Chapter Six: Walking Towards a Fate that is Not Ours

Weeks must have passed, though they did not know. Truthfully it could have been days but felt like months and they wouldn't have known. They tried to catch up with each other, tried to keep the conversation going with one another but with ten years apart from them it was hard to find a balance. There just wasn't anything but the past connecting them, and even then the past wasn't something they really wanted to discuss. Luna had nothing to add to the conversation, having spent those ten years apart in Impel Down and Ace would eventually run out of stories. There just wasn't that much of a spark as there was when they were younger.

They cared about each other; that was something that would never fade. They would give life and limb for the other and damn the consequences. They loved each other, willing to go through Hell just to make the other happy. Ten years had gone by though, ten years they hadn't been able to speak to each other and ten years of memories stolen away from them. They couldn't bridge the gap that separated them for more than a decade.

The tension was released when they got yet another cellmate, a fishman named Jimbe. He was once a warlord but refused to fight in the war that was right around the corner. He has respect for not only Ace but Whitebeard as well and refused to stand against them in something like this. He was an unofficial ally to the Whitebeard Pirates, visiting every few months to give information they needed in return for the protection of Fishman Island.

Jimbe was interesting, not only keeping Luna's entertainment but Cheshire's as well. It wasn't the kind of entertainment she usually felt, one which took a deep grab at her soul and whispered in her ear to destroy this person's everything. Luna swore the voice off long ago, making a pack with Cheshire that she could break anyone she wanted if her brothers and their crews were off the hook. They kept to that deal, and anyone who ticked her off enough was lucky to have their sanity intact when she was done with them. Even in this Hell people ticked her off and while she could no longer use her devil fruit abilities to take care of them, it didn't stop her mindset.

Jimbe was a man of honor and dignity, and wasn't able to be easily gained respect from. He was loyal to his kind and did everything he could to have equal rights between the people above and the fishmen below. It was something she could admire, a drive she could put her faith in. It was by far no little task, he might not even be able to do it in his lifetime, but he was willing to put his life at stake to help it along. It was something she respected, knowing that everything could be for naught but still doing it anyways because it was the right thing to do.

In a different life, she could see them becoming friends. Alice had fallen down a hole before and stumbled through a door, and entered a world that didn't seem to be hers but was. Maybe it was very much like them, having been able to meet in a different situations if things went differently.

She grew a bond with him in their time together in their cell, and it was kinship to a degree. He was willing to put his life at stake for his species and his morals while she was willing to put everything on the line for the ones she cared about. She wondered if he would become her crewmate when she got out of here. She would have loved it if he did.

Cheshire didn't know how long it had been since Garp, or anyone for that matter, had visited them since Jimbe had join in this little cell party of theirs. It still wasn't long enough though because before they were ready guards had made themselves known to the floor and were walking their way to the cell they shared. Both Cheshire and Luna had known what was coming, knew before she had even seen her brother's face in the dimly lit cage. It didn't make anything easier though, didn't make anything less painful. She felt her heart being ripped out of chest as the guards unchained her big brother, guns at the ready in case he tried to escape before he was executed.

She caught his eye before he was taken from her sight, a clear message in her eyes: You are not allowed to die.

They wouldn't give these monsters the satisfaction of her despair, her aching heart burning in her soul. She wouldn't rise to their bait, wouldn't rise to the title they gave her as a demon. They were messing with her, making their movements and intentions clear in the way they acted. Even as they escorted him out of the cell and towards the elevator, one guard remained.

His eyes gave her the creeps, as if they were undressing her and seeing her bare. She didn't give any indication of her thought process, staring at the man with a stare that would make you lose your nerve and run away from her. He wasn't really paying attention to her face though, his wandering eyes gazing at the unclothed skin that his lust-filled orbs seemed drawn to.

It made her feel disgusting.

Another guard came to take her away with the one that was making eyes at her. She didn't resist as they tugged her out of the cell that had become her safe haven, didn't register the worried eyes of the potential crew member. She only gave him a small, sad smile, her head nodding as if in confirmation, and was dragged away before he could say a word of protest.

Before they were able to kill her off like they had planned, one would need to undress her. The uniforms were reusable, and though she did not wear the uniform, they weren't going to allow her to die with anything. It was too good for criminals, they had said. They were going to be sent to real Hell with nothing.

The man that was somewhat decent left to go get the medicine that would put her to sleep for entirety, leaving her alone with the man that was giving her the creeps. Cheshire had long since retreated to their mindscape, leaving Luna who was greatly weakened by the seastone around her defenseless. She was locked to the wall, unable to move. She felt his greasy hands on her clothes, felt the way his fingers wrapped themselves around her hips to keep her unmovable. He ripped off her clothes, the sound of the tears echoing in the soundproof, camera-free room. She knows that he is too much of a coward to do anything, knows that he will most likely stare at her naked form and nothing more. He won't risk it, the other guard sure to come back soon.

