Thank you all for all the hits, favorite, alerts, and reviews. I'm glad that you are all enjoying the story so far and I hope you keep reading. Remember to click the review button at the end to tell me how I'm doing, what could I improve on, and any questions you may have.

Any, onward to the story.


Chapter 11: Reflection


"Regardless, I need you to forget everything you have seen here," a shadowy figure said and he could see his right eye beginning to glow red.

Luffy wasn't sure what was happening, but it felt like his brain was being pierce with hot pokers. He tried to turn his head from the glowing eye, he tried to protest against the invasion, he tried to screamed for help, but he could do nothing as a foreign presence peered into his mind and read his thoughts and memories. It felt like his skull was going to split in half and he wanted to rip his eyes out to ease some of the pain.

He could see everything from his first fight as a pirate all the way to his battle with Moriah. He was also forced to recall how he met each member of his crew and remembering all of their fights as well. He felt more information being taken from mind as he recalled all his crew's habits, fears, dreams, and even their love ones.

It felt so wrong. It was like he was betraying his crew's trust by letting this thing drill into him. He wanted this thing out of his mind. He wanted to call to his crew to save him from this invasion. Was he crying? His face suddenly felt wet.

Soon he felt himself floating as if he wasn't even in his own body anymore. He could feel nothing of his former self.

"I see, you're no ordinary pirate," a cold voice echoed in the darkness. "I can use a powerful boy like you in my army."

Army? He didn't want to join in any army. He was a pirate. He had a promised to keep and friends to return to.

"From this day forward, you shall serve me," the voice continued.

No, he served no one. He became a pirate to have the most freedom on the sea. It was a promise that Ace and him made years ago. It was a promise created on the fallen dream of his beloved second brother, who was killed before he could grasp freedom. Why...why couldn't he remember his name?

"Your first duty is to lure your crew here," the voice all but whispered in his head. "I want to test their strength and see if they are too worthy to joining our cause."

No, no, no, no, he would never bring his crew here. He would never want them to suffer through this. What was wrong with him? Why was everything floating? Who was this voice anyway and why did he suddenly felt a need to obey it? Like that voice was another piece of his soul.

Master, this voice was his master? He had no master, did he? He was suppose to be free, a pirate correct? Why couldn't he suddenly remember? Why were his memories slipping away from him?

He had a dream, he could remember that much. A dream that he has held dear to his heart since he was a child. He wanted to be the Pirate King for...why couldn't he remember? It had something to do with his hat, a man, and freedom, but it now it slipped his mind. A man...who was this man he was thinking of? Red-hair, he thought he had red-hair, but he wasn't sure.

What was he supposed to do? Yes, he is suppose to lure his crew to his master. His master? His master, Zizu? It was by his command so he would do what he was told. He was Zizu's servant.


Luffy grasped in shock as he woke up from his forced sleep. He blinked several times as the fog began to lift from his mind. Where was he? He remembered trying to catch his crew and he was somehow knocked over the falls. Did he die?

He slowly sat up and knew from the pain in his chest that he was still very much alive. The only way he could have survived was that someone from his crew must have saved him. A foolish gesture on their part. He wouldn't fail to kill them all next time.

He blinked in confusion for several seconds. Why did he want to kill his crew? They were his friends, right? A sudden pang of pain shot through his head as he recalled his orders. He was supposed to kill everyone except Robin. Her knowledge was useful to his master. Still, something told him he was doing something very wrong, but he couldn't recall what exactly.

Luffy slowly stood up and began to look around the area. He wasn't completely sure how long he was out, but he knew that his crew was long gone by now. He knew where the Sunny was docked, but they would have most likely moved the ship by now and he wasn't smart enough to know where they were dock now. His master wouldn't be please.

"Strawhat, are you there?" his master's voice filled his mind.

"Yes, I'm here," Luffy answered through his thoughts.

"What has happened?" his master demanded.

"I've failed, master," Luffy said in shame, although a part of him was happy that his crew had escaped. Why? He was supposed to please his master. He shouldn't feel happy about them escaping.

There was a long paused. "I see. Return to the base for now."

"Okay, master," Luffy said as he began the track back towards the town. Hopefully the walk back will clear his mind and rid himself of the guilt he was suddenly feeling.


Zizu opened his eyes as he sighed in disappointment as he leaned into his chair. Even after all his careful planning he did to give his servants the best advantage, they all had completely failed to kill even one of those pirates. He knew despite their size they were very strong, unlike most crews he had encountered, but that was hardly an excused for any of their failures today, especially from their captain. Having them around was going to severely slow his plan.

"Problems, Zizu?" a cloaked figure asked to his side. Under his cloak he wore an elephant headset that completely covered his face.

Zizu gave him a sideward glance. "Only a minor inconvenience."

