Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. All rights are forwarded to Oda.
A/N: Hello! The story isn't booming as I had thought it would :( But it's ok good things take time and Rome wasn't built in a day! Soooo like I said, pacing is a little quick because this isn't the main part of the story just some basic background info so you're not too confused when the main story comes around!
AkariRyusei: Thank you for tagging along on this journey and i'm planning to be updating until atleast the end of July, I have a lot of this story written out already haha!
Smiley-Nami: Same thing there, I will always continue when I can. I wouldn't leave any longer than a week between each chapter update, so please stay tuned!
It was wet and cold and uncomfortable. Maybe no one would be coming this time, no shanks, no Jii-chan, no one. The event replayed in his head over and over again, countless times to the point he always felt a pang of some sort in his heart. He stared at the dim light in the dark room, sometime crying was the best passerby of time and most of the time he was bored to the point his imagination ran off of the depths of his conscious. So he thought so much it made him sad. He missed his brothers. He hated the cold and wetness of the ground he slept on. He missed their laughs and spars and sleeping in the treehouse. He hated that his stomach growled and hated the darkness of the room. He hated the shackles that made his ankles and wrist sore. He hated the way the guards looked at him. He hated the loneliness of the cell. Flashbacks of him and his brothers rang through his mind of them chasing one another in the forest til his vision became blurry enough and his mind drifted off to sleep, pacified by the warm memories of his life.
It's been months? Maybe years? He wasn't sure, he had lost count somewhere after the endless injections of fluids he hadn't heard of, the countless drawings of his blood, the tattoo that was seared into his neck, the scalpels, the pumps, the needles, the knife, the stitches, he had lost count of it all. But today had been different and had been strange.
"Oh? You're up early!" The girl-451- that was the number they had given her, but he wouldn't dare acknowledge her as a number, instead he settled on a nickname for her which was "L". The necklace that swayed effortlessly on her neck was the only clue that he had in identifying her, a miniature, delicate L was the centerpiece of it. He grinned back, rightfully so.
"Right? I thought I was going to get to sleep later." He sighed, disappointment reaching his lips. "I'm surprised to see you this early though," A sheepish grin crossed his face, as he giggled.
She huffed, puffing her cheeks out gently, "Well you should be surprised as this is your first time actually being up early," a giggle slid out to break the sentence, "I usually have my tests in the morning."
Tests, His eyes that were stuck on the girl in front of him, slowly glazed as he began reminiscing certain events that occurred while he was here. Test, his mind replayed the word over and over.
His eyes fluttered open and all he saw was white, a few mirrors around the wall but mostly white everywhere, on the ceiling, the wall, the floor, it was a bit unsettling. His eyes rested on his figure in the mirror. He looked fairly normal but he quickly faulted when he noticed something adorned to his wrists and ankles, causing him to snap his gaze down at the metal that linked his arms and feet.
He gave the girl in front of him a wounded smile, "Well good thing both of us are finished, hm L?" They both stood up, smiling to one another, "Want to play a game or?"
Two shoulders lifted up and down, uncertainty plaguing her figure, "Doesn't matter to me as long as it's with you, three!" She beamed, returning the boy's smile tenfold.
Three . . . oh yea that was his name now, what was his original name again? Wait. He stopped staring at his two feet, terror haunting and transitioning up his soul, what was his name again? His chest slowly began caving in and out as he glanced from the girl, to his shoes, tothe ball, tothenurses, tothewalls,tothefloorsthelightsthedoors.
The room started to spin and whirl.
As if on cue a voice spoke up, "Ah you're awake. Good. Good. We wondered how long it'd take." The doors opened to reveal a man who wore gloves and a mask, he crept towards him, shoulder haunched ever so slightly in complete calmness. "Hello Young Man, I'm Doctor Vega Punk and your name is 3602."
