Fuck Crocodile. Fuck him, and his fucking hook, and his sadism.
Lucy hates guys like him.
She'd probably kick his ass even if she wasn't already doing so for Vivi.
And Lucy will kick his ass, just as soon as she gets out of this fucking cage.
Lucy throws herself against the bars again, and again, and again, despite the protests from Nami and Zoro. She ignores them completely, is focused on Vivi and the way she looks exposed, her forehead crumpled and her lips parted in horror. That bastard's gonna pay. Lucy's going to make sure of it.
"FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN YOU FUCKING COWARD."
She throws herself at the cage again, and tries to push back against the weakness. It feels exactly like the sea does—draining, oppressive, and heavy.
Lucy has never liked the power the sea holds over her. It's frustrating, because she loves the sea, but it's not in her nature to just give up and die, and the sea takes her agency away, paralyzes her.
The fact that this sea stone exists, that it can be found anywhere…it just seems like a slap in the face.
Their only hope, as far as Lucy can tell, is that she can build up some kind of resistance to the metal via repeated exposure, and then bust out of here.
"Oi, stop her before she concusses herself. That shit burns if you hold it too long."
Lucy vaguely registers Smoker's voice, and ignores it—she does wonder what happens after it burns though. Loss of feeling? Tolerance?
She throws herself at the bars, laying a punch on one of the joints that bloodies her knuckles and makes her knees weak from the sea stone, but it doesn't even shake the cage.
Ace could get out of here, she thinks angrily. He could just burn it all up.
Lucy's always admired Ace's strength, hasn't ever been truly jealous of it, but she wishes she was as strong as him now.
Lucy steps back, feels strength return, and winds up for another punch.
A familiar calloused hand wraps around her wrist, vicelike.
"Calm down. You're not helping."
Lucy nearly snarls. "Let me go, Zoro."
"I'll let you go when you agree to stop."
Lucy glares at him. That was not a suggestion. "Zoro. Let me go."
Zoro hesitates, then sighs and releases her.
Lucy takes her wrist back, and as a consolation for making him back down, she relaxes.
Lucy knows Zoro doesn't like to back down. The only person he consistently does it for is Lucy, and even then it's only when he knows he's gotten through to her.
"I'm going to kick his ass," Lucy growls. She's mad. She hasn't been this mad since Arlong. The shark bastard pissed her off more but that was a pretty high bar.
"Obviously," Zoro agrees. Lucy shoots him a small smile, to say she's grateful for his faith. Zoro cocks his head to the side, his earrings brushing his shoulder in a brash sort of way that makes Lucy want to smile more.
"Are they always like this?" Smoker huffs. Lucy sends him a confused look, but to her surprise, Nami seems to know exactly what he's talking about and replies with apparent relish.
"Yes."
"You absolute brute! How dare you leave Lucy-san to fend for herself!"
Zoro shoots the cook a quelling glare, the wind whipping past them as the ridiculous crab speeds to the capital.
"Lucy can take care of herself," Zoro snaps, and Sanji actually rocks back a bit. Zoro presses his advantage. "And she gave us a job to do."
Sanji looks a mutinous. Even Nami looks like she's ready to stage a revolt. It's Chopper that speaks though. "But Crocodile…"
Zoro looks forward, and closes his eyes. He knows. He does. Crocodile is far stronger than anyone they've ever faced before, and this time she doesn't have her crew to step in if the going gets too tough. He's worried, tense, and he's almost angry with her for making him leave her like this.
But Zoro remembers, too, how Lucy threw herself at Crocodile when they were locked in that casino, how she picked him as her target before they even set foot on Alabasta. He remembers that he's never seen her lose, and this really is the best course of action—the only one available, once Lucy grabbed that hook.
"Lucy will be fine. Have a little faith."
Lucy can't breathe, but it doesn't matter.
Poison coats her veins, but it doesn't matter.
She's covered in blood, she can't move, she has several holes in her body and none of it matters.
She remembers Vivi's tears. She remembers how much she loves this country, her people, how that love nearly cripples her, like she's just barely strong enough to carry it.
She remembers the old man, his faith in the king, that if he just digs deep enough there would be life for the city he and his family built. How he dug all night for a single pint of water. How he gave it to Lucy, and how it saved her life.
She remembers Ace, and Shanks, who are both waiting for her, who will be disappointed if she never shows.
She remembers Zoro, angry and worried after her near-execution, and remembers promising him she won't give up. Not ever.
If she dies here, she'll never be Pirate King.
