Chapter 10: Poison

{Thousand Sunny…}

Departing Fishman Island had been done with promises to return some day. Luffy had sworn he would show Shirahoshi a real forest like she had wanted, and he couldn't help but wonder why the Princess had been so glued to him despite how little time they'd spent together. The girl was still such a crybaby, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. They had left with a final goodbye and a hope for Jinbei to join their crew soon. However, Nami was still furious at Luffy for inciting the rage of the Yonko Big Mom. The nineteen year old had declared he would defeat her and take Fishman Island as his territory, and while the notion terrified her and several others on the crew - they didn't doubt he could do it. However, he now was letting Chopper double check something on his arm from the battle that had taken place. It was a small red spot on that appeared to be a simple whelp and nothing more, but the reindeer doctor was watching it intensely before he reached into his medical kit, taking out a syringe - something that made Luffy turn a sickly shade - before going through the process to take some blood from the black-haired boy.

It was a well known fact from the bunch that their Captain hated needles. Where that phobia came from, none of them knew; however, it was usually somewhat comedic for them to watch Chopper and Franky restrain the petite young man in a vain attempt to give him a shot or draw blood. It usually ended in Luffy either giving up when he was fully restrained, or escaping. Regardless, they now noticed that despite his miserable expression, he remained still and let the doctor do his job. Once the reindeer was finished, he put a cotton-ball on Luffy's arm, taping it in place before pulling out a small vial of what looked like clear liquid. His steady hooves slipped the edge of the cleaned needle towards the fluid before a few droplets of blood were applied and the crew watched the color turn murky as the tiny doctor shook it a few times, watching as it turned from a reddish brown to dark purple.

"So, I wasn't mistaken," Chopper mentioned as Luffy gave him a smile.

"Nope." Brook looked at the chemical reaction in fascination.

"Oh! What an interesting color! Why did Luffy's blood turn that clear fluid purple though?" he asked as the Zoan Fruit user held it up, examining it.

"Because he has large amounts of deactivated poison in his bloodstream." that sure did it.

"WHAT?! SHOULDN'T YOU BE DOING SOMETHING?!" the crew were clearly worried when they huddled around their Captain who was laughing as they stared in fear.

"It's fine guys. I'm immune to poisons," Luffy said this as though it solved all their woes, but it did little more than make them give him a confused look as Chopper started packing away his tools. Sanji had been the one to crouch down in front of their Captain with an angry look while the others started to take a seat around, noticing how he seemed unnaturally calm as they glided through the dark currents under the sea.

"Have you always been like that?" the question came from Franky, who was both concerned and curious as Luffy shook his head, hat falling back off his head at the swift motion.

"No, I wasn't like this before," he admitted.

It was a questionable and concerning situation they had found themselves in. Naturally, they were worried and started to consider whether or not they needed to demand Luffy tell them every detail of what he had gotten up to in these last two years; because at every turn they were learning more and more. The notion that Luffy had been poisoned to the point of developing immunity sent a whirl of concern through them for several reasons. But the main one was how it happened and if it was intentional or not. Sanji, the ever diligent cook, knew a thing or two about poisons. It wasn't a heavily required knowledge bank for most chefs, but out here on the sea you had to be aware of what could kill you if by some happenstance you consumed it.

Zeff had told him that for years, teaching him the difference in poisonous fish, plants, and everything else he could cram into his skull. Thus, when he saw his Captain sitting there with a smile on his face like he was unaffected by what had to of been massive amounts of poison in his bloodstream - it scared him. The idea of how he'd become like this terrified him to his core. Because you didn't develop immunity like this just by chance. No, immunity to poisons were like that of being resistant to illnesses or allergens. Unless you were born with it, you developed it. A grim look came onto the blond cook's face when he settled his dark eyes upon those deep charcoal gray ones that had always been mistaken for being as black as the boy's hair. They held no indication that it was some kind of lie about him having this resistance before, and once again a chill coiled in the pit of his stomach.

"What in the hell did you do to your body?" he asked, his voice stern as Luffy tilted his head, black hair falling slightly into his large eyes.

"I didn't do it. Magellan did."

"Magellan? Whose he?" asked Usopp. Robin sighed, looking concerned at her Captain with that name having just come into the conversation.

"He was the Warden of Impel Down two years ago, who ate the Poison Poison Fruit. A Paramecia type that can allow the user to secrete poisons of all kinds from their bodies. They're also immune to it, naturally."

