Welcome to another chapter everyone! I just want to make a quick note so that you guys can distinguish things easier, so here goes:

'Blah, blah, blah'= Talking in sign language

"Blah, blah, blah"= Talking normally

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 anymore warnings please tell me in the reviews or a PM and I'll be sure to add it!

Chapter 4: Life Inside, Life Outside

The brothers spent their morning eating breakfast and talking. The two had asked Luffy where he had been taken and what happened but Luffy had gone distant, not saying much except that it was a really white room and he really hurt. They didn't ask anymore after that and instead started creating new signs for their sign language, Luffy finding it enjoyable which encouraged Ace and Sabo to continue doing it. Luffy seemed to be feeling a little better today, though was still sore and aching in some places, barely able to sit up comfortably.

"Oh! And this could mean, 'You stink!'" Luffy said, scrunching his nose up as Sabo laughed and Ace reprimanded Luffy.

"Why would we need a sign like that dummy?!" Ace asked. Luffy pouted.

"Because you smell," Luffy said bluntly. Ace flushed and sputtered while Sabo laughed louder, knowing it was true. The three hadn't been able to take a bath in a month so they were all smelling riper than normal.

"W-Well... So do you!" Ace shouted back defensively. Luffy pouted, crossing his arms.

"Do not!" Before a fight could break out Sabo calmed himself down, planning on being the mediator.

"Now now-"

"Do to! We all smell! Even Sabo!" Ace said.

"Hey!" Sabo said, an offended look on his face, even though he knew it was true.

"Ace is a meanie," Luffy muttered, causing Ace to scowl. Footsteps sounded in the hall and the brothers were amazed they even heard them. It was pure luck that they almost always heard footsteps when the sounds of pain coming from the others in cells was loud and overwhelming. It was never silent in the hall.

"Who's ready for some tests?" A voice asked cheerily from down the hall. It still sounded far away but the sound of a cell opening and someone screaming and crying was loud and clear. Luffy shivered beside his brothers and the two stood up defensively. They had watched Luffy go last time without being able to fight. This time they were going to be prepared. The sound of cells opening and people screaming continued to echo throughout the hall, gradually getting closer.

"11023, 11059, 11004." It was Haru's voice reading off numbers, sending chills down the brothers' spines.

"11080, 1104- Oh, seems we need to send 11049 out," Haru said, coming into view of their cell and looking at the one across from them, 11049's cell, the one who had talked to them their first day there. Sabo paled, having assumed the person there had died that day, and when he heard nothing from that cell since he assumed he had been correct.

A doctor- Sabo found it was easiest to just call everyone there doctors, whether they were ones or not- went into the cell and Ace and Sabo watched as he pulled out a body that was definitely no longer alive.

They had no hair and there were bruises and cuts littering the small person's entire body. They looked like they were older than Sabo and Ace, but not by much. Ace shifted his stance to completely block the body from Luffy's sight. They both turned green at the sight, but also the thought that the poor person had been rotting in that cell for at least a day and no one had noticed.

"Now, back on task. Seeing as there is now an extra opening, 11097, 11062, and 11085, it seems you're all up for tests today!" Haru said in his normal, cheery voice. Ace growled at the man as two other doctors came in, grabbing Ace and Sabo despite them doing their best to fight back. Turns out, they were a lot weaker than they thought due to lack of proper food and training. Haru came in as well, grabbing Luffy who was much too weak to even struggle.

"Let us go! Bastards!" Ace shouted, being pulled out of the cell and down the hall. Sabo was pulled out behind him and, though he struggled, he spent more time looking at his surroundings. He saw the end of the hallway now, cells lining the entire two sides of the hallway. There seemed to be about 20 cells, 10 on each side, and at the very end of the hall on the left, there was a space next to the last cell. Sabo assumed it was a door and made a mental note of it in his head, turning to focus on the right side. There was the same amount of cells, but instead of the extra space next to the last cell, there was an extra space in the middle, about 5 cells in. Sabo could clearly see a door here as well as they got closer and realized that that was where they were headed.

All the doctors had a person in their hand, each with their own numbered tattoo. They were all being taken into the room in a line, those who were still in their cells cowering in the corners. Eventually Ace was taken into the room, still struggling and arguing, and then Sabo. Glancing behind him he saw Luffy watching in terror, though he wasn't crying or screaming this time. There was a resigned look in his eyes and Sabo hated it. Finally, all three brothers were in the room, the last ones in, and they were all taken to chairs with straps on them and strapped down.

