A/N: Hey everyone, if you read the first chapter before this one was published then I'd suggest re-reading it! I added some more information about the areas, as well as Azaria's looks.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

Chapter II: The Claw of the Celestial Dragons

The sound of the gunshot was ringing through her ears as she watched the man's lifeless body fall to the ground. The scent of iron—blood—filled the air. She gagged and slapped a hand over her mouth. She couldn't take it, it smelled so horrible, and it looked so awful.

She blinked—her mother was laying on the ground clutching her shoulder tightly, blood covered her hands and arm and began dripping on the ground. Azaria felt warm tears roll down her cold cheeks.

January 12th, 5:00 a.m

She screamed and immediately sat up. She was covered in sweat and tears were streaming down her eyes. All of the other children had gotten used to it by then, some tried to ignore it. If they paid attention to it, they would just start thinking about home again, about all of their screaming parents. They didn't want to be reminded of the home they'll most likely never get to see again.

A little girl gently put her hand on Azaria's and stared into her eyes. "Zari, everything is gonna be okay—I promise. I'm here for you, almost all of us are here for you." she said gently.

Azaria hugged the younger girl tightly and sobbed, "Thank you so much, Lyra." her voice was whiny, a mixture of pain, terror, and sorrow dripped from every word that forced its way out of her mouth.

Lyra smiled softly and hugged Azaria back, her big blue eyes were full of love as she said, "You don't have to thank me, Zari. I'll always be here for you—I promise."

January 24th, 12:13 p.m

Azaria had been woken up by loud yelling from outside the room she and all the other children had been condemned to for so long. The ship stopped swaying as much as it usually did. Azaria assumed the ship had stopped to pick up more supplies, it had happened a few times in the past few weeks after all. After they all get back, two men will bring down four crates of food and a barrel of water.

In the past 25 days—she'd been keeping track—they've brought food down every day or two. It wasn't always bread, sometimes it was over-ripe fruit. Those were the only things they had been fed since they all had been forced down here.

Tired of thinking, Azaria lied her head back down onto her makeshift pillow—also known as her jacket—and drifted back off to her nightmare-filled dreams.

4:45 p.m

The door creaked open and two men walked in, the kinder one was carrying two crates and the uncaring one was carrying one crate and one barrel of water. The kinder man got every child's attention by saying, "Food is here!" again with the sorrow in his voice.

Some of the children got up before the men had left to grab their share. Most of the younger children had been getting their food by themselves now, however there was a select few who were still too scared to move. Azaria stood up slowly, shaking only a little as she walked towards the center of the room. She grabbed her food for the day and walked back to her coat.

February 3rd, 7:30 p.m

Azaria's anxiety was worse today than it was the whole time she's been here. She knew something bad was coming today, she just didn't know what. The ship stopped swaying as much as as it usually had. This is bad—they're not just picking up supplies today are they?

The door creaked open and five men in blue and white uniforms walked in. They were all carrying shackles that were linked together with chains. "Almost time to get you off the ship, we just gotta get you ready first." the uncaring man said in his usual gruff voice.

A few of the children started crying again, even more tears stained their faces. A few of the older boys and girls were doing their best to act strong but it was just too hard for them. They couldn't bear the emotional strain.

The men walked towards the children and began putting them in cuffs. Azaria felt sick to her stomach—anxiety and fear welled in her throat. Her mouth began to salivate and she did all she could to not throw up. She swallowed every drop of saliva and forced the bile back down to her stomach. Her throat was burning, tears were forming in her eyes as cuffs were being locked to her wrists.

More and more children were cuffed by the minute, all linked together by chains. There were four rows, eight kids in each row. Four of the uniformed men grabbed a chain and began leading the slaves out.

Azaria stepped onto the first stair, her body ached from barely moving the past month.

Another step—her mind screamed at her to run away.

Third step, fourth step, fifth—she started shaking.

Sixth stair, seventh—tears started streaming down her face.

Eighth, ninth, tenth—she felt like she was going to throw up again.

Force it down! Force it down—force it down—force it down! She swallowed the saliva, she swallowed every drop of the bile, and she choked back sobs. Pain filled her throat, it was burning even more.

Eleventh, twelfth—sunlight. It was so bright, her eyes were burning, she was blinking rapidly, trying her best not to let the light into her eyes.

She was now standing on deck and staring up at a giant red wall made of rock—the red line. She'd never seen it before and it was simply breathtaking. If this had been under different circumstances, she would've been admiring it much longer. She looked around her, examining the area around her further. There were a few bubbles floating around the two big trees, they were white with dark were two very big ship-like vessels connected to some sort of black rope, there was a large bubble on the bottom of the 'ship' as well.

