OK, I'm going to go ahead and give this a try. I had promised myself I wasn't going to write anything, but, really, I just can't help it. I can't promise a regular posting schedule because it all depends on how much I am enjoying writing this. Nor can I promise intelligence within the writing, but I will try my hardest. As time goes on I'm sure that my author's notes will get more relaxed and random/informative, depending on what mood I'm in.
This story takes place about two months after Luffy has become the Pirate King, and everyone knows who he is. Not that they didn't know who he was before, but everyone knows he has become the pirate king… yeah…
I'm going to follow the manga very closely in what happened, but some of the details may get a little skewed. Please, let me know if they do and I'll try to fix it. However please excuse the skewed details where my OC intervened. Happens to the best of us…
I don't own One Piece. Oda does. I do, however, own Thana, and some of the scenes that I will put her in, in the future.
Right, now that has been established, let us begin.
She watched him wake, patiently leaning against the wall, legs crossed before her and arms folded over her chest. He stirred slowly, eyes fluttering, the chains on his hands clinking against the hard stone floor. His face was partially obscured by one of the bars of his cell, but this didn't concern her. She knew when he would wake without seeing his face; for she had drugged him carefully while taking into account everything she knew about him. His tendency to eat more than seemed humanly possible, his ridiculous metabolism, even his resistance to poisoning after his encounter with Magellan in Impel Down was all carefully calculated and accounted for. She knew him well, she knew her poisons well, and she knew exactly when he would wake.
5…4…3…2…1…
He rapidly returned to consciousness at the end of her count down, jumping to his feet and making towards the cell door by reflex. He didn't make it far before his hands flew backwards and he landed hard back on the floor, the chains having snapped taught as his movement having removed the little slack there was. He glared about wildly, and then spotted her. She hadn't moved a muscle since he had awoken nor flinched when he fell.
"Thana," he wined, confusion and hurt in every syllable, hands yanking continuously against the cuff, expecting them to slip right off. "What's going on? Where are we? Help me, please, Thana."
"Luffy." She said, dropping to the floor and crawling towards him. "Are you alright?"
It was well played out. The breath and slight pitch rise on the opening word, rushing through the syllables and slipping on the articulation. Eyes wide, lips slightly parted, muscles tense. Every sound and move perfectly placed to convey pure unflinching loyalty and worry. Only her eyes belied her concern for her captain. Her eyes were cold, distant, and full of maliciousness.
Her captain, however, missed this. And why would he have seen it. Throughout his journey Thana had been by his side, protecting him, caring for him, rescuing him from any and all trouble he would undoubtedly find himself in. He trusted her completely.
"Don't strain, Luffy. The cuffs are made of sea stone. You aren't going to be able to get out of them by yanking your hand off," she said smiling sadly. He instantly obeyed her, and all of the tension in his body relaxed. He completely expected her to get him out of this, just as she had said she always would get him out of trouble.
"Get them off Thana. I don't like them," he said childishly.
She opened her mouth to convey some heartfelt apology about how she was unable to right now, but would be working her hardest to find a way, when her words were interrupted by the bang of the door down the hallway being opened much harder than was strictly necessary for any door. Thana straightened up from her crouch, the concern tightening her body flowing off of like water, as her body resumed the relaxed stance it had occupied before Luffy had called out to her.
The sound of heavily booted feet walking down the hallway drifted to the two crewmates before a heavyset, angry looking man approached them.
"What are you doing?"
Thana pretended to salute the man as sarcasm oozed from every pore. Her arm was bent, fingers sloppy, one leg still bent, and her body tilting to the side as she saluted the man with a flick of the wrist.
"Merely having some fun with the prisoner," she replied back after an infuriating pause.
Luffy gaped quietly at her, but he waited. He believed this was all a part of the plan to get him out of here.
The man glared at her then snapped out "That is not what you should be doing. You were told quite clearly to guard the prisoner and inform one of us when he had awoken. Those were your orders and the only reason you got to stay here."
"Well, clearly he's woken up now," she drawled, attempting to infuriate the unfortunate marine even further.
He snapped, and grabbed for his sword, which was dangling from a sheath on his belt. Before he could even complete the reach Thana was behind him and a strange crack rang out. The man crumpled, cradling a hand that was bent in a direction that a wrist would never naturally go.
"Don't think that you can give me orders, marine. I could kill you before you even blinked. Don't mess with me. I know the orders I have been given, and they have no relation to what I'm doing for you. Your word means as much to me as dirt. Still plan on trying to discipline me?"
"Yeah!" Luffy shouted from his cell. "That will teach you to mess with my nakama."
The marine ignored Luffy's statement, shooting Thana a dirty look. It didn't bother her in the least. Why would it? No look was going to hurt her. She continued to stand relaxed before the marine, waiting for him to do something. Either he would challenge her or he would run. He chose the second option. Cradling his broken wrist, the marine got slowly to his feet and ran down the hallway. The door slammed closed.
"Thanks Thana," Luffy said softly. "Can we go now?"
