Warnings: Dark themes, lots of mentions of death, strong language, human experimentation, experimenting on children, child abduction, graphic descriptions of experimenting, lots of needles, lots of violence, poor descriptions of panic attacks, descriptions of blood, rated M for safety.

*If I need to add any more warnings please tell me in the reviews or a PM and I'll be sure to add it!*

Chapter 2: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire

Days passed quickly. Quicker than the brothers would like to admit. Sabo had been right about the kidnappers here needing to keep them alive because they were fed three times a day. They weren't given much, barely crumbs compared to Ace and Luffy's usual portions, and the food was questionable at best, but at least they could always make out what it was supposed to be. For example, the hard, stale brick of brown was bread, the round, mushy browned object was an old apple, and the green mush was peas. They were also given a cup of water each with every meal and Sabo could already see the effects of hunger on his brothers.

Luffy, although thin to begin with, was quickly beginning to show bone, and his usual rambunctious nature was toned down, barely allowing him to do a lap around the closet without running out of energy. Ace was slightly better off, though his bad mood only got worse with each minute spent in their dark closet. The freckled boy was hungry, yes, but he wasn't thinning nearly as fast as Luffy was. Sabo was ok in terms of hunger, not having the large appetite his brothers had, though he was a little hungry. He always made sure to give Luffy and Ace some of his food despite their protests. He didn't need it as much as they did.

Seeing as they didn't have much to do in their closet Sabo had taken on the role of entertaining, whether it was through telling stories or even teaching his siblings the alphabet in the dust that accumulated on the ground. Ace was too grouchy most of the time to do much of anything except pout and bang on the door, and Luffy was more subdued than he usually was ever since they had been kidnapped. The youngest was quieter as well, but when he did speak it was as if nothing had changed. His voice was still as upbeat as normal and his smiles were still just as bright.

"We should just bust the door down already!" Ace shouted after having stewed in anger for a few hours. Sabo sighed, having had this argument with Ace a multitude of times throughout their stay.

"Again, we can't do that, it's been, what, 2 weeks since we've been taken? We haven't stopped at a single island and were in the middle of the ocean!" Sabo said, exasperated. Luffy was ignoring the fighting, having heard it many times before, and instead was crouched, one arm wrapped around his legs that were huddled to his chest, chin resting on his knees, while his free hand drew in the dust.

Oh! Was that a spider?!

The fight Ace and Sabo were having was completely blocked from Luffy's mind as he smiled brightly at the little creature he was sharing a room with. Seeing the small bug reminded him of the bugs back in the forest and his smile faltered a little, but he shook those thoughts away, holding his hand out for the spider to crawl onto. After a little coaxing, AKA, continuously moving in the spiders' path, it climbed onto his hand and he watched as it crawled around and around, laughing.

"Then what do we do?! Wait another week? Or year?!" Ace yelled, waving his arms in the air. Luffys attention was drawn back to the fight, the smile leaving his face as he dropped his hand, letting the spider crawl off and away.

"We don't have a choice Ace! We're stuck in here! It's not like I want to do nothing, but when our other options are to go out there and die I'd rather sit here and hope we reach a damn island soon!" Sabo shouted back, equally frustrated. Luffys frown deepened, hating that his brothers were fighting in the first place, hating that they were stuck in this stupid dark room, hating that he couldn't do anything to help, and especially hating how hungry he was.

"Oi, brats, quit your yellin'!" The door opened and the black haired man came in with their food, lunch, setting it down and shutting the door quickly, as always, never giving Ace enough time to rush out. Luffys mood got a little better at seeing his plate of food slide his way, courtesy of Sabo who was shaking his head, frown ever present on his face.

"We'll get out Ace, we just have to wait," Sabo said softly, staring at his portion of food, handing Luffy his roll and giving Ace his peas, leaving himself with the bruised apple.

"Yeah, well I'm sick of waiting." Ace grumbled. It was silent after that, the three finishing their food soon enough. With nothing to do Sabo decided to try and teach the two again, though it seemed only Luffy was really listening and trying. It was actually surprising that Luffy was trying to learn, but Sabo guessed it was mostly because the normally rambunctious child had nowhere to go or anything better to do. Glancing at Ace he saw the freckled boy pouting once more, arms crossed.

"You know, at this rate, Luffy'll know how to read before you do," Sabo said in an almost sing-song voice, a smile growing on his lips when Ace turned a glare his way.

"Really?! I'll be better than Ace at something?! Cool!" Luffy cheered, determination to actually learn increasing. Ace huffed, standing with fists at his sides as he stormed over.

