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 78: Tied to the Cross
Haruta and Henry walked silently through the woods. The 12th commander continued to steal glances at the boy every few minutes, wondering if he was ok. He looked fine, save for the worried look on his face that showed he was still thinking about his sister, which was understandable.
"Its alright, Marco and the others will get your sister out of there so there's no need to worry," Haruta said as comfortingly as he could manage. It wasn't often that he interacted with children, but when he did he wasn't exactly the best. Not the worst, but again, not the best.
"Mm." Henry hummed, but he didn't look all that convinced. Haruta sighed, eyebrows scrunched upwards in worry as he faced forward. He could see the temple up ahead and was reminded of all the questions they'd had before. Glancing to Henry again he decided to ask him. He was someone who would probably know what the whole thing was about, and even if he didn't it might help him distract himself from his sister.
"Hey Henry, what's with the big temple there?" Haruta asked, pointing to it. Henry looked up in confusion before a knowing look lit up his face, a contrast to his previously down-turned one.
"Oh, that's the temple of Zenshana, the God we all worship," Henry said gazing at the temple in almost awe.
"Have you ever been to it before?" Haruta asked, noticing the look on the kid's face as if he'd never seen it before. Henry shook his head.
"It's sacred. The only time anyone's allowed to go to it is when there's a sacrifice or if it's your coming of age ritual," Henry said. As they grew closer to the temple the boy looked at all the carvings with admiration, lightly running his hand along the stone as they walked up to it.
Haruta was glad that the kid was distracted because if not, he surely would have gotten sad all over again at the mention of the sacrifice.
"Well its definitely beautiful." Haruta decided to say. Even if the town was crazy religious-like Jozu had said, that didn't take away from the beauty of the temple any.
"Mm. It's said it took twelve hundred days and nights to build and carve this temple." Henry said as they walked around it.
"I'm not surprised, there's a lot of detail put into it," Haruta said. Eventually, they were around the temple and continuing on the path through the woods and to the one sane village on the island.
"So have you ever been to the other village before?" Haruta asked Henry after another pause in the conversation.
"No, we're not allowed to go there. Sometimes someone'll come to our village, but it's only ever to trade supplies and that only happens a few times a year." Henry said. He didn't seem to be worrying about his sister anymore, too distracted by all the new things he was finally able to see.
"Then this should be pretty exciting then. You know, despite the circumstances." Haruta said, mumbling the last bit to himself. Henry nodded, but his expression faltered a bit, showing that he had heard Haruta.
The 12th Commander sighed.
This was going to be a long walk.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Well Marco, nows a good time to see how good you are at our silent language," Sabo said with a grin as he watched the first Commander. Marco grinned back, Ace and Luffy catching his eye momentarily as they slunk off to the woods.
"Indeed it is, yoi. Let's see how good a teacher you really are." Marco said, he and Sabo turning to walk towards where they had seen Mary dragged off earlier. The two lapsed into silence as they began scanning their surroundings.
For having such a heated trial only moments ago, the village had quickly returned to looking peaceful and calm, people smiling and laughing as if nothing was wrong.
If they hadn't seen the trial for themselves they would never guess anything was wrong.
'I can hear Mary in one of the buildings to the left. It's about thirty more feet ahead. There's a market ten feet passed that, we can blend in there.' Sabo tapped as he tried deciphering all the sounds he was hearing as quick as he could. Marco nodded beside him, taking a bit of time to understand what Sabo had tapped. He wasn't as fluent as the brothers were, and this was the first time they were really communicating through the silent language, so he was a bit slow in translating it.
'We should head to the market then. Jozu might still be there, I can tell him the plan and you can listen to what's happening with Mary. We should try and find that man that Luffy said had the grey aura too.' Marco tapped, Sabo nodding minutely in agreement.
They walked down the street casually, as to not draw any more attention to themselves. Already, everyone they passed looked at them seeing as they were outsiders, they didn't need to make the townspeople anymore suspicious of them.
When they reached the market they scanned the crowd for Jozu, spotting him easily as he exchanged money for the supplies they had originally come for. As the 3rd Commander picked up the bags and turned to leave Marco went up to him while Sabo went and sat on a bench, head turned up to the sky to make it look as if he was watching the clouds while he listened.
He couldn't hear much coming from where Mary was being held. She was still crying, which Sabo decided was probably the normal reaction to knowing you were going to be sacrificed. Once again, Sabo was thankful he had the super hearing and not Ace because the amounts of times he heard people crying would throw Ace into a rage.