Thana had returned to leaning against the wall, her brows wrinkled in a frown. She found that her conflict with the marine had spoiled her mood, and that the desire to toy with Luffy's emotions even more had completely deserted her. This bothered her, for she had been looking forward to seeing just how far she could get him to snap when he realized the truth. But, if she wasn't in the mood, she wasn't in the mood. May as well move on to the snap part.
"No," she said shortly.
"Whaat?" Luffy whined. "Why not!"
"Have you already forgotten how you wound up here in the first place?" she asked, irritated at his obtuseness, despite the fact that her actions during the time that she had traveled with him had been designed to get Luffy to completely trust her. He always had trusted unconditionally.
Luffy's face slowly clouded over as she spoke. " Then let me remind you of what happened."
Thana sat at her deak, pretending to work as she heard the over-eager footsteps of her captain heading towards her room. She moved a pot of water that was near the door before Luffy barged in. He stumbled when he tried to stop, and then fell face first to the ground, face landing right where the pot had been moments before.
"Hello, Luffy. Can I help you?" Thana said softly, not even turning around to see if her wayward captain was all right. He was, and he quickly jumped back up.
"Thana," he wined. "Time to eat. Come eat with us. The food is all ready. It is time to eat."
"Thanks, Luffy, I understood that the first time you said it," Thana turned around, laughing, leg straddling the back of the chair, backrest and arms supporting her head. Luffy stood before her, hat slightly askew from his fall.
"Good!" Luffy nodded enthusiastically, further unbalancing his hat, then turned towards the door and walked away. When he noticed that Thana wasn't following he turned around and hurried back. Thana hadn't changed her position yet, knowing that her captain wouldn't give up that easily.
"Thana, time to eat."
"Yes, Luffy I got that the first two time."
"Come on, then."
"I can't."
"But it is time to eat!" he whined loudly. "Thana, I want to go eat!"
"Then go eat," Thana told him, pretending to be stern. "I'm not stopping you."
"But you should be there!" Luffy said. "You even helped to make the meal." He added as an afterthought.
Thana laughed. Yes, she had helped to make the meal. Sanji had been reluctant at first but all it took was a "please", a sweet smile, and a tilt of the head and he caved in like a hollow marshmallow. He never had been able to deny the women onboard what they wanted. This instance had ended the same as always did, Sanji walking to the kitchen, his eyes turned into hearts and a victorious Thana coming up behind.
"I made it really special for you, Luffy." Thana said, a playful smile spreading across her face, eyes laughing as her captain tried to prevent himself from running to the kitchen to make sure he got his share of the food. He really was quite determined to drag his last crewmember along with him.
"Really," Thana pressed. "I have to finish up here. I'll be up once I'm done."
"Come eat with us Thana."
"You know what I want you to do?"
"What!"
"I want you to go up there, eat a heaping plate of meat, and enjoy it enough for the both of us. Kay?"
"Okay!" Luffy yelled over his shoulder, happy to follow his friend's request. He quickly raced away, heading towards the kitchen.
Thana laughed loud enough for Luffy to hear as he tore away, but once he was out of hearing distance, the laughter quickly dried up and her eyes and face lost all of their mirth. She had a job to do.
Thana slowly stood from her chair and began to walk towards the door. As she passed the shelf just to the left of the door she picked up a pair of sea stone handcuffs that were hidden behind a large potted plant.
As she made her way closer to the kitchen Thana slowed down her steps. It wouldn't do to be spotted too soon by her crewmates. She worked her way up to the door making absolutely no noise. She watched carefully from the door as her crew, laughing and shouting, gathered around the dinner table. Luffy was whining for food, but when Sanji put a plate of meat before him he glared at the chef.
"More!" He said.
Sanji's foot banged into the top of Luffy's head, knocking his forehead into the table, hard. "Don't you have enough!" he shouted.
Luffy looked up innocently. "But Thana told me to have a heaping plate because she can't join us."
Nami glanced up from her plate. "What, Thana not coming up again? That's the third dinner she's missed now."
"I knooow," Luffy complained loudly. "I tried to get her to come up, but she wouldn't."
"Thana will come up when she's ready to." Robin said calmly. "She's been working very hard on something for the past while. Let her finish with it. She wouldn't be focused on eating even if she had come up. She'd want to be back down there working on it."
By this time Sanji had added several pieces of meat to Luffy's plate and he was shoving the food in his mouth as fast as he could, seeming completely unconcerned for the reason he was missing a crewmember. After all there was food to be eaten.
Dinner continued on with its usual amount havoc as Thana watched from the door. The food vanished almost as fast as Sanji could bring it over. Hopefully the cook would get his share. In fact, it was essential that he did.
Towards the end of the meal Sanji sat down with his own plate of food, and, fending off Luffy's not so sneaky hand, quickly ate.
When everyone was done there was a general shoving back from the table. Nami stood up and walked to the wall to get away from the noise the boys were making. No one had noticed Thana. Of course they hadn't. They wouldn't notice her unless she wanted them to notice her.
