A bright light caused the future Pirate King to flinch. Blinking repeatedly, he looked around to spot the one holding the very bright light next to his eyes. All his nakama knew that he didn't like to be surprised like that, so why were they waking him up in such a brutal way? However, there was something strange about the light. Since when did a lantern directed at his face warm his entire body?

Once his eyes got used to the bright light, Luffy realized that he wasn't aboard the Going Merry any more. He was lying in the middle of a huge market square, where people walked past him without even looking at him. One or two of them were even close to stepping on him, but Luffy rolled out of their way and got up from the ground. As he brushed the dust off his clothes, he noticed that he was wearing his sandals, and that his hat was gone. He couldn't remember either putting on his sandals or taking off his hat before he fell asleep.

Running his fingers through his black hair, he looked around the market, feeling like he knew the place from somewhere. The townspeople were flinching every time a dog barked, and the way they were constantly looking over their shoulder before speaking to each other confused Luffy.

After watching the townspeople for a moment, Luffy shrugged and decided to take a walk around the town until he could find a way to return to his ship. Maybe someone had found his hat somewhere as well. In any case, both his ship and his hat would show up eventually. They always did.

As he walked, he kept looking at the townspeople when he passed them. None of them seemed to take any notice of him, not even when he walked past two Marines by the town's old well. When he walked past the Marines, he stopped for a moment and turned around. A man with dirty-blond hair and a silly-looking face was accompanying the Marines, and looking at him sent off warning-bells in Luffy's mind – a memory of a broken promise and a man with an enormous axe for a hand rose to the surface but faded again.

"It's that stupid son…" Luffy muttered, folding his arms across his chest as he followed the blond man with his eyes. "What's he doing here?"

He stood still for a moment, watching the three men make their way through the crowd of people. The townspeople hurried out of the way as soon as they spotted the blond man and got down on the ground in a wavelike movement, clearly bowing out of pure fear. Luffy turned away and began walking again. He wasn't sure where he was going, but he figured that he would end up somewhere interesting if he just followed the main street for a while.

There was a large building at the center of the island, on top of which a giant statue was standing. If he could climb up on that statue's head, he would surely get a great view of the whole island. Then he could see if his ship was somewhere around the island, and wouldn't have to think about that anymore. Excited by the idea, Luffy set off running towards the tall building.

Running like the wind along the main street, Luffy soon found himself on a collision-course with a tall concrete wall that seemed to have come from nowhere. Without any chance to avoid it or slow down, the pirate captain slammed into the wall head-first, slowly sliding down to the ground where he stayed for a moment or two, wondering why anyone would put a wall in the middle of the road like that. Deciding that he could always ask someone about that stuff later, Luffy tumbled back from the wall and looked up at the tall building that stretched up towards the skies in front of him.

There was a Marine symbol on the side of the tall, drum-shaped building – Luffy remembered that he had seen the same logo many times before. This only made the feeling of having seen the place before grow stronger inside him. He was getting curious of the high wall, wondering what could be hidden behind it. There was a large wooden gate a few meters away to his right, but just as Luffy was getting up from the ground to walk over to it, he heard a strange sound coming from behind the wall. Luffy wasn't aware that it was a sound that normally shouldn't have reached his ears through the wall, and even if he had known that, he hardly wouldn't have cared since he was hearing it anyway.

Shoes scraping against sand, dry ropes creaking as they were rubbed against each other and faint, hoarse breaths – all mixed into one strange noise. All this was very familiar, and as Luffy's curiosity grew even stronger, he reached up for the edge of the wall and rocketed himself up onto it, looking out over the large square yard behind it.

In the middle of the Marine exercise-yard stood a large pole, which Luffy knew was used to publicly humiliate or even execute criminals. Through the dust and the thick hot air over the yard, the pirate could clearly see the dark, slumped form of a man tied to the pole with his arms stretched out to the sides. It was a sight that was far too familiar to be just a figment of his imagination.

For a moment, Luffy just looked at the scene in front of him. He sat down on top of the wall, trying to figure out why Zoro was tied to the pole in the yard, when he knew that he had seen the swordsman sleep on the couch below deck aboard the Going Merry not such a long time earlier. Zoro also looked strange where he stood by the wooden pole. Not only did he look more parched and starved than he had the first time Luffy had seen him, but he looked down right… weak. The way his head hanged down with his face pointed towards the ground and the way his whole body trembled for every breath he took confused Luffy. Zoro had never been weak, and definitely like this.

