A/N: Wow! It's been awhile! Sorry for making you guys wait so long between chapters! I PROMISE I'll be better from now on. You might want to read the last few chapters again for a refresher course in what the heck is going on : )

"Oh, Jesus! Robin, come back! Robin!"

"I'm right here, captain-san," I said weakly, opening my eyes.

I shut them again instantly. No, no. Merry Go Round is playing some trick. This can't be real, it can't! Breathing deeply, I opened my eyes a slit and caught my breath, resisting the urge to scream.

My own body lay before me. It was limp, eyes frozen open, mouth askew and still leaking sticky-sweet strawberry juice onto my chest. I saw it as though through a screen, surrounded by a ragged slit of red-darkness. I felt my hands shaking and discovered that I was not powerless to move. Struggling to stand I found myself clothed as I had been the night our crew had seen the circus perform. The red dress was cut to perfection, the gloves sliding like supple water along my arms. The space where I stood was dark, cold, and almost slimy. Its ceiling was grey and pulsing and an eerie red-white light seemed to come from everywhere. The whole place smelled like smoke, and it swirled around me so thickly it was impossible to see farther than an arm's length away. But I knew something was waiting there, farther in the dark. Coming to get me.

"Luffy, we've got to get moving. Those strawberries attract the Clockies. We'll take your brother to the gypsies. Zoro, can you carry Robin?"

Sanji's voice was deafening, crashing around me like the apocalypse, shaking me off my feet. I fell into shallow water and, looking down, saw myself changed. More radiant, it seemed, more glorious. "What is this?" I whispered.

Turning back to the ragged slit of light through which I was able to see the world, I watched the landscape move and change. I felt weightless, like I was flying.

"Sanji, is something the matter?" Chopper asked, taking the chef's hand in concern.

Sanji tilted his head sharply and I felt myself tumbling forward, smacking against the back of the chef's eye. He pressed a hand to the damaged eyelid, wiping some blood from it. I felt the sting all over my body. "It's nothing, Chopper, just a headache."

"Do you want some medicine?" Chopper asked.

Sanji shook his head. "It's not a regular headache. It feels more like…there's something inside."

Chopper's eyes widened. "Don't let the circus get you, Sanji. Don't."

Sanji knelt, and I felt the pain sear through his joints. Deep bruises and cuts covered his body, more serious than he had let Chopper know. "This circus isn't taking any more of us. We're going to get out of here."

Chopper looked down. "That's what Robin said, too. And now she's gone."

"I'm here! Doctor-san, no! Don't cry, please! I'm right here, I'll help you. Don't give up on me, doctor-san!" I screamed desperately, feeling the weight of my anonymity, my insignificance. "Merry Go Round!" I shouted, wheeling around into the smoke-filled dark. "You coward, where are you?"

We're coming to get you!

Sanji froze where he stood. I stopped, listening to the odd, hissing laughter that slid like water through the space the voice had left.

"Don't do this, Merry Go Round! If it's me you want, then stop torturing my nakama!" I ran forward into the darkness, the odd daylight coming through Sanji's torn eyelid faded behind me as membranous vines closed the space around and behind me.

"Don't look so hard, Robin-san. I'm right here."

Turning, I let out a scream as Merry Go Round's face appeared, huge and serious on my left. He held a weird, strawberry-shaped lantern up to his spangled eyes, forcing me to look at him.

I swung madly with my fist, trying to strike him. He was gone before I even had the chance.

"You know I couldn't let you win, Robin. You're the only threat, the only thing stopping the Bell Viper from getting what he wants." Merry Go Round's voice was bland, stale. "You got out before, and you're helping your crew to get out again." I bolted through the thickening tuberous dark around us, determined to catch him. The light winked out and again his face was just in front of mine, this time extending a scratchy tongue to lick my face. "You'll make a lovely strawberry," he said

I flinched away, and he vanished. "Why are you doing this?" I cried.

