Author's Note: As usual, thanks to all those who reviewed/faved/followed!
Here's Chapter 6 - I know that the time between each of my updates is getting longer, so I apologise - but school's starting up again, so I have less time to write, now. (A_A) Hopefully I can keep the updates coming in a fairly regular pattern *fingers crossed*, though if there's a slight lag between updates, please understand that I haven't abandoned this fic, I'm just busy. Thanks for the patience! It's appreciated. :)
This chapter's slightly longer than the others to make up for the delay... so enjoy!
Okay.
Zoro breathes deeply, and steadies his thoughts.
Okay.
So Sanji's been captured. No big deal. Zoro will just have to inform the other Straw Hats, and they'll rescue Sanji in no time.
Except… it kind of is a big deal.
Because Sanji's never been captured before by anyone – even in Alabasta when the majority of their crew had been caught and put inside a cage by Crocodile, Sanji never was. He has certainly never been captured by Marines before – and Zoro is actually kind of worried about how they'll treat him.
Zoro's fairly certain that Sanji's currently being held at the marine base on the island, waiting to be shipped off to a proper prison. Knowing that Sanji's a crew member of the Straw Hat Pirates, Zoro's guessing the marines will send him off to Impel Down.
…Hopefully they'll rescue him before that happens. Zoro doesn't particularly fancy breaking into such a high security prison, but he knows that if he has to in order to save Sanji, he'd go willingly.
He thinks that he'd go willingly to hell and back, if Sanji's life was on the line.
He doesn't dwell on it too much.
Instead, he pushes himself up, and sprints back to the Sunny.
As he approaches, Usopp sticks his head out of the crow's nest, where he'd been left to guard the ship while the crew quickly explored the island.
"Back already, Zoro?" Usopp questions. "You didn't get lost, did you? The town's that way-"
"No, I didn't! Sanji's in trouble!" Zoro barks, interrupting Usopp halfway.
Usopp visibly pales, and Zoro can see his knees knocking together from all the way down on the ground.
"Tr-tr-trouble? W-what do you m-m-mean?" Usopp stutters between chattering teeth.
Zoro rolls his eyes impatiently.
"I mean," he clarifies, "That he's been captured by marines, who're probably keeping him in the marine base on this island before they take him to Impel Down."
At the sound of the words marines and Impel Down, Usopp lets out an undignified squeak.
"I'm s-sorry, Z-Zoro," He whimpers, "B-but I appear to have c-c-come d-down with the 'c-can't accompany you to d-dangerous p-places disease'! It's f-fatal, you k-know!"
Zoro huffs, before turning back around and preparing to jump back off the ship.
"Idiot. I don't need you to come – you just need to tell the others what's happened when they get back, so that they can prepare a strategy to rescue Sanji." Zoro leaps onto the dock. "That is, if I'm not back with him by then."
With one look back at Usopp, he starts sprinting away, ignoring Usopp's protests of taking on such a dangerous mission by himself.
He can't afford to wait for the others to come back before taking action.
Who knows what may be going wrong at the marine base in the meantime?
Who knows how Sanji may be faring by himself?
xxx
Zoro finds his way to the marine base eventually.
By that time, he's incredibly pissed off because dammit, why do the roads keep on moving around?! He impatiently hides in some bushes while he scouts the area.
The front of the establishment is guarded by about a dozen marines holding an assortment of swords, looking alert and very very nervous.
So they know the Straw Hats are going to prepare a rescue mission, then.
They're not as stupid as they look.
Zoro moves his attention to the back of the establishment – there appears to be no back door, or at least none that Zoro can see – only cement walls built high to prevent infiltration, with only a gap at the front for the gate, where the marines are currently standing guard.
He'll have to wing everything once he manages to get inside, because he doesn't know a thing about the layout of the base. He guesses the temporary prisoners are kept underground or at least on a lower level, though, so he decides that he'll explore the ground floor and any below it first, before making it up to the first and second levels if he hasn't found Sanji by then.