The stone cold weight that dropped into their stomachs ached. All eyes turned to Luffy who had averted his eyes, not wanting to meet their gazes. It all but confirmed the fear that had just risen in their minds. The notion had most of them sitting down in an attempt to get their bearings, Zoro swore under his breath and Franky kept uttering how uncool this was. Luffy though, seemed highly unphased by what he was hearing or what they presumed. The unnaturally disinterested nature told them he had no intention of telling them the story of how this came to be, but by the Gods they knew Sanji wasn't letting this one slide and neither was Chopper at this point. The little reindeer had jumped up into Luffy's lap - the place he liked sitting usually, but now used as an advantage to get the young Captain's attention - and promptly grabbed his face with a glare.

"What happened!" he demanded. Slight but firm hands gripped his waist and pulled him away, settling him onto the grass as Luffy's expression became morose. It was unnatural looking on him, how his deep gray eyes held a discomforting gleam in them, and the way of which they held an air of regret and displeasure at having to think of these circumstances.

"Luffy, what the fuck did you do in Impel Down?" those eyes turned cold, locking onto Sanji who couldn't help the cold that crept up his spine at the sight of it.

Because those weren't the eyes of the Captain he remembered.

"I tried to save my brother! Impel Down is a nightmare to go through…. the levels are all different. A forest of razor sharp red metal that even barely touching causes someone to bleed, the labyrinth full of creatures that I sure as hell didn't think were real! How about a desert made from the dried up and crushed bones of inmates that was so hot you died from dehydration? Or the place where you can't stand to breathe because it's so hot from a giant vat of boiling blood? Or a frozen tundra where they leave people to freeze to death? Or the sixth level where…" he stopped, face going white and eyes unnerved as they watched him.

"Luffy…" the words made them sick, but not as much as that expression on his face did. It made him look to young, and far to fragile.

"Come on bro, tell us. We're not judging, we just wanna understand," Franky said as Brook nodded.

"Indeed, we want to know so we can help you." Usopp bit his tongue, not wanting to hear anymore about Impel Down after those few brief descriptions. But, if it was for his Captain? Then he could keep his mouth shut.

"In level three, a furnace room with a giant vat of boiling blood… I ended up fighting against Magellan, so I could… and he was throwing poisonous attacks at me and Bon Clay who was trying to help me… but he was smarter than me… he ran off… because… we couldn't win against Magellan… but I didn't… I threw my arms into his poison and got affected by it… and I tried to fight but, I…" his voice drifted off, as though he was unsure of how to continue, but in truth they saw how his eyes misted over, as though he couldn't truly remember.

"Go on, it's fine." Nami was calm, reaching out to take his hand as everyone listened.

"I couldn't see him well after a while… and it really started to hurt… then he hit me with a full blast of poison. It put me down pretty hard… so, when I woke up I was in the fifth level… the frozen place… and thrown into a cell so I could die…" he kept his gaze down,having no desire to see their faces.

"They just…" Luffy nodded.

"It's Impel Down - they torture people to death all the time. It didn't matter one bit to them. I think I scared the prisoners because despite me being poisoned I got myself up and started ramming myself into the bars. To be honest… it was agonizing… I don't know what happened next, but I know Bon Clay found Imporio Ivankov, and he helped me recover. How, I don't know… I was too out of it to understand or really remember much at that point…" Luffy went quiet.

They were silent. It was eerie, how quiet they became when he stopped talking. Naturally, they knew he was uncomfortable, but the lack of any further annotations worried the lot of them more. Then Chopper started crying. No, he was bawling like a small child as the others stared at him in disbelief. He looked miserable as he cried, and large tears fell down his fuzzy face, his hooves coming to try and wipe them away despite how much more came. The arms of their Captain responded faster than they had when Luffy scooped Chopper up into his grasp, holding onto him tightly as they finally heard the doctor speak.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO HELP YOU! I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE! I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T DO MY JOB AS A DOCTOR OR A FRIEND! I'M SORRY LUFFY!" the black haired boy shook his head, but said nothing as Chopper wailed at the thought of his powerlessness there.

It was quite some time before the tiny reindeer started to calm down, but Luffy never once let go of him, keeping his head bowed while he let his crewmate sob into his shoulder. The notion of what Luffy had seen and experienced in a prison that was supposed to be literal hell on earth hadn't quite crossed their minds until the poison resistance had been brought up, and now they felt that guilt returning despite feeling as though at one point they had reaffirmed their understanding of how much they loved one another. They weren't just a crew, they were family, and when the one who had kept them all together had needed them to back him up - they couldn't do it. Not in the depths of Impel Down or the horrific battlefield of Marineford.

That notion would probably never leave them.

"Lu? Are you still with us?" Zoro's calm voice cut through the silence, having the others look at their Captain who seemed to shiver ever so slightly as Chopper wiped his eyes, staring up at him before Luffy turned his gaze up to them and gave them the tiniest of smiles.

It didn't reach his eyes, which were cloudy and tired looking, and it worried them. He nodded his head, silently agreeing that he was fine, but they knew better as he let Chopper go and stood up, excusing himself ever so slightly as they others watched him walk away. But, he was stopped by Sanji, who took the initiative to reach out and keep him from locking himself away. Because he knew a look of misery when he saw one.

