Zoro would never have let anyone drag a wounded crewmate off, not while there was still breath in his own body, but there was no enemy to fight now – Sanji was drifting away all on his own. It was pissing him off. If he wasn't going to give up, then neither was his nakama. They were stuck together like this, and Sanji was not going to make Zoro lose, not to anything, and especially not to this blasted island with its ridiculous plants and insidious and unnatural creatures.
He grabbed Sanji's shoulders, hard, and shook the floppy body. "You're not going to sleep, dammit! You hear me, you lazy-ass cook? Sanji!"
The blond didn't stir, and as it had the last time he had lost consciousness, his breathing started growing weaker. Zoro moved one hand so that it rested over the cook's heart. The skin wasn't just cold like his own – it was like a gravestone on a rainy day. He had to wait for too many of his own heartbeats to race past before he felt anything. Sanji's heart was still beating.
"Listen to me! You have to wake up now, Sanji. Now! Come on, you can't do this!" Obviously Sanji thought he could get away with – this – whatever it was that he was trying to do, and Zoro was not going to stand for it.
"Oi, cook! Don't make me carry you," Zoro growled at his silent, lifeless crewmate. After all the fuss he had been making about it earlier – well, if Sanji had been serious about that, it was time for him to wake up now and stop Zoro. He shook the cook for good measure, but there was no response even to that dire threat.
Zoro had promised to take care of Sanji, lead him back to the ship, and instead they had ended up here. He was willing to accept it was the wrong beach, but he had thought that it would be enough to get his charge to shelter; let him rest a for a bit out of the rain, and the cook would feel better. But it wasn't working. The cold was leeching Sanji's strength, and whatever he had gotten into his body from that flower was obviously… not good.
There had to be more he could do than just sit here and wait for the lousy cook's next heartbeat. It was a ridiculous pastime anyway, not the least bit constructive. To fix Sanji, Zoro needed to find Chopper, something he very unlikely to manage in this little cave. Even if it was storming outside, that was where the others would be – and Chopper would be with the others. It was time to move. Sanji could hardly get any worse. "Right, cook?" he asked of the unresponsive blond. "You're not. You do that, and I… I'll kick your ass."
Zoro didn't even get a groan out of the cook as he shifted, scooping the limp body into his arms and standing up as well as he could in the cramped space. "Shit. I thought you said no carrying?" He propped Sanji up against his chest so that the cook's head was leaning against his shoulder, let the long legs dangle from the crook of his elbow. Then Zoro headed out into the storm, protectively hunched over the insensate body of his crewmate.
Just how well the thick stone walls of their shelter had served them Zoro only discovered after he left them behind. The wind howled like an enraged animal, battering and tearing at his clothes. The rain came down in sheets, pummeling at them. Although he hadn't dried much in the cave, Zoro could feel the little spots of not-quite-so-wet that he had left soak through in an instant. He blinked, raindrops clinging to his lashes, and looked around.
The cliff loomed in front of him in the darkness, much taller and steeper up close than it had seemed when Zoro had surveyed it from above. However, it was the only way to go now, with the sea at his back and cliffs on all sides. He remembered thinking that it would be easy to climb down – surely getting up could not be that much more difficult. He felt a twinge in his back, which clearly had not forgotten how "down" had felt last time. The unfortunate run-in between his body and a piece of rock jutting from the cliff's face before plunging into the sea had probably left him a bit bruised. He shrugged it off, and went to find a good place to start the climb. Right here was no good.
Small streams of dirty water had formed here and there on the way down from the cliff's top, rushing out in the sand and probably making the way even more treacherous. The one he was looking at now was spitting mud and pebbles at his feet, its small noises drowned in the roar of the sea and the storm. Right beside it was a low ledge that would allow him to get a better idea of where to go next. He just needed to get up there without dropping Sanji. Zoro had contemplated simply slinging the limp cook over his shoulder, but that would leave him upside down. Zoro might not be much of a doctor, but he had seen Sanji struggle for breath enough to figure it would probably not be good. It was making the ascent a bit trickier.