The idiot had better be awake by now – Zoro doesn't particularly fancy having to carry him out.
Although he's not sure he'd hate it, either…
He snaps himself out of it, and decides to just charge in.
He's never been known to prepare plans, anyway.
Springing from his crouched position in the undergrowth, he starts sprinting towards the startled marines, swords at the ready.
Ignoring the screams and trembling kneecaps that would put even Usopp to shame, he barrels through the blockade with barely a glance, katana flashing in the sunlight. The marines that don't take the brunt of a sword to their bodies are pushed aside carelessly, sprawling onto the ground in messy heaps.
As he continues to run forward, he hears a frantic report being announced over Den-Den Mushi to superiors inside the base from somewhere behind him, and curses. He doubles back, before knocking the Den-Den Mushi from a marine's hand, ignoring startled shouts as he stomps the snail into the ground.
There. It won't be sending calls anytime soon.
Once he's satisfied with the flatness of the snail, he sprints into the base, bursting through the front entrance only to find himself faced with an entire troop of marines.
Dammit.
…Oh, well. He's been looking for a good fight to let out pent-up frustrations, anyway.
He places Wado between his teeth, and grins darkly as he prepares for a full on battle. The marines falter slightly at the feral but deadly expression taking over his face, before charging with swords at the ready.
They're all either very brave, or very stupid.
Zoro's leaning towards the latter, because he advances with barely a hitch, swinging his katana with practiced grace and devastating accuracy, hitting his targets exactly where he'd been aiming for every single time.
Marines fall into puddles of their own blood, and Zoro feels a little bit pitiful of them – but he's not too fussed with the bloodshed, because it's not his fault they're all so weak.
Weaklings who dare to take on the strong deserve to suffer for their blunder.
Zoro knows it firsthand – he dared to take on the strongest when he was nowhere near good enough – only he survived Mihawk's legendary blade, probably unlike the dozens of limp bodies strewn around the room.
He carries on fighting, barely breaking a sweat as he jumps over an approaching hoard, and sends a flying attack at the opposite wall. Taking on the brunt of the attack, the wall crumbles, crushing some screaming marines underneath as it falls.
There's a long corridor behind it, and Zoro realises that there was a door to reach the new room beforehand, so breaking down the wall wasn't exactly necessary – but he doesn't dwell on unimportant details.
He'll just count it as practice.
He dodges past the few remaining marines, and runs down the hallway.
"Shit-cook!" He hollers.
There's no response, but Zoro isn't really expecting one.
This base looks quite big – chances are, Sanji hadn't even heard him.
Sanji may also still be unconscious, but Zoro doesn't think too hard on that option. If he's still down, then he's obviously seriously hit his head. He'll need medical attention.
Unless, of course, he's already dead – but Zoro dismissed that thought immediately as jumping to unreasonable conclusions, and underestimating Sanji's capabilities.
Stupid swirly-brow may be a pain in the ass, but he's definitely not weak.
He's not going to die so easily.
Zoro sheathes his katana, and carries on running. He's on an unofficial time limit – he wants to grab Sanji, and get out before any seriously strong marines show up – fighting a highly ranked marine is not on his wish list today.
He's not looking for trouble, but it appears that he's not going to be allowed to leave before he finds some.
As he turns the next corner, he admits grudgingly to himself that he's a little… confused about the directional placement of the corridor he's running down.
…He's not lost, dammit.
Arriving at an intersection, he looks to the left, and then the right. Which way to go…
To his delight, he sees a group of marines marching hurriedly towards him from the right. They don't appear to have noticed him yet, so he quickly hides behind a cleaning cart as they rush past, no doubt following orders to do with his infiltration.
Whatever. He couldn't care less.
He waits until most of them have passed, before reaching out and grabbing the collar of a marine at the back of the pack, and dragging him back into hiding. Clapping a hand over his mouth to prevent a yelp from escaping, he quickly places the sharp edge of his katana at his throat.
