Fallen Angel

Pairings: Croc/Enel (I kno raight? :3 But it bugged me that it was a challenge to make believable...)

Length: 7,997 words *shows the blisters on her fingers* I had word throw up.

Enjoy!

The countdown to Bilka's destruction begins…

Six years ago.

Enel had always dreamed of vearth. He had dreamed of endless vearth, which he thought he could obtain from the world below his home. When he had been cast out of the sky island Bilka, to plunge straight down in an unconscious state through the two layers of the milky seas into the endless blue, he had begged whatever omnipotent being that existed that he would finally be able to obtain his dream.

Seems someone had been listening-but that someone also seemed to have a malicious sense of humor.

"Hey!"

Pieces of trash splattered onto the Bilkan's face. He automatically lifted his hand to wipe the juices off and found himself staring blankly up at the snarling storeowner. Said proprietor, armed with an empty waste barrel, waved it threatingly in the direction of the cowering young Enel crouching by his fruit stall. "Get out of here, you damn disgusting hunchback! You're scaring off my customers!"

Hunchback?

Enel marvelled at the word, having never heard it in Bilka. Yet he got the message behind the man's threat, and stood on his feet to mutter, "Excuse me, I didn't know I was violating some law-"

The man must have not heard him. His face was red, and a vien protruded from his neck. "Get out! Out out out!"

Enel stood frozen to the spot. What had he done? All he had wanted was a little shade from the hot, burning sun above and a place to hide from that wierd bow-legged slaveowner. What was he hurting if he simply sat with his back against the wall between two food stalls-he didn't see the harm.

The Bilkan could hear the more finely dressed men and women on the street mutter around him; words that hung in the air, like "beggar", "leper", "panhandling", and that "hunchback" one again, were grinded between thier lips and spat out like the pits of rotten plums. He felt outraged, for some reason, and didn't know why. Perhaps because this was no way to treat a Bilkan lord's son.

Yet his anger curdled into fear, however, at what the man called at to an official looking man standing in severe military attention-"Guard! Hey, guard!"

Enel didn't wait for the guard to come over; he ducked his head and slipped into the crowd of people at the market. He could hear the sound of metal boots behind him, and weaved his way rapidly through the streets and alleys. He didn't stop until he was sure he was safe. For now.

The Bilkan closed his eyes slowly and sighed. He slumped and slid his back against the alley he was hiding in. Water...need water... His throat burned from dehydration, and he smacked his dry, cracked lips. The sky above gleamed blood red from the sunset, and thankfully he felt the air getting quite cool after the day of unbearable heat.

Perhaps a little too cool, too quickly. Enel began shivering, and pulled his ragged, patchy cloak tighter around him. He had been lucky in finding those generous group of vagabonds in Rainbase's town square on his desperate flight from that Doflamingo person. Not only did this piece of tattered material hide his identity, it also hid the fact that he had large, white-feathered wings furled behind his back. Attatched to his back. Though it did not hide them effectively enough-they were covered, but he was sure thier bulk still gave them away beneath the thin material.

The chill in the air traced its fingers across the Bilkan's long chest. He shivered, and stood up. He had to keep moving. He needed to find somewhere to sleep, somewhere to hide-and more importantly, he had to find somewhere with water.

He ducked out of the alley, and found that he had entered into an open square. The square was siezed by a magnificent building squatting in the middle of it-right in the middle of some sort of body of water as well.

Water.

The burning in his throat returned. Enel did not think of the consequences; he dove into the crowd of people waiting to get in to the luxurious-looking building shapped into a golden pyramid, and pushed past to get around to the more open side. It was greener in the back of the enormous resort, amd seemed to be almost a garden area. Tropical and native flora spaciously dwelled amonst each other behind low fences, and park benches sprung up from the cobblestones in random places of the maze. This area was more deserted. As the twilight hour was slowly diminishing, the nightlife commenced in full swing inside the casino of the gilded building. Enel had heard the blinking lights, the bells and whistles, and the enthusiastic cries of the people inside. He had ignored them, and rushed into the garden while insuring at the same time that he was not being followed.

The water gleamed invitingly at him in the blood red light of the dying sun. He didn't see the dangerous ripples breaking the surface in tell-tale signs of inhabitation, nor did he see pair of reptillic eyes glaring at him from the shadows falling on the lake. Enel parted the reeds and eagerly clambered over the marble barrier to the water's edge. He dipped his head down and began quenching his thirst with the cool water.

