Episode of Coby
The Impel Down Experience
(Three days ago)
The public believed the bottom of Impel Down to be Level 5, the lowest point where the worst scum of the worst pirates would spend the rest of their days after being captured. The public, much to Coby's not-surprise, was wrong. Impel Down had a secret level below five, Level 6 known by the guards as the Eternal Hell, where the hopefully-forgotten and to-be-executed were expected to cease to exist or lose the will to live, whichever came last.
At least, that's what the guards told Coby when they finished locking him into his Sea Prism Stone cuffs, the chains holding his arms at an angle that wasn't painful as long as he didn't slouch. As soon as he tried to let gravity take over, however, the tension in his arms and back became much worse. Coby knew this was on purpose. He couldn't hold himself up forever. No one could.
He'd tried to escape on the way, of course. Something had happened with Vice-Admiral Garp, leaving the head of the ship Coby had been imprisoned on bedridden. Unfortunately, Garp's second, Bogard, never gave Coby a chance despite the pity in his eyes. The one time Coby managed to break away from his jailers and run to the deck ended with a knock-out dart to the thigh and another in his neck. He woke while being carried, already inside Impel Down.
"Well, well," a voice mused as the guards that shackled him left, the pirate's gaze searching for the origin. Coby's vision didn't work well without his powers, having lost his glasses when they recruited Grace and Amy, so he could only make out the vaguest of figures beyond two sets of bars and the hallway between. That being said, his hearing was still in working order, and he recognized the voice "How the mighty have fallen, eh, Pink Hair?" Crocodile chuckled.
"Bite me, you two-faced ass."
"Ohh!" a couple other inmates of the level called. This exchange was the most exciting thing to happen for some of them in decades.
"Now that's no way for a young man like yourself to talk," Crocodile admonished. "How is your little crew doing? You did steal three of my best operatives, so you couldn't be far from well-off. How are they?"
"Like you care," Coby replied. "You sang like a canary."
"I did not," Crocodile shot back, offended. "I kept my word and my lips shut. It was that stupid Mr. 7 pair that gave in. But really, how are my agents that sailed off with you? I'm curious."
"They're chasing their dreams. Robin tried to turn herself in, but we broke Enies Lobby down getting her back. It was fun."
"Ha!" a new voice in the cell next door laughed. "Goda, that sounds like something Luffy would do. Wish I had been there."
"You know Straw Hat?" Crocodile asked, directing the question at the person who had just laughed. Coby recognized the voice, but couldn't place it off the top of his head.
"'Course I do," Coby's neighbor answered. "He's my baby brother, after all."
"Ace!" Coby realized. "You're in here?"
"I guess the Marines kept my capture a secret," Ace chuckled humorlessly. "Luffy'd break into Impel Down if he knew. Probably will for you. Hope not, though. I'm sure we could probably figure something out. What happened to your crew?"
"I don't know," Coby answered, trying to shrug and only getting the rattle of chains. "A rival pirate gave me to Garp after we caused problems on Sabaody. I hope the others got away."
"With Luffy's luck, I'd say the chances are pretty good. Tell me about all the adventures you all have had. I've been down here for over a month now and you can't imagine how boring it's been."
"A month," Coby mused. "I think about that time we were running around the island-ship of Thriller Bark."
"Moria's ship?" Crocodile asked, surprised.
"Yeah. You aren't the only Warlord we've knocked around. He came to us, though."
"Now that's a story I want to hear," Ace said
"It's a long story," Coby began.
"Well, we've got the rest of our lives." Ace let out a hard breath. "Go ahead."
"Well-"
The elevator seemed to explode with light, blue and pink smoke leaking down the corridor between the two rows of cells. Shadows slowly materialized in the colored smoke, a woman with long hair that curved like a crescent moon, a man with shoulder-length hair, and an animal of some kind between them. Some prisoners groaned while others chuckled. Coby wasn't sure what to think.
"Prepare for trouble, you scallywag scum," the woman began from the blue smoke.