He could hear one other person in the same building as Mary, probably a guard, but they weren't talking so Sabo ignored him. He made sure to keep some of his focus on Mary's building in case anyone tried to take her and focused the rest of his hearing on finding the man Luffy had said had the grey aura. His voice had been deep and rough, and Sabo was sure he would be able to recognize it if he heard it again. He listened to as many voices as he could, tried focusing on individual buildings, individual rooms, hoping that he would hear the him again.
Marco sat beside him on the bench, breaking his focus momentarily as he did. He noticed that Jozu was leaving town now and guessed Marco had told him what the plan was seeing as the First Commander was now beside him. He pushed those thoughts away and began scanning the voices again.
The East part of town was clear, as well as the South. North was nearly clear, and if he wasn't there that meant he was either in the West, or he had yet to speak and Sabo would have to start his scan all over again.
A few more minutes passed as Marco and Sabo sat in silence, the first commander watching the crowd, keeping an eye out for the man in case he walked by. Finally, Sabo was able to pinpoint him, hearing the man speak only a few houses away from where they sat.
'He's in that house there. Talking to some other guys about the sacrifice. We were right, it's going to be at the temple. Waiting until night when the moons out to do it, but they're going to take Mary there sooner when it's dark.' Sabo said, relaying everything he heard to Marco as he heard it. The first Commander gave a small nod in understanding as he listened, taking in all the information as it came.
'I'll keep an eye on the house and watch for anyone going in or out then. Keep an ear on Mary and the man in the meantime. Ace and Luffy should be back soon.' Marco said, eyes darting over to the house Sabo had pointed out to him and watching the door.
'Sounds good.'
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"What, can't keep up?" Ace teased as he turned to look back at Luffy who was swinging through the trees, trying to catch up to him.
"Can too! You just left me behind is all!" Luffy called as he grabbed the branch above Aces' head.
"That's because you were wasting time and climbing to the top of the trees again." Ace said as he rolled his eyes, turning and once again beginning his race through the trees.
"Cause I was trying to see Ruta!" Luffy whined with a pout, following close behind his older brother.
"He's probably just getting back to the Moby with Henry, it should still be another hour until he gets back." Ace said.
"Yeah, but maybe he's super fast or something," Luffy said, mind wandering to the possibility of the Commander having cool superpowers. Almost like him and his brothers, but without the whole testing thing.
"I doubt it. Anyway, come on, just up ahead should be far enough in." Ace said, pointing to a spot. Luffy nodded and the two went on in silence, only the rustling of the trees and the animals in the forest making sounds around them.
"You ready?" Ace asked, looking at Luffy with a grin. Luffy smiled his classic D smile, laughing lightly.
"Mm!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The sun was setting by the time Ace and Luffy finished up their work, the two of them sweating a bit as they stared at their handiwork.
"Looks pretty good to me. What do you think Lu?" Ace asked the youngest.
"Perfect!" He cheered happily. Ace smiled to his brother and the two were about to head back to town to find Sabo and Marco when he spotted someone.
"Oh, Ruta, welcome back!" Ace said with a grin, watching as Haruta walked up to them, eyebrows raised as he took in the area around them.
"Uh, good to be back? I'm guessing there's a reason to all of this." Haruta said, gesturing to the area.
"Yeah! Marco and Sabo made this plan up and me and Ace got to come and do all of this while they did the boring stuff!" Luffy explained. Haruta watched Luffy for a minute before shrugging, smiling as well.
"Sounds good to me. So, what is the plan?" Haruta asked as the three began heading back towards town.
"Well, they're gonna sacrifice Mary or whatever, so Marco and Sabo got to thinking that they might take her to that temple, you know, the one Jozu suggested they might be sacrificing people in," Ace began, Haruta nodding along as he listened.
"Good guess. Henry told me that's where they do their ceremonies and sacrifices so chances are that's exactly where they'll take her." Haruta agreed.
"Exactly. Anyways, since that means they have to actually get to the temple before they can do any sacrificing they decided that we would have to slow them down somehow," Ace continued.
"Why not just get Mary now? Before any of this happens?" Haruta asked in confusion.
"Cause Marco said that everyone else is still restocking on the island, and if we make the people here mad we'll probably have to leave right away." Luffy piped in.
"Right. He wants to wait until night time to get Mary and go, that way everyone on the Moby'll be restocked and we can leave right away without worrying about the crazies in town chasing after us." Ace said, Haruta nodding again in understanding.
"So anyway, since we're waiting so long there's a possibility that they're gonna try and sacrifice her in the meantime. That's why we had to slow them down. Once the signal's shown, we're gonna get Mary and head straight to the Moby." Ace said, looking to the sky and noticing that the sun was setting quickly.