A suspicious bubble appeared on the surface and popped nearby. Enel lifted his head slightly. He sensed something. Sinister eyes stared up at him from below.

The water suddenly erupted as the roar of a reptillic monster rang in the Bilkan's ears.

/

Two things happened that did not escape Enel in that next split second. One, a giant crocodile with a strange banana-shaped growth on its crown had its mouth opened wide when it shot out of the water, revealing a long row of perfectly sharp, knife-sized teeth glinting straight at him to tear apart his skin and swallow him whole. Two, something equally as sharp tore a hole into the collar of his cloak, knicking his skin, and hooked him to drag him backwards just milliseconds before the giant reptile slammed its mouth shut at the place where he had just been.

The weapon ripped itself from Enel's cloak, taking quite a bit with it in the process, and someone stepped in front of him. The Bilkan couldn't breathe, and he clinged his arm to his chest. He gaped at everything-the now irate reptile, the other eyes glowering from the water, the blood red sky, the huge man standing between him and the crocodile. Enel's blue-rimmed pupil's suddenly focused on him.

All he could see was the hulking form the man had that was covered from the massive furcoat he wore. His slick black hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He seemed to excrete pure confident power, which made Enel find it even more difficult to breath.

The crocodile snarled and revealed its teeth. Yet it seemed to suddenly recognize the man. Fear subdued the slitted eyes of the monstrous animal, and its growl shrank into a whine. Could reptiles whine?

A low sound of amusement came from the man's throat. He took an unhesitant step towards the crocodile. The animal instantly receded a bit back into the water, taking three steps. It shivered very noticeably. The man took another.

The crocodile gave a sharp growl, short of a squeal. Suddenly, it twisted around and dove into the water, causing a rather large splash. It took the other two onlookers with it. Slowly, the water became still again.

Enel stared in amazement. Gradually, his mouth closed on its own. He waited, until the man finally turned around with his back to the water. He took out something from under his coat and put it to his mouth-a cigar. He took out a lighter and lit it, revealing his face.

A long scar, stitched up and resembling the grin of some monstrous reptile, ran across his face and the bridge of his nose. He looked like a man nearly at the middle of his life-perhaps in his mid-thirties. His eyes were sunken, and his eyebrows were thin. He couldn't tell very well, but he thought that the well-dressed man had a very dark-grey complexion. When the man put away the lighter and took the first few puffs, he lifted his eyes. Not at Enel, but at the subordinates behind him, which the Bilkan had yet to notice.

His voice was a deep, throaty growl, and he spoke with calm authority that chilled Enel's blood. "I want that smaller Bananadile dragged out and destroyed. The last thing I need is these skinny ones escaping to attack customers."

His order's reply was quick. "Yes, Sir Crocodile."

The man barely payed attention. He inhaled his cigar for a long second, and then breathed out a cloud of smoke. Enel looked up at him, but he was seemingly being ignored. He was thankful for that. This man seemed to be more bloodthirsty killer than shining savior-he could sense it. Therefore, the Bilkan male sat stalk still on the ground as the huge man began to walk past him.

Just as he was about to take another step and be out of the edge of Enel's sight, he stopped. Enel felt his heart leap into his throat. He looked up. The man's eye had revolved to look down at him.

Enel froze. He had been noticed after all.

The staring between them only lasted a second. Crocodile looked away, and began walking again. He muttered something to his suited lackeys, then briskly left with a few of them at an authorative pace back to the entrance of Rain Dinners. Enel felt himself remembering how to breathe again.

He had been lucky. At least that's what he thought. He stood onto his feet, prepared to return to the slums of the city, and stay clear away from any suspicious bodies of water here. Suddenly, someone grabbed under his arm and began pulling him. Another person grabbed his other arm. It was Sir Crocodile's lackeys.

"H-Hey!" He struggled against them, but these were two massive men with muscles bulging under thier suits.

"Sir Crocodile wishes to see you in his office," one explained to him, a third man who was in front of the other two. He began leading them away from the garden and into the street.

Enel gnashed his teeth at them and dug his heels into the road. They ignored him, easily making his efforts in vain with thier strength as they dragged him around the building and across the bridge to the entrance of the golden pyramid topped with a bananadile.

The glare from the lights blinded him as he was pulled in.

/

Enel remembered why he had been ejected from Bilka. Every month, the elders sacrificed fruit from the land to the gods-that month, his last guardian after his noble family had died, became sick with the same disease. He had begged the council for help, but they deemed there was nothing that could be done. Starving himself to save her, stealing for her to keep thier home and money for the doctors, he had finally ran out of food and money. And out of time.