The lantern was far ahead, but I could see well enough to watch Merry Go Round turn and shrug casually. "Because I have no choice. Some evil is made, but some is born. I come from hell!" His steps changed, becoming odd and dance-like. "I thought you of all people would have figured it out by now! We're all from hell, here! A whole island of dead men! A jolly good show, wouldn't you say?"

"You're not a man!"

"Oh, that's right Baby Bunting. I'm a god."

The light winked out again. I collapsed, cradling my face in my arms to protect me from that face, from those eyes.

"There, there little bird," Merry Go Round said behind me, laying a cool, dry hand on my shoulder. "Dying only hurts for a second. Then you're free!"

"Don't touch me!" I said, shrugging him away.

"Oh, don't be so cold Baby Bunting! You've been given a gift, didn't you know?"

I could not resist turning to look up at him. The odd, pale face, the emotionless eyes with their big top irises.

He smiled at me. Just a little smile, enough to make me shudder. "You get to die with your nakama and then live to die all over again!" The voice was giddy, the statement whispered as though to a child, like a birthday present.

I whimpered, dropping my face into my hands. Merry Go Round pressed a hand to my forehead, forcing me to look up at him. "You know, Robin, the dead here don't even die! Your captain's brother, for instance. Ace, that glorious traitor!"

"You ruined him!" I said, trying to be brave. Trying to look Merry Go Round in the eye. "He was a good man and you took him away! You and your damned circus made him a monster!"

Merry Go Round knelt beside me, placing the lantern at his feet. "Is that what you think we are, monsters? And is that what you think he is? Oh no, Ace is only acting how he sees best. We told him he could have his brother back if he only listened, if he did what we said. Maybe you'll understand some other time, Robin. When you get the calliope out of your head."

His ironic smile enraged me and I lunged forward, eager to feel my nails digging into that face, to twist and break it like taffy, to destroy the circus that was so effortlessly destroying me.

Merry Go Round's lantern was already yards in front of me. He turned around and laughed, three odd and hissing sounds that penetrated my brain. "You're all going to die!" the demon whispered. His lantern winked away into the distance and he was gone.

"No, no! We'll get out…" I shouted into the dark, turning and running back towards Sanji's eye. "You're trying to drive me mad, Merry Go Round, but it won't work!" The soft, oozy surface of Sanji's brain sent me tumbling again. I felt my knee split open and my dress tear. "You won't kill Luffy, or any of us!" My leg burned as I put weight on it but I bolted on, back towards the light that I knew somehow would save my nakama. "We'll beat you, we will…we have to…" my breath was raspy, coming in gasps. Sanji's ruined eye, the portal to light and to the world, was drooping and red, all light nearly obscured. I felt that pain, my own eye blurred and half-dark as I stumbled forward. "Sanji!" I shouted. "Sanji, can you hear me!"

Through my nakama's eye I watched the world move blurrily by. Sanji's body was not the only broken one, his injuries not serious compared to Luffy's and Zoro's. Their pace was agonizingly slow, all laboring to take the next step. "Sanji! Listen to me, please! The circus is in your head, it'll get you next!" I pounded against the wall closest to me, stomping on the floor. "Please don't die, Sanji…please…"

I looked dismally on as my own unconscious body dangled from Zoro's shoulder. My weight made him stumble and I winced. I'm sorry, my friends…I failed you.

Sanji was out of cigarettes. His tongue and lungs burned for one, for anything to relieve him of the pain, the nagging pain in his head and body. His eye was barely functioning, and he could feel the sting of the glass that had broken it embedded somewhere in his cheek. He resisted the urge to cough, his body protesting any movement. There were voices in his head, and they were growing louder. Some sort of conversation, something he wasn't supposed to hear.

"Robin?" he whispered, hearing his nakama's voice somewhere behind his eyes. In front of him, Robin's body dangled limp and almost lifeless. Have we given up hope now? You were all that was going to get us out, Robin. A memory of Zeff flashed across Sanji's mind. "You're not to be afraid now, you understand?" the old man had said.