"What signal are we looking for?" Haruta asked, also looking to the sky.
"Don't know. Marco said he was gonna see if he could talk to Jozu before he left town, but Luffy and I left after that so we don't have a clue whether he managed to do it or not." Ace said with a shrug. They were walking into town now, the hustle and bustle of the morning now down to a few villagers milling around lazily. There seemed to be an energy to the town though, an anticipation, and they guessed it was because they were getting ready for a sacrifice.
"Alright, well now that I'm caught up, where are Marco and Sabo?" Haruta asked, looking both ways as he tried deciding which way to head.
"This way," Luffy said confidently, and Haruta nearly missed as the boy discreetly sniffed the air in front of him before he changed his direction, heading off the opposite way into town then they had been going.
"Apparently that way." Ace said with a shrug as he turned to follow his brother. Haruta caught up quickly, still in slight amazement at Luffy's show of his heightened sense. It was still something he had to get used to.
The three walked quietly, glancing around at the people and buildings as they went, and soon they found Sabo and Marco sitting on a bench talking quietly to each other.
"Hey, you guys. All good?" Sabo asked as he looked to them. Luffy beamed at him, skipping over.
"Mm! Ace and I finished everything like you said!" Luffy said proudly. Sabo nodded, smiling to his brother.
"Good. You're just in time, Declan just sent someone to get Mary. It seems that the sacrifice is about to start." Sabo said, and before anyone could question who Declan was the door to the building a few buildings away opened.
Two men came out with Mary inbetween them in chains as they dragged her out. She was crying again and begging to be spared, but none of them listened as they started dragging her off towards the town center. Behind them, the man who had been yelling at her, the one Luffy deemed as having a grey aura, walked out, a scowl on his face as he followed after them.
"Declan?" Ace guessed as he pointed to the man. Sabo nodded, he and Marco standing as they all got ready to follow.
The town center was once again crowded with people, all of them cheering as they saw Mary being dragged over. The pirates stood at the outskirts again, watching as they dragged Mary up the platform and over to the giant wooden cross, unchaining her and tying her up onto it.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, in the name of Zenshana we shall rid ourselves of the non-believer!" Declan announced, everyone, cheering in response. They began chanting the word heretic over and over until Declan raised a hand, silencing them.
"Because we allowed such a heretic to live here with us, we must repent for our own sins! We must show Zenshana just how much we believe, how much we worship him!" Declan shouted, garnering more cheers from the crowd.
"The only way to do so is sacrifice! In hopes of cleansing us from our sins, we must give the great Zenshana a sacrifice, and what better than the non-believer?!" Declan asked loudly. There were cheers and screams of agreement as the men from before, as well as a few more men, came and lifted the cross, laying it down before picking it up and rising it in the air. The cheers were deafening as Mary was carried down, still bound to the cross and sobbing. Declan followed, and behind him, the crowd followed, all heading off towards the temple in the woods.
"So, about that signal?" Haruta asked, looking to Marco. It was one thing to wait when Mary wasn't being harmed, but now she was only a half-hour away from being sacrificed.
"We'll keep waiting. If they make it to the temple before the signals given we'll get her and go regardless, yoi." Marco said with a frown as the group of pirates walked down an alley, out of the view of the crowd.
They probably could have walked with the crowd without anyone noticing, but they didn't want to take the chance, not when these people seemed willing and ready to sacrifice anything they deemed went against their religion.
The group of pirates made their way through the now empty, silent town and straight to the forest. Marco immediately transformed into his Phoenix form and flew up ahead of the trees while Ace, Sabo, and Luffy all grabbed a branch and swung up into the trees as well leaving Haruta on the ground.
"Alright, cool, I'll just activate my cool powers too and zip through the trees like an animal," Haruta mumbled as he grabbed a low hanging branch, struggling to pull himself up into the tall tree. He heard a snicker and immediately remembered Sabo's hearing when the blonde's head popped in front of him, scaring him.
"To be fair, Ace and I aren't using any powers. We've just had a lot of practice." Sabo said, and without getting a chance to respond, two hands grabbed the back of Harutas shirt and he was hoisted into the tree, looking at the three grinning brothers.
"There, now come on Ruta, we gotta catch up!" Luffy said, immediately zipping off into the mess of trees ahead of them with Ace. Sabo laughed at the look on Harutas face but stayed at his side.