"And make it double, the fun's only begun," the man picked up from the pink side.
"To defend the ideals of justice and peace!"
"Extending the prison to the depths of the sea!"
"Warden Jessie!"
"And Warden James!"
"Impel Down takes in prisoners at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, you've lost the fight!"
"Mraw~!" the cat finished.
"No no no!" Jessie sighed, James coughing through the smoke. As the air cleared, it was shown that Jessie had deep red hair while James' was a nice blue. Their cat, who Jessie was now holding, had short white fur and large eyes. All three were wearing the uniforms of Impel Down guards. "It's 'That's right'! Ok? Repeat after me. That's right!"
"Mer mrawah?"
"Closer, but not quite there," the woman sighed, passing the feline to her partner. She turned to the newest prisoner. "So, Tri-Horn, what did you think of that. Suitably scary?"
"Uh, what?" Coby blinked. "I don't understand what just happened."
"I told you we needed the trumpet fanfare to prep the motto," James stated, petting the cat in his arms. "I'm telling you, trumpets make everything better. Just ask Captains Archie and Maxie. And we used too much smoke again."
"It's not the stupid trumpets!" Jessie shot back. "Besides, those two are bias. They play the trumpets. I'm not even talking to you, anyway! I'm trying to get some real feedback!"
"Feedback?" Coby asked. "For what? Who are you? I thought the warden was Magellan?"
"Our motto!" Jessie answered. "See, James and I are preparing for when we become the wardens of this place, and we need something to terrify the prisoners when they enter so they don't make any racket. So? What did you think? Did you cower at our rhymes?"
"Uh, yeeeees," the roset answered slowly before stretching dramatically. "Oh the fear! The terror of your tremor! I'm shaking in my sandals from your display! It was all so scary until the cat, but I'm still veeeery scared. A solid seven out of ten scared, still!"
"See, James?" Jessie asked smugly, turning to the man with her tongue out. "We don't need the trumpets."
"Jessie, he's not scared at all," James deadpanned.
"What? No!" Coby denied. "I'm so terrified!" Ace snorted from the cell next door, muttering something about Luffy's personality rubbing off on people.
"Why are you idiots here?" Crocodile demanded, nothing but annoyed by the display.
"Oh fine," James waved. "We're bringing a message for Firefist and Tri-Horn because we believe in making sure prisoners know what they are suffering for. Firefist, your execution has been delayed by three days. The higher-ups decided to execute Tri-Horn alongside you as punishment for his teacher attacking a Celestial Dragon."
"Execution?!" Coby gasped.
"Celestial Dragon?!" Ace gaped.
"Before that, however," Jessie jumped in, "Tri-Horn, you are going to tell us everything about your crew, including their strengths and weaknesses."
"Or what?" the teen demanded.
"Let's say the 'or else' here isn't pretty. It'll make that scar on your forehead look like child's play."
"Yeah, well, bite me."
"We warned you," James stated. "That's all we needed to do. I hope you're ready when the guards come to get you because let me tell you, Domino and Sadi-Chan won't stop until they get something or they run out of time."
"I don't know who those two are, but they can't be scarier than some of the enemies I've fought on the Grand Line. My crew has saved kingdoms. My crew has saved the world when the Marines couldn't do squat. I'm not afraid of you."
"Such a brave speech," Jessie mused. "We'll see how long that bravado lasts."
(Warning: torture and foul language)
"Mother of Goda!" Coby cried, his arms being wrenched in two directions. Sadi-Chan and Domino watched with greedy eyes, the former breathing heavily with every pain-laden cry of the pirate. Coby growled at them, feeling his fingers and toes turning blue from the cold of the Frozen Hell of Impel Down's Level 5 where they were stashed away in a corner.
Sadi-Chan's cheeks were bright red, matching both her long hair and her red leather outfit that left nothing but her eyes to the imagination. Domino was blonde, wearing a standard guard uniform under a heavy coat. Her eyes were hidden by a pair of sunglasses.