Something had led him to the altar after his grandmother expired that day-he didn't know why, but he was compelled to sneak into the room of the gods, forbidden for any Bilkan to step foot in. He had always wondered what took place in this room, reserved for the graces of otherworldly buildings. It had siezed his imaginations as a young child, sitting in the temples as the priests did sacred rituals in front of its stone doors. He tore those stone doors away three days ago, and found nothing but a room filled with rotten fruit.

Expecting horrible disappointment, he oddly felt a sense of peace in the middle of this decay-caked room. So, he thought. It seems my suspicions are true. There is no God.

He had seen the light fade from his grandmother's eyes and thought this. He had always been told to be a bright child, but also a very wondering child. A child that grew up to be a very questioning young adult. Well, now he questioned, huddled in the dark among untouched sacrifices and stale air, what was the point of living if God had found it right to wipe out his entire relations? And what was the purpose of God if he was never there for the people below? Was God there, or was he just a figment of old priests' addled minds, as real as the purpose of these sacrifices rotting on the floor...?

One fruit caught his eye, however. And that was the fruit which he had taken, piled up on top of the altar with the rest of the fresh sacrifices of the day. He had felt that compelling feeling again, and it was that feeling that had made him climb up that decaying mountain, eat that fruit, and be willingly caught by the guards who had seen him come out.

And that was why, after being thrown off the edge of Bilka, sinking through the milky White, he came to the expand of earth below, what he had wished to see for so long. He had planned to fall to his death, to slip into the unconciousness and plummet into the arms of the afterlife, whatever it was. Yet despite his despair, he instinctively beat his wings on his back as hard as he could, until his plummeting slowed to a stop. He had blacked out right before he had hit the ground and used the last of his strength in his wings to land safely in the soft sand he plummeted to.

When he had woke up, he had been in a cage.

/

Enel blinked until he could see in the brightly lit room of the casino. Tobacco smoke hung in the air above his head, and around him men and women put thier money in strangers' hands to bet thier livelihood in games. He stared blankly. Nothing was like this in his pure land of Bilka.

"Come on," growled the lackey to his left.

All three shoved thier way with Enel past the customers of Rain Dinners, slipping to a door that said 'Office' over it. There, they breezed through a hall lined with, sure enough, offices. They had gold plates on the doors that stated the names of these officeholders-none of them said Crocodile. Instead, Enel was dragged to an elevator, seperate fro the main one of the casino, and went down. The only direction it seemed to be made for.

They stood still as it shook awake and began the gradual fall. Enel slumped in his captors' grips as he waited for the long descent underground to end. Why was he being dragged down here? He thought of how he could have possibly offended the hulking 'Sir Crocodile'-was he being punished for drinking from his oasis? He hated to think of the kind of punishment this Crocodile could dish out for just drinking his water. He didn't think he'd be getting a slap on the wrist and an angry shake of a finger. Death with a hint of torture seemed to be this man's style, from the first glance at his cadaverous, evil glare.

Enel cringed when the elevator stopped. He looked up at the shade-wearing lackeys in suits, but they did not move. With a 'bing', the doors opened, and the lackey in front took a step to the side. Suddenly, all three grabbed Enel and chucked him out into the dark room.

He landed with an 'oomph' and skidded onto his face. His head felt woozy from the impact onto hard marble floors, but he had enough sense in it to turn around. "Wait!" he cried, shooting his arm out and lunging himself at the lackeys. He wanted answers-why was he here? He felt like screaming it at thier hard faces. The elevator doors closed on him. As he pressed his face against the door, he could hear the humming of the gears and the pulleys of the machine. The dark encompassed him, and was only broken by a strange blue light. He listened, but heard nothing.

Enel turned his head. He was in a very sparsely furnished room, cyclinder shaped and engulfed with the strange light that covered the walls. A few ferns appeared here and there, at the fringes, but the main piece of furniture was the huge, finely polished and dark wooded desk in the center. Behind leered an imposing chair, with a high back and blood red upholstery of shiny leather covering it. An unlit chandelier hung above it, while a floor lamp stood tall at its post to its right, also unlit.