"I'll help you. Come on," Sabo said, showing Haruta where to step and what branches to grab. Haruta had to admit that the brothers made it seem a whole lot easier then it was, and he was grateful Sabo hadn't left him after the blonde saved him from falling out more than once. They had climbed pretty high up without the commander even noticing, but soon their heads were poking out and they were at the top of the tree, Ace, and Luffy only a few trees away.
A flash of blue landed on a tree inbetween the two groups and Marco turned back into a human, standing carefully on a branch.
"We're at Ace and Luffy's roadblock now. The crowd is still a couple minutes away, yoi." Marco said, everyone, turning to look at the path below them.
"I'll help Ruta get to the lower branches seeing as we're getting closer to the temple now," Sabo said, Marco nodding as the two disappeared into their tree.
"Lu, you head down too, just in case. I'll stay up here with Marco." Ace said, patting Luffy on the back. The boy nodded, also disappearing into the trees, leaving Marco and Ace alone at the top of the trees.
"So whats this signal gonna look like?" Ace asked as he glanced around.
"You'll know when you see it, yoi," Marco said with a smile. Ace shrugged, settling comfortably on his branch.
"Alright, but if I miss it I blame you. If you see it just say it, Sabo'll hear you." Ace said. Marco nodded and the two sat silently.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Please! I'm a believer! I am! Please let me go!" Mary cried as she struggled against the ropes tying her to the cross. No one listened to her, the chants of people calling her a heretic only growing louder.
"I'm a believer! I believe! I believe!" Mary sobbed, forced to stare at the sky as she was carried through the woods, closer and closer to the temple. After being ignored again Mary stopped yelling, merely resorting to crying silently and watching as more and more of the stars started shining in the sky. The moon was showing itself now too, big and bright.
It was beautiful, and under better circumstances, she would probably find peace in it, but now it only filled her with dread.
"Heretic! Non-believer! Sacrifice!" The shouting around her drowned out any semblance of peace she could even hope to have and the tears blurred her vision again. Her wrists were sore from her struggling against the rope, and her midsection hurt as well from how tightly the ropes were tied around her middle. It was hard to breathe, but she didn't know if it was from all her crying or the ropes themselves.
A flash of light in the sky caught her attention, and she briefly wondered if it had been a firework. Maybe the other town was having a festival? Oh, the irony.
"Heretic! Non-believer! Sacrifi-!" The chanting was cut off and screams of surprise were heard as there was a rustling from the trees. Mary turned her head, trying to see what was happening, but whatever it was was already out of the trees and below her, making it impossible to see whatever it was.
"Outsider! Leave now!" Declan shouted, which led Mary to believe that it was a person.
"Sorry, no can do, you see, I don't mind people practicing religions they believe in, but once human sacrifice gets involved I become less inclined to let it go on any longer." A man's voice said. Declan made a noise as if he was about to say something but was stopped. A crash on the other side of the path drew Mary's attention and she saw a body fly into the trees.
There were more screams and more rustles from the trees, and not for the first time, Mary wished she wasn't strung up on this cross so she could see what was happening.
Of course, you should be careful what you wish for, because suddenly the cross was falling, the men from the village who had been carrying it all running away from whatever was happening. She yelped, but was unable to do anything but lay there as she fell to the ground. The cross landed with a loud thump that shocked her, the wind getting knocked out of her from the impact.
Now that she was on the ground, it was easier to see what was happening, and from the looks of it, there was a group of outsiders fighting off the villagers. Of course, it wasn't much of a fight, and most of the villagers were running back towards the village itself rather than fighting, but there were a few believers still there trying to fight back.
Her attention was once again drawn away as a blue light caught her attention, and as she looked into the sky at it, she saw it grow closer. It almost looked like a bird, but what kind of bird was such a bright, luminescent blue? And... wait... was it on fire?!
She shrieked as the flaming blue bird dove towards her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, turning her head away as she waited for the inevitable pain that was to come.
It never came though, and instead, there was a gust of cool air and a feeling of relief as the ropes binding her to the cross slackened, slipping to the ground and freeing her. She blinked her eyes open in shock just in time to watch the blue bird change into a human.
"Z-Zenshana?" She asked in disbelief, because what else could this be? A flaming blue bird turning into a human just wasn't possible. Obviously, it was an act of her God, one she had betrayed.
"P-please, I-I believe! I believe! I-I'll never go against you again, I promise!" She begged, hands clasped together as she pleaded. The man raised his hands up in a gesture of peace, and despite her tears and the fear inside her, she managed to stay in place as he grew closer to her.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you, and my name isn't Zenshana either, yoi." The man said. Mary opened and closed her mouth in confusion, not sure what was happening.