"Like that'll ever happen! I'm older so its only natural that I'm smarter than a crybaby like you!" Ace said, plopping down beside Sabo and looking at the scribbles in the dust, trying to make sense of what the different lines meant. Now Luffy was pouting, arms crossed.

"I'm not a crybaby." He mumbled, though was ignored by his older brothers as Sabo tried catching Ace up.

That was how the next few days went. Ace and Sabo would occasionally argue, Sabo would teach them the best he could, and they would eat the horrible food they were given, hoping to gain their freedom at the next island they landed on.

And when the one month mark of being held captive was reached, it happened.

"We have to land at an island eventually, right?!" Ace asked, completely fed up with being trapped in the dark closet.

"It has been a month, they have to be running low on supplies by now," Sabo said, though more to himself.

"Well the first thing I'm doing is getting out of this damn room!" Ace said. And he was right. When the ship finally docked at an island later that day, the first thing that happened was that he got out of that room. They all did.

Except there was a slight detail that was left out.

They were dragged out.

The three that had kidnapped them originally came into the room without warning, each grabbing one of the brothers without hesitation. The brothers were too weak from lack of food to do much against the grown, healthy, fed, adults, and there was the added disadvantage of having been locked in a closet where they had nowhere to run, exercise, or train. It was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

"We can finally get rid of you brats!" Silver eyes said as he walked onto the deck with his lackeys carrying the three.

"Let us go!" Ace growled out, trying his best to wiggle out of his captors' grip. The brothers were blinded by the sun, unable to truly see where they were going as they were carried off the ship and onto land. The intense brightness was giving them headaches.

"Three kids, as promised." Silver eyes was speaking, obviously to another person, but the brothers were still too disoriented and only just starting to get over the brightness.

"Perfect, your payment, as usual. Pleasure doing business with you once more." A new voice said.

"Likewise." And suddenly the brothers were being transferred to new arms.

"Time for the first test." The new voice said. Just as their vision cleared they felt a prick in their arms, and suddenly, everything went black.

/\/\/\/\/\

"Ugh..." Ace groaned as he slowly came too. What had happened? Was he still in that stupid closet? What time was it? It was dark, but there was a dim light coming from somewhere that illuminated enough of the room that Ace was able to see more clearly then he had when in that closet.

This definitely was not the closet.

As he glanced around he saw that he was in a cell, the bars giving that fact away, though there were concrete walls surrounding him on every other side. The cell was just barely bigger than the closet had been, but everything, besides the metal bars, was concrete. The floor was just as dusty though, and the room was still dark, though not as dark. He saw Sabo and Luffy passed out beside him and saw they were still breathing, relieving him. Standing proved to be disorienting, the world seeming to tilt, causing him to stumble. There was a pounding in his head and his body ached, though there was a pain in his wrist that demanded his attention. Lifting his wrist to his face he looked at the underside where the stinging was coming from and blinked in confusion at what he saw.

In bold black ink, there was the numbers 11062 tattooed onto the inside of his wrist. The skin around the numbers was red and the area stung like he was stung by a bunch of bees. Now Ace was thoroughly confused and annoyed that someone had given him the stupid tattoo in the first place. And what did the numbers mean? Wanting answers Ace moved to the bars, slower then he would have liked seeing as he was still disoriented and feeling slightly sick. Once he reached the bars he grabbed them to steady himself, shivering at how cold to the touch they were. Peering outside the cell proved difficult as he couldn't fit his head between the bars. The cell they were in was at the end of a hallway, the left being a wall, while the right showed what seemed to be a never-ending hallway of even more cells. It had to end though, right? He blamed the lack of lighting for the illusion, seeing as there was only one light bulb that he could see dangling from the hallway ceiling a cell down from him.

Grumbling in frustration Ace spun around, once again nearly falling over, and looked for any way to escape. There were no windows, no cracks, no holes, nothing. They were locked in yet another, this time literal, cage. Well, at least this one had a toilet in it. Their previous captors had not been so nice.

"Sabo, Luffy, get up!" Ace hissed, falling to the ground and shaking his two brothers. He began to notice just how cold it was in the cell, as well as how loud it was outside of the cell. He could hear what sounded to be people in pain, but there was also the faint sound of screaming that unnerved him.

"Wake up idiots!" Ace said, masking his worry with anger as he usually did. When Sabo groaned he nearly sighed in relief but held back.

"Ace?" Sabo asked, rubbing his eyes, squinting.

"About time you woke up!" Ace said. Sabo was still confused and had many of the same feelings Ace had woken up with, sore everything, pounding in the head, slightly sick feeling, and the stinging on his wrist. Confused he lifted his wrist up, brows furrowed as he didn't quite connect what he was seeing to what it actually was.

