...

...

Chapter 1

Rage Takes Over

...

...

Zoro was standing there, eyes wide open, clutching his swords for dear life, the moment frozen in front of his eyes, almost as if time had stopped to care to tick by.

"You bastard, I'm gonna fucking kill you!" Sanji raged, flying next to him as if possessed, running to kick some ass. Well, not some ass. That bastard's ass.

And as he passed by him, pushing time ahead, everything went back into motion.

The swordsman could no longer take his sweet time to stare as a big powerful sword dragged both his katana and his attention to the hit aiming at his chest. Zoro blocked it just in time, the attack reverberating through his bones. Zoro growled lowly, much like a beast, and forced his enemy to retreat a bunch of steps back so that he could have time to unshield Wadô and get serious as he placed the beloved white sword in his mouth in time to block another blow.

Focus, he ordered himself. But there went his eyes. Nami was lying on the floor, coughing something dark, sticky and disgusting. Blood. A flash of blond, and his attention switched again. Sanji kicked his ignited leg against the enemy's weapon, putting all of his strength into making him get away form Nami. He could see a pulsing vein on his neck, his muscles flexing, rage and hatred obscuring his eyes.

Yoong, that was the bastard's name, let out an excited bark of laughter and dodged before letting go of his weapon and charging fists first against the blonde, who fell to his hands and let his legs go wild in a spinning inferno, clashing against Yoong. Their enemy grunted but managed to get a hold of Sanji's leg in mid-air, sacrificing his left side which was left open to the blonde's attack. Despite the killing intent Sanji pur in the kick, Yoong held his ground and forced his weight on the cook, who easily escaped from his grasp and put some space between them, panting.

"I'm gonna shove my foot up your..."

"Cook!" Zoro warned, too late.

Sanji felt something slamming against him and then he was violently thrown away only to feel his back crash against what was left of a wall, sending a wave of intense pain down his back. The cook only had time to hiss before a delicate but strong hand squeezed his neck and slammed him against the wall yet again. Sanji held his breath and swallowed his first instinct of kicking around. Only because this other persisting and now unwelcome instinct of his told him to stop and simply not attack because...

"Not you..." he groaned.

Well, because she was a woman.

"Oh, yes, it's me indeed, blondie", a brunette smiled, almost touching his lips with hers.

A cruel and senseless smile sent shivers down his spine, it was that dark. Lust for violence, lust for cruelty, that's all he could see in the beautiful woman's features. And that was really something to say, coming from him.

"Let me go," he begged. It's not like he was going to order a woman around.

He could see Nami laying there, Yoong kneeling next to her and looking intently at him with a smile playing on his lips, teasing, as if saying 'Should I kill her now? Should I make her suffer?', but still waiting, making the moment insufferable. Desperation owned him and he was already struggling, something he would have never done in a woman's hands before. But there he was, fighting back yet not kicking, not being able to hurt her because, damn it, he simply couldn't do it.

"Let me go!" he roared, sending his gentleman manners to hell. So much for not ordering women around. But he was already damned.

The brunette smiled wider.

"Nope," she answered, amused. Then, not taking her eyes of Sanji's, "What should we do, Yoong? Should we start by ripping her wicked hair out of her head? Strand by strand?"

Yoong smiled behind her and Sanji's mind went wild with panic.

"Don't you fucking dare touch her!"

But then Yoong was sent flying, a punch still deforming his face when he hit the ground meters and meters away from the redhead.

"Don't go hurting my nakama!" Luffy hollered, and charged against him.

He didn't even know where Luffy had come from, he was supposed to be fighting elsewhere, but hell if Sanji wasn't happy and relieved that he was there, to the point where he was already thinking of how much meat he'd need to cook to repay this. Because he had been utterly useless, he had to remind himself. He hadn't been able to get Nami out of there before Yoong pierced her stomach with his weapon because he was being held down by that unnamed brunette who just kept smiling at him in what could only be described as an evil way. He hadn't been able to kick or push her away, he had only been able to desperately watch as his beloved Nami fell to the ground screaming. He himself had screamed at the top of his lungs, making his throat go numb. And then he had found an opening, had run away from his captor and had tried to defend Nami from a second attack just to be dragged back by the woman that was now squeezing the air out of his lungs, leaving marks on his neck.