"Where the hell are we?! What's going on?!" Ace shouted, not getting the hint that no one was going to answer him. The doctors were all huddled together, talking and showing each other their clipboards. Sabo looked at the others in the chairs and noticed that all the... test subjects? It felt wrong to call them that. Victims? Close enough. He noticed that all the victims were young, the oldest looking to be 13 at most. They all had their heads down, silent, and Sabo felt uneasy by the zombie-like manner that they held themselves with.

"Ace, shut up," Sabo whispered, trying to get his brother to stop talking. It wasn't doing them any good if they weren't getting answered, and the most it would do was draw attention to themselves. Ace turned to argue with Ace but Sabo narrowed his eyes. Sign language or not, Ace knew that meant to listen, so he did, but not before grumbling to himself. Sabo tapped his index finger rapidly on the arm of the chair he was strapped to a few times before stopping, Ace watching intently as he got the hint.

'Calm down.'

Ace nearly scoffed, lifting his middle finger slightly higher than the rest of his fingers, turning a smirk to Sabo.

'Like hell.'

Sabo rolled his eyes, turning to look at Luffy and was unnerved to see that he was in the same pose as all the other kids, not even looking towards him or Ace.

"Lu-"

"Let's begin shall we?" Suddenly all of the doctors in the room were advancing on them, each one going to a different child, because that's what they all were, children. Ace and Sabo watched as Haru moved towards Luffy, but before they could do anything- not that they really could do anything anyways- they got distracted by their own doctors advancing towards them, poking needles into their arms. Ace was arguing with his but getting no response, and Sabo was trying to find a way to get out of the restraints, having no such luck. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Haru pulling Luffys cheek, watching it stretch before letting it go and watching it snap back into place, Luffy not even flinching.

Again, he was distracted by another needle being poked into his skin, noticing briefly that at some point they had drawn his and Aces blood, two doctors coming to take the blood-filled bags away. Now, though, the doctor was injecting a strange blue liquid into Sabo's arm, and he had a feeling it was not going to make him feel better.

It continued on this way, all of the children getting injected with weird serums, some screaming in pain from their injection, some falling asleep, others going almost rabid, struggling furiously against their restraints, growling and snarling. Sabo was having a streak of bad luck with his injections, all causing him various amounts of pain. Aces injections had all been knocking him unconscious, his doctor giving him smelling salts to wake him back up, only to repeat the process by injecting him with yet another needle. Luffy wasn't getting as many injections as the rest, and Sabo figured it was because he had a devil fruit. Haru seemed much more interested in exploring the different properties of Luffy's abilities and if he did inject Luffy with something it would, in one way or another, affect his brothers' fruit.

"Clear a table!" Haru announced to some of the helpers in the room, nurses. One of them nodded, heading to one of the many metal tables in the room and clearing any bottles or needles from it, opening the restraints. Sabo, through his pain, turned to watch Haru unstrap Luffy from his chair, carrying him over to the table and strapping him down once more. Sabo hated the helplessness as he watched Luffy lay motionlessly on the table, staring at the ceiling. Haru pulled a light down from the ceiling and cut off Luffy's shirt, throwing the scraps to the side and unwrapping the bandages. Sabo was sure that if Ace were awake long enough he would be yelling at Haru, but as it stood now his brother was barely up more than a minute before passing out again.

"Amazing! There's absolutely no trace of a wound! Not even a scar! The rubber material of his body merely mended back together!" Haru said in amazement, and Sabo wanted to yell at the man who was continuously hurting his brother, but another injection only had him crying out in pain.

"I wonder if the same would happen to a burn mark! Would it mend over or leave unhealed scar tissue?" Haru asked, the nurse running off and grabbing something.

Time passed, testing continued, and everything was pure torture. Eventually, one by one, the children were all unstrapped and sent back to their cells, Doctors chattering to each other about all the, "Amazing test results!". Sabo, Ace, and Luffy were the last three to leave, Sabo first, Ace second, and then finally Luffy. Throughout the entire session, Ace had continuously been put to sleep while Sabo was put through pain, physically and emotionally. Ace hadn't been awake to see what happened to Luffy, and Sabo was immensely grateful that he hadn't been. It was horrible to watch, especially when Haru continued to smile sickeningly at the different results of Luffy's tests.