The men were leading everyone off the ship and onto one of the vessels. Once everyone was on, it started rising slowly, Azaria's fear just got even worse. The children around her all looked as terrified as she was. Out of all the men escorting them, only the kind man had a look of regret, shame and anger. The others looked amused, bored and irritated.

The cuffs around her wrists were too tight, they were slowly digging into her skin. From what she could see, the other children's cuffs were also too tight, excluding the eight children who were cuffed by the kind man.

Looking at all of their faces caused a pain in her heart. Seeing Lyra's terror filled eyes, red nose, and tear streaked cheeks hurt her even more. They'd gotten so close over the past month, every time Azaria would wake up screaming, the one to comfort her had been Lyra. She knew that somehow, her and Lyra—all of these children–would have to find a way to escape. If they don't, they'll die. What happened back home proved that.

The vessel had just gotten to the top of the red line and the men began to lead everyone outside. In front of her was a giant staircase that was carved into the mountain, at the top of the staircase there was a giant gate. Every ten or so steps, there were statues placed in carved out areas within the walls. When they got to the top of the steps they walked through doors.

Azaria looked around, there was a large pathway lined by trees. To her left there was a forest, to the right it was a row of trees and on the other side, a river. Off in the distance she could see a lot of mansions. The most extravagant thing she seen though was a tremendous castle that was towering over all the other buildings. The clouds were so close to the ground that she could almost touch men led all of the children down the path. It was a long walk, Azaria was panting, almost of of breath. Sweat was dripping down her face from her hairline and her vision was fading in and out.

8:00 p.m

Eventually they got to another gate, it wasn't quite as big as the previous one however. On the doors there was a large red symbol, there was a circle with three triangles spread out above it and one directly in the center under the circle.

There were several men guarding the doors, one began to speak to the uncaring man at the front.

"What's your business here?"

"We have slaves for Saint Rosward and his family." the man said in his gruff voice.

"Alright, you may pass into the Domain of the Gods."

The doors began to open, past them the mansions were spread out across the land. After they all walked through the doors closed behind them. The continued walking for a long time. Soon enough they were in front of a mansion, seeing it up close, however, it looked more like a palace. They began to walk behind it and a small, wooden house came into view.

They walked inside and the first room was bare, there were grey walls with no decor, no furniture was inside either. There were three doors, one on the back wall, one on the right wall and the last on the left wall. Everyone was led to the door on the left wall and into a room with baths. "We have to bathe you so we'll take your shackles off now," him and a few of the men began taking the cuffs off, "All of you strip down now." the uncaring man demanded.

None of the children did what he said, they were all frozen in terror. The man looked furious, he eyed all of the children in disgust. "Guess we have to do it ourselves" the man said with a dark tone.

"But sir we can't do that! They're just children!" the kind man yelled.

The uncaring one glared at him, "They're slaves now, less than human. They're worth no more than a mere dog."

Hearing those words made all of the children break. Some of them, Azaria included, dropped to their knees with their eyes glued to the ground. Tears flowed from their eyes as they truly began to realize what they all were now.

A few of the men walked up to the children and began pulling their dirty clothes off. The kids covered themselves the best they could with their hands. "Go into the bath and wash off. You have ten minutes."

Three of the men walked out the door to stand guard outside while two stayed inside to watch the children. The adolescents sat in the water fearfully, too afraid to so much as move. The water burned their skin causing a few of the youths to flinch.

After a minutes passed, some of the older boys and girls began to shakily wash themselves off. The grime quickly washed off and dispersed into the water. Following the example of the older kids, the younger ones followed in cleaning themselves. After she finished washing the filth off of her skin, Azaria leaned back and began washing the buildup of muck from her hair.

"Z-Zari...will you wash my hair too?" Lyra asked in a quiet, fearful voice. Azaria simply nodded and started to wash the young girls hair.

After 10 minutes had passed since their departure, the three men that had left walked back in. "Come on, out of the bath. Let's get you all clothes." one of the men said.

The children got out one by one and followed the men outside of the door and into the one across from them. Inside of the room were lots of crates, one of the men pulled the top off and inside were clothes. There were a bunch of white shirts and brown overalls. "Put them on." said the man with a gruff voice.

Most of the children were hesitant, others immediately got dressed in fear of some sort of punishment. Azaria held Lyra's hand as they walked over to get their clothes. After all of the children were dressed they were lead to the door on the back wall. It led downstairs into a room with a metal table with four leather straps. To the right of the room was another door.

Azaria's heart sank at the sight. What are they going to do to us!?