Sanji's chest was still stirring, but the movement was shallow, and getting irregular. Definitely time to find Chopper, and not stand around here in the rain and wind and entertain thoughts of what he wanted to do to the idiot cook for doing this to him. When Sanji woke up, an ass kicking was just the beginning of what he deserved. Zoro took a few steps back, clutched Sanji's body tightly to his, and jumped.
Zoro touched down on the ledge just as a gust of wind hit, and he braced against it to keep his balance on the muddy ground. Sanji's slight weight hardly bothered him at all – the uncertain footing was a much greater problem, and he already felt steadier. The ledge was only about shoulder height off the ground, but it was that much closer to the top. He couldn't see very much more, but he didn't need to see much farther, just where to go next. Fortunately, another outcropping was within leaping distance just a bit higher up and off to his right.
Gathering himself for the jump, Zoro missed the first rumbled warnings. The waves behind him were crashing down over rocks and rushing over sand, and with the wind buffeting him from all sides he filtered it out as a part of the storm's symphony until it was almost on them.
When he realized the low rumble and sharp cracks were not thunder and stared up into the darkness, the mud under his feet had already begun to slide, and a shower of pebbles was peppering him. In that frozen instant of absolute focus he saw what was about to happen with total clarity, could tell exactly where each individual boulder was going to strike. There was a split second in which he had to make his choice. He spun around and braced himself, and then there was no time at all left to prepare – as he knew they must, the rocks hit.
The landslide did not last long, but when it was over Zoro was as out of breath and aching as if he had just fought an excruciating battle. His head was ringing, and everything around him was tight and suffocating. With a great heave of his shoulders he broke free, standing up in a small landslide of his own creation. Rocks tumbled from his back, mud dripped from everywhere, and when he shook his head to clear it from the ringing, dirt and stones flew into the rain. He was still buried up to his knees where debris had flooded back after he straightened, and his swords were caught under a particularly large boulder, but he had more pressing concerns than that right now.
Zoro carefully shifted Sanji in his arms, feeling at his neck for a pulse. Since so much else on him was throbbing, it took far too long before he was certain he felt it. Zoro had tried to shield his crewmate's body from the blows inflicted by the rocks, but he didn't think that he had been able to stop all of them. As the crushing weight of it bore down on him, he had been forced to double over. But it had not, as he had momentarily feared, caused the little breath the cook had left to be knocked from him. Neither had it made Zoro lose ground. The path up would be safer now, he reasoned, with all the loose rocks washed down to the foot of the cliff.
Now, where had he been about to go? Up. There. Outcropping. He just had to get his legs free, and without overbalancing or dropping the stupidly long, floppy body in his arms. It took a bit of doing. He had to kick free and get his swords safely back from the rock that had rolled on top of them, but once that was done he charged on upwards. He ignored the various twinges and stabs of pain he could feel in his back, didn't bother to check if he was bleeding anywhere – he probably was, but it didn't matter.
What mattered now was finding Chopper, quickly, before the next time came when Zoro had to make sure Sanji's heart was still beating, or the time after that, when – he didn't finish the thought, only redoubled his efforts to get them to safety. His own breath was coming in short hard puffs now, his heart racing as he fought the wind and the rain and the flaring lights.
The top was coming closer, he knew, with every step he took without slipping back. They would be there soon. No time to plan, to look further ahead than the next safe foothold. Only move, hurry forward, hold onto Sanji. The slope was less steep now, almost there – he could see the top. The wind intensified its efforts to tear them down again, hurl them down to the hungry waiting waves, but the incline was level enough that he could run now, scrambling over outcroppings and tufts of grass until he cleared the edge and launched himself some distance away, where the ground was flat and solid.
Light flared again, and he blinked. For an instant it had seemed as if the land in front of him was lit up in a flash, that this was more than the pulsing of light behind his eyelids. He had a bit of trouble focusing his vision. The world wavered a little, in rhythm with the pounding in his head. But if it had been a flash of lightning he could hear no thunder, only the wailing wind and the angry sea.
Still, he was sure of it. There had been light. Zoro turned around, narrowing his eyes to stare through the storm and the darkness, and this time there was no mistaking it. Somewhere out there was a shining light, breaking through the storm and reaching all the way here.
