Warnings: Things get a little violent.
Author: The Dark Crimson Blood
Story Title: Trafalgar D. Luffy
Chapter Title: To Be Overwhelmed
Word Count:2,544
Summary: Luffy's found happiness with a strange, new family. Unwanted events continue to occur and the mystery around his parent's death begins to unravel. He wonders just how long this happiness will last.
Rouge sits at the kitchen table with her hands in her lap and her shoulders hunched over. Her hair is far more lifeless than what Ace was used to seeing, there's no kind smile on her face, and her skin is paler than ever. She's not sleeping, and she's not taking care of herself either.
Even though Ace is angry for how badly he had treated Luffy thanks to her and Roger, he can't help but worry for the mother who raised him and loved him every day of his life. He lets out a long sigh as the desire to keep walking leaves him, and is replaced with the desire to make his mother smile again.
Silently, he sits down in the seat across from her. She barely even looks up. "Roger is in the hospital."
Ace's eyes widen in shock at the sudden announcement; he finds himself speechless an unable to come up with a single word to reply with. "He's dying, and there's no cure. He doesn't have much time left."
"How long?"
"A week at most." Ace clenches his fists. "He wanted me to tell you what happened to Luffy's parents."
"Did… Did you have something to do with their deaths?"
"…Yes..." Rouge trailed off guiltily. "Our family…, desperately needed money that we didn't have. I had to quit working in order to take care of you, and Roger's job just didn't pay enough. Luffy's parents had that money, and every time they invited us over or sent us gifts… It felt as if they were mocking us."
"That's not what mocking is, mom."
"I know. But your father and I were frustrated and out of ideas… Then a man who worked with your father offered his assistance… He said he wanted to test out some sort of new chemical and that Dragon's family would be a perfect target…" She trails off again. "Of course your father rejected this, but eventually the situation became so desperate that this was our last hope."
"You… You hired someone to kill Luffy's parents."
"We did... That man… He poured chemicals all over the house and set it on fire; the flames were a strange shade of purple, and the smoke took on the same color. When Dragon and his wife were found, their skin had been tinted that color as well." She sighs. "We didn't even know they had a child at the time, so when we were told that they had one and that he was in the hospital; struggling to stay alive, we were shocked beyond belief."
"And I'm guessing you were afraid of losing the money you had tried so hard to get."
Rouge nods. "So we became Luffy's guardians, and we had access to all the money we ever needed… We went on vacations, spoiled you with all the toys and games we could find, and we completely outcast Luffy."
"Why? Why couldn't you have included Luffy? You literally killed his parents, why would you abandon him too?"
"Guilt." She runs a pair of shaky hands through her hair. "It hurt to look at him every day, so it was just better to ignore him…"
"Do you regret it?"
"No." Rouge smiles. "I was able to give you whatever you wanted and keep your father alive because of the money we received."
"Are you going to turn yourself in?"
She nods.
Ace's eyebrows furrow.
oOo
Law stumbles to his feet, feeling as if he were ready to throw up as Smoker finishes explaining what happened to Luffy's parents. How they had most likely died a slow and painful death due to the amount of internal bleeding and deterioration of cells and organs occurred; just how bad was Luffy at the time?
To think that such a happy family had been cruelly broken up for the selfish desire of money… The way Luffy had been cast aside by the murderers of his parents didn't sit well with Law either. He coughs repeatedly, taking a second cup from the cabinet and chugging water down as quickly as possible.
He wipes his mouth with his sleeve.
"Who…" Law mutters. Dolflamingo's face is dark. Sabo had been rendered speechless and unmoving. "Who the hell did it?!"
"We don't have a name, but there's only one person capable." Smoker calmly replies, clearly ignoring the disheveled look on Law's face. "A man who has a background of kidnapping children and experimenting on them; his test subjects always end up the same way. Internal bleeding, eyes rolled into the backs of their heads, and purple skin."