And he still couldn't do a damn thing.

Useless, he thought of himself. A fucking disappointment.

Despite the looming dread, as Nami was now in good hands, he felt himself relax a little, fixing his eyes on the brunette's ones with a less of a panicked manner.

"Damn useless Yoong," she was muttering, imprinting her anger in her hold, which was tighter and tighter around his neck. He choked a bit.

"You're evil," Sanji managed to get out of his mouth as he was being strangled, not even struggling anymore.

There wasn't a point to it.

Nami didn't need him now, so he didn't need to go against his nature anymore. He hadn't been able to when it had truly mattered and Nami's life had been on the line, so he most definitely didn't have the right to do so now when it was only his life he had to worry about. He wouldn't kick a woman, not even to save his own life. And he had already failed the redhead. If that was what he had to face for not being able to protect his beloved ones, then so be it. He had always known that if he ever died fighting it'd be against a woman he wouldn't even have fought back. The thought made him smile at the irony. He could already picture the moss-head laughing in front of his grave for being too damn weak and the biggest idiot ever. Mocking him even when already dead. If he even bothered visiting his grave, that is. Not that he would. The guy hated his guts just as much as he hated his and why the fuck was he even thinking about the damn marimo during his last breath?! He rushed his already numb and oxygenless mind to think about beaches and ladies and tiny swimsuits but then he heard the annoying voice.

"What the fuck are you doing cook?! Defend yourself!"

Sanji almost barked a laugh. Well, he would have if there had been any air left in his lungs. His vision went blurry. Damn it. Definitely not the last voice he wanted to hear.

Zoro retreated and launched again against his own enemy with a snarl on his face.

What was the cook doing? Did he want to get himself killed or what? But he already knew no fighting back was going to happen. It was a woman after all. The one who had been fighting Nami before seeing through the cook and switching places with Yoong. And now that same woman had him pinned against a wall, strangling him to death... If he wasn't already dead. Sanji hadn't been moving much for a while... Oh, no way in hell was he gonna let that idiotic bastard die like this!

He already felt the anger towards the blond rising in his chest, he already felt the fire and the raging urge to punch him in the face. He was definitely not letting the blond die until he had his fist introduced to Sanji's curly and stupid face and vice versa. He wondered if he could make his nose as curly as his freaking brows. A stupid thought to have when facing your own enemy and living under the uncertainty of two of your nakama making it out of this one alive or not. Fuck.

And then he was cutting through flesh and bones and running past the already defeated enemy, who didn't even see him coming and fell with a shocked expression on his face. And he was almost there, and he could already see the light leaving the cook's eyes, and all he could think about was what an idiot Sanji was and how angry he was at him. So fucking angry he didn't even put his brain to work when his sword went through the brunnette's chest from her back and stopped inches away from Sanji's.

Sanji could only see black. Suddenly, the strain in his neck lightened as he felt a soft hand slip down to his chest and then fall down. He swore he had heard a bloody and sticky cough but, then again, he couldn't really tell. He tried to give himself the instruction to breathe, but he didn't manage to get air into his lungs and gagged and whinced. Then there were glimpses of green flashing irregularly in the blackness of what was his current inexistent vision. Oh, man, he knew that particular annoying green. And he also knew the voice. By heart.

"Oi, shit-cook! You better fucking breathe or I'm gonna fucking kick the air into your motherfucking lungs and shove it down your nostrils!"

Sanji felt like laughing. What the hell was that? That was rude and unnecessarily packed with swear words, even for Zoro, and it sounded stupid and absolutely ridiculous. But then he felt a strong hand laying flat on his chest and slamming him to the wall with brutal force, making something click inside him. He abruptly started to cough, the air filling his lungs like punches and waves altogether.