Sabo was just happy to be laying down on the hard, cold ground of their cell. Ace was groggy, though awake, beside him, groaning and trying to sit up, though he was disoriented.

"God damn bas'ards!" Ace slurred out, holding his head. Sabo didn't even look his way. Though he was concerned for his brother, he just didn't have the energy to move.

"Oi, Sab', you ok?" Ace asked. Sabo could only groan in response, closing his eyes. Ace looked at Luffy and saw that the boy was much the same as he had been the first time he'd come back from testing.

"What happened?" Ace asked, only to realize quickly that both of his brothers were sleeping. His lips thinned to a line as he thought about what could have happened. He hadn't been awake much in there, and the bits he was awake for weren't comforting. He could remember hearing his brothers screams, see Luffy on a table being stretched, see needles poking into Sabo's arms, but every time he was about to get a clear view on things he was knocked out again. It frustrated the freckled boy at how little control he had over anything in this place.

The sound of the food cart coming made Aces stomach turn. He was hungry, sure, hungrier than normal even, but the thought of that green garbage in a bowl almost made Ace want to skip eating for once in his life. Almost.

"Dinner." A man said, the same man who always served them their meals. Ace took one of the bowls, bringing it to his lap and eating quickly. If it was dinner already that meant they had missed lunch, meaning it had been a good few hours in that stupid testing room. After finishing the vile soup in record time Ace shook Sabo awake, the blonde groaning but opening his eyes anyways.

"Wa's happenin'?" Sabo asked, looking around, wincing as he sat up.

"Dinner." Ace said, handing his brother the bowl and moving to wake Luffy up.

"Dinner? How long was I out?" Sabo asked, massaging his forehead, picking up the spoon and eating slowly.

"Only a few minutes. We were being tested on and missed lunch." Ace said, his words turning sour as he mentioned the fact that they had, in fact, been tested on. Ace was tired of feeling helpless over everything.

"Come on Lu, dinner, then sleep." Ace encouraged, lifting the boy up gently, resting his head in his lap. He normally wasn't this affectionate to his brothers, and he was definitely glad they were probably both too disoriented to even remember this later, but this was an exception. Ace helped slowly feed Luffy, the boy completely drained like last time. Sabo finished first and said a quick goodnight before passing out again. Ace sighed, hand holding the spoon tightly in unrestrained anger as he gave Luffy the last of the soup, setting Luffy gently back on the ground.

"I'm happy..." Ace heard Luffy mumble out, breathing out a sigh of what seemed to be relief, confusing him greatly.

"You're happy?!" Ace asked incredulously. They weren't exactly in a situation that afforded them any happiness.

"Mm," Luffy hummed, nodding his head.

"Why?! This place sucks!" Ace said, almost angry that Luffy could be so oblivious sometimes.

"Because I'm not alone! I hurt everywhere and I'm tired and cold, but I'm not alone! I've got Ace and Sabo with me, so I'm happy!" Luffy said, drifting off before Ace could reply. The freckled boy stared, mouth agape in wonder at his brothers' words. He knew of his brothers near phobia of being alone, claiming it was worse than being dead, but how could he still find happiness like that in a place like this?

Sometimes Ace wished he could be like Luffy. The boy always seemed to be happy, despite his circumstances, and when Ace thought about it, being happy by even the smallest things was better than being angry at everything.

He was still going to be angry though because he was not Luffy. He was Luffy's older brother. He was Sabos older brother. He was supposed to protect them, and so far he was doing a piss poor job at it. They were kidnapped, kept on a tiny boat, now locked in a cage, being tested on, and barely being fed edible food. He had done nothing to prevent it and done nothing so far to try and get them out.

Even now, as he looked at his sleeping brothers, shivering on the ground from how cold the cell was. Ace frowned as he took the sight in before nodding, determined. He shuffled in between the two, pulling Sabo close to him and resting the blondes head on his chest, wrapping his right arm around him to try and warm him up, doing the same to Luffy, pulling him close so they could warm each other up with their body heat.

Ace couldn't do much in the way of getting them out, or planning, or thinking, or anything like that, but he could try and make them as comfortable as possible until they were freed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Meanwhile, in a little village filled with windmills, there was a man sitting in an empty bar, drinking heavily.