"Its a tattoo. I got one too." Ace said with a scowl, lifting his arm to show Sabo his own tattoo. Sabos was the same as Aces except his number was 11085.

"Wha-? Where are we? What happened?" Sabo questioned, glancing around, still extremely confused. Ace sighed in frustration.

"I don't know where we are, but its a cell, and I don't know what happened. I think we were drugged." Ace said, unhappy with the mere thought of that. Sabo was silent a minute, trying to shake the sick and dizzying feeling away.

"Ye-... yeah... yeah... that would make sense, right? I think I remember getting poked by something, probably a needle..." Sabo said, blinking away the fog. Ace nodded.

"Me too. Whoever these damn bastards are I'm gonna beat them up!" Ace declared, though there was no possible way that he could do that at the moment.

"How's Luffy?" Sabo asked, glancing around for the youngest, finding him curled up beside him.

"Sleeping still. Oi, Luffy, get up!" Ace said, slightly louder than normal as he began shaking the boy. Luffy stirred slightly, eyebrows furrowing as he slowly sat up and blinked his eyes opened, confused.

"Ace? Sabo? Where are we?" Luffy asked, and Ace swore if he had to hear that question one more time he was going to explode. Sensing his brothers' annoyance Sabo took charge this time.

"We don't know Lu, we're someplace new," Sabo said calmly. Luffy looked even more confused the more awake he became.

"I hurt everywhere!" Luffy whined.

"Well so do we, suck it up." Ace demanded, crossing his arms. Luffy stuck his tongue out at his brother in retaliation.

"Meanie!" Luffy said, Sabo rolling his eyes.

"Luffy, let me see your wrist," Sabo said, taking his brothers left wrist in his hand and flipping it over, finding the same tattoo, this time with the numbers 11097.

"What's that? Oh, is it that cool marker I use sometimes on Aces face?!" Luffy asked, a smile brightening on his face. Ace glared in fury while Sabo shook his head, frowning.

"No Lu, its a tattoo," Sabo said, sighing and dropping the wrist, massaging his head. His headache was only getting worse.

"A tattoo? I don't remember getting that..." Luffy said, head tilting as he tried to remember.

"We all got one when we were sleeping, dummy." Ace said gruffly. Luffy straightened, understanding shining on his face now.

"Oh, that makes sense!" Luffy exclaimed as if that answered all his questions.

"The question is, why did we get them...?" Sabo asked, looking back at his own numbers.

"No, the question is how do we get out of here?!" Ace shouted angrily, stomping back towards the bars.

"HEY! ANYONE THERE?! LET US OUT OF HERE!" Ace shouted down the hall, his voice echoing and mingling with the many other sounds of pain coming from the other cells. Sabo frowned, moving to the bars as well with Luffy, both stumbling slightly before righting themselves. Peering out they saw nothing but more cells on either side of the dim hallway.

"No one's gonna listen to you." A voice said from the cell across from them.

"Oh yeah, and who the hell are you?" Ace spat out. They couldn't see into the cell so they couldn't tell who was talking nor how old they were.

"I'm 11049." The voice said, their voice seeming to belong to a boy, though slightly higher pitched.

"11049?" Sabo asked, thinking to his own tattooed number.

"Yeah, you know, the number on your wrist? No one here cares what your real name is, just whatever numbered test subject you are." This only confused the brothers more.

"What's a test subject?" Luffy asked innocently. Sabo hesitated, he and Ace sharing a glance, before turning back to the youngest.

"It doesn't matter Lu, why don't you explore the cell, or even draw in the dust?" Sabo suggested. Luffy smiled and nodded, not really interested in the conversation anyway, and moved further into the cell. Sabo sighed in relief, turning to face outside the bars again.

"So, we're test subjects?" Sabo asked.

"Exactly. All we're good for now is letting those doctors run tests on us and hoping we did good enough to get food." 11049 said bitterly before being attacked by a coughing fit.

"You don't even fight back?!" Ace asked in anger. There was a strained laugh from 11049, almost a little too weak.

"Once you're in here your life expectancy isn't more than 2 weeks, at best 3. Fighting back does you no more good than jumping into the lion's mouth willingly." They said, their voice growing more and more quiet with every word.

"Well... how long have you been here?" Sabo asked, his mind running 100 miles an hour at the thought that this could be it for him and his brothers.

"... 2 and a half weeks, and let me tell you, each day is a new level of hell." 11049 said.

"Good luck, maybe you guys'll be different." The sentence was said with a strange bitterness, almost as if they didn't believe their words as they were saying them. It went silent after that, the coughs gone and a silence reigning over the two cells.