"Seems that small crew gave your men some problems," the cloak figure said as he crossed his arms.

"I am ashamed to say that you're correct. I guess it's to be expected from one of the hot new rookies," Zizu stated with a slight sigh. "But this doesn't throw the plan off course."

"You're still going through with it?" the figure asked.

"If the current rumors are true, this is the best chance we'll have to strike a major blow against the World Government," Zizu said.

"Nonetheless, it's still a very dangerous plan. To even consider invading the holy land of Mariejois would be consider suicide, but to also plan the assassination of the Gorosei is downright ludicrous," the other person said. "Even if the marines go to war, they are still very powerful people protecting the heads of the world."

Zizu stood up and looked out one of the windows. "Whether the assassination itself actually succeeds isn't a concern. The physiological impact is what we are going for. Imagine the fear that we will engraved into those old fools' hearts when they learn that we have grown so powerful that we can threaten their lives directly. The heavens themselves will tremble."

The cloaked figure said nothing for a moment. "You know that Dragon wouldn't approved of your plan. He hates throwing lives away if it can be help."

"Winning hearts and minds isn't enough to toppled the powers of the world. Once he sees my results, Dragon won't have much to complain about," Zizu assured. "Besides, what the lives of a bunch of marines, pirates, and sheep who have allowed the government to run over them worth?"

"So, what poor bastards are you going to be sending on this suicide mission?" the other person asked instead.

"I wasn't too sure, but after today's performance I will be sending Timber, Sahara, and Thomas along with half of my main troop," Zizu answered.

"Not Caisco?" the cloaked figure questioned.

"Because of the nature of Caisco's armor and his battle ability, I can't afford for him to fall into the government's hands. He is still, after all, my most valuable warrior," Zizu said. "Besides, he is also one of the few people I have that knows about the New World and I will be needing a new crop of servants soon."

"Which is why you are sacrificing almost all of your elite fighters in this operation," the Revolutionary observed.

Zizu snored. "It is of no big lost. Nearly all of them would be useless in the New World. Today just confirm my suspicions if they can't even handle a bunch of rookie pirates. Better to let them die doing something useful."

"I see and what of Strawhat?" the Revolutionary asked.

"He's kind of an unknown at the moment," Zizu admitted. "He has a lot of potential and could be a far greater vassal than Caisco, especially given the hell have been causing the World Government. However, I won't know for certain if he's worth keeping until he kills his crew. Powerful or not, he's still a rookie."

"Are you even sure the Strawhats will return here? Most pirates would run away from this place, especially after what had happened," the cloaked figure stated.

Zizu chuckled at the question. "Oh they will be back. I can bet my life on that. The Strawhat pirates have an extremely strong bond with each other. They would never leave this island without their precious captain."

The Revolutionary titled his head in thought. "That could be a problem if they can use that bond to break your spell."

Zizu's eyes narrowed. "Don't take my power lightly. You should know better anyone that no bond of friendship or even parenthood can bring someone back from my control. If anything, it would prove to be their downfall since their 'love' for their precious captain will keep them from fighting at their full power."

"Well, they do say pride comes before the fall," the Revolutionary remarked offhandedly.

Zizu chose not to comment on that last statement since he wasn't sure if he was referring to the Strawhats or himself.

"In either case, I will be leaving soon for Baltigo," the cloaked figure said. "I have other reports to give to Dragon and I don't feel comfortable being this close to Marineford."

"Why don't you stick around just a little longer," Zizu stated. "I'm certain Dragon would be happy to finally meet the 'Light of the Revolution'."

The cloaked figure paused for a second. "I think I might take you up on your offer. We have been searching for Nico Robin for the past decade and it seems almost like fate that she would arrive here with a rookie pirate no less," the Revolutionary mused. "After the incident at Enies Lobby, we can't afford the World Government to get their hands on her again. In many ways, we owe Strawhat a great debt."

Zizu nodded. "I will try to make sure my servants don't cause too much bodily harm to her, although there is no guarantee since most them are idiots."

The cloaked figure shook his head.


The rest of the walk back to the Thousand Sunny was a somber one for the remaining Strawhats. They knew they had to hurry back and move their ship before any more people came after them, but the fate of their captain weighed heavily on their hearts. Thankfully, they made it back to the ship without any incident.

"Everyone, prepare to set sail!" Nami yelled, immediately getting everyone on task. "We're going to move the ship to the northern end of the island."

"That's even closer to the village," Ivy informed.

"I know," Nami said neutrally as she took out her chart. It was incomplete, but it still had the general layout of the island. "I don't think the enemy will be expecting us to move closer to their base of operation. It maybe the safest place to go at the moment."

Ivy said nothing more as she helped the pirate crew set sail and moved around the island. Since it would take at least an hour to reached the other side, the Strawhats used their time to tend to their injures.

