its dirty walls and slimy ground golden. . .

When awareness crept back upon her slowly, at first she simply laid there breathing deeply while her eyes started to twitch beneath their lids. Where was she? Who was she? Did she even exist?

Kim, she recalled. Her name was Kim, and if she had a name surely she must have existed? Her eyes twitched again. Ah, so she had eyes! If she had eyes than there must be a face to go with them and a body to go along with both of them put together. So, yes, she must exist. How odd, she mused, it is to find yourself in existence, but then there was still the question of where she was.

Her eyes– the first proof of her existence – flickered about after opening, finding nothing of significance to rest upon. There was silence and a smell that reminded her of cleanliness – like Bleach. Kim recalled that she hated bleach as it gave her headaches and stung her nose. Her hair hung limply around her shoulders and down her back, the warm brown a startling contrast against the smooth, white ground. It felt strange not hearing the blare of a car horn or the comforting thrum of her air conditioner at home. Total silence surrounded her and wrapped around her ears. It both startled and frustrated her. So to save herself from the insanity of nothingness – nothing seemed to be an appropriate name for it since there was literally nothing here except for her and the ground, and space. Lots of space – she looked at her feet and started to tap them in a random rhythm to fill the silence up. It helped a bit. She took the chance to examine her feet as they moved.

They were smooth and unmarred, her toenails lacking the polish they had obtained a week ago. Funny, they were still painted when the red head had chased her. Upon looking at her feet to distract her from the Nothing, she also took a look at her body.

Strangely enough, she appeared to be naked. However, Kim had no issues with modesty at the moment – it wasn't like there was anyone there to ogle her – and sat there, examining herself. After all, it was important to confirm that existed. What if she was missing something?

Quickly confirming that she was whole and not missing anything, Kim reluctantly returned her eyes to the Nothing.

It was white, too white for her eyes. They stung and watered against the bright shine that seemed to come from nowhere. She used a hand to shield her damp eyes and squinted into the Nothing.

A dot.

There was a dot in the Nothing. She supposed that now there was something in it, the Nothing couldn't be called a Nothing anymore. Kim ran a pale hand through her hair.

"Well," she said to herself, rising to her feet. "Maybe I should go see what it is. It's better than just staying here by myself."

An eternity and shorter passed before the dot shifted into something more with details and red hair. Kim gaped at the figure of her attacker, who sat at the base of a large stone gate that towered high over the both of them.

"Welcome," the red headed man (Kim was tempted to call him Sir Creepy*) rumbled, green eyes glinting. He eyed her bare form curiously and in reaction Kim squeaked in alarm and crossed her arms over her chest. He laughed at her, a slightly awkward sound. "Here." The red head pulled off his cloak and threw it to her. Kim looked at him in disbelief.

What kind of mind-trip was she on? This man– didn't he just try to kill me? – was being nice to her? After what had happened not so long ago? Was he mad? What was with the sudden change of heart?

The red head chuckled, as if reading her mind while Kim slid the cloak on, clutching it around her chest.

"I was not made to kill you, Leonore. Merely to begin your destiny." He looked at the stone gate behind him as he finished his explanation with a delicate air. "Some felt that it was taking too long for you to begin your journey."

"Wha-?" Kim began, but was cut off by a great rumbling noise, before the ground shook beneath her bare feet and caused her to have trouble keeping her balance. The red head looked unfazed.

"Actually, you're a bit behind schedule." He frowned, looking at the gate. A sliver of red light escaped from it as the giant door began to slide open. "Remember this, young Leonore; Destiny has chosen you for a reason. You have a path to follow and, if you should stray from this path, it will be up to me to set you back upon it. I am the destroyer of worlds and the keeper of Fate. You may call me Akane."

"Wait!" Kim wailed, the vibrations from the Gate causing her to stumble and fall on her butt. "I don't know what you're talking about! I want to go home!"

Akane offered her a pitying look, "Home, as you know it, is something that will be out of reach for you. Adapt to things and you'll learn to deal with it."

Kim offered him a look of horror, even as the ground was falling out from beneath her. "What's that supposed to mean! AGH! HELP!" she managed to shriek.

The ground opened up beneath her in a giant black hole and swallowed her small form – at least, she was small compared to it – before dropping her into a downwards spiral where she felt the stinging of air against her unprotected skin, where she heard the roar of the wind in her ears, where all she saw was blue blue blue. Her arms flailed around her in search of something to stop her rapid descent. She screamed as her eyes found the ground in all the blue. Unfortunately it was rushing towards her at an alarming pace and Kim knew her landing wouldn't be a pleasant one.

Kim hit something solid and felt a startling wave of pain shoot up her spine. A groan escaped her lips and she clenched her fingers in pain. Yes, her landing wasn't pleasant at all.

The pain in her spine flooded her system, making her light headed. Sound amplified to an unbearable level and she pressed her somewhat numb hands to her ears in an attempt to block it all out. Even after her hands were firmly over her ears, a buzzing noise invaded her brain – a leftover effect from all the wind rushing in her ears. The smell of fresh air and coppery blood filled her nose, making her flinch back into the cloak around her and she moaned wearily. A dull throb in her hands told her that they were probably the source of the blood, having scraped against the ground when she hit it. Either that or she cracked her head open. That would explain the buzz in her brain if it wasn't because of the wind.

Okay, Kim thought dazedly, there has to be some explanation for what just happened. I'm dead. Yeah, that sounds good. That red head – Akane, her mind supplied helpfully – killed me in the alley and this is me imagining the afterlife. This sucks. I want to go home.

After waiting a few moments for the pain to subside to a bearable level, Kim pushed herself up with a strained grunt and simply stared around.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked, the question falling from her lips.

"In a Marine base." A deep voice grunted, making Kim stiffen in recognition of it before she slowly turned to gape at the speaker.

Roronoa Zoro glared back at her from the post he was tied to.

Oh God, she thought in horror. My afterlife looks like the One Piece world.

A/N: Hi guys! As of 8/8/12, this chapter has gone through a major edit. And now there's a poll for the story's pairing on my profile. As of now, Sanji, Ace and Zoro are tied for first with Luffy and Akane tying for second. Personally, I'm leaning towards Sanji or one of the D Bros, but whatever. You guys decide!