There was not even a hint of doubt in Zoro's mind after that. He knew what that light must be. Relief flooded through his body, warming as if he had just downed a tankard of rum. The others had come looking, from the sea. He had no idea how they had managed to find light to pierce through the storm, not when all they had on board were lanterns with soft, warm glows that would get washed out by such overwhelming darkness; neither did he know what had prompted them to lift anchor and set sail in the storm, but it was them. Of course – his crewmates were out there, and he and Sanji were up here. However, if the light had found them, then so would those on the Going Merry.
Zoro hefted Sanji higher up on his shoulder, so that he could raise one arm and wave at the ship. Yelling felt like it would be a waste of breath, but he did it anyway, bellowing a challenge to the storm. "Oi! We're here!"
Impossibly, something answered him. His name, not just carried on the wind, but-- shit. As he had before the rockslide, he turned away and braced, just in time to avoid getting toppled over by the impact as something crashed into him. His captain's landings were rarely graceful, and this was no exception.
Luffy laughed loudly as he stood up, batting mud from his clothes, obviously thrilled to have just rocketed himself over storm-tossed seas. "There you are! Finally!"
Zoro could feel laughter bubbling up in his own chest – irrational, and nothing to give in to. "Luffy, you idiot!" he snapped. "Don't use me to land on!"
"Yeah, okay," Luffy agreed brightly. Then his smile faded slightly. "Hey, what did you do to Sanji?"
His soaking captain stepped up to inspect the limp bundle in his arms, and Zoro answered, "Wasn't me. That dumbass managed most of this on his own." The annoyance in his voice didn't hold when he went on, "He needs Chopper."
Luffy had fallen silent, his eyes fixed on the Sanji's pale face, the trace of blood still lingering around the mouth. "He's cold," he said, after resting one hand on the cook's barely stirring chest. "Hang on."
Zoro knew through painful experience what that meant. "No! If you crash with him-–"
His captain met his agitated protest with a level look. "I know. I remember." Then he grinned with excitement. "But you'll see, this is great! Come on!"
The "come on" was not in any way optional. Zoro did his best to hold on to Sanji as Luffy's arms shot out on both sides of him, pressing him into the captain's rubbery embrace like Usopp loaded a stone into his slingshot. Seconds later a happy cry announced their take-off, and they went flying through the air.
The speed was dizzying, but between the sheets of rain hitting them and the waves rushing past below, Zoro caught glimpses of that light coming closer and closer, so at least the trajectory was straight. Straight towards the hard planks of a heaving ship, and if they missed – but they didn't.
As Luffy had promised, this landing was different from the usual bruising affair. Instead of plummeting to wherever the stretchy arms shot them, Zoro was deftly caught by half a dozen hands stretching from the riggings, plucking him from the air and gently depositing him and his burden on deck. Nico Robin smiled slightly at him from under her hat where she sat on the railing of the upper deck. Luffy flopped down next to them, Usopp came swinging down from the crow's nest, and Nami and Chopper exploded from the galley, leaving them surrounded by their anxious crew within moments.
They were all talking, asking questions or exclaiming in shock over the state of their returned companions, but Zoro had no time to answer them. He waited for Chopper, propping Sanji up so that the doctor could examine him, but the little reindeer flew back when the blond head only lolled to the side when he poked it cautiously with a hoof.
"Aaaaaah! He needs a doctor!"
"Chopper," Zoro said with practiced calm.
"Yes? Is he dead?" The reindeer's lower lip trembled.
No, he's not dead." He had better not be. "And you are the doctor."
To be continued.
My apologies for the delay - the coming of Christmas has had me distracted! But to make up for it, I promise to get the next chapter up real soon.
I really appreciate the comments I get, and won't ignore any feedback, Erithil! I definitely see where you are coming from, and only toned down the immediate worry because I was concerned about Sanji coming across as too much of a wuss. He's just... uh... dying? Um. Yeah. Nothing to worry about. With Zoro there to take care of him. Poor boy. Both of them.