"Garp-san, I don't think you should be drinking this much." A green haired barmaid said politely, concern laced in her voice as she watched the man down another drink, demanding another.

"Bah! I deserve it!" The marine bellowed somberly. The barmaid sighed.

"Please Garp-san, its only been a month, I'm sure we'll find them, you always do after all." She said with a small smile. Garp remained silent, staring into his empty mug.

"Ah, I guess your right Makino, you always are," Garp says softly, closing his eyes.

"Mind if I have a bottle, I'm sure that old bandit would like the treat," Garp said. Makino nodded.

"Of course." She said, rushing off, grabbing a good bottle of sake and handing it to the marine.

"Give Dadan my regards, she's taken all of this pretty hard despite her trying not to show it," Makino said with half a smile, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. Garp nodded, taking the bottle and leaving the bar, heading to the mountain bandits hut. It took some time but he eventually reached the hut, heading straight inside without knocking.

"Who dares enter- Oh, Garp-san!" A bandit said in fear once realizing who it was.

"Garp." Dadan addressed somberly, stuffing a tissue into her pocket. Garp nodded to her, tossing her the sake, which she caught.

"Brought you that. Makino sends her regards." Garp said, sitting on the floor. Dadan sighed.

"That girl. Well, I can't pass up good sake." She said, pouring some for herself, ready to pour some for Garp as well until he waved her off.

"I've already had some of my own." He said. She nodded mutely, setting the bottle down and chugging her drink.

"So... nothing new?" Dadan asked, already knowing the answer. Garp shook his head.

"I've had my men search the whole of the East Blue, and the South Blue. All that's left is the North Blue and the West Blue, and if they aren't there they're in Paradise or the New World. If that's the case it could take decades to search every island for them." Garp said sadly. Dadan nodded.

"My good for nothing brat is even out looking. From what I've heard the revolutionaries have been spotted on islands all over the New World and Paradise, but even he hasn't found anything." Garp continued, closing his eyes.

"Damn it... if only we had been a little faster," Dadan growled, remembering the day they had been partying without a care, until they heard Luffy's scream, shouting for Dadan. They had rushed out, the surprise of one of the boys actually calling for them shocking them enough to move as fast as they could, but as they chased what they assumed to be a person holding their brat they lost him, only to find a ship leaving the shore shortly after. Dadan, despite the fear, called Garp, telling him what had happened, and the man immediately went on a rampage, searching the whole East Blue within days, having his marines span the whole Blue in search of his grandsons.

"Don't blame yourself, besides, we both wronged them. If I hadn't spent so much time away I might have been here to keep them safe. That's all I ever wanted, was to keep them safe." Garp said, tears forming in his eyes. Everyone in the hut began crying, mourning over their lost brats.

Another two weeks, another chapter! We finally got a view of how Garp and the bandits are handling things, and we now also know that Garp is indeed out searching high and low for the brothers! I hope you've all enjoyed the chapter, and I cant tell you all just how grateful I am for all the wonderful and supportive reviews I've gotten from you all. Even if it does take two weeks to get a single chapter out you're all still as supportive as ever and I couldn't ask for more amazing readers! Hopefully, soon I'll be able to reduce it down to a chapter a week, but that might not be for another little while, things are still a bit hectic in my life and I want to make sure everything's sorted before I go making promises about something that I might not be able to handle.

Anyways, I don't really have any notes for this chapter, but we're finally seeing Ace warm up a bit, even if it is when no ones awake to notice. It won't be a drastic change, not like how he was when he met Luffy in Alabasta, but it will be marginally better after everything they've gone through now. After all, it did take Sabo dying and Luffy nearly dying as well for Ace to finally become the nice caring brother that he became in cannon and I want to be sure to keep that in mind as I'm writing. I don't think it would make sense cannon-wise if Ace was just suddenly nice after this and I want to stay true to Ace's character.

Finally, sorry it took an extra day to get this out, my sister just gave birth on Tuesday and I've been at the hospital with her since Monday. I haven't been home once throughout the entire ordeal and today, Thursday is the first time I've been home, with my laptop, able to get this up. It's a good thing I got this chapter finished early so that I could upload it! So that's whats been up with me lately, and now I've got a beautiful baby niece, so don't worry, everything will be good from here on out and I'll still update regularly!

So, with that said, let's begin the countdown for the next chapter! 2 weeks to go!