An unspoken threat. He presses the sword further, so that it pierces the skin and a small trickle of blood runs down his neck.
The marine stands stock still, and satisfied that he's not dumb enough to attempt to escape or call out when he's in such a dangerous position, Zoro releases his hand from his mouth.
"Tell me where Black Leg Sanji is being kept." He growls, voice indicating that he's not in the mood for games.
When the marine just continues trembling, Zoro presses the katana further into his neck.
"P-please-" He's cut off as Zoro just sinks his sword down further, so that the trickle of blood turns into a steadier stream.
Realising that Zoro's not going to let him go without the wanted information and that he's risking his own head, the marine wisely begins talking.
"He's being kept in the holding cells, waiting to be shipped to Impel Down." Zoro grunts, indicating that he's listening. When the marine doesn't expand further, Zoro presses down harder on the katana as a warning. "A-ah! T-the holding cells are downstairs – follow the corridor to the left until it runs out, and you should see some steps leading down. Follow them, and Black-Leg's cell is to the right, in a separate room near the end. But there's heaps of guards, and someone should be in the cell interrogating him now – you won't get through!"
Zoro frowns. "Leave that to me. Thanks for the help."
Then he punches the marine in the face, who promptly falls back and passes out cold.
Zoro looks down at him.
"Tch."
Then, he follows the directions he'd been given – go down the left corridor first, right? Easy.
He holds out both hands, and shapes them so that only the index fingers and thumbs are sticking out.
He turns in the direction of the hand that's shaped like an 'L', and thanks Kuina in his head for teaching him the cheat way of determining left and right.
He makes his way down the hallway, careful of approaching marines, but there don't seem to be any.
Something about the utter quietness of the place puts Zoro on edge.
They know why he's here, so shouldn't there be hoards of marines in the passages between the entrance and the dungeons?
His instincts are screaming 'trap', but he has no option but to plough on.
He'll deal with anything thrown at him when the time comes.
He reaches the end of the hallway, and realises that there indeed is a stairwell – so the marine hadn't been lying to him after all.
He grins, and leaps down them four steps at a time.
Still no marines.
…So where had the group he'd snatched the marine from been heading off to, then?
He shrugs, and pushes open the door at the bottom of the stairs.
And…wow. Okay.
He knows where all the marines went, now.
The room with the cells is huge – cage after cage line the wall, disappearing far into the distance to the left as well as the right, most of them empty but some filled. He doesn't recognise any of the prisoners he can see.
That's not what's bothering him, though.
Because to the right, where he knows Sanji's being held, going as far into the distance as the cages do, is row after row after row of marines, holding swords and shotguns alike.
To the left, there's no guards at all.
…If he didn't already know in which direction Sanji is being held, he would now.
He sighs, and that seems to break the collective stillness in the room.
As one, the marines yell, and start charging forwards.
Zoro unsheathes his weapons, and prepares for a serious fight.
He's not going to show it on his face or admit it out loud – god, no – but he is a tiny bit worried about the colossal number of marines standing in his way.
He reminds himself that this is for Sanji.
He can't let Sanji down.
So, sending a prayer to a god that he doesn't believe in, Zoro composes himself, and dives into the wave of marines, swords out and head steady.
He's going to go rescue Sanji, and not even the entire world's supply of marines is going to stop him.
xxx
To Zoro's surprise, it doesn't take long.
Although there was a large number of marines, none were really skilled and most looked like relatively new recruits – so he took pity on them, and knocked them out instead of going in for the kill in most cases.
Now, he's standing in front of a door at the end of the row of cells, ignoring the cries for help from the other prisoners.
He doesn't have time for charity work.
He's not Luffy, and besides – some of these people might be actual criminals, who murder kittens and throw babies under buses or something.
He shudders at the thought.
He's not going to release any people like that.
So, he looks back at the door in front of him.
This is it – he's certain that Sanji's in a cell behind it.