Luffy was just about to call out to his swordsman to remind him that Zoro wasn't supposed to be weak, when a set of wooden doors opened in the large drum-shaped building on the other side of the yard. Turning to the newly opened gates, Luffy watched the silly-looking blond man walk into the yard, accompanied not only by the two Marines from before, but four additional soldiers. They didn't seem to notice Luffy where he was sitting on top of the wall, but the pirate captain could clearly see the guns the soldiers were carrying. Sitting quietly on top of the wall, Luffy idly scratched an itchy spot on the bridge of his nose as he watched the blond man lead the Marines towards Zoro. He didn't know what was going on, but he was happy to find that he could hear every word that was said, even if he was so far away from the other men.

Axe-hand Morgan's son chuckled as he came up in front of his prisoner. He looked down at the weakened bounty-hunter whom so many had called a demon, and laughed. Reaching out his hand, he let it drop heavily onto the bound man's head, pushing the black bandana a bit further down over the swordsman's eyes.

"Still alive, aren't you?" he said cheerily, as if he was talking to an old friend instead of a dying prisoner.

Zoro gave up a hoarse laugh without looking up. His breath rattled in his chest as he fought to answer the man keeping him bound. To Luffy, it almost seemed like Zoro was using most of his energy just to keep on breathing. Therefore, he felt both a little concerned, yet very proud when his swordsman made other sounds than the hoarse gasps for air.

"Disappointed?" Zoro asked dryly, his face still pointing towards the ground. "I said that I'd survive a month. It's only three more days now."

"Yes, it's been such a long time, hasn't it? Well, I've been enjoying it so far, how about you? But you are boring me now, so…"

Morgan's son smirked and made a gesture towards the six armed soldiers. The Marines raised their weapons and aimed them directly at Zoro. When the clicking sound of the cocks of the guns being pulled back reached the swordsman's ears, his head jerked up and he stared at the blond man while trying to keep the muscles in his neck from trembling with exhaustion.

"You- What about your promise?" Zoro spluttered, the muscles in his weakened body tensing as he fought the ropes tying him to the pole. His eyes widened below the black band tied around his head as he turned his gaze towards the Marines in front of him.

"One thing you need to learn is that some promises are made to be broken," the blond man said, once again smirking at Zoro. "Oh, but then again… You won't live to make use of that knowledge."

He turned to the soldiers and gave the order to fire, shortly followed by the threat to report their disobedience to Morgan if they didn't do what they were told. The six soldiers glanced quickly at the commander's son, all of them looking very nervous before they raised their weapons again.

In the blink of an eye, Luffy jumped down from the wall, his heart hammering violently in his chest. This was not what was supposed to happen. Why was Zoro standing there about to die when he was supposed to be free and on his way to One Piece with Luffy? The captain started running as fast as he could towards the crowd, his fists clenched tightly.

"ZORO!"

The men ahead of him didn't turn around as Luffy cried out his first mate's name, and not even Zoro turned to look his way. Neither did they notice when he stopped running, took aim and sent away his left leg in a wide circle towards the soldiers.

"Gomu Gomu no Whip!" he cried out, his voice carrying a slightly desperate tone as it echoed over the yard.

Turning his head to follow up with another attack, his eyes widened in shock as his outstretched leg swept right through the Marines instead of throwing them to the ground. His leg swept through the men as if they were nothing but smoke, and when it snapped back to its place, Luffy was thrown back by the force of his own attack. He whirled around in the air before landing on his stomach on the ground, coughing as he inhaled at least a bucket of dry sand.

The sound of the first shot echoed across the yard. Luffy jerked his head up and stared at Zoro with wide eyes as the sand rattled in his throat. The swordsman threw his head back against the pole he was tied to as blood sprayed from a fresh wound in his stomach, but he didn't make a single sound. More gunshots were heard and each time Zoro was hit, his body jerked and his muscles tensed, but no sound passed his lips.

Luffy wanted to scream, he wanted to attack the Marines – beat them all senseless for killing the most loyal man in the world – but most of all, he wanted to get up and shield his nakama from the bullets with his body like he had done so many times before. But he couldn't move. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't do anything else than watch the bullets bury themselves deep in his swordsman's flesh while the sound of the gunshots echoed in his ears, the small metal fragments tearing Zoro's life from his body little by little in front of Luffy's eyes.

Once the gunfire stopped, no sound was heard for a few seconds. Then Zoro's head fell forward, and his whole body was slumped against the ropes tying him to the pole. Morgan's son looked satisfied and ordered the Marines to follow him. As the seven men walked away from the yard, Luffy felt the surroundings getting hazier and hazier around him. The light from the sun was fading, but as the darkness around him and Zoro grew thicker, Luffy noticed that no matter how dark the surroundings became, he could still see Zoro's slumped body by the pole in front of him. Watching his first mate through the darkness, he heard something that made his heart skip a beat.