Lucy opens eyes crusted shut with blood, and she can't see a thing.
It doesn't matter.
Lucy hits until she connects with something, and doesn't stop until light cuts through the dust and darkness.
It starts as a rumble, deep within the earth, and Zoro's first thought is there was a second bomb.
The rumble gets louder, and louder, and Zoro looks for the source, looks for a way to protect his nakama minus Lucy, because he still doesn't know where she is, but there's nothing, he can't find it, so he stands in front of Chopper and Nami, shoulder to shoulder with Sanji, hopes Vivi has the good sense to fall backwards` instead of forwards from the tower, and prepares for the worst.
The rumbling gets louder, more violent, but the earth beneath his feet isn't cracking, there's no bright flash of light.
"What is this…!" Nami yelps, clinging to the back of Sanji's shirt.
No one answers her. A building collapses about three blocks away, and a vacuum of air whips past as earth and sand fall into the chasm Zoro knows is opening.
Then, a hundred meters in the air, higher than even the clocktower, and thrown as if expelled by the earth itself, there's a black-cloaked man who can only be…
"…Crocodile," he whispers.
"That means…" Usopp is crying in relief. "That can only mean…!"
"She won!" Sanji cheers, and the broadest smile Zoro has ever seen on his face threatens to break it in half.
"She won," Zoro agrees, and he realizes he's smiling too. Wide and proud to match the giddy joy building in his chest. Nami and Chopper and Usopp are crying in each other's arms and he can hear Vivi sniffling even from down here.
Zoro wants to go to her. He has to go to her. Right now.
He has to tell her how proud he is of her, how proud he is to call her captain. He has to tell her he knew she could do it all along, that he never doubted her, even when he was worried. He has to check her over, make sure she's okay, he has to—
Sanji claps him hard on the shoulder, and the rest of his nakama tackle him. Zoro is too distracted making sure he doesn't accidentally stab one of them to finish his thought.
"Oi. Moss Head. Wake up."
"Er, Sanji, I think he might be really injured."
"…eh, he's fine." Zoro feels a steel-toed boot rap sharply on his left shin. "Oi! Moss Head!"
Zoro manages to peel his eyelids apart. It's like lifting concrete, and Zoro knows what that's like because he raised an entire building off the ground today. He sees Sanji standing above him, looking bruised and exhausted and bloody, and Chopper kneeling at his side, looking not much better.
"…what?" He's slurring. He probably shouldn't be slurring.
Chopper looks concerned. "Zoro, do you have a head injury?"
Zoro has to think about that. He's pretty sure he doesn't? He had that fight with the guy who could turn into swords, but he wasn't a real swordsman. "…I'm a man who can cut steel," he remembers.
Even Sanji's stupid eyebrows are raised now. "Let's leave him and Usopp, get the girls back. We can send one of Vivi's guards for them when we get to the palace."
Zoro has no intention of letting any of his nakama out of his sight in the next couple days, and especially not Lucy. He blinks, recalibrates, and shakes his head, trying to dispel the fuzziness. "I—no, it's fine." Wobblily, he gets to his feet.
Sanji looks at him skeptically. "You sure you can carry someone though? Nami-san is in the best shape but no one's up to being dropped."
Zoro frowns. Tests his arms. Everything aches, and his cuts sting, but he feels okay to walk to the palace. He's pretty sure. How far is it anyway?
"Where's the palace?" He asks.
Sanji rolls his eyes, and hooks a thumb down the long stone street. "About two-hundred yards that way. In a straight line."
Two hundred yards. Zoro's pretty sure he can do that.
"I'll take Lucy," he offers. Partly because she's the lightest and partly because he's not about to let Sanji lay his paws on her.
Sanji scowls at him, serious for once. "She's badly injured. Don't pull this shit if you can't actually carry her."
Zoro bristles, but forces himself not to explode, or worriedly check over his captain. "I'm fine." Or good enough to carry Lucy two-hundred yards, at any rate.
Sanji gives him a long look, and is apparently satisfied. "I'll take Nami-san. Chopper, you have Usopp."
Chopper sighs tiredly, and shifts to his larger form to better hold their heavily-injured nakama.
Zoro turns to his right, and finds Lucy exactly where he left her—leaning at what looks like an uncomfortable angle against the stone wall. She's covered in blood and dirt, all the more visible for her torn Alabastan robes, and Zoro is immediately concerned.
He wonders, briefly, if he really does have a head-injury. He feels more emotional than usual.
