Nami isn't sure whether to feel relieved or concerned when Luffy - who finally stops howling when he realizes he's getting blood all over Wado - doesn't immediately bolt off in search of whoever's attacked the ship and their nakama but simply collapses into a sitting position, staring dumbly at his injured hands.
He blinks at her approach with cloudy shocked eyes, trying to wipe the broken sword clean on his vest front, and doesn't speak as she drops down beside him.
But when she tries to gently pry the hilt from the younger pirate's fingers, afraid that he's going to accidentally stab himself in the chest, the teary-eyed rubber man bares his teeth at her, so she lets him keep it and settles for slinging an arm tightly around his shoulders and leaning her forehead against his cheek as she struggles to keep her own distress under control.
Franky rushes onto the dock moments later, his shouting cut abruptly short at the sight of the devastation. The cyborg slows to a walk and stares up at the vessel he's poured his heart and soul into and that's been their only real home since departing Water Seven, tears welling in his eyes, but when he sees the small despondent group surrounding their shivering captain, he turns his back on the Sunny and joins them.
"We should do something about the ship," Robin murmurs as she strokes Chopper's bowed head, looking over to meet Nami's eyes, and the navigator nods in silent agreement but neither of them moves from where they're huddled on either side of Luffy, until Usopp and Brook appear, running as fast as they can and shrieking at them to explain what the hell's going on.
At the historian's faltering words, the sniper falls to his hands and knees beside them, and the musician solemnly removes his hat.
"Luffy-san, I-"
Something explodes noisily inside the ship, and everyone flinches in surprise.
"I think-" Franky mutters, removing his sunglasses to swipe his forearm across his wet face. "I think that was Channel Two."
Their captain takes a ragged breath. "Somebody go put out the fire."
No one moves, and when Luffy lifts his head, his eyes aren't quite as unfocused. "Franky, Usopp, go take care of the ship. We don't have anywhere else to go."
"Mugiwara..."
"Luffy, what about-"
Barking a choked order for his distraught crew to stop badgering him and concentrate on extinguishing the Sunny before it's consumed by the fire ravaging its decks, Luffy staggers to his feet and pushes away from them, swaying slightly.
He refuses to let Chopper bandage his bleeding hands until he's thoroughly combed the wreckage for every last shard of Kuina's katana that he can find. His determined searching also uncovers Kitetsu and Shuusui, their edges now dull and chipped. Shuusui is bent nearly in half.
"Zoro will want them back and we'll just find somebody to fix them," he mutters when Brook asks him what he's doing, and the skeleton doesn't have the heart to tell him that even if they take the damaged weapons to a tradesman skilled enough to re-forge them, they won't really be the same blades. He suspects the younger pirate already knows this.
Franky, maneuvering the floating wreckage of a smaller ship closer to their own to use as a platform from which to combat the flames, utters a shout of disbelief when he finds Sanji's battered body half-buried amidst the split timbers. The cook is burned and bloodied and only semi-conscious, but he insists on speaking with their captain before he'll allow his wounds to be treated.
"Stupid stubborn bastards," Nami whispers thoughtlessly, and it sounds so much like something that their swordsman might say that she bursts into tears.
"Listen," Sanji chokes, fist gripping the collar of Luffy's vest and yanking him closer until they're almost touching noses. "Marines ambushed us- took Marimo-"
The cook coughs explosively, blood spraying from his lips, but the captain doesn't flinch as it spatters his face.
"Which Admiral?" He demands, nostrils flaring, even though something inside him already knows the answer, because there's very few people capable of surviving a match with his swordsman much less abducting him, even if Zoro's not quite in top fighting form right now.
"T-Two of them."
Chopper is tugging tearfully at their arms, demanding that they stop talking because he's convinced Sanji has a punctured lung, but they both ignore him, the blond fighting the darkness stealing into his vision because he's determined to tell Luffy what the younger pirate needs to know before he passes out. "-that g-guy with the glasses from Sabaody- and some huge t-tattooed asshole I've never seen before with-"
Huge glowing fists, he's about to say, but the expression of undiluted rage that sweeps over his nakama's face tells him that the younger man already knows the second Admiral's identity.
"Akainu," Luffy snarls, pupils constricting to pinpoints as he finally recognizes the odor that's been haunting him since he first started searching the burning ship. It's the same smell of volcanic sulfur and brimstone that lingered in his nostrils after Marineford, where he lost someone else he loved to the magma man's wrath.
His control snaps then, and his crewmates watch in stunned silence as he lays waste to the dock's remains, until Franky - following Nami's fearful urging that somebody do something before their captain inadvertently causes more damage to either himself or the Sunny - knocks him into the harbor with a cautiously applied fist.