Of everyone, Chopper was the worst off with a concussion and several bite wounds that covered his body. Zoro wasn't in too good of shape either with all the blood lost and he had to have a blood transfusion. Thankfully, Robin knew how to do a transfusion and she knew Chopper wouldn't mind her going through his supplies.

Franky was also in fairly bad shape from the lost of blood from the wounds on his back. Unlike, Zoro, however, Franky was able to recover from resting.

Almost everyone else had minor to sever cuts and puncture wounds that had to be cleaned, disinfected, and even stitched. No one, except Brook, had any broken bones despite the dark bruises covering their bodies, so they had some good luck.

"This day has been terrible," Usopp said as he leaned against the side of the ship.

"We're still alive and that's what matter," Sanji said as he took out one of his cigarettes. He was going to need another supply run after today.

"But we had to leave Luffy out there," Usopp said in distress. "I mean, who knows what that man is doing to him now.

Sanji closed his one visible eye. "It couldn't be help. We couldn't afford for him to know our new location. We don't want a repeat of earlier."

"I know, but it still sucks," Usopp sighed sadly. "I hope he's okay out there. I mean….I don't want him to be punished for failing to kill us."

"That rubber bastard had bounced back from worst. I doubt there is anything that Zizu guy can do that is worst than him controlling Luffy," Sanji attempted to say in a dismissive tone, but it came off flat. "I better prepare dinner. We all need a good meal to get our energy back." With that, he limped his way into the kitchen.

On the other side of the ship, Brook sighed miserably as he drunk his pint of milk that he had stolen from the kitchen. He could feel his bones heal from the damaged that his new captain inflicted on him. If he still had his flesh, his fracture skull would had broken into his brain and caused untold damaged to him or even killed him.

Regardless, he felt no ill will towards his captain. Even after Luffy had sucker punched him, he still felt terrible for raising his sword against the man who had saved him from the darkness. The wound he had inflicted on Luffy was far from fatal, but it still felt dishonorable to harm the man who had given him back his life and dream. It wasn't Luffy's fault that he no longer had a will of his own.

Breaking himself out of his own self-pity, Brook looked up to see Zoro sitting alone in one of the corners. He wasn't napping like he usual and he was in no shape to train. With recent events, however, Brook doubted that Zoro even had the heart to train at the moment. Although Brook didn't really know the younger swordsman that well, even he could see how upset Zoro was. After all he had done for his captain, including taken all his pain at Thriller Bark, Brook suspected today's events were the hardest on him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Brook asked as he walked towards the fellow swordsman.

Zoro said nothing for a moment. "I've failed him. I should have known something was wrong from the start."

"How could you have guessed what was going to happen?" Brook asked gently. "This isn't your fault."

"I knew something was wrong the moment Luffy switched watch with Usopp and the way he split us up back in the city. But I said nothing both times," Zoro growled in self-loathing. "I also noticed that Luffy seemed distance at both dinner and breakfast yesterday and he kept given those far off looks. He had all the signs of being under that bastard's control and I ignore it."

"In retrospect, yes all the signs were there," Brook said. "But there is no way any of us would had known since the changes were so subtle. I guess….we all underestimated Zizu's influence despite Ivy's warnings."

Zoro suddenly slammed his fists into the deck of the ship, leaving a sizable dent in the floor. "But I should had known. I've known Luffy longer than anyone else on this ship. How could I have been so careless?" He looked to be near tears.

Brook was silent for a moment as he looked at the falling sun. "The past is the past. We can't change our mistakes."

Zoro suddenly felt a pang of guilt for his older crewmate. Brook's facial expressions could be hard to read at times, but he knew Brook was thinking of his old crew. He was the captain when all of them were murdered before his eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop it. At least Luffy was still alive and they still had the chance to save him. Brook was denied even that.

"You have my word as a gentleman and as the former captain of the Rumble Pirates that we will save our captain," Brook said in a calm, but cold voice. It was extremely rare to see him this serious. "We won't leave this island until we bring him back and punished the one who dare twisted him."

Zoro's stared stone-faced at Brook for a moment before he gave a small nod. Yes, they would save their captain. There was no room for failure.

Within another thirty minutes, the Thousand Sunny had reached the new landed point. Somewhere within that same time period, Chopper had finally regained consciousness, but he still wasn't all there. His eyes were unfocused and he had thrown up not long after he had woken up.

Robin was the primary person caring for him since she was the only one outside of Nami and Ivy with any medical experience. Nami was too busy monitoring the ship and Ivy was still a stranger among the Strawhats. Even though they did trust her to some extent, it was a completely different matter to allow her to care for one of their friends. There was also the fact that Ivy was also suffering from sever blood lost and needed the extra rest. Some time during their escape, the wound Sahara had given her had reopened.