"Luffy, maybe we should stop. You're bleeding again, you shouldn't even be walking," Chopper said, running to catch up with Luffy.

"We don't have a choice, Chopper. Ace is stronger than we are, when he wakes up he'll be able to get away. We've got to get him to the gypsies, that's what Robin said to do."

Sanji's eyes followed his captain's to Robin's form. Compulsively, Sanji reached out and touched her wrist, checking that life still flowed in her veins. She breathed in deeply and Sanji smiled. You're beautiful, Robin, he thought.

"And what are you going to do with him when we get there?" Nami said angrily. "This whole place is turned upside down and backwards, everything we see will be trying to kill us. The gypsies will-"

"It's not the gypsies we need," Zoro cut in. "It's that truth-water they have. That's why Robin wanted us to go there. Remember when we first got here, I told my story to that gypsy boy, Otter? He used that water to tell if I was speaking the truth."

"But what on earth can Ace tell us that we don't already know!" Nami gestured to the bound and gagged man Luffy had slung over one shoulder. "He betrayed us, and he's a monster like the rest of them on this island! You think he knows the way out? You think he'd tell us even if he did?!"

"Nami!" Zoro said, setting Robin gently on the ground and moving to take Nami by the shoulders. "What's the matter with you?"

Sanji's heart jolted as he saw the tears in Nami's big brown eyes. She clenched her jaw, looking up at Zoro. "What's the matter? What do you fucking think is the matter? I'm losing my mind! We all are, look at us! Five days ago we were happy, happy and whole. And now Franky, Brook, and Usopp are dead. Robin's still breathing but you know something's got her, something that's going to get the rest of us if we don't get out in time. The circus knows everything, it's breaking us!"

"Shut up!" Luffy said, dropping Ace on his side and rounding on Nami. "Stop it, Nami! What's the matter with you? Is Merry Go Round in your mind, too? Cause I don't think we could carry another unconscious person. If you've lost faith, then leave. We're getting out, but if you're so determined to stay then go find the Bell Viper and tell him you'd like to switch sides!"

Nami looked at her captain, appalled. "This is your fault, Luffy, you know that? If you hadn't broken our Log Pose we wouldn't be here in the first place! Do you remember what you said? 'Nami, did you know glass doesn't bounce?' Of course I know glass doesn't bounce you idiot! Everybody knows that!"

Luffy's eyes narrowed. Zoro stepped forward to put his hands on Nami's shoulders. "Stop it, Nami. This isn't anyone's-"

"And why should I stop it? We're all going to die, he might as well hear what I have to say." She wheeled on Zoro and slapped him hard across the face. A deep gash on his cheek reopened and he stumbled back, crying out. "And you! You say you love me, tell me over and over again, but the story you told the gypsies was about Kuina. You never forgot her, and you don't love me."

"Nami-swan," Sanji said gently, watching in horror as her face contorted in anger.

She shook her head. "This isn't the way out of the circus. It hates you, Luffy, not the rest of us. I'll get out on my own, not with you. I can't stay here anymore!" She turned as though to run.

Sanji caught her face between his hands and pulled her close, looking deeply into her eyes. "Is that really Nami in there?" he asked.

I'm a little teapot, short and stout,

here is my handle, here is my spout.

Sanji winced, his hands convulsing as the voice rang against his temples. Nami looked deep into his eyes, their slitted and damaged irises seeming more grey than black. "Of course it is. You know I'm right, Sanji."

When I get all steamed up, hear me shout,

tip me over and pour me out.

Sanji's eyes flickered with tears. "It's getting me, Nami. It's getting me and I need you here to help me keep it away. Please…please don't go."

Nami cocked her head curiously, the meanness leaving her face. "Why is Robin in your eye, Sanji?"

The chef let go of Nami's shoulders and she backed away, stunned. Her lips were open as though someone had slapped her. "You don't know what you've gotten yourselves into! Any of you! Go to hell!" Shaking her head, she bolted through two tents and vanished.