The younger pirate's much calmer after the cyborg and Usopp fish him out, quietly accepting the slightly squashed but otherwise unharmed straw hat that Robin passes him, his head bowed as he listens to her softly spoken explanation of how she found it caught and fluttering on a bent nail nearby.
The sight of Shank's hat in his hand turns Luffy's stomach, because he'd gladly trade it for the far more significant treasure that's been stolen from his grasp.
xxx
The log pose resets itself that evening, but no one broaches the subject of setting out for the next island, because they're all aware that Sunny's not going anywhere and their captain - perched on the ship's figurehead and staring forlornly at the horizon, where the sinking sun's reflected on the calm water - is, for once in his life, looking back instead of forward.
xxx
Several miles away, on a Marine vessel where chore boys are lighting lamps against the coming night and exchanging awed whispers regarding the distinguished visitors and their notorious prisoner, two of the most powerful military men in the world exchange private words behind the locked and heavily guarded door of the ship's brig.
"I thought somebody was pulling my leg when the order came down, but it looks like it's true. Goddamn pirates. It's bad enough we've still got Level Six escapees on the loose two years after that fiasco with Teach, and now this?" A heavy boot nudges the unconscious swordsman's belly, and the two men watch as their captive curls reflexively into a defensive ball, uttering a faint groan of protest.
"Oooh, I suppose it's a bit unusual," Kizaru muses, stroking his chin. "-but stranger things have happened, and their crew's certainly developed a reputation for doing the unexpected."
"Exactly, which is why I still say we should kill him now, before this blows up in our faces."
"Now, now, are you suggesting we disobey a direct order? The World Government wants Roronoa alive. At least until he's no longer needed, anyway, and judging by his current appearance, we shouldn't have long to wait." He adjusts his glasses, eyeing the shorter Admiral. "You nearly jeopardized our mission, you know, trying to punch him like that. It's a good thing that blond man got in the way."
"I wasn't expecting him to pull that Kyutoryu stunt. It's surprising he still had that much fight in him, considering how exhausted he looked when we tracked him back to his ship- but the bloody bastard actually nicked me."
"Ah-ah, Akainu- don't do that. It's not polite to kick a pregnant wo- man? Oooh, I'm not quite sure of the proper idiom in the given situation."
"I'm surprised at you, getting sentimental over-"
"Don't be ridiculous. But if you break a hatching egg, you run the risk of damaging the chick inside, correct? We both know they insisted I tag along to protect their investment because they don't trust your temper, especially in regards to the Mugiwara pirates."
"Bunch of fools," Akainu sneers, but he lowers his foot. "We should've ordered a Buster Call as soon as they received the positive identification from that clinic."
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times- while they consider Monkey D. Luffy a dangerous future element, the World Government is more concerned with the whereabouts of his father, and this-" Kizaru taps his heel lightly on the swordsman's hip. "-may be the opportunity they've been waiting for, if the news lures him into revealing his current location."
"They can't seriously be expecting Dragon to give a damn about where his son spends his seed. I think it's clear the man views his own boy as nothing more than a pawn of the Revolutionary Army, just like a typical-"
"Oooh, but what better pawn will he find than his own grandchild? The issue of two ridiculously powerful Supernovas, both of which have proven themselves quite adept at causing the World Nobles such an ongoing headache? Besides, if Sengoku's theory is correct, that child could be another D, and although Garp's family tends toward male offspring, I don't need to tell you the fairer sex could be equally problematic. Just look at Nico Robin, hmm?"
"Enough with your long-winded mumbling- it takes you forever to say what's on your mind." The muscular man kneels to rattle the thick chain links holding Roronoa's hands behind his back, checking that they're secure for the fifth time since they dragged the insensate swordsman into the cell. "Garp- demoted or not, that old man's going to be a problem. Hasn't been quite right since I exterminated Roger's brat, and he's still far too interested in matters that shouldn't concern him."
Like that upstart who stepped out of line and challenged me at Marineford two years ago, the Admiral deliberates darkly. He's well aware that Garp's maintained contact with Coby following the completion of the younger Marine's Haki training.
"And that would be why Roronoa's condition needs to remain classified until we reach our destination." Kizaru sighs, shaking his head as he glances towards the cell's fourth occupant. "Some people are just far too nosy for their own good. If you would be so kind as to drop that body overboard on your way out, I will re-stress the importance that the petty officers not disobey orders to steal a quick look at our... guest. If we're forced to continue eliminating our own men, there won't be anyone left to sail the ship."