Sanji quickly gathered up the dishes and began to walk towards the sink when Zoro's poorly timed stretch happened to land his leg exactly where Sanji was about to place his foot. Sanji stumbled, the plates teetering precariously, and turned to glare at the swordsman.
"Watch where you stretch, marimo. I almost dropped the plates."
"Watch where you place your foot dartboard. I wasn't trying to get in your way."
"Oh, yeah, I think you did it on purpose."
"I didn't"
Sanji set the stacked dished in the sink carefully before whirling about to Zoro. A fight seemed moments from breaking out. The two men glared at each other, Zoro with one hand resting on a sword, Sanji balanced carefully on the balls of his feet. The rest of the crew quickly retreated to the walls to watch.
The fight would have soon begun, since Sanji and Zoro continued to hurl insults at each other, had the poison in the food not taken effect that moment. With a small noise Nami slumped from where she was leaning against the wall to crumple against the floor, rag-doll like.
Instantly all the conflict broke off and everyone rushed over to Nami. Chopper pushed his way through the crowd and carefully felt Nami's forehead and wrist. Luffy was standing on the edge of the crowd, bouncing, trying to see his navigator. His legs were shaking slightly, so the poison had begun to affect him too. But Luffy ignored it, more concerned for his injured nakama.
"She's unconscious," Chopper pronounced for every ones benefit before falling to the floor in a dead faint. For a moment there was complete silence as everyone stared at the unconscious reindeer until Robin's slight form hit the floor.
The silence quickly fled the room with Luffy's shout.
"What should we do?" Luffy cried out to the room at large. But his words weren't enough to stop Franky and Zoro from fainting.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Usopp chanted as he stared at his fallen comrades. "We are all dead!" then he too fell, long nose squishing almost comically against the floor.
Sanji leaned against the wall as his legs threatened to give out on him, one hand placed on the counter for support. "What could have happened?" he murmured. "What happened tonight that doesn't happen every night." He glanced at the dirty dishes in the sink then up to the doorway where Thana stood, backlit by the rising moon.
'Thana," he said on a breath before collapsing to the floor.
Luffy looked around at his cook's softly spoken word.
"Thana," he shouted, relieved. Thana quickly strode into the room and over to Sanji where she grabbed his wrist and felt his pulse. It was slow and steady. The balance of poison seemed to be working nicely. It had been tricky to figure out what poisons to put in which dishes of food and the quantity of each poison. Individually the poisons had little effect, but the combinations depending on what each crewmember ate would affect each person in the proper way to incapacitate them. However, had the crewmembers eaten differently that night than they usually did some of the combinations might have caused permanent damage. She was glad to see that none of them had. She had to take them in alive.
Luffy had creped up behind her and questioned, "are they going to be alright?" right into her ear. Thana whirled about, on edge, but forced herself to appear relaxed.
"They'll be alright Luffy." She said.
"Good!" the pirate said, heaving a sigh. "For a little while there I was really worried, but it is going to be alright. You said so."
That was when his legs gave out. He sat down hard on the floor, looking up at Thana in confusion.
"I feel a little sleepy Thana. It ok if I take a nap?"
"Of course Luffy." She said, watching her captain lay down. Then she looked about the room. The only member of the crew left standing was Brook, who was crouching worriedly over Nami.
"Can you help me carry Luffy to the infirmary please, Brook," Thana questioned. The skeleton nodded and walked over to his crewmate.
"You sure it'll be ok," he asked as he bent over, looking down on his unconscious captain.
Thana took his distraction as the perfect opportunity to move. She jumped behind Brook, securing his wrists in the cuffs concealed in one hand. Then she shoved him to the floor from which he was unable to lift himself up without his hands.
"I said that they would be alright, not that it would be alright." She replied to the flabbergasted skeleton before knocking him out with a well-placed blow to the head.
She moved back over to Luffy.
"My, my," she murmured to him. "Still awake captain? Well, that will make things more interesting when you wake back up."
Luffy's eyes were wide as he stared at his crewmate, then pain flooded his eyes. Thana started clapping, slowly and sarcastically.
"Very good," she drawled. "You do remember."
"So it really happened…" Luffy said, his eyes showing a hurt that had never touched him before, even in the most serious of situations. "You betrayed us."
"My dear captain," Thana sneered, starting to laugh. "I have been intending to betray you since the very first time we met."
That seemed to sap out all of the remaining will Luffy had stored up inside of him. He slumped against the wall, eyes staring vacantly out as the woman who had been the first member of his crew, his support through everything, the central pillar of his life, stared back at him, laughing softly at his pain. Ignoring him. Leaving him lost. Betrayed. Hurt beyond all measures of the word. Feeling that nothing worse could happen to him now. He may as well be dead.
Soooo? Whada ya think?
Thana and Luffy's back-story will get clearer as time goes on. There is a whole fun complicated story behind Thana's reason for betraying him that will come out as the story progresses.