Zoro let go of him and struggled to loosen his tie with unsteady hands, giving the cook room to breathe in and out. The cook's gaze started to drift from far away to reality, and Zoro knew he had him back. He released a breath he didn't even know he was holding, and the fact that he felt relieved only increased the angry rage inside him in turn. He had never wanted to kick somebody's ass so bad and he wasn't even the one in charge of the badass kicking in their crew.

"You're an idiot," he muttered, barely restrained.

Sanji was still coughing, all red and needy for oxygen, batting Zoro's hands away and getting rid of the tie Zoro had started to loosen. Zoro felt his temper worsen. He didn't even bother to ask himself why.

"You're a fucking idiot!" he declared again, this time yelling with broken rage, completely uncontroled. "I'm gonna seriously kill you, you bastard!"

"Shut up," Sanji snapped, partly regaining his composture. "Damn moss-head. As if you could."

Zoro was about to reply and let hell break loose when Sanji swept a startled look around him and desperation wiped his features, effectively shutting Zoro up as confusion took over rage.

"What?"

"Nami?" the cook half asked. Then he saw her and stood up but Zoro held him down by his wrist.

"Chopper will kick your ass and tell you to go away," he warned in a calmer tone that tried to soothe Sanji's reeling mind.

Sanji then noticed that Chopper was already treating Nami, running around her, poking, frowning and deciding what to do next while trying not to freak out himself. Zoro had just realized the reindeer was there as well, therefore the delayed warning, and they both knew Nami was Chopper's right now. Yet...

"I don't give fuck," Sanji snatched his arm from Zoro's hold and headed to where the readhead was restraining her tears and bracing herself in a fetal position.

He saw her face bathed in traitorous wetness, all bloody and sweaty, black bags already forming under her eyes, and he felt something heavy drop inside him.

He hadn't protected her. He hadn't been enough to protect her.

Useless.

"Nami, my dear..." he whispered, astonished and overwhelmed, not knowing what to do for the first time in years.

"Sanji, please go away. I need space to work with," Chopper commanded, sounding professional and calm. But their doctor was trembling. The wound was serious, he could see it in the reindeer's face.

"But Chopper..."

"Mhmm?"

"Will she... Will she be okay?" he asked. He sounded like a little strangled birdie. And he totally felt like one.

Chopper didn't say anything and resumed his work, the silence falling over him like a sharp kitchen knife piercing his chest. Sanji's shoulders fell and after realising his mind was blank and that he was actually doing nothing useful, he took some steps away, unsteady, trembling, weak. At one point he forced himself to turn his back to them in order to go and do his goddamn job: get more enemies he could kick the asses of, which was what pretty much everyone in the crew was doing as he stood there like a statue. Useless. Just when he lost sight of the wounded redhead, he heard Chopper's voice.

"It's not your fault."

Something strained his heart so bad it hurt. It hurt so much. He fought away a weird wetness in his eyes he was no longer familiarised with and headed to where he thought he'd find a good oponent he could pour his anguish on.

Zoro watched the blond's back walk away, the fury inside him only being fueled with every step the cook took. He couldn't stand him. He couldn't stand how the idiot had let himself almost be murdered by someone just because she had tits and a nice face. He couldn't stand how he assumed it was his responsibility to protect all the ladies around him when they could actually fight for themselves. He couldn't stand how his eyes had looked lost and empty when he had approached Nami with only guilt and shame reflecting in his face. He couldn't stand how his shoulders seemed to fall to the ground, his pose no longer proud and straight and badass, but defeated and tortured instead. Zoro wanted to cut something. He needed to cut something before he'd cut the cook's head off his shoulders in his rage.

A far away cry told him that Usopp was having trouble with his opponent (which would turn out to be a horde of trained assassins mounted in wicked carnivorous horses when he'd tell the story later on while praising himself for being such a brave warrior and, oh, weren't they lucky to have him in the crew!) and Zoro finally moved from his spot, practically dragging his body, willing to help if that meant he could do some harm and let himself go for a while.

TBC