He shoves open the door.
He's expecting more marines inside the room, and he's right.
When the doors swing open, there's more swords being pointed at his face, but he's actually quite surprised that there aren't all that many.
Guess they underestimated him, and thought he'd never make it past all the defences outside.
He smirks, as he dodges some blades, and swings out his own.
As a couple of marines are knocked into a wall, he chances a look around.
Where is he, where is he…
YES. THERE HE IS!
Sanji's sitting in a cell, wrists locked in seastone cuffs that are attached to the wall by a chain. There's a line of dried blood trailing from his hairline to his temple, but otherwise there's no obvious signs of injury. Zoro lets out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding.
Now that he knows that Sanji's not dead, he takes in the less significant details – Sanji's expression. He's openly gaping at Zoro, who smirks back.
Sanji's expression quickly morphs into a scowl.
Looks like he's alive and kicking, then.
Zoro has never felt more relieved to see Sanji sneer in his life.
"What are you doing here, asshole?! Where are the others?" Sanji snaps, but Zoro can tell that his irritation isn't entirely genuine.
Zoro can tell, because he knows Sanji.
He's known Sanji long enough to notice that despite the cutting tone, there's a slightly uncertain lilt to his voice, as well as an almost fearful gleam in his eyes.
Zoro realises with a jolt that Sanji's worried.
Zoro would be almost touched, if he wasn't above all that sentimental bullshit. Pfft. Emotions are for losers.
"The crew's fine – in fact, they're probably going to be here soon," Zoro snarks back, but.
But it's not just Sanji that Zoro knows well – he knows himself, too.
He's known himself long enough to notice that the tone of his voice isn't exactly hostile, either.
"I, in the meantime, am here to save your sorry ass."
Zoro adds in a smirk for affect.
He's not entirely sure he manages to pull it off, because his expression even feels all wobbly, so he's certain it looks even worse.
He's certain that it looks like a picture of pure relief.
…He's not that happy that Sanji's safe, dammit.
(And why is he starting to sound like Chopper?)
Zoro tunes back into the present, just in time to catch a strange look crossing Sanji's face, but he doesn't dwell on it – well, he can't dwell on it, technically, because then he has to re-lift his katana and eliminate the last of the standing marines. It takes all of two seconds; then, Zoro straightens and sheaths his swords.
He looks back at Sanji, but Sanji's face is schooled back into casual indifference.
"Well…" Zoro starts hesitantly. Then he mentally slaps himself, because why does he have to sound so awkward?! And why is the way Sanji's staring at him make him feel so exposed? "Uhh… Do you have the keys to your cuffs?"
…Wow. Nice one, Zoro. Why would he have the key to his own cuffs, you idiot?!
Zoro mentally slaps himself again.
Sanji open his mouth to speak, when he's interrupted.
"No, he doesn't. Because I have the key."
Which… confuses Zoro a little bit, because he doesn't remember opening his mouth.
He doesn't remember having the key, either.
At which point he realises that he doesn't remember opening his mouth or having the key, because he didn't, and he doesn't.
For the first time since entering the new room, Zoro notices that Sanji's not alone in his cell.
Tunnel vision or something, probably. (Zoro refuses to think about what having tunnel vision for Sanji, of all people, means for his mental wellbeing. Or lack thereof.)
He doesn't have long to think about anything, however, because it's at this moment that he realises who exactly the man in Sanji's cage is.
Or more precisely, what the man in Sanji's cage is.
Because sitting no more than half a metre away from Sanji is a marine. By the number of badges adorning his uniform, Zoro guesses that he's important, and higher up in the ranks than all the other marines that Zoro has fought so far in the day.
Zoro remembers distantly that the marine he'd nicked from the corridors upstairs had warned him about this – about a man currently interrogating the prisoner.
Zoro's not scared, though – he can easily beat this guy, he's sure of it. He just needs to find a way into the cage…
He smirks, and reaches for his swords.