Sanji, meanwhile, was in the kitchen fixing a high protein meal to get everyone back into shape. It would be at least a day before the crew was anywhere near heal enough to challenged Zizu again.

Nami all but collapses into her chair as the day's events fully sunk in. She looked around and found herself already missing her captain's unlimited positive energy. Every time they went through a tough or life threatening battle, it was Luffy that seemed to make everything better. Even when the odds were against them, they never lost confident that they would somehow succeed. It was that unshakable faith they had in Luffy that allowed them to follow him into Enies Lobby and stand up to the rising sun at Thriller Bark with no fear.

Now, the symbol of that faith was gone. Taken from them and enslaved by some madman. The thought of Luffy being forced to work and do the bidding of that monster was enough to make her physically ill. Luffy was such a free spirit that it seemed like a crime against nature to do such a thing to him. She was really beginning to understand how Ivy must have felt after all those years chasing her father.

She silently looked at her remaining crew on deck and felt the lack of energy from all of them. No one bothered to try to lighten the mood, not even Brook. In fact, this was the quietest she had ever heard her new crewmember. How ironic that she would usually be complaining about them being too noisy. Now, she would give anything for things to be the way they were just a day ago.

Her hand unconsciously went to her neck and rubbed the bruised that Luffy had given her when he nearly choked her to death. She shivered slightly at the memory. She honestly thought that Luffy was going to kill her at that moment. She knew Luffy wasn't himself, but remembering how his eyes bored blankly into her would hunt her for days and she felt ashamed for fearing her captain over something he couldn't control.

"Nami-san, would you like a nice drink before dinner?" Sanji asked, not using his normal lovesick voice.

Nami shook her head. "If I drink now, I probably won't stop until I'm smash."

Although she had never been drunk in her entire life regardless of how much she drank. The only person on the ship that even came close to matching her alcohol tolerance was Zoro. She briefly mused if she should challenge Zoro one day to a drinking contest. It seemed like a sure fire way to squeeze even more money out of him.

She immediately banished the thought. This wasn't the time to be thinking about something like that.

"Nami-san, if you want to talk about it..." Sanji began in his softest voice, noticing how she was rubbing her neck. He didn't have to ask who had given her those bruises.

Nami shook her head. "There's nothing to talk about. Luffy will be back with us soon, so you better be making a big meal for his return."

Sanji gave a forced smile, knowing she was trying to be strong. "I'll make sure I cook that idiot a lot of meat. Although, it still wouldn't be enough to fill that bottomless stomach of his."

Nami chuckled slightly

"Well, dinner will be ready soon," Sanji said. There was little point talking to Nami any further. It would just be of repeat of everything said earlier.

Ivy watched the crew from her place near the figurehead. She felt for all of them and understood their pain all too well. It was a fate she wouldn't wish on anyone.

Despite the fact that they were pirates and a little on the strange side, she could tell that they were all decent people. In fact, most of the Strawhats seemed like everyday people who would be the last ones anyone would expect to be thieving, murderer pirates. Even Nico Robin, who she had heard was a demon who wanted to destroy the world, seemed like a nice person who genuine cared for her crew.

She had seen many pirate captains be taken by Zizu and eventually forced to murder their crewmates. In almost all those cases, the pirate crew had no real qualms in trying to kill their former captain. Most of them also usually destroyed themselves in power struggles once their captain was lost.

The Strawhats on the other hand were mostly still stable. No one had attempted to rise up and fill the power void and it didn't seem like it was likely to ever happen. They all had complete faith that they would save their captain where most crews would had given up or not even bothered to try. Maybe this was the group that would finally put an end to Zizu and his plan.

Maybe the nightmare from five years ago was finally coming to an end. Maybe she would be able to save her father as well. For the first time in years, she felt her own hope returning.


Wow, my first none action chapter since chapter four. I think at this point we all needed a little breather and we finally know what Zizu's plan is. Yes, amazingly this story does actually have a working plot outside all the battles. Also, if Luffy's thoughts are kind of hard to follow, it meant to be that way given the confuse state he's currently in.

I also wanted to really show the Strawhats grief about what happened, but I couldn't fit everyone in, specially Franky. I like Franky, but I seriously have a hard time getting into his head and broadcasting his personal thoughts of anything compare to Brook. This could be because the only serious character inaction he has with one of the Strawhats is Robin and he didn't really developed, in my opinion, a really close bond with Luffy compare to everyone else on the crew.

Finally to answer Regezu's question, yes Luffy will eventually use his Gears. I haven't used them yet because before the timeskip Luffy's Gears were his ace in the hole and he wouldn't used them on a whim, look at Thriller Bark for example. In fact, Luffy didn't start specially spamming his Gears until Impel Down and Marineford because he had to since almost everyone was stronger than his base stats.

Any hope you enjoy and until next time.