It doesn't make the fear any less reasonable though.

xXXxXXx

When the somewhat decent guard returns she is naked, staring at him unabashedly. They have done this thousands times before, lead thousands prisoners who just wouldn't die to this room naked and she will not be the last. She is lead to a room full of people wearing white lab coats, a table laid bare for her death. The place reeks of it, the smell of the dead is in this room and it causes her stomach to roll and churn. She feels like she is going to faint, the feeling seeping into her skin and it feels as if she will never be clean again.

She wasn't planning to die right after they took Ace, wasn't planning to die at all. There wasn't much she could do here, and Cheshire didn't want to face the outside world right now. She was on her own. She would survive, like she had always done. So when they placed her on the bed and started taking a needle to her skin she was ready, ready to either die or make a comeback. The others, after making sure she was strapped down tightly and unable to move, left the room and only one scientist remained.

The doctor – if you could call them such – brought the needle to her skin at the crook of her elbow and was seconds from breaking skin and pumping the drugs that would tell her brain to shut off, would make her heart stop beating and her lungs from processing air. The second those drugs were in her system she was done for. Luna couldn't afford that.

Being desperate and lucky were one of her talents, the worse situations turning for the better for her. The doctor made a mistake of getting too close to her, made himself in easy reach and all she had to do was break the chains that they thought could hold her. Faster than he could recognize a threat, she had him in a headlock. She grabbed her other hand, and putting it on his head, she twisted. Whoever the unnamed person was fell to the floor – another casualty of this place.

Luna, not Cheshire, didn't hesitate to rummage around the dead man's pockets in search of the key for her shackles. She found it in his front pocket, the key easily sliding into her grasp and finding its way to the hole it was made for. There was a click, the hinges opening up, and a clank as they fell to the floor. Cheshire came alive in her mind, a beautiful tinkling of laughter making its way out of her own lips because of her happiness. The shackles that once held her to the ground was removed, allowing her for once to be free. The weight of the world couldn't have felt heavier than those cuffs, her once steady form straightening because there was nothing holding her back for doing so. Her muscles stretched, her tendons straining from the years held in place. Bones popped in relief, a relaxed sensation settling over her sore body.

Blinking around dazedly, as if she hasn't really opened her eyes in years, she looks around for any clothes. When she doesn't find any she takes the white lab coat from the man she killed, slipping it on to cover any parts not meant to be seen. She goes out the way she knows no one will be waiting, her head high as if she knew what she was doing. Making her way back the path she came was easier said than done, the turns making it hard to find the cell she came from. It would be a hot day in Hell before she left Jimbe in this place to suffer for who knows how long.

Luna found her way to his cell eventually, unlocking his cell and his chains in the process. When she saw Crocodile – a man she usually paid no mind too and had been sentenced here a year or so ago by the marines to save face because a man of Whitebeard had taken him down – she decided to get him out of here as well. She knew his abilities well enough and he could help her in return for getting him out of this prison.

They made their way to Level Five point Five, stopping to see a friend of her father who was known as Iva-chan to her. He knew she was coming, just as she had known he would have been waiting for her. Iva had heard a rumor from a marine base they had raided a few years ago that they had captured the daughter of Dragon. Iva didn't bother to check in with Dragon to see what he wanted to do and instead let himself be caught in order to find her. He searched the Levels one by one, but was never able to make it to Level Six because of his resources. Iva figured if the rumor was true though, she would be in Level Six and waited for the day she would break herself out.

He handed them a change of clothes, already waiting to head to the surface. If Luna was moving so early in the game than he knew as well as she did. The world was waiting for their answer, it was time to give it to them.

Breaking out of Impel Down would never be easy, but it would probably stay in her mind even after she died and gone to Hell. It was something no one had done before, even if the Shiki the Golden Lion had broken himself out. It happened in chaos, the guards being unprepared for the out lash and were mowed over by the prisoners that had spent years in their cells.

For the first time in a decade, Luna breathes in the fresh air of the sea, the saltiness moving through her lungs and letting her know she is in fact alive. It's a treasured feeling, one she doesn't think she will ever regret. She knows she can't, for this one feeling is the proof she is free from the chains that kept her there for several years.

She's on her way home, to the ocean.

Now she just needed to make sure her family was waiting for her, both healthy and safe and not on the verge of being executed.

The welcome home party would have to wait a bit more.

Page: 4

Word: 2274

Reviews:

Blazin'Blue: Yeah, that has to be one of my favorite scenes to date. Sadly, while the war is coming up, I don't go into too much detail. (Mainly because I don't feel like re-watching those scenes just to see my favorite character die) However it does give a kick start to Luna becoming a Whitebeard pirate. I hope you have enjoyed this revamped version as well :)

ScarletRoofs: He isn't, but there won't be a scene for his reaction for a while. I want to establish Cheshire's place in everything before moving towards how Garp feels about everything. Sabo doesn't even know his sister is alive yet, and while they are both family members, Sabo comes first in my mind.

G05: I don't try to be hypocritical (I hate hypocrites), but I do understand the need for longer chapters. Sometimes chapters are just too long though so I'd rather have mine be somewhere between 3-6 pages long. At least two thousands words.