"You can make it stop," Domingo whispered, pulling the pirate's arms a little further. "Just tell us about your crew and we'll let you out."
"Fuck that," Coby spat. He turned his face toward the panting form of Sadi-Chan. "How are you not cold? You're wearing less than me."
"Seeing such a big, strong man like you crying out in pain," Sadi-Chan began with a shiver not caused by the cold. "It just gets me so hot and bothered I need the snow to cool off. Cry more for me." She twisted the wheel.
"Aaahhhh! Son of a Jabra!"
"Come on, Coby-kun," Domino whispered. "Are your friends who abandoned you worth all this pain? Just let go and we'll happily help you warm up." Her claw-like nails traced up Coby's abdomen, threatening to cut past the skin. "We can make you scream for such a different reason."
"Back, off!"
"Such spirit," Sadi-Chan whispered. "Zoans are always the best ones to break. Maybe I can add you to my collection. A Minotriceratops would be excellent."
"He's going to die soon," Domino pointed out, her nails digging into his shoulder.
"Oh poo. At least we can play with him some more. We have at least three days. Then maybe I can get his Fruit!"
"Bite me," Coby growled.
"Ok." Coby's face morphed from confusion to pain as the redhead leaned in and literally bit him, her teeth digging into his ear.
"Fucking Hell!" he cursed, rattling the board he was strapped to before the woman pulled away, licking the excess blood from her lips. He struggled against the bindings, but couldn't get any leverage.
"That's what your defiance and pride get you," Sadi-Chan giggled. "And we're only getting started, you poor evil monster."
"You're the monsters here," the man spat. "What do you even what to know? You've got plenty on our crew from after Enies Lobby."
"We don't know how accurate that information is," Domino pointed out. "For instance, where did your crew truly get a hold of your electric Logia? Have you gained any members since then? What Devil Fruit does your navigator have that allows her to control the weather?"
"Oh, stuff like that." Coby smirked. "You'll get nothing from me."
"So be it."
"AAAAHHHHHHHGGGGGHHH!"
Hours stretched on in this manner, the top information gatherers threatening to tear Coby's limbs off before attempting to coerce his cooperation with dirty favors. All the while, snow gently piled up on the cold-susceptible Zoan, each flake making the blood in his veins feel like shards of ice.
Pretty soon, the two women finished playing with the teen's front, pressing him into a sheet of ice face down. His arms and legs were still chained, forcing him spread eagle as Sadi-Chan ripped the shirt of his prisoner uniform away.
"Domino, look at this," the redhead smirked. "Coby-kun is offering us a clean canvas."
"No!" Coby tried, the board wobbling but holding him firm against his struggles. "Don't do that!"
"Why not?" Domino whispered, tracing lines along Coby's muscles. "Ladies love a man with scars."
"Scars on the back are the shame of a swordsman!" Coby answered. "At least let me keep that pride!"
"Domino," Sadi-Chan muttered. "This slab of man-meat has a tattoo! How manly."
The blood from Coby's face drained away as he tried to see something, anything, through his peripheral vision. Sadi-Chan's hand caressed his Straw Hat tattoo high along his right shoulder, the one he'd had since before Alabasta.
"That's almost better than the back," Domino agreed.
Shink. Shink. Shiiiink.
Coby's blood ran cold, and not just because of the temperature. He recognized that sound very well; it was two blades scraping against each other.
"I wonder what would happen if I do this," the blonde purred. Coby muffled a cry of pain as he felt a knife carve a gash across his tattoo. His eyes squeezed shut as Domino finished.
"Nothing?" the blonde asked. "Here, Sadi-Chan. You try."
A half-formed tear froze in the Zoan's eyelashes as the sadistic woman finished what her partner started, the two having carved an X into his prideful ink.
"That's going to scar," Sadi-Chan smiled, leaning in to lick some of the blood away before it could freeze. "Such a shame. It was well-done, too."