"So he's basically a mad scientist?" Sabo asks as he places his head gently in his hands, trying to rid himself of the horrid headache that had taken over his senses. "The cause of death seems to be the same, and if there's no one else who could've done it then surly it's him."
"Yeah that's pretty much the case. He always manages to get away before we can catch him, and he's never at or anywhere near the crime scene. He goes by the name of-" Smoker's cut off.
Dolflamingo interrupts him with angry eyes as he clenches his hot cup of tea so hard that it shatters; blood rolls down his hand as glass becomes buried further and further into his flesh.
"Ceaser…!" He growls.
oOo
Roger has never looked so sickly before. It's almost scary to see someone who's normally laughing and treating everyday of his life as if it were the best thing in the world, lying down in such a lifeless manor. Ace felt sick to his stomach.
His father silently sips a small glass of water the nurse had been so kind to give him. He smiles and gives her the empty cup. "I still can't believe that this is… incurable." Ace mutters to himself as he watches his father adjust settle himself. "Mom said… that you only have a week…"
"I'm sorry, but it's been a good life." He smiles sadly and places a hand on his son's head. "It's okay."
"A week?" The nurse speaks up as she reads over her clipboard. "It says here that you've got about a year if this isn't treated."
"A year?" Ace questions.
"And earlier you said it was incurable, right? That's incorrect too." Roger makes a cutting motion near his neck, but it's far too late to stop her. He buries his face into his hands pathetically. "Well there is a cure, and your health insurance has offered to cover it; as your record has been completely clean until now."
Ace turns to face his father. "…You lied to me… again?"
The nurse senses the awkward situation, and quickly dismisses herself.
Roger sighs. It's long and heavy; he runs his hands through his hair in frustration. "I had to! Rouge told you what we did to Luffy's family, didn't she? The police are literally centimeters away from discovering what happened… Do you know how long I'll spend in jail for that? Even then, I'd spend the rest of my life trying to regain all of the money I owe Luffy. I'd rather die on my own terms; can you blame be for wanting that?"
"Yes! You're just running away from your problems and lying to everyone! Way to be a good example for your son, dad!" Ace angrily accuses, eyebrows furrowed and arms crossed. "If they're so close to figuring out what you did, do you really think you'll last a year?"
"No. I… I plan on leaving the country next week…"
"Did mom lie about turning herself in, too?" Ace falls back in his seat with a horrified look in his eyes; it's as if he just can't trust anyone anymore.
Roger shakes his head. "The guilt has been eating away at her for years. She took up two jobs, she picks at her meals, she doesn't sleep…" He sighs; suddenly he looks years older than he is. His forehead creases.
"And you're just okay with leaving her?"
"I… I honestly don't even know what to do anymore."
"Turn yourself in and atone for you've done. What if I was in Luffy's place? What if someone had killed you and mom, the family I was taken into ignored me and used my parent's money illegally, and then I was kidnapped and most likely killed after some sort of ungodly torture?" Ace crosses his arms over his chest; his shoulders feel heavy as he realizes the weight of Luffy's situation. How much he's gone through, and how much he's going through now. "How would you feel?"
"…" Roger lies back down and buries his face with his hands. "Please don't make me think about it… I… wanted to give you a perfect life where you could make a ton of friends and be successful in life… Isn't that what any parent wants?"
"Didn't Luffy's want that?"
Roger falls silent.
"They worked so hard to give Luffy the best life they could've possibly given him, but they never even got to watch him grow up. He probably doesn't even remember being loved by his own parents because he was only alive for a year when they were taken from him!"
Suddenly there's a look on Roger's face that's never been there before.
Remorse, misery, regret, guilt, and so much more adds to his larger than life-size burden and weighs down his shoulders enough to make it seem as if the earth was resting on them.
"Oh, god, what have I done?"
Ace leaves.
Watching his father break down was something he never wanted to see.
oOo
It's late.
Sabo's gone home and Dolflamingo and Smoker are outside. Law's sitting at the kitchen table alone as an unknown number shows up on his phone while it rings. He answers it cautiously. "Hello?" No one answers. "Hello, is there anyone there?"