"Oi, Chopper. Is it really safe to move her?" He knows not to move people with spinal or neck injuries. Chopper lectured them all about how lucky Sanji was until everyone was nearly sick with the graphic descriptions of what can happen to someone's broken back if it's moved without a stabilizing brace.
Chopper nods. "I already looked her over. She needs medicine I don't have right now, but she should be safe to move if she isn't jostled too much."
That's good enough for Zoro. Painfully, he squats down to scoop her up. His katana clink at his side and kind of get in the way, but he manages to wrestle her into his hold. She hangs limply in his arms, and he's worried she's got some broken limbs or strained shoulders—that was apparently still a thing that could happen, even with her rubber fruit—so he wraps her arms around his shoulders to keep her a little more stabilized, and stands.
Sanji and Chopper, not having quite so many injuries to worry about, have already gotten their charges settled, and are kind enough—or tired enough—to wait for him before setting off.
(Possibly they don't want him to get lost going to the palace, which, Zoro knows he has a bad sense of direction, but he's pretty sure he can walk in a straight line.)
He takes one more look around their impromptu nap area, just to make sure they aren't forgetting anything. Lucy's hat is nowhere to be found, but there's not much Zoro can do about that right now. He'll look for it later.
"We shouldn't have fallen asleep here," he grunts, going after the others. It's way too open an area. Way too high-traffic. Anyone could have found them here. That crazy Marine lady who looks exactly like Kuina could have found them. And Zoro is under no illusions that he or anyone else was alert enough to deal with any threats.
"We were all past our limits," Sanji mutters. He somehow managed to light a cigarette, even while carrying Nami. "Once we found Lucy it was kind of…" Sanji doesn't finish, but Zoro knows what he means.
Once they found Lucy, it was like the adrenaline drained from them, energy spent and back up reserves gone. Zoro vaguely remembers struggling to stay upright even as he parked himself beside their indisposed captain, ready to be on guard as best as he was able even while half-asleep on his feet. He remembers managing to sit without looking too pained while Nami reassured Vivi, and then everything goes black.
"It was like we found Lucy and suddenly everything was safe," Chopper muses casually. Zoro carefully doesn't look at Sanji, and assumes Sanji is doing the same on his end.
Chopper isn't wrong, it's just…well, it's like he was telling Chopper. They're all independent people. Depending on someone else so much for their own comfort goes against the grain, just a little. Even when it's Lucy.
"I was glad to see she's okay," Sanji mumbles around the cigarette, voice low. Zoro wonders if Chopper isn't meant to hear this. "One of the Baroque Works members told Usopp and Chopper she was dead."
Zoro's head whips around. That was…that was back at the beginning of the fight! Usopp and Chopper fought two members outside the city! "And you didn't think to tell me this?"
Sanji sends him a glare. "No. Because I knew you'd react badly." A puff of smoke escapes his lips, and Zoro notices he's careful to make sure none of it blows into Nami's face. "Besides, you were the one who told us to have faith in her, weren't you?"
Zoro grits his teeth and breathes out sharply through his nostrils. His mind feels suddenly clear, and he hitches Lucy up a little more in his arms, her head laying on his shoulder.
It's like his body found one last store of adrenaline, one last burst of energy in response to a retroactive, meaningless fear. His head is clearer, his senses sharper, ready to face a threat that didn't exist, that couldn't have been fought even when the idea was there. He carefully places his hand so he can feel her heartbeat thrum against her spine.
She's fine, he thinks. She's fine.
"We saw Lucy not long after I found out, anyway. I knew she was alive then, and there was no reason to tell you that Baroque Works thought otherwise for a while. It would only distract you."
Zoro takes offense to that. "I can fight as well as anybody, anytime."
To Zoro's shock and frustration, Sanji just rolls his eyes, but the look on his face is only mildly annoyed. "Anyone would be distracted after discovering that. Calm down."
Zoro hitches Lucy just a little closer, his hand splayed on her back to steady her. "After discovering what?"
Sanji sends a shocked and slightly incredulous glance at him over Nami's red hair. Zoro returns the look with a defiant one of his own.
"…God you're an idiot."
"Oi!"
"Um, guys? These three really need to not be in a fight right now. And so do you, come to think of it."
Zoro immediately backs off, and he senses more than sees Sanji do the same. It's not long to the palace now. Just, like, fifty stairs to the entrance.
Sanji didn't tell him about the stairs.