"Come on, yoi, don't be scared, I'm here to get you out of here." He said, holding his hand out. She hesitated, turning to look back to the fight and finding that there wasn't anyone left. All the men who had been fighting were now unconscious on the ground and the group that had come from the trees were watching her.
"W-what-... who are you guys?" She asked fearfully. Surely this was happening because she had sinned. Because she had gone against Zenshana. This had to be a trick or an act of the devil.
"We're apart of the Whitebeard pirates. Henry told us what happened and we promised him we'd help you out." One of the men said. Mary's eyes filled with tears at the mention of her brother.
"H-Henry? Is he alright?" She asked, hoping they hadn't hurt him. They had said they were pirates, and everything she'd been taught about pirates hadn't been good.
"He's safe, but we really should get going. The towns coming back, and from the looks of it they've brought weapons." One of the darker haired men said, looking towards the town. Mary looked but saw no one and wondered if he was trying to trick her.
"Come on, you don't have to be scared anymore! Let's go!" The smallest man said, a smile on his face as he bounced in place beside her. Still confused Mary only nodded, standing and smoothing her dress down, ignoring how dirty the previously pristine white dress had been.
"Alright, let's go. Its a bit of a walk, but it seems we'll be running so that should cut down the time a bit. Can you run?" The blonde asked. Mary nodded, and before she knew it she was being dragged forward, forced to break into a sprint to keep up.
"Good! My name's Sabo by the way! Those are my brothers Ace and Luffy, and those two are Marco and Ruta!" The blonde, Sabo, introduced. She could only nod, still in a daze as she was dragged through the forest.
"This way!" The smallest, Luffy, shouted as he began steering them off the path and further into the trees. Mary was confused as to where they were going, but everyone else seemed to trust him, so she guessed she had no choice but to do so as well. They all ran for what felt like an eternity, but soon they were running along a beach, the water lapping close to their feet.
"Wasn't the Moby at the other village?" Ace asked.
"Yeah, but Marco had Jozu tell them to move it here. Its closer than where it was so its less of a run. Where is it Lu?" Sabo asked, and Luffy sniffed the air, pointing to what looked to lead to a cove.
"Over there!" He shouted, steering them all in the right direction again. Growing closer, the Moby Dick became more and more visible, and before Mary knew it, they were boarding the giant ship and setting sail. It had all happened so fast that she hadn't even registered any of it happening as she saw it, not until she heard her name being called and felt a small body ramming into hers.
"Henry?" She asked in confusion, looking down and seeing her little brother crying as he hugged her.
"You're alright! Everyone here said you would be, but I didn't know if I should trust 'em, cause they said they were pirates, and didn't everyone else say pirates were bad guys and stuff?" Henry asked, a bit too fast but still clear enough for her to hear.
"Uh, I think these pirates are good..." She said, still a bit unsure herself as she looked around the ship. Haruta was panting beside her, sitting on the deck as he did and wiping sweat from his head. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy didn't seem to be all that bothered as they talked amongst themselves, Ace ruffling Luffy's hair as the two oldest smiled at the youngest, and Marco was watching them all with a small smile of his own.
"Really? Mr. Captain said that he could take us to a new island because everyone else was mad at us. Does that mean he wasn't lying? We can go somewhere else and you don't have to be sacrificed?" Henry asked. Mary did her best to give her brother a smile but didn't know how well she managed it.
"I don't know, I guess we'll just have to find out, but I think it's safe to assume that I won't be sacrificed. Not tonight anyway."
Operation Stop the Sacrifice was successful! As I said last chapter, this religion is completely made up and is in no way a reflection of how I view religions. You're all free to believe in what you want so long as its not hurting anyone. Again, its more of a cult than a religion.
Now that Mary has been saved and reunited with her brother, all that's left is to get them someplace safe, preferably where they won't be sacrificed. This chapter was a lot of fun to write because as much as I love having the brothers just relax and enjoy themselves, writing fun action scenes is nice as well. Don't worry though, the action has yet to stop and will continue on! Like I said, the 'Peaceful Arc' is over and we won't be seeing the brothers relax for a long while.
Anyways, I've got to go! I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween and that everyone stayed safe and got plenty of candy- that is, if you went trick-or-treating, or if you celebrate Halloween in the first place. As for me, even though I'm far too old to go trick-or-treating, that hasn't stopped me and I went out as well! Never lose your childish spirit folks!
I'll see you all on Monday with the next chapter! Thank you all for your love and support on this behemoth of a story!