"Nami, no!" Zoro shouted, making to run after her.

Luffy's hand landed heavily on his first mate's shoulder. "She's not coming back."

Zoro whipped around. "Who are you? You're not the Luffy I knew once! He wouldn't have given up so easily, not when his nakama's dreams are still unfulfilled! Are you going to let her go before she finishes her map?"

Luffy lowered his head, looking down at his brother in the soil beside him. "It's like the Bell Viper said, this place kills dreams. Even if we do get out of here none of us will ever be the same. We won't have Franky, Brook, or Usopp. And now it looks like Nami's gone, too. We don't have a plan, we don't have a way off this island."

"The Merry," Sanji said. "The Merry's still on the pier. Robin wanted Ace to tell us the way off, maybe he can tell us how to get our ship back. The tide goes out in four days, that's enough time isn't it?"

"But…Nami," Zoro's brow furrowed as he looked towards where she had vanished.

Sanji shook his head. "I thought the circus was getting at me, but it looks like it's taken her. I mean, she asked what Robin was doing in my eye, but Robin's right there."

They jumped as an inhuman shriek echoed from just behind Luffy. The captain darted to Zoro's side, ready to defend the unconscious Robin. A little Clockie stood in front of them, its wig and hat familiar as Brook's. The rest of its body was entirely blank. Skin-colored and wearing a rudimentary loincloth, the Clockie was smaller and thinner than any of its bretheren, almost emaciated. It opened its mouth, head cranking gruesomely open, and walked in a little circle as it sang.

"Six little pirates thought they'd make it out alive, but the circus played a clever trick and now there's only five! Five little pirates thought the island must have more, the bravest said she'd find the key and now there's only four! Four little pirates went a' searching for the sea, one died of screams, he'd lost the rest, and now there's only three! Three little pirates said "there's nothing we can do," one went mad and ran away and now there's only two! Two little pirates thought the maze had hid the sun—"

The thing shrieked as Luffy darted towards it and tore the melody pipe from its throat in a single, vicious strike. Its head split down the middle, spurting sickening strawberry juice onto the captain's bandages, staining them red. "You shut up!" he shouted. "Everyone just shut the fuck up! This circus won't kill me and it won't kill any more of my nakama!"

"Are you so sure?" The Bell Viper's voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Close by, a calliope started. Sanji thought he could hear Mirror Maze laughing. "I hate you, Luffy. And when I hate someone they don't get away so easily!"

"Why?!" Luffy screamed. "What do you want from me!?"

"I want you to die! I want you to die and stay dead! I want you to stay here forever and never have another adventure. I want you to suffer, Luffy!"

"What have I done? What have my nakama done? We just want to go home!"

"This is your home now!" The Bell Viper's voice exploded across their hearing and strawberries rained down from the sky, whacking against the men. Zoro pulled Chopper close, Sanji and Luffy bent over Robin.

The Bell Viper appeared at the end of the alleyway. He was taller than Sanji remembered, and looked more like a snake. The scales that had been his skin's undertone had completely taken him over, making him odd and animal-like. His limbs had grown long and moved oddly, as though they had no joints. He held a gigantic pink umbrella against which the strawberries whacked and bounced. Beside him, clutching his hand like a desperate child, was Mirror Maze. Its gigantic lips were smiling at the Straw Hats. Smiling and threatening. "Do you know how that rhyme ends, Luffy?" the Viper asked cruelly.

Luffy stood and ran at the Bell Viper. With a wicked smile, Mirror Maze wrapped his arms around the snake-man's body and they vanished, appearing just behind Luffy. "It goes, 'Straw Hat Luffy tried to fight, and now there's only one!' So who do you think the one is, Luffy? Which of your nakama will get left all alone because of you?"

Luffy's fists clenched, but he did not turn to face the Viper and Mirror Maze.