"What does that mean?! Oi! Hey!" Ace probably would have kept trying to get a response if Sabo hadn't placed his hand on his shoulder, eyes wide.

"Ace I... I think they died..." He said quietly, mindful of Luffy who had been playing in the dust. Aces eyes widened at the prospect, turning to look out the bars again before a frown grew on his face and he slammed his fist on the bars.

"Damnit!" He shouted in fury, storming off to the corner of the cell, leaving Sabo to stare sadly at 11049's cell. Luffy had looked up at Aces outburst, frowning slightly, confused. He didn't want to bother Ace right now, his oldest brother looked like he would snap at him if he tried getting close, and even Sabo looked weird. Luffy knew that since they had been kidnapped his brothers had been constantly worried, but there had been nothing he could do but continue trying to stay happy.

"Sabo?" He asked quietly, watching his brother turn to look at him, his eyes still slightly wide and skin a shade paler than normal.

"Its ok Lu, we'll be fine, just stressed is all," Sabo said, though not as reassuring as he had hoped to be. Luffy merely nodded, watching Sabo as he moved to the wall and sat against it, putting his head in his hands. He looked back at Ace to see him hugging his legs, head resting on his knees. Luffy wasn't nearly as happy as he had previously been, a frown forming on his face at the thought of his brothers being so mad and sad.

They didn't know how long they had been unconcious before, and they didn't know how much time had passed since they had woken up in the cell. It felt like maybe an hour had passed, but they had no way of knowing what time it was, or even what time of day it was. There were no windows anywhere. Sabo thought that they might be in a basement due to the fact that it was so cold and dark.

A sound down the hall drew the brothers attention, Ace running to the bars, fury still on his face.

"What do you see?" Sabo asked. Ace squinted as if he would be able to see better in the dark if he did. After a few seconds of silence- if you didn't count the other people there making sounds of pain- Aces expression turned to anger.

"Hey! Who're you?! Where are we?!" Ace shouted, voice echoing down the hall. Sabo moved to the bars as well, seeing a person in the distance walking towards their end of the hall, peering into every cell as he moved, nodding at some, frowning at others. Eventually, he got to their cell, peering at the one across from them and sighing, shaking his head, writing something down on a clipboard before turning to them, a bright smile on his face.

"Ah, you three are awake! Wonderful!" He said, his voice almost too cheery as he scribbled more things down on his clipboard. When he finished he put the pen in his coat pocket, giving them his full attention.

"Welcome to the facility, I'll be your doctor, Haru!" Haru announced. Ace continued to glare at him and Sabo felt uneasy just being near the guy. Luffy was watching from the back of the cell, frown on his face and unease filling him

"Let us out of this stupid cell!" Ace shouted, gripping the bars tightly, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. Haru sighed, clicking his tongue and waving his finger.

"Now now, I know you're eager, but you three aren't scheduled for tests until after lunch." He said as if they wanted to be here. Ace growled at him, sticking his face up to the bars.

"I don't want to be apart of your stupid tests! Let us out of here!" He shouted. Haru pretended not to hear him, smiling again and turning to look at Sabo, and then Luffy.

"Yes, you three will make fine test subjects. You're the one with the devil fruit, correct 11097?" He asked, staring at Luffy who didn't say anything, not liking the look in the 'doctors' eyes.

"Leave him alone!" Ace growled out, not liking the way he was looking at his brother. Sabo's eyes narrowed as well, the unease leaving long enough for the anger to settle in as he felt the familiar protectiveness over his youngest brother fill him.

"I can't wait until this afternoon! Breakfast will be here soon." Haru said, turning and walking away, Ace glaring at his back until he couldn't see him anymore. Sabo turned to Luffy, moving to comfort him as the straw-hatted boy seemed unnerved.

"It'll be ok Lu. Why don't I tell you about these cool pirates, the Royal Renegades?" Sabo suggested, Luffy turning to look in interest. Encouraged Sabo continued.

"Their jolly roger was a grinning skull and crossbones with a tilted crown on its head. It was said that everyone on the crew used to be some sort of royalty, King, Queen, Princess, Prince, or even just the cousin of a king." Sabo said. Luffy slowly became more interested.

"Why did they become pirates?" He asked in a soft voice. Sabo grinned widely at the question.

"Because they wanted to be free."

Man, I thought I wouldn't get this up in time! I had such a crazy two weeks that I had to work double time to make sure this got done and was ready for upload, but it was all worth it! I hope you've all enjoyed the chapter, its starting to pick up a bit now and I can't wait for you all to see what I have planned for our favorite brothers. Also, thanks for all the amazing reviews, favorites, and follows, they are very much appreciated!

I don't have much more to say, so I hope to see you all next chapter!