"Don't move!" Comes the yell.
Zoro's quite surprised to find that there's no panic in the voice, despite the fact that he's sure the man has recognised him by now. He looks up in suspicion, hand resting on the hilt of Wado, to find that there's a matching smirk on the marine's face.
Zoro's own smirk falters slightly, because that can't be right.
That can't be right, because… Why isn't the marine scared for his life?
Zoro's careful not to let his confusion show on his face. "And why," he drawls, careful to sound uninterested, "would I listen to you?"
The marine lifts up an eyebrow, and his face reads really? You haven't noticed?
At Zoro's blank expression, the marine shakes his head, and makes an exaggerated tsking sound. He lifts up a hand, deliberately slowly as if Zoro's stupid.
"Because, Roronoa Zoro," he purrs, dark eyes glinting, "I have this."
Zoro looks at his hand, and he feels his heart skip a beat.
Because the man… The man's holding a knife.
And he's moving it.
Slowly, he moves it closer and closer towards Sanji, and Zoro follows the movement with his eyes until the knife's point is pressed against Sanji's throat.
"And, Roronoa," a feral grin morphs his features into something dark and ugly. "I'm not afraid to use it."
He presses the knife down a little, just so that a small bead of blood wells up at Sanji's neck.
Zoro feels sick.
He watches as the drop of Sanji's blood starts rolling slowly down his neck, disappearing under the collar of his shirt, before he snaps his eyes away and to Sanji's face.
He's expecting to see anger, probably – in Sanji's clenched teeth and blazing eyes at being held hostage; he's expecting indifference, maybe – in the carefully collected way that Sanji schools his features when he doesn't want to appear weak; he's expecting a hint of fear, even – in the way Sanji may have realised that he's defenceless against an enemy holding a sharp blade.
What Zoro doesn't expect to see is a smirk that rivals the one on the marine's face, accompanied by a raised eyebrow that just screams smugness.
Zoro just stares, feeling dazed and more than a little out of the loop.
Sanji gives him a pointed look, to which Zoro just scrunches his brow.
Rolling his eyes, Sanji starts to lean forwards.
Zoro jolts in shock, because what is that idiot doing?! He's going to get himself killed!
He's just about to start really panicking, as he watches more beads of blood trickle down Sanji's neck, when something weird happens.
The marine hisses, and moves his knife back a bit.
"What are you doing?! I will kill you, you know!"
And then suddenly, Zoro understands.
He understands why Sanji looked so confident just before – what Sanji was trying to tell him.
He grins, giving Sanji what he hopes is a grateful look.
Sanji grins back, and sends him a thumbs up.
Zoro turns his attention back to the marine.
"No, you won't," Zoro states with finality, unsheathing his swords in one swift, rehearsed movement. The marine doesn't move to stab Sanji through the neck, instead starting to pale alarmingly fast, and Zoro realises that they were right. "Because you," he emphasises with a step towards the cell, "can't afford to kill him."
There's panic starting to swell in the marine's eyes, now, and Zoro feels powerful. He keeps walking towards the cell until he's standing right in front of it.
"You can't kill him," he elaborates, preparing to swing his katana, "because then there's nothing preventing me," he brings his arm back, "from killing you."
The marine looks about two seconds away from passing out, and Zoro derives a sick pleasure from watching him squirm.
Zoro's going to kill him.
He messed with the wrong people, and Zoro doesn't have any sympathies towards those who threaten to hurt his friends.
"W-wait!"
Zoro doesn't know why he does it – why he suddenly stops himself from cutting open the cage and painfully murdering the man, but he thinks it's got something to do with the way the knife suddenly moves a foot downwards, so it's pressed against Sanji's lower chest, instead.
"If you don't surrender, I'll stab him! Then he'll bleed out before you get your hands on a doctor!"
Zoro stiffens again, and quickly looks at Sanji.
Sanji's already gazing back, eyes steady as he shrugs. When Zoro still doesn't look away, he rolls his eyes and lifts a corner of his lips in a reassuring smile.