He blinked at the man, stunned partially but mostly bewildered, because surely he wasn't talking to him? He had a name,, although he hated his parents with an underlying deep hatred, he'd still found proud ownership in the birth right they gave him, "That's not my name." He stated or moreso corrected, ignoring all the other parts of the sentence and focusing on the most aggravating.
"In this lab." The newly named person or doctor he should say, gave a sickening smile that made him feel queasy.
The white was blinding, as his pupils dashed warily to each of their corners, anxiousness coating them.
"Oh dear, is 3602 ok?" A sing- song voice rang to the left side of him. "It seemed as though he had a panic attack, nothing to worry about, a bit of the side effect of the tests, I think." Was the stoic response.
He had passed out? When? Why? He glanced around confirming the presence of the nurses and not the doctor, he didn't want to think about the man. Why did he pass out again though? Oh. He realized he forgot his name, he didn't know his name anymore, he forgot himself. He felt a slight sting in the corners of his eyes, which quickly transitioned to a burn and then relief as more water slowly built up in his eyes. He gracefully wiped at the tears streaming down his cheeks, he forgot his own name, he wanted to do more than just cry, he wanted to throw up because of how sick he felt at the thought of his forgetfulness, at the idea of how much power these people had over him.
"Ace, Luffy," He caught himself whispering his brothers' names through sheer desperation, even if he had forgotten his own name he refused to forget the names of those he loved and would willingly give his life for. He missed his brothers desperately, unsure of where they could possibly be right now or what they're doing. Clasping his hands, he bowed his head, praying to dear God that whatever situation they were in, it wasn't as bad as his.
What the hell? When did he fall asleep? Where is he? When did he get abducted? What happened? Where are his brothers?
"Curious as to why you're here?"
Reluctant, but still yearning for answers because as far as he was concerned his brothers were still out there, he nodded his head slow.
"Well you were drowning and I rescued you from your inevitable death." Vegapunk bowed as if he put on a show, causing a quick flare of irritation to rise in him.
His eyes didn't leave the person, tracing their every step and twitch, he didn't feel good about this, any of it. "So you're a doctor and you wanna heal me or whatever?" He asked dryly, remembering how the man had addressed himself with doctor in front of his name. He knew he sounded cheeky too and that the answer he'd receive wasn't something he wanted to hear, but he asked anyway.
After the prayer was finished resounding and he was comfortable in the remains of his room, which had also been an all white matching the original room he was thrusted in and the main entrance and everything else, his mind began to race. It's been a while since he had the thought of escaping his confinement and unfortunate circumstances, hell in the beginning he would thrash unhesitantly with any nurse who had dared to call him by some damn number, now all he did was give a long gaze, if that. And if he had to be honest with himself, he struggled just to stay positive in the whole situation because in reality his thoughts had started to eat at him alive recently. Many of the kids had accepted their fate and found joy in their new home, he felt queasy just saying it, they stopped questioning, fighting, retaliating and accepted it, even enjoyed the confinement. He really felt sick.
Where are his brothers? Are they alive? Are they in his predicament? Where is he? When will he stop this and find a way to escape? Had he given up on escaping? Should he continue to try and escape? Could he even escape? Where would he go after? What could he do? What if you don't find a place like this? A nasty voice crept behind his head, sliding in the last question under the disguise of others. He shook his head in response, can't think that way gotta stay positive, gotta want to escape, the attention of bandages lined against his arms and bluish veins caught his eyes as his hand slowly trailed his skin. He wasn't even sure what was happening to him, to his body.
A sharp gleam appeared in Vegapunk's eyes, before he let out a laugh that made him want to squirm uncomfortably. "Not quite my child. You're my experiment." With those last words, two more people came in rushing towards him, with needles and bags of fluids.
"What are you doing?" He wanted to move away from the people but his body was so desperately weak probably from sailing a great distance without the necessary supplements it needed.