"Go to the gypsies if you will, Luffy. It won't help you get out. Not as long as I hate you. That makes you a dead man."

By the time the captain whipped around the Bell Viper and Mirror Maze had gone, leaving the gigantic, sticky umbrella in their wake.

In Sanji's head I lay flat on my back, staring up into the smoky dark with tears leaking down my face. It's only a matter of time until he dies. Maybe then Merry Go Round will let me out.

"Very good, Robin. You're learning to submit. What I say goes!"

"That's enough, Merry Go Round," I said quietly, throwing my arm over my face. "Even if Sanji dies, Luffy will still get out. Luffy and Zoro and Chopper and I."

"You didn't include pretty Nami in that list."

I shook my head. "I recognize your touch, Merry Go Round. She had you in her face."

"Alas, that's wrong. You're the only one lucky enough to see me so far. It's Mirror Maze, that scum of a demon. He'll treat your friend kindly, don't worry Baby Bunting."

I opened my eyes, lifting my head to try and find the invisible Merry Go Round. "So, two gods can't share the same island?" I asked.

"Don't be coy, Baby Bunting, or I'll send you into the deeper dark!" My head ached and for a second Merry Go Round's face flashed in front of mine. "Don't presume to know anything. Knowing too much will kill you."

"What do you want from me? You haven't spoken to anyone else, why me?"

His fingers brushed the back of my neck, but by the time I whipped around, Merry Go Round was gone in the dark once more. "You should know that by now, Baby Bunting! You escaped me, and that's not allowed. It will be delicious to kill you this time. Kill you once in service to yourself and again in service to me!"

Merry Go Round's voice faded into a casual chuckle as an odd, blue light filled the space where I lay. I opened my eyes to see Sanji's brain winking with little sparks like fireworks. Blindingly white, they danced above and around me, and a child's voice began to sing.

"Binkusu no sake wo, tomode no yuki you, umikaze, kamikaze, namimakase…"

I sat up. "Brook?" I called, pushing myself to my hands and knees and crawling towards a blue-bright light that illuminated the space before me.

"Yo-ho-ho-ho, yo-ho-ho-ho…"

"What are you singing that song for, lad?"

It was a man's voice, deep and big. It grew louder, as loud as the child's as I crawled into an odd clearing and found my hands buried in what I recognized as sand. The grains between my fingers were such a comfort I bent to press my cheek against them.

"I heard it from some pirates. Maybe if they hear it, they'll come back to get us."

Already knowing what I would see, I opened my eyes, leaning back on my knees as Sanji's childhood memory played out in front of me. He was a boy, his clothes ragged and torn and his face skinny. His blond hair was pulled away from his eyes with a piece of string and his shoulders were thin. The big man who stood behind him was also thin, though he carried a large bundle of firewood over one shoulder. The sound of the waves crashing against the sandy shore seemed like a metronome, and Sanji faced the sea, rocking in time to the waves' motion.

"Lad, that imagination of yours will be the death of you one day." The big man dumped his load of firewood and sat beside the boy.

Sanji looked at him, indignant. "What do you mean, imagination? I'm going to be a great pirate one day Zeff!"

The man laughed. "You'll be needing to watch your back in that case. There are some dark things in this world." Sanji opened his mouth to ask a question, but the man cut him off. "In any case, you'll need to be able to cook to survive. Help me catch dinner, and then maybe I'll tell you a story."

"About pirates?" Sanji asked excitedly.

"Yes, about pirates," Zeff replied, half amused and half exhausted.

They stood and walked towards a nearby rocky alcove, Sanji singing and Zeff swinging him above the ground with one big arm. The boy laughed and tumbled into the sand. A wave leaped high out of the sea and covered him in water. Zeff turned to look as far, far on the horizon another ship sailed past. Sanji did not see it, he was so busy shaking the water from his hair. I think Zeff wanted to stay there…was I his son, in a way? Did teaching me to cook and keeping me alive make me the most important thing in his life? I became a pirate, Zeff. And now I wish I had stayed on that island and died with you, I wish Luffy had never come, I wish I'd found the All Blue like you told me I should. You never did teach me your recipe for poached sea-bass. I've been trying and trying my whole life to make it correctly and it still doesn't taste right. Maybe…maybe eating something with a true friend is a kind of spice itself. Something I never learned to cook with.