"You really don't remember?" Luffy glanced back at him.

"No. I don't recall much from it. Sorry," he said, voice unnaturally calm and almost stern.

"You have an almost perfect immunity though, and… that's just not how this works. You should be dead from the concoction used to make your body like that…" the Captain turned to face his cook, a smile upon his face.

But that smile wasn't his normal one. It crept into the edges of madness as those dark eyes took on a faint shine of crimson. This wasn't normal. Luffy's smile didn't show his teeth, it didn't even cause his nose to crinkle in a manner that most would find impishly cute. No, this was almost predatory, wild, and sinister. It was the smile of a broken soul that was held together with thread far to thin. Sanji wanted to step up to the boy and knock some sense back into him - because this side of his Captain was scaring him. Luffy crossed his arms over his chest, seeming unconcerned with how his crew stared at this expression that had an air of insanity to it with knives of anxiety piercing their guts.

"Well…" that voice slithered when it greeted the air. Like the coils of a serpent as Luffy tilted his head, seeming to think for a moment.

"You find interesting ways to survive… when you're in hell." and with that, he walked away and the crew felt the weight of the world drop onto their shoulders as he went into the boy's cabin area and shut the door.

"I feel sick," Usopp said as he clenched his teeth.

That was their first genuine look at the things that they had worried about the most after reuniting with their Captain. The chance that he wasn't as sound of mind as they had hoped, but what was worse had been to sit there and watch him do the one thing they'd never expected: lie. It came out naturally, not in the quirky habit he normally had of averting his eyes and either pursing or chewing on his bottom lip. It was a lie so clean that Usopp would have had a hard time debating it's false nature. The notion was like poison.

"That wasn't… right," Nami stated as Sanji huffed, lighting a cigarette.

"Dammit, I knew something was off…" the others glanced to him and Robin nodded slowly.

"I have to agree admittedly. Though, I tried to ignore it since our reunion, even I could tell something was not normal with Luffy." Zoro looked at the lot of them and couldn't help but sigh as he sat down on the seats at the base of Sunny's mast.

"Let him be." all of their eyes turned to the First Mate like he had gone mad.

"Are you crazy?! Did you see him just then? That wasn't our Luffy!" the words had a single dark green eye upon them with a scathing look.

"So, you're telling me that after all the shit he went through, and just from the glimpses of what we've heard from him that he should be normal?! Hell, we're lucky he's not bat shit insane! We all knew he'd be different, because people fucking change! Just be happy that he's trying to let us in and that he's not bottling it all up!" Zoro's words hit home. Hard.

He was right, though it hurt to admit it. Nami had realized the differences early on, but hadn't expected it to go that deep. She could openly admit how dumb that notion was. She carried her own mental scars from watching her mother die, and that had been over a decade ago. Robin was no different, and if each of them thought about it carefully - they all had their demons. None of them were free of scars both physical and mental. That poison had been applied long ago and while the nightmares and self-loathing did diminish, that didn't mean it was completely gone. Zoro hated that Kuina had died when they had a promise, but now he had a reason to keep fighting, Nami wanted freedom from Arlong and she finally got it, Usopp had dreams of being brave like his father - a promise to his mother - and something had given him that chance, Sanji held regrets from the past, from the actions of starvation and desperation, of feeling as though he owed someone something more than he did. Someone saved him. Chopper was granted the chance to fulfill a dream of himself and someone he loved despite the past pains that he blamed himself for, Robin knew the pain of loosing someone better than most, and she still had nightmares of the burning of Ohara, of the loved ones lost, but someone saved her and gave her a chance to live. Franky was a patchwork mess of human and machine, but a certain someone hadn't cared and eventually called him a friend, and Brook had been given the chance to feel alive again after so long.

Because a boy in a straw hat had held his hand out to them.

"We'll be there when he needs us, okay?" Zoro stated, closing the conversation off.

They couldn't help but agree with his words, though it made them nervous about what it would be like when that time came. It was later that evening when Luffy had come into the dining area to have dinner with them, and though his eyes looked tired and as though he had been crying at some point - they said nothing about it. When a hand reached for something random on their plate, they did nothing, and when laughter familiar and warm reached their ears, they were relieved. That creeping darkness had been washed away for now and it made breathing easier for them as they finished up and prepared to break the surface some time later to greet the chaos of the New World. They had a job to do after all as a crew - and they'd be damned if poison or storms got in the way.

{.….}

Author's Note: Another short one. I usually like these to be approx. 15 pgs. or more, but I can be satisfied with what I get. It's not a bad chapter, to be honest - at least I hope so. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you next time.

Sincerely,

ShadowDragon94.