Well, whatever. Zoro checks his grip on Lucy, shifts his right arm so he has a firmer grasp on her shoulders, hopes he isn't actually feeling a puncture wound in her back, and prepares to climb.
Just then, Lucy shifts, completely of her own accord, and tilts her head so she's nuzzling his neck, her nose pressing into the hollow of his throat and her breath spreading across his collar-bone with each shallow gasp.
What, is she waking up? "Lucy?"
Her eyes don't open—Zoro would feel the flutter of her eyelashes against his jaw. But her arms tighten around his neck weakly, and her lips brush warm and burning against his skin when she croaks a breathy, "Z'ro?"
"Here," he tells her. "Go back to sleep, Lucy."
She doesn't respond—Zoro's not even sure she heard him—but she does relax, her whole body going limp again, clearly exhausted from the tiny effort.
Zoro climbs the steps slowly. Sanji and Chopper are already near the top, but Zoro is both more injured than them, and carrying a more injured person. He takes his time. He isn't willing to trip.
When he reaches the fifth-to-last step, he's met with a frantic Vivi and a stretcher.
"Why didn't you tell me you guys were this bad off?" She hisses, but quietly, like she's afraid Lucy will wake up. "I would have sent doctors!"
Zoro is not the person to answer this. "You were needed with your father. We were fine."
Vivi still looks upset. "I thought you guys went to a bar or something!" She gestures to the waiting medical staff. "Here, set her down."
Gratefully, Zoro does. Lucy doesn't weigh much, but he's probably more injured than he wants to admit and she started getting really heavy near step twenty-two.
Vivi eyes the careful way he moves with razor-sharp, almost distrusting eyes. "Do you need a stretcher too? Or a wheelchair?"
Zoro shakes his head. "Just sleep." And probably stitches. Possibly a blood transfusion.
Vivi apparently isn't taking chances with her nakama anymore. "There's a bed in the infirmary you can use," she snaps primly. Zoro wonders if she's always had this short a temper, or if this is Nami's influence.
Either way, Zoro's not about to protest a bed. "…Kay."
Vivi immediately seems to take pity on him. "The others are already there. Sanji and Chopper are probably asleep by now."
Zoro nods wearily. Whatever adrenaline reserve he was running on before is rapidly leaving him.
Vivi takes his elbow, and guides him as they walk next to Lucy's stretcher. She looks worse in the soft, steady light of the palace hallway. Zoro guesses that he probably does as well.
The infirmary, probably intentionally, is not far from the entrance, and it's barely twenty yards to the doors. It feels like twenty miles to Zoro, but he manages to stay upright and walk unassisted. Lucy's stretcher is rolled up to a bed in the middle of the room, and Vivi guides him to the one next to it.
For a second Zoro stares stupidly at the bed. He's pretty sure sitting on it is going to hurt more than standing currently does. Most of his wounds are on his chest and stomach, after all.
"…n'ne on th' back, tho'." He mutters, his words slurring again. Vivi's forehead creases in concern.
"Mr. Bushido?"
The swordsman shakes his head, steels himself, and feels his barely-clotted-over wounds break as he sits and stretches himself onto the mattress. He doesn't make a sound though, so even though Vivi gasps as she notices fresh blood flow, he doesn't scare her any worse than that.
Zoro can't remember if he saw the rest of his nakama in the room. He was watching Lucy too carefully, making sure she got to the doctors' safe. 'Cause that's what he does. He's the first mate. He takes care of the captain. Zoro would take care of Lucy even if she wasn't pretty. And strong. Also, kind. Lucy is great. Like, so great.
Vivi's face is hovering over him. Zoro can tell 'cause of the hair.
"I think so too, Mr. Bushido." Vivi sounds amused.
"'thers?" He slurs. Vivi probably knows where they are. Vivi's good about that sort of thing.
"They're right here, Mr. Bushido," Vivi soothes. "Everyone's safe and asleep except for you."
…Huh. Well that sounds…Zoro doesn't really know how that sounds. Zoro isn't really aware of anything at the moment.
"Go to sleep, Mr. Bushido."
Huh. That was…weird. Mostly people tried to make him get up, not go to sleep. Vivi's weird. Good weird though.
"L'cy?" He's pretty sure she's around here somewhere, but he can't remember…
Someone tilts his chin to the left, and he can kind of make out the unmistakable dark spikes of his captain's hair.
Oh, he thinks. Good.
Zoro is dead to the world before he can register anything else.
Robin's hat is an Indiana Jones reference, right? I can't be the only one who noticed.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
Let me know how it was!