Grumbling, Akainu reaches out to rip the insignia from the corpse's uniform before he hauls the body upright by the collar, because a man unable to follow orders certainly doesn't deserve to bear the emblem of his rank. "I still can't believe they're sending him there, after what happened the last time. Like I've said already-"
"I've been told it's not a concern. They finished the reconstruction twelve weeks ago, and besides, there's no one to sneak the Mugiwara captain inside this time. If he somehow finds his way back to Paradise, we'll be waiting for him, and he'll never make it past the Gates." There's a sharp knock at the door, and the taller man smiles. "Oooh, I believe dinner is ready. Shall we go?"
Akainu glances back at the swordsman curled on the floor one last time before he follows Kizaru out the door, tightening his grip on the dead Marine he's holding at arm's length to keep the blood and brain matter from the man's crushed skull from staining his white suit.
Tough luck, Roronoa. You and Dragon's son, both caught in the crossfire between the World Government and the Revolutionary Army. Nobody on either side really gives a shit whether you live or die; they're far more interested in how to utilize the tool you've unwittingly provided for them.
He's somewhat perplexed at why the other man hasn't done the sensible thing and had the abomination he's carrying aborted, but apparently the Pirate Hunter actually wants his captain's child, or he wouldn't have been so desperate to protect his abdomen during their fight. His black-clad crewmate seemed equally determined to thwart their efforts, and judging by the conversation Akainu overheard...
"-he's happy, and I guess we've got you idiots looking out for us-"
It's odd and almost touching, as though the Straw Hats actually thought they were starting a family, on the Grand Line of all places, the Admiral muses as he slams the steel door shut behind him.
He might actually feel sorry for them- if they weren't pirates.
xxx
It's almost three weeks before the news finally reaches them, but one afternoon Luffy returns to the ship with a broken harpoon impaled through his left shoulder and clutching a gore-streaked eternal pose, his voice tremulous with fear and hope as he addresses the dining hall. "He's alive."
While his nakama repair the ship and struggle to keep Sanji, who's recovering from several fractured ribs and second-degree burns, from overexerting himself, the captain's been restlessly combing the city and surrounding towns for information. To his consternation, when he returns to the medical clinic, intending to confront the doctor who surely reported their presence to the authorities, he finds the building gutted and the tile floor in the lobby dark with patches of dried blood, and although he's not quite sure what this means, he knows it's not good.
Much to his crew's distress, their young leader's also been raiding incoming ships - civilian, pirate and military alike - because he's convinced that someone entering the New World must know what's going on at Marine Headquarters. They've moved the Sunny down the coastline eleven times now in an attempt to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves, but it doesn't deter other vessels - particularly those belonging to the Marines - from following, and Luffy's accepted the more frequent attacks with casual disdain.
The other Straw Hats have been terrified that he's going to get himself killed, because his normally careless attitude towards his opponents has gotten downright suicidal, but no one has the heart to stop him, even if they know he's unjustly punishing himself for letting Zoro return to the ship alone.
Dropping onto the slightly blackened bar stool and slumping back against the cracked counter, Luffy tosses the pose to Nami, who snatches it out of midair and wipes the red smears from the plaque so she can read the inscription: Fishman Island.
"They're saying Roronoa Zoro's been imprisoned in Impel Down."
Usopp grimaces. "Luffy, what about-"
"Nothing." The rubber man looks away, grunting as he rips the wooden shaft from his shoulder. He drops it to the floor, where it clatters and rolls under his dangling feet, staring stonily at the wall while Chopper rushes into the infirmary to fetch his bag. "But there's no way he could have hidden it from the guards. And... they've gotta know it's mine, even if Zoro won't say so."
They've never bothered keeping their intimacy a secret: "Why the hell do you care what they think?" The captain remembers the older man protesting when Nami chastised them for getting overly friendly with each other under Nefertari Cobra's dinner table back in Arabasta. "Luffy doesn't give a shit, and neither do I. Besides, we're pirates, not monks."
Most of their friends and far too many of their enemies know that they're lovers. Hell, it's probably noted in whatever files the government's keeping on them - he knows there's got to be files somewhere - so, to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, it'll be pretty damn obvious whose child Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro's carrying. Even if they can't figure out how or why it's possible.
Although he's avoided saying anything that might cause his already shell-shocked crew more distress, Luffy has been agonizing over this fact ever since Sanji told him that Akainu was involved in Zoro's disappearance, because he considers this entire mess of his own making.
He's well aware the Admiral hates and wants to kill him, and this doesn't bother him personally - he's known since the beginning that declaring himself a pirate was tantamount to asking the Marines to slip a noose around his neck. It's not surprising, considering how his exploits have pushed him steadily closer to the top of the World Government's shit list.
