How many? Ten? Twenty? He couldn't tell. All he knew was that it hurt, and that they were pinning her on top of him. Nami was out cold, he had to wake her.
"Nami...Nami? Wake up." his tone was soft as he tried to awake her.
"Mmmhh...huh? Where am I?" Nami shifted her weight and slowly lifted her head,what she saw, scared her. Blood. Stakes. The stakes were pinning her on top of him...no...they were more like long iron rods with jagged edges...many were thrust at angels where she was not harmed but he was.
"Good your awake. The people who attacked us left as soon as then pinned us up here and knocked out Franky." Nami remained silent as she slowly twisted around to check the damage done to Zoro's body.
"The rod above your shoulder is holding most of the others in place, if we can get that one free a few of the rods should drop off, and you'll be able to jump down, get Franky, and get me down."
"Alright, I can try" Wriggling, she discovered that one of the rods had grazed her side and pierced his abdomen. With each of her movements she pulled slightly on his flesh, causing the barbs to tear at the skin and open the wound anew. Not looking at it she could feel warm liquid oozing onto her, she shivered.
"Keep trying, you almost got it out..." Zoro's voice was shaky, she looked up to find that he was watching where the rod entered the cement. Nami could see pain reflecting in his eyes. After a few more slow twists she managed to push the rod out of its position and force others to fall as well. She was free, but he wasn't. Looking down she could tell they were about six feet up and pinned to a cement wall with Franky lying unconscious but a few feet away.
"Good. Now jump. You'll be fine, it looks far but unless you plan on landing on your head you'll be good." He said, a hint of dull humor in his voice.
"Ya, but knowing me I'll land on my ass."
"Just jump." She did. Closing her eyes wasn't such a bad idea after all. Nami turned to glance at Zoro, then wishing she hadn't. The rods weren't only piercing him, they were holding him up. Many of them had torn the flesh where they had grazed him, crimson fluid had pooled beneath him on the stained ground. One, two, three, six,...seven... Seven of the barbed rods had actually pierced him. His right shoulder, left bicep, two in his abdomen, one hit his left knee, and two were in his right thigh. His eyes were shut and his breathing was ragged. Nami quickly turned and shuck the hulking cyborg into consciousness.
"Ow...that hurt... OI! Where'd those bastards go?" The blue haired cyborg shouted as he jumped up.
"Thats not what we need to worry about right now Franky. We need to get Zoro down from there...!"
"Right!" he picked up two of the rods that had fallen down. "Look, both of em are identical, so if we can twist the rods to the right we can pull them out without causing Zoro to much pain!" Franky started with the lower rod in Zoro's thigh, it came out easy, along with moor blood causing Zoro to hiss in pain.
"Sorry bro, just a bit more." Franky said worry evident in his voice, it only took him a short time to pull out the bulk of the rods. "Oi, big sis! I need help with the last two! I cant reach, if I held you up you could do it right?"
"Ya, be there in a sec!" She had been rummaging around in her bag to see if there was anything she could use to stop the bleeding until they got back to the ship.
"Kay, so what you need to do to get the rods out with as little damage as possible is to twist them to the right and to pull on them at the same time, got it sis?"
"Alright." Franky had hoisted Nami up so she was standing on his shoulder and he was holding her steady as she reached for the first rod in Zoro's shoulder. She hesitated.
"Nami pull it out already." Zoro pleaded.
"Sorry." She pulled and twisted, to the left.
"AAAGGHHH!" Zoro's yell caused Nami and Franky both to jump back. A look of horror crossed Nami's face as she realized what she had done and watched as more thick red blood poured down his shoulder. He was shaking now, as well as panting.
"Oh my god...I'm so sorry...I'm no good with this stuff, not to mention under pressure..."
"NAMI! Focus! Just pull them out!" Zoro was starting to loose patience as well as clarity.
LET ME OUT! IF WE FEED WE WILL SURVIVE! I WON'T TAKE TO MUCH I SWEAR! BUT WE CANT DIE HERE!
NO! I haven't relied on you for YEARS why would I start now! Zoro shock his head. Why now? His demon hadn't woken up since he was a child. Since then.