One day while he was a bit more resilient, he was scaling the place out, he still hadn't named it. He was looking for exits, hell even windows, but struggled to find an ounce of leaking freedom. Instead god had gifted him with a conversation he overheard from the nurses and doctors, if he could even call them that. It went a bit like:
"So why is the doctor taking in children and trying to cure their illnesses?" He froze with utter uncertainty, had he been ill? But he quickly shook the question away as he had clearly remembered the first words the Scientist had said to him, "You are an experiment." Maybe the doctor had lied to his staff so that there'd be less questioning, he probably even lied to the children, but He would never be fooled, he knew he wasn't sick.
"Hmm, i'll let you in on a secret since you're so cute," He rolled his eyes at what he would guess was the voice of a man, antics, "Some of the children aren't really sick, while a few of them are as they came from Florence," a gasp resounded from the nurse, he was unsure of why.
"But the doctor's reason for taking the children in isn't to cure them, he's trying to create superhumans." His curiosity flared at the revealing of the information.
"Superhuman?" The nurse voiced the question for him.
"Or maybe superhumans is a bit of an exaggeration, he's creating them to be like child soldiers who are easy to train and would sell them to the tenryuubito, they would be like the tenryuubito's dogs. So I guess their names would be tenryuuInu." The name was genius but he was confused who were these tenryuubitos and why would he be protecting them.
"Honestly i'm pretty sure while this will be an accomplishing feat, it's more of a get rich quick scheme by the doctor because he wants to sell them off." He could almost hear the nonchalant shrugs from the scientist.
"Well why doesn't the doctor train them?" Another perfect question from the nurse.
"Ahhh about that. Instead the doctor-"
"3602!" He lept at his address, scowling a bit from being startled but directing his anger towards the numbers that were used in replacement of his name. "Time for your medication." Another doctor came from behind him, gesturing him towards the door. He threw a wary glance at the location of the previous conversation but had decided against rebelling more lest he wanted to be sedated, yet again.
Why had he stopped rebelling, recently he's been fighting his urges to submit to the persuasions of the nurses and scientists, using the word submit made his spine tingle. It was frustrating because what would his brothers think of him if they saw him like this? No doubt Ace would be baring his teeth at his captures and Luffy would be angry at his own demise. They'd be mad at his enforcers, not him. . .not him, not him, nothim,nothimnothim. He took a deep breath, unaware of how quick his heart was racing and slowly he found his eyelids dragging a bit, before he gave in to the embrace of sleep.
Keys jingled at his door, he heard it and he prepared himself for his morning dosage that had turned his veins bluish green, or a surgery that had caused countless of lightened skin cut marks racing along his stomach. No one would be able to tell of the boy's situation unless he explicitly stated that he had surgery or the onlooker was a doctor.
L was his only escape here, the girl was much younger than him, but at some points he found himself leaning on the girl for some sort of moral support whether it'd be a pep talk or a simple flash of a smile. Her smile reminded him of Luffy's so it was a bit of a deceitful delight that later had him sulking guilitily in his room. His mind told himself he was trying to replace the missing hole of his brother with another person, but he shook his head, because those thoughts were no good.
"Ehhhh? You're up early again three." Her eyes were wild with an excitement untamed. "Why?
"Quite curious aren't you?" She nodded her head eagerly, "Well to be frank, i'm not sure why they've been moving my appointments up earlier, I enjoyed the evening much more though." He practically sighed.
She tilted her head, contemplating, "Nah, I like it more this way. Now you can play with me more and more." She flashed a toothy grin.
He met her with a smile, "A bit selfish?" She giggled before taking his hand and leading them over to the balls, he stared at the back of her head, lost in thought.
Why had they moved his 'appointments' up early? He wouldn't dare call it experiments in front of the girl in fear that L would react negatively to the idea. It was enough for simply him to constantly realize the tortures being forced upon him, if he could protect anything, then he would settle for the intactness of L's mental and emotional state.