But for his actions at Marineford and his stubborn refusal to simply lie down and die, at least until his foster brother died in his arms and Jinbe was forced to drag him to safety, to anger Akainu enough to strike out at his swordsman-
And then there's the fact that Zoro might just possibly have managed to hold his own against the Marine, if not for the baby and his compromised health - which are both also the younger pirate's fault...
Luffy slams his fist against the counter, causing several of his nakama to jump and eye him nervously. They're still not comfortable with this new captain, who rarely laughs and loses his temper over trivialities.
"I'm going back, but I can't ask you to come with me," the rubber man tells them, his unsmiling face challenging them to stop him. "I've got that pose thing, so I just need to find a ship and-"
"Luffy," Nami sighs, offering him a sad smile. "You know there's no way you'll be able to follow it without my navigational skills."
"But-"
Franky snorts. "Are you really telling me that you trust another ship to get you there and back, Mugiwara?"
"But-"
"Don't be stupid," Sanji growls, snapping the toothpick clamped between his teeth. He's strongly aware of the fresh pack of cigarettes tucked into his shirt pocket, but he can't quite bring himself to actually light one, because he keeps telling himself that he'll just have to quit again after they rescue the swordsman and his precious cargo. "Of course we're all going. That wayward Marimo's our nakama too, you idiot, and I've been looking forward to pissing him off by spoiling your kid rotten, so let's quit talking about it and go get 'em back."
xxx
Zoro watches the guards carefully for an opening, any opening, but he learns very quickly that they're taking no chances; although he's unarmed and his wrists chained securely to the wall at his back, they keep their distance. Only the woman dares comes within range, and the first time, when he tries to hook a leg around her ankles and drop her to the floor, ignoring the spasm of pain that ripples through his midsection, she sidesteps neatly and slams his head back against the stone blocks so forcefully that he sees stars.
"They tell me you're strong," the Chief Guard breathes as she leans over him, forcing the butt of her trident under his jaw to lift his chin higher, and he finds it unnerving when her eyes remain hidden beneath her hair, because it makes her that much more difficult to read. "Very resistant to pain..."
The swordsman rumbles low in his throat, fighting the urge to flatten himself against the wall to escape the clawed fingertips delicately mapping the scar on his chest. The unexpectedly gentle contact leaves his skin crawling in revulsion, because he's never allowed anyone but his captain to touch his old wound like that, and no one else has ever dared try until now.
His discomfort must show on his face, because she's laughing softly when she ducks her head to lap dried blood from the corner of his mouth. "But that means I'll just need to try harder, hmmm~?"
The only warning is the faint tensing of his jaw muscles against her cheek, and Sadi-chan jerks her head back as the pirate tries to bite her despite the trident jammed against his windpipe, teeth snapping shut like a steel trap on empty air scant centimeters from her nose and lips.
"My, my, you certainly have a temper, don't you?"
"Fuck y-" He coughs, tears beading in the corners of his eye as she increases the pressure on his hyoid.
"And such a foul mouth. Don't you think you're setting a bad example for someone...?"
Her fingers trail lower, nails pressing more firmly into the swordsman's flesh as she traces the curve of his distended belly, and Zoro abruptly stops breathing, panic flaring inside him, as the baby shifts under her hand. He wets his dry lips nervously. "Oi, d-don't-"
She draws back to run a single finger along the underside of his abdomen, just above his groin, and although her touch is gentle - almost caressing - her sinister smile says she's imagining gutting him, and he's dimly aware that his mind is shrieking at him that this isn't right - she's not right - because she's a WOMAN, for god sakes, so how can she be looking at him like she wants to find out if his unborn child's blood runs as red as his own?
"Do what you want with Roronoa, but nothing that might endanger the brat, unless you want to find yourself impaled on your own trident."
The sadist's a bit disappointed, aware that the swordsman's safe from the worst that she can do, but he doesn't know that, judging from the pulse racing high and fast in his throat - she swears she can actually hear the rapid pounding of his heart as she cups her hand firmly against his stomach - and the way he's trying so very hard not to cringe against the wall, his single eye dilated with horrified disbelief and outrage. So very interesting...
She decides then and there that Roronoa doesn't need to know the details regarding her orders, because if he won't beg her to spare his own life, perhaps he'll beg her to spare someone else's, and after hearing the rumors and seeing the scars with her own eyes, she wants very badly to find out exactly how much pain and humiliation this man can endure.
Besides, he won't be nearly as... enthusiastic... after they cut the baby out of him a few months from now, even if she's fairly sure she can keep him alive for quite a while afterwards, since they've promised to give her what's left of him when they've taken what they want.
"We're going to have- mmmm~ so much fun together, aren't we?"