There's a small sniffle on the other side of the phone. "I-I-I-I wanna c-c-come home…!" The child on the other side cries, and Law's eyes widen as he recognizes the voice. It sounds so painfully familiar and yet so heartbreakingly broken, Law isn't sure how to reply.
"I'm scared… I'm scared, Law. I'm scared…" Luffy cries; he can't talk properly, he's in hysterics. "She said… She said…. She said…!" Hiccups; Law doesn't even have to see him to know that Luffy's lips are trembling and that he's rubbing his eyes furiously in order to stop himself. "A-a-a-an… annn… anddd…!"
Law forces his voice as much as he can; he shakes. "Calm down Luffy." He tires his best to ignore the pain in his chest. "Tell me… Just tell me where you are. Are you safe? Are you alone?"
"I d-d-don't k-k-know…!" The door in the background clicks. "S-s-s-s-she's gonna… She's gonna… She's gonna…" Footsteps echo through the phone, and Law feels sick to his stomach. "She's gonna hurt me…!"
Law feels completely and utterly useless. "Run? Hide? Please just get out of there!"
"ARE YOU ON THE FUCKING PHONE?!" A woman's voice echoes on the other side of the phone. "GET OVER HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"
"Don't hurt him!" Law cries helplessly.
"I don't wanna die!" Luffy cries loudly; Law hears his footsteps echo off the flooring, which lets him know that at least he's attempting to get away. "I… wanna live with Law again...! I wanna go home!" A thud, Luffy's tripped. "I'm sorry…!"
Luffy screams.
The phone clicks.
Law jumps to his feet in a rush to locate the phone number.
oOo
"What the hell is this!?" Ceaser yells as he points angrily at the child taped down on a table; he's bleeding, pale, and with a new crescent shaped wound underneath his left eye. There's a cold sweat on his forehead and tears in his eyes, but Ceaser doesn't look twice.
Monet licks the blood off of her hands, ignoring the look of disgust and fear sent her way from the little boy on the table. "I'm taking my revenge tomorrow, so I decided to at least start with this." She states calmly, letting out a sigh of contempt. "Tomorrow is Makino's birthday, so it's only right to do it then."
"No! A wound that deep will leave a scar! You've damaged my precious cargo!" Luffy's eyes widen.
"Cargo?" Monet narrows her eyes. "He was never your cargo in the first place. You can have whatever's left of his body after I kill him."
"Are you an idiot?!" Ceaser screams. "I lied! There was a man who wanted to buy him off me for two hundred thousand dollars!"
"You… LIED?" She screams back at him. "We had a fucking deal! I get you children and you help me kidnap and kill Luffy!"
"Are you really that surprised?" He says angrily. "The only thing I needed you to do was retrieve Luffy and look after him, but you couldn't even do that right!" He slaps her across the face and she falls to the ground. "But guess what? I've no longer got a need for you." He places his foot on her throat.
"Say 'Hi' to Makino for me, okay?" Monet's angry frown easily turns into a grin that runs so wide that it splits her face. She laughs like a maniac.
"HAHAHAHA! AS IF! DO YOU HONESTLY THINK I'M GOING TO HEAVEN AFTER THIS?!" She stifles her laughter. "I PLAN ON WAITING IN BETWEEN SO I CAN DRAG YOU DOWN TO HELL WITH ME. I'LL KEEP THE TEMPERATURE NICE AND FUCKING HOT FOR YOU!"
"Please do." He grins back. "Try not to freeze it with that ice cold personality of yours." He slams his foot down without another word. Luffy flinches as he hears her neck break; she gargles blood and literally laughs herself to death.
Seven year old Luffy feels sick.
This was too much.
A/N: There's so much trauma coming Luffy's way... I'm so awful, but I'm having fun writing such horrible things.
Perhaps I'm writing so fast because the end is approaching. One or two more chapters after this.
Let me know what you think! :)
~Crimsy