Zoro takes a second to admire him – admire a Sanji that's not scowling at him, for once. A Sanji that's smiling at him – and not in the polite way he has been for the past few weeks, either, but-
But… In a way that's open, and friendly – a smile that smooths out his features, and makes him look so, so much younger.
It's not a big smile – just a simple lift of the lips and crinkle of the eyes – and it's not a smile that he directs at the girls, either, no. It just… It's a smile that makes him look sincerely happy.
Zoro's not sure that he's ever seen this smile before.
He wonders what that means – whether Sanji's been unhappy for longer than he's let on.
Zoro hopes not – he thinks that Sanji should smile like that more – smile like that all the time.
His thoughts are interrupted.
"I'm fine, stupid." Sanji makes the insult sound almost like an endearment. "A stab wound won't kill me. You know that. You trust me, right?"
Zoro does.
So he turns back to the marine, who's properly shaking now.
Zoro lifts up his sword.
"N-no!" The marine grapples around frantically, before seeming to grab onto Sanji's wrist in a moment of sheer panic. "I'll! I'll cut off his fingers!"
It's just a last ditch effort at saving his own life, Zoro knows.
Zoro knows.
But it's still enough to stop Zoro cold.
He snaps his head to look at Sanji, and he sees the horror dawning in the blue eyes staring back at him, no trace of the smile from before. He sees the battle of emotion fighting it out on his face, before Sanji suddenly seems to settle, and then his face is the portrayal of calm.
Too calm.
"It's fine," Sanji whispers. "Just do it."
But it's not fine.
Zoro can tell it's not fine.
Zoro knows it's not fine.
He's not an idiot – he can see the fear swimming behind Sanji's blue eyes – he can hear the way Sanji's breathing is picking up speed.
And what about his cooking?!
Zoro knows how much Sanji treasures his hands – he values them to the point of refusing to fight with them, in case they get damaged. As far as Zoro knows, Sanji doesn't have a single scar on his hands.
Sanji's always said that he needs his hands to cook; and Zoro may not always show it, but he does listen carefully to the things his nakama have to say, and he remembers things – especially those that are important.
Sanji won't be able to cook at half the skill level he can now with multiple fingers missing.
The fact that Sanji's acting indifferent about it now hits Zoro harder than he'd like to admit. Because it shows, doesn't it?
It shows that Sanji either doesn't believe Zoro's been paying enough attention to him to know about how much he values his hands, or that he knows, but doesn't care.
Both options make bile rise at the back of Zoro's throat.
The marine seems to have picked up in the mood change, too, because he perks up considerably. His grip tightens on Sanji's wrist, and he places the sharp edge of the knife along his fingers.
"If you don't drop your swords and surrender, I'll cut his fingers off." His expression is stony cold.
Zoro tightens his grip on his swords, before turning his eyes back to Sanji.
Sanji's not looking at him, now – he's got his eyes lowered to the floor, and Zoro can see the way his free hand is gripping tightly to his pants. His knuckles are white, and now that Zoro's started picking up on the details, he sees the trembling – the way Sanji's entire body is slightly shaking under his clothes. His breaths are escaping in shallow puffs, and Zoro…
Zoro thinks of Sanji falling asleep in the galley, while he's working on personalised recipes for the crew. He thinks of the care and attention Sanji pays them all – the way he picks up on critique for his food, and always strives to make his dishes better. He thinks of the way Sanji goes on and on and on about the All Blue – his and his old man's dream. He thinks of why Sanji wants to find it – because then he can cook with all the seafood in the world at one place.
He thinks of Sanji not being able to do any of that anymore – of Sanji losing all of it, with the loss of his fingers.
Then he thinks of Sanji giving it all up, because he thinks Zoro wouldn't care.
And Zoro can't do it – doesn't think he ever could.
So he does the only alternative thing he can think of.
He drops his swords.