The Bilkan stood up. Having nothing to do, and certainly not going to let himself be found cowering in the dark, he walked over and examined the desk. There was nothing on it-no pens, no paper, no ink bottles-nothing. He opened every drawer, all those that weren't locked. They too were empty. He thought that strange, but didn't dwell on it. His compelltion to dig through a man's things aside, he decided to turn his attention to the wall. It was rounded and glossy. He touched it, and it felt cold.

Glass. He had heard of this material, but had never seen it. It was said to come from crystals in sand-by the power of intense heat, the grains birthed a clear, pure beauty. He marveled at how such a thing could be made to form airtight walls of this room. However, he momentarily wondered what could be behind this material.

He was instantly graced with an answer. A bananadile, perhaps the very one from before, passed by and stared intrusively into the comparibly tiny room. Enel yelped and reared backwards from it. He bumped into something, hard and warm; he immeadiately spun around to see what it was.

He had bumped into Crocodile.

Enel yelped again, and took a step back. Desperately he tried to put a cork on the fear rising in his chest. The hook on the man's left hand glinted in the light like a predator's glare. Crocodile's leer seemed to burn a hole between Enel's eyes.

He briefly wondered if he was to be killed right then.

To his surprise, the intimidating older man stepped aside and gestured at what had appeared on the desk. A glass pitcher of water. Its clear liquid glimmered in the blue light sweetly to Enel's eyes, and the condensation dripping achingly slow from the smooth surface made him press his cracked lips together.

Though desperately dehydrated, Enel did not instantly move for the pitcher. He hesistated, eyeing between Sir Crocodile and the glass like a quivering mouse under the gaze of a snake. After a long minute, in which both men did not move and the ice in the pitcher chinked together as they melted. Enel took a step towards him. He weaved quickly between Crocodile and the desk, as if a touch from him would have been like a sting from a bee, and snatched up the pitcher. The desk was between him and the man, and he tilted back the glass to drink.

Sweet water rushed down his throat. He felt instant elation-he didn't care if it dripped down his face or front. He could feel his throat's walls unsticking together, and his tongue no longer felt like an ashened piece of meat. He was nearly finished when his thirst had been quenched.

He never got to drink it all-the pitcher was ripped from his hands and returned to the desk. Enel stared up in surprise at Crocodile, standing so close to him that he was nearly on top of him.

He growled, "Take it off."

Enel stared blanky at him. He didn't move.

A frustrated snarl came from the man. He grabbed Enel's cloak; with a snatch of his hand, he shredded the last of it, tilting Enel off balance. The last of his cloak stayed in Crocodile's fist, and he fell on his knees. His upper body was bare, and his wings furled up on his back were revealed.

From the sudden cold of the room, Enel wrapped his arms to his shoulders and shivered. Yet that wasn't just it-the low chuckle coming from the man standing over him also sent chills to his nerve endings. His mind was flooded with questions: mostly why? and what happens now?

"Hm hm hm...so, I wasn't simply seeing things..." Fingers traced lightly across the bone structure of his wings. Enel visibly shuddered. In Bilka, it was forbidden to touch another's wings. He saw in his peripheral that the man was crouched down, examining him.

Crocodile spent a minute touching the bones, the feathers of the abnormal growth coming from Enel's back. He studied him with his eyes. Enel noticed that the cigar was missing from his mouth, and his coat had been cast aside.

Enel shuddered with every touch the man gave to his wings. This felt so defiling, but he knew he could do nothing. He was just glad this seemed to be the only thing the man was interested in. Perhaps that was why he was here-an examination. Obviously not a lot of Bilkans or Skypieans appeared down here. He just hoped there was now a chance he could leave here unscathed, when this examination was done.

The Bilkan continued to shudder, yet the older man didn't stop. Suddenly, Sir Crocodile came to the base, where the feathered appendage met his back. Enel couldn't see it, but a sinister grin suddenly flashed on Crocodile's face. He sharply gave a tug.

"Ah-AHH!" Enel's high-pitched gasp of pain came instantly from his lips. Fire bloomed under his skin from where his wing had been snatched at-it felt as if someone had tried to bend his arm backwards to touch his knuckles to his spine. He bit his lip as the tugging ceased. To his dismay Crocodile chuckled again. It was deep and throaty.

"Just checking to see if they're real..."

"They...They're real..." Enel didn't fail to notice that he had yet to let go.

Crocodile chuckled again. It was so primal, it made Enel's head twist around to look at him.