"Three." Her tone cut through his thoughts as he snapped his head back to her, "You always do this recently! Getting stuck in your own head and mind." Her voice was worried, "Do I need to tell the doctors-"
"No!" He shut down the idea immediately, "No that's not necessary."
She eyed him silently.
"Really, I am ok! Don't worry about me L. I'm just a bit of a thinker." He sent a wary smile.
"Mm ok. Let's play with the red ball today!"
She jumped back quickly as always. "Mn. Ok!"
After minutes of switching on and off with different toys, the girl had finally found herself worned out and took a break with him joining her for company.
"Phew! That was fun," She looked at the boy, settling on his scar, "Hey, where'd that mark on your face come from?"
Three found his hand tracing his face, where had the mark come from? Every time he walked past the mirror the roughly patched skin would indiscreetly catch his eyes. Had it came from a failed surgery? A simple scar? Slowly, he shrugged his shoulders in answer, now that he thought about it. What was his past like?
L probably was watching the internal breakdown, "Three? You ok?"
He snapped back up in her direction, "Umm L, W-Where did you c-come from?" He was nervous to voice the question.
"Hmmm. I don't know!" She smiled her usual smile.
But unlike usual it did nothing to settle three, She didn't know. He doubted it was pure coincidence she didn't know her past, that it was pure coincidence he didn't know his past.
"I see."
She stared quizically at the boy for a moment, before snapping up at the lazy clock on the wall, "Ah! It's finally lunch time!"
Lunch time. Time? Time. How long had they'd been there? How many times had there been a 'lunch time?' How many times had they played with the toys? How many appointments did he have? How many times-
"Three!" This time her face was turned upside down, visibly concerned, "You've been spacing out all day! Are you sure you're ok?"
He caught himself simply staring back at the girl for a few moments. "I actually think i'm going to go lay down for a little." He turned away from the girl, feeling her gaze piercing his back.
He reached one of the nurses observing the playing area. Why did they have to consult the nurses to go anywhere? But he ignored his questions and asked to go back to his room, which she complied.
He stared at the ceiling before nodding his head, "Alright." He was tired of being stuck in this place, it gave him strong unsettling feelings and he didn't understand why they had so many appointments. There was also something else beginning to startle Three:
He was starting to forget his past.
Even when the story of his scar had always been a hazy one at best, so it didn't bother him when he couldn't recall how he'd gotten it. However, even worse was when he couldn't quite recall his blood family. No he wouldn't dare to forget Luffy and Ace's name, but he had dared to forget his own. So he had to leave, lest he forget the ones who drove his living force.
He could not allow that and so he planned. And planned. And thought. And bided his time. And planned.
He planned so hard he gave himself a headache, but he didn't care. He couldn't forget his brothers. He had to leave before that happened.
All of that planning went to waste though.
He heard his door sort of hitch before in walked Vegapunk himself as he entered with a strained face, one that hadn't reflected his usual happy go lucky tone around the young boy, he gritted before speaking. "Today is the last day 3602, your last day here." The doctor gave an exasperated sigh.
The boy was listening but couldn't register what was happening, he felt calm and indifferent, maybe unsure of how to process the information or maybe had lost his ability to feel after the countless experimentations. He didn't know.
The nurses came in with more IV's and he did nothing, he could do nothing but look as the needles were inserted into his arms and once again he was lulled to sleep by the medication.
Vegapunk sighed, "That damned impatient Tenryuubitos, you give them a step and they'll take a mile as if they're supposed to. Damn, damn, damn, dammit!"
Free? Free. The words sounded foreign to him, as if he'd never heard him before and by some sick, twisted fate they finally shown themselves after hiding forever. At first he didn't want to believe it because of that very reason, what if it was a dream? Like the countless ones he had, but this felt much too real to be like a dream. As the anesthesia was further administered his eyes began to droop with weakness, finally, finally, finally he'd be free once more.
\(^-^)/
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Side note: Who's your favorite One Piece character? I want to take reader's favorite and write them in the story for at least an appearance or chapter!