The beach began to fade, the sand to become grey brain matter again. I found myself laying with the last remnants of Sanji's regret around me. He would die with that, I understood. That memory.

"Little Baby Bunting, daddy's gone a hunting. Gone to find a rabbit skin to put the baby bunting in…"

Merry Go Round's voice had become a casual occurrence. Nothing more to me than my own thoughts slowly turning black and dying. "Sanji's not a rabbit skin, Merry Go Round. He's a human being, with memories."

"Memories mean nothing, Baby Bunting. Not when you're going to die." The strawberry shaped lantern appeared in the dark before me, and for just a moment I saw Funhouse's face horribly reflected at me.

Chopper shook a rumble ball into his palm and ate it. He instantly grew taller than Sanji, muscular arms and shoulders making him more menacing. "I'll carry Ace and Luffy, can we just go, please? I don't want to spend another night here, not with all these Clockies running around."

The crew set off again, following a sloping hill towards the shore where waves were just beginning to dance in and out of earshot. It was silent, but Sanji could tell that Zoro was crying. He turned to the man, and their eyes met.

"Lighten up, Marimo," Sanji said quietly. "Dying only hurts for a moment. Then you're free…" Sanji clamped a hand over his mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Something's…you know…?"

Zoro shook his head. "You're right, Sanji." They were quiet, stumbling along behind their captain and the hope that still weighed him down like dark water as he walked. "Do you remember when you first decided you wanted to be a pirate?" Zoro asked.

Sanji let out a disheartened chuckle. "That sounds like a question you'd ask someone who was going to die." He shook his head. "Yes, I remember. I was stuck on an island with a man, Zeff, who taught me to cook. I used to sing that song Brook knew, Bink's Sake, hoping that pirates would come and rescue us…Instead Zeff died for me. The bastard never even taught me his recipe for poached sea-bass. He must have used some special kind of spice... something I never learned to cook with."

All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel,

monkey said it was all just for fun

pop goes the weasel!

The rhyme was close, just over the hill. The two men jumped, fighting instincts keeping them active despite their crippling injuries. "Why the rhymes, I wonder. I've never even heard most of them," Zoro said.

"A few are from East and North blue, but I don't know most. They're children's games."

Zoro stopped, looking at Sanji. "You mean to tell me a child is behind all this madness? All these gods and monsters are-"

"Funhouse!" Chopper shouted suddenly.

The monster was charging at them, its sucking mouth growing wider and wider as it ran, its eyes becoming human-shaped and gaping. It moved heavily, like a bear, and launched itself into the air as though it would engulf them all. The canvas was empty underneath as the thing grew larger, larger and landed squarely on Sanji, who raised his arms but was unable to stop it from taking him.

"Sanji, no!" Zoro shouted, running forward to knock his friend out of the way. The tent-monster shrieked as Zoro's sword bit into its canvas skin, but it expanded, continuing to grow larger and larger, so gargantuan that it covered both men.

"Oni-chan!" Chopper cried, dropping Ace and Robin and running towards them.

"Stop!" Luffy shouted, grabbing hold of the reindeer's arm as he ran towards his friends.

In his weakness, Luffy was unable to stop the reindeer from plunging head-on into the deep canvas sack that had engulfed their friends.

When they were gone and all was quiet, the canvas reached out one tentacle-like arm towards the two unconscious bodies. It wrapped its sticky, oozy fingers around them and pulled them after their friends. Then it shrank, growing smaller and smaller until only a tiny, foot-tall tent remained where the monster had been. And then it began to sing.

Ladybird, ladybird

fly away home.

Your house is on fire

your children all ALONE.