A bell tolled in the distance, ringing six times before the echoes slowly die away.
"That means this round it over," Domino announced.
"And the fun was just starting," Sadi-Chan pouted. A pair of guards dressed in overcoats approached the scene, not batting an eye at the bloody prisoner as they took him away.
(End of torture scene)
Impel Down was Hell on earth, Coby concluded on the third night of his imprisonment. His shoulders and arms screamed from the abuse of the torture they'd gone through and bags drooped under the Zoan's eyes. Tear lines had all but carved themselves down the sides of his face while the prickling of his upper back served to remind Coby of the marks the sadists had left. Every night, he returned to his cell with his blue lips frozen shut and his body numb.
Along with the X they'd carved into his tattoo, dividing the triceratops skull into four parts along the crossed swords, they had also mangled his back, ruining his swordsman's pride. First carving a Marine Gull along the upper ridge of his back, they went on to cut their names into him, one under each wing like feathers. If that wasn't enough, they then retraced the scars with a hot iron, burning their legacy into his flesh before turning to the classics of whips and chains.
He knew what the mark on his back looked like and what it meant. The sadists had narrated their process and, when they were done, had taken a photo and showed it to the poor pirate. That was the second night, and the first time Coby cried for failing his teacher.
"Give it a week," Crocodile had said after the second session, having seen the tears from his former foe's eyes. "They'll get bored after a week."
Against his will, Coby felt a spark of respect for the former Warlord grow considering he wasn't the one to rat on Baroque Works or the Straw Hats even after going through what he did.
From the cell next door, Ace and a new voice identified as Jinbei the Warlord did their best to calm the younger pirate every night and reinforce his will to resist.
The guards did not come for Coby on the fourth day.
"Coby," Ace called, trying to keep the younger pirate distracted from the pain. "Hey, Coby! How's my little brother doing? I bet he's still jumping around, shouting about being the Pirate King, right?"
"Well," Coby rasped, his throat dry, "It's still his dream. I'm not sure about the whole jumping around thing. He's mellowed out about that since he got married."
"Married?" both Ace and Crocodile gasped, one significantly louder than the other. "Let me guess," Ace continued. "That navigator girlfriend of his. Nami, right?"
"That's her. The Marines put his name on her poster after we raided Enies Lobby, but they had a ceremony on Thriller Bark. I wasn't there for it, but the others said some zombie priest was more concerned with someone getting married than making sure the guy who set it up got his way."
"I can't wait to meet her again," Ace muttered, a melancholic smile in his words. "He beat me to it, huh? That crybaby."
"'Firefist' Ace and 'Tri-Horn' Coby," a woman announced, ending their conversation. "You have a visitor."
"I didn't think we were allowed visitors," Coby's hoarse voice whispered.
"This is an exception. Behold, the Pirate Empress and Warlord, Boa Hancock."
The guard stepped out of the way, allowing a tall, beautiful woman to enter the area. Prisoners went wild, catcalls and hollering echoing through the level. The woman ignored all of these, turning her eyes on the condemned.
"So you are the ones to be executed," she commented, her eyes widening slightly at the beaten and cut form of Coby. "What landed a couple of stupid men like yourselves here? ...Well? Answer me."
"Me?" Ace began. "Betrayal and a quest for revenge. I became a bargaining chip."
"Same," Coby whispered. "Not... Not the betrayal or quest. The bargaining part."
"So it is no fault of your own but being weak. Such is to be expected by your sex, I suppose." She bent onto her knee, coming almost to eye level with Coby and Ace. "So you are the ones Monkey D. Luffy cares for?" she whispered, just loud enough for them to hear. "I could not care less if you live or die, but Luffy does and I have given my word to help him. He is here for you."
"Wha-?"
"Guard. I have what I came for."
"Very good, ma'am." With a dramatic sweep of her cape, Hancock left.
"Luffy, you moron," Ace cried after all was silent. "You absolute moron..."
End of Chapter 131
Read and Review!
-SwordOfTheGods