Suddenly, Enel was being hauled onto his feet and backwards-by Crocodile. He cried out again, stammering the syllables to 'stop', a word he halted himself from saying-he could guess what he would recieve for making demands against this devil. His wings were burning again; he was released and thrown to have his lower back slammed against the huge desk. Enel managed to stay on his feet, even though the pain was aching under his skin. Crocodile was quick to meet him there. They stood, hip on top of the other, and Enel looking in bewilderment at the Shichibukai. Arms wrapped in the sleeves of an expensive orange shirt were on the desk, barring him from escape. Underneath Crocodile's sculpted bulk, Enel was trapped.

Crocodile leaned forward.

"What are you?" He breath the question on Enel's pale skin.

Enel flushed. He leaned backwards instantly. "B-Bilkan!" he stuttered.

"Bil...kan?" Crocodile made it obvious that this word helped him very little. Enel quickly tried again.

"Sky...Islander?"

"Oh...I see." Crocodile smirked. He once again leaned closer to Enel, to put his face to his neck. To kiss his neck. He was kissing his neck. "So you're a myth. Perfect sense."

Crocodile's kissing went up across the skin of Enel's neck, to his jawbone. He lingered there. Enel felt his face heating up. He had leaned as far as he could from the taller man-anymore, and he would be lying on his back on the desk. He was certain that that was not where he wanted to be right now.

Enel suddenly froze. Something cold and pointed touched the surface of his spine. It scratched the tip of his skin as it traced across his vertabra. It was Crocodile's hook. It was there as a threat against his thoughts of escape. As a dare.

At feeling Enel go as still as a rabbit, Crocodile chuckled. He used his hand to gently rub the sides of the Bilkans body. "How did you get down here, Bilkan brat?"

Enel forced his brain to work. His touching was making the blond's mind unresponsive. He felt so violated, but he couldn't ignore the heat coursing through his body. He wasn't about to admit he liked it though. For the gods' sakes, he liked women! "F-Fell. I fell."

"What an idiot."

Enel's face flushed a deep red. Without thinking, he defended himself, "I was kicked out."

"I don't care," Crocodile grumbled darkly. His hand was getting lower and lower down Enel's body. His kisses began leaving red marks all along his neck and shoulder. Enel bit his lip, but didn't utter a peep. The hook's tip was beginning to draw blood.

"Tell me about Skypiea." Crocodile's fingers played with his pants waistband.

"Sk-Skypiea?" Enel had only been there once, with his father as a young child. The huge man didn't repeat himself. He was so close, the Bilkan could smell his cigar smoke and expensive cologne. Enel felt like hammering his head against a wall. Work, damnit, work! "Well, it, ah...has clouds. Cloud-buildings...roads, mountains, ocean-and then there's vearth, God's land, Upper Yard. There are trees there, and southbirds, and-ahhh!"

Right at that second, Crocodile had begun gently tweaking his nipple with his thumb. A smirk stretched across his scarred face as Enel clamped his mouth shut in horror. Had...had he just moaned?

Crocodile's chuckle vibrated on his throat. Enel gulped. A film of light blush blossomed across his face as he was fondled. He squirmed under the man. Several gasps escaped his lips, and he could only utter, "Sto...nnn..."

"What else is there?" Crocodile's command was a husky whisper. Enel shivered-the base of his neck was bitten at his hesitance.

"Aah! Th-There's trees-"

"You said that."

"Wolves?"

"Uninteresting."

"R-Ruins..."

This seemed to slightly peak Crocodile's interest. Enel wondered if he was interested at all in what he was saying...or if he was playing some cruel game while molesting him.

"Ruins...?"

Enel nodded. "Underneath. They're old, and c-covered with strange markings on slabs in different places-"

Now Crocodile was really interested. He pulled away from Enel and stared straight into his eyes. Even his hand had stopped moving to grip the small of the Bilkan's back. "What markings?"

The air had suddenly gotten heavier. There was pure seriousness in Crocodile's demeanor, replacing his sadistical one from before. Enel gulped. He honestly had only seen the markings once-on a visit to Upper Yard, he had tumbled down its lower levels by accident, and had seen the markings etched forever on slabs across the walls of important buildings. How he had gotten there, or why he had been in Upper Yard was a long story, from a long time ago. But he remembered he had been as perplexed with the language as any other Sky Islander would have been. He opened his mouth to repeat this to Crocodile, when the door of the elavator suddenly binged open.

"Ey, Crocie. Long time no see. Sorry for the sudden intrusion, but your boys didn't wanna let me in, so I...had to change thier minds."

Doflamingo, you ruin everything!

Continues on next section.