"You there, come here." The man roughly grabbed a little boy, unhooked the straps of his overalls and pulled his shirt off. He then proceeded to strap him to the table and grabbed a branding iron. He quickly pressed it onto the boys skin, there was a sizzling sound and the scent of burning charcoal wafted through the air.

With her question answered, Azaria gagged and slapped a hand over her mouth. The branded boy screamed in pain and tears came pouring from his eyes. The man unstrapped the boy and told him to put his shirt back on. The man repeated the same process of grabbing a child, pulling their shirt off, branding them and unstrapping them.

The whole time, she had one hand over her mouth and the other over Lyra's eyes. She could feel the little girls tears on her hand and it made her heart ache. As the man let the last child go he walked over to Azaria and picked her up.

The straps of her overalls were ripped off and her shirt followed suit. The man lied her on the table and strapped her wrists and legs down tightly. The man grabbed the branding iron once more and Azaria could feel the heat emanating from it as it got closer to her skin. As it pressed against her skin it burned, she screamed as she felt her skin burn away. She could hear it sizzling and she could smell her burning flesh.

Lyra screamed, "Don't do this to Zari!" She ran at the man and began hitting him as hard as she could, he could barely feel it however. The man kicked her away and glared at her. One of the older children attempted to catch the young girl, just to be sent flying from the force of her momentum. The older boy hit the wall with the girl in his arms, he held her close to him in an endeavor to make her feel safe.

The man looked down at the two children against the wall and said, "That's what you get for trying to defy me."

The kind man swallowed back the bile in his throat. What had just happened was making him sick to his stomach. It took every fiber of his being not to punch the vile man in front of him.

The pain slowly dissipated from her back and all Azaria wanted to do was itch her fresh wound—she was in shock from the trauma—what had just happened to Lyra didn't even register in her mind. She pulled her arms back in a failed attempt of getting her hands to slip out of the restraints. The man unstrapped her and threw her off of the table, upon hitting the floor she passed out. He stared down at her in disgust and said, "Start putting their collars and them and throw them in the other room."

The three out of four uniformed adults obliged, the kind man was the only one not to listen. "Do what I say, scum. Put the collars on the brats. Now!" he sounded angrier than usual, the kind man flinched at his words.

I can't stand the way he's treating them—they're not some object to be owned! They're children, dammit! The man knew he couldn't say that, only trouble would follow if he did—and so he obliged.

He began putting bulky metal collars on each of the children. Attached to the collar was a metal bar on the front with a chain attached. I'm sorry about this, kids. He thought to himself. The child in front of him tried pulling on their collar in an attempt to get it off. While kneeling down to her height, he whispered, "Don't try to take it off. It'll blow up if you do…" shame seeped from his voice.

The child looked terrified, her arms dropped as his words sank in. As he walked away to another child, she looked around. Azaria was still passed out on the floor, burned into the flesh on her back was a circle with three triangles above it and one triangle below in the middle—the same symbol they had seen on the doors earlier. Against the left wall, Lyra was in the arms of an older boy who had blood trickling from his mouth.

The young girl kept looking around at the horrific sights in the room, she wanted to stop but she couldn't. She felt sick to her stomach, she wanted to help them but she knew there was nothing she could do. All she was, was a powerless teenager in the unfair world she resided in. She was trying to keep her thoughts positive, trying to see the best in the situation she was in. The best part was, she was alive. But was that really the best part?

Would it be easier if I were dead?

She wanted to think that wasn't true, that it would only get better from here on out. Would it really get better though? How could anything get better in a place like this?

Will it only get worse?

She couldn't begin to imagine how it could get worse than this. The mere thought of it getting worse made her heart sink.

11:34 p.m

As the man finished branding the last child he looked down to the girl who had passed out earlier. He smirked, he was happy to see the claw of the celestial dragon branded onto her. He was enjoying all of the children's suffering.

He grabbed one of the explosive collars and locked it onto the unconscious girl. He scanned the room, seeing that every child had one on now. "It's getting late, let's take them to bed." the twisted man said.

The kind man felt relieved at this knowing their torment would cease for the night. Thoughts of their emotional pain, however, lingered in his mind. He walked over to Azaria and picked her up, following the rest of the men and children through the door to the right of the room.

The room was freezing cold with stone walls and floors. Thin blankets littered the floor and the children began laying down on the floor as instructed by the evil man. After all of them lied down, the kind man rested Azaria on a spot that hadn't yet been taken. He covered her with a blanket and began walking out after the other men he worked with. He stopped at the doorway and looked back, most of the children were already huddling together for warmth. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he promptly wiped it away as he walked out.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! I'm going to try to update every Friday. Reviews would be highly appreciated! -SabosFlame