A wheezing breath echoed in the increasing darkness, a gasp for air to fill punctured lungs on the verge of collapse. The trance that kept Luffy paralyzed vanished, but he didn't get up. He couldn't feel the sand under his fingertips anymore, and he couldn't see anything but Zoro's bloodstained body propped up against the wooden pole like some hay-filled training doll. But he could hear Zoro's pained, wheezing breath just as clear as if the swordsman had been right next to him. The captain stared at his swordsman, white-hot anger boiling inside him as he cursed the stupid son for letting Zoro suffer like that.

"You were right… I was… too weak…"

The calm voice cut through the darkness, and Luffy felt a rush of anticipation flowing through his body. He already knew that Zoro was strong enough to survive anything; of course he could survive this if he just wanted to. But as nothing but silence followed the last wheezing breath, all emotions were drained from Luffy's body. All that remained was a cold, throbbing pain in his chest that grew stronger and stronger. A cry was building inside him as the pain grew sharper, up to the point where he couldn't hold it back any more. He pressed his forehead against the black floor and screamed.

"ZORO!"

Luffy lifted his head and slammed it back against the black surface he was lying on, trying to block out his rubber ability that otherwise would keep him from feeling the dull pain spreading out from his forehead. He wanted to drown out the sharp throbbing in his chest, and he didn't know of anything that worked more effectively than another, newer pain.

After slamming his head against the ground repeatedly for a moment, Luffy finally let his body relax. He sank down on his stomach with his forehead resting against the blackness under him. The silence - which was only broken by his own swift, sharp breaths - pressed against his ears, and he wished that Zoro was just teasing him; that his swordsman was going to start breathing again and tell him that it was all a stupid joke. But Zoro didn't move, and neither did Luffy. He was lying on the invisible floor, stubbornly listening for any hint of life his first mate could give, hints that he already knew wouldn't come.

Suddenly, he was aware of a presence closing up on him, but he couldn't make out from where it was coming because of the dizziness that followed his self-inflicted headache. Instead, what caught his attention was a calm, deep voice coming from his left.

"It hurts, doesn't it? Losing your nakama… I know. I've felt it too."

Luffy's eyes widened as he heard the voice, and he pushed himself from the black floor to turn towards the direction it had come from. As his vision flowed back into focus, the pirate captain saw a tall figure standing in front of him, completely concealed under a heavy white cloak. His face was hidden in shadows, but Luffy knew somehow that the mysterious man in front of him was smiling.

"Who are you?" he asked, getting up from the floor to face the stranger, his face twisted in a grimace of rage. "Did you do this to Zoro?"

The man in front of him didn't seem to be bothered by the rage radiating from Luffy, because he didn't even flinch as he met the pirate captain's furious gaze.

"Who I am?" he asked calmly. "I'm the King of Pirates."

Kame: -shrieks and points- Cliffhanger! Who made the cliffhanger!

Zoro: -rolls his eyes-You did.

Kame: -pauses and blinks- Oh yeah, you're right... I forgot.

Zoro: Riight... And what's up with this story? Like hell I would have died there, you damn author.

Kame: You just keep telling yourself that, Zoro-kun...

Zoro: I told you,stop calling me that!

Kame: I'm fully entitled to call you Zoro-kun, Zoro-kun. You're a year younger than me, and before you beat Mihawk, there's no way I'm calling you anything else.

Zoro: -growls- One of these days, I'm going to kill you...

Kame: I'll be waiting for that day.

Please excuse him, you all know how he is... Anyway,that concludes chapter two. It might take a while for the next chapter to get uploaded, since I'm currently drowning in homework, being the procrastinator I am. But fear not, it will arrive... someday. Now, let's answer some reviews, shall we?

em182 - Loved it? Now I can feel my head growing about three sizes... You know, I don't think I've ever been called 'Kame-swan' before. But hey, I could get used to it -big cheesy grin accompanied by eyebrow-wiggling- Um... sorry about that... I'll try to keep up the angst in the rest of the chapters, which might not be hard once I get surrounded by fall-depressed people.

FieryKitsune - I was going for a little creepiness in this story, and I'm glad it worked. I've actually been in a situation kind of like this one.I was having a sleepover withfour of my friends, and I woke up in the middle of the night, only to find them all talking and whispering in their sleep. Of course, it wasn't just as in this story, but it was still creepy. I slept the rest of the night with my head under my pillow. nn;

Vespera - Aww, is the story that transparent? Hee hee hee, I know it is. Well, we'll see where the story takes us, right? I think that there is more to Luffy than what we see. I can only speak for myself, but to be able to think of all his attacks and such, I'd think he has a more vivid imagination than I have. Heh...