As stated before I seem to have no control over this story, and this chapter it decided to get very dark. Warnings in this chapter for torture, implied attempted non-con and mentions of attempted rape, as well as mentions of slavery. I am not entirely happy with how it turned out, but I seem to have very little control over this story and it refused to change to something else that would still fit things that happen later in this story, because apparently it is no longer the snap shots that it started out as.

Kidnapped

Two days after Luffy was dropped off, Dadan woke up to another Brat casually sleeping next to her two charges. She was not amused to say the least, especially when the guy who had been on watch admitted that he had seen the third boy arrive, and had assumed he was seeing double due to the amount of sake he had drunk.

But her protests were ignored, and she was left to sit back and watch as the three boys fell into a rhythm of fighting and training and bringing in more meat than the bandits could possibly eat only for them to watch it disappear as the brats ate more than she ever thought possible.

And by the end of the second month with the three living under her roof they had wormed their way into her heart and she wouldn't trade them for the world.

For the brothers themselves, the two oldest where quietly surprised just how easily they fit into the same pattern they had had before Sabo had disappeared. They had expected their own ease, after all they remembered this being normal for them, but Luffy's ability to accept them as his brothers after only knowing Ace for a few days and Sabo for a matter of hours went against common sense.

On one hand they could just shove it off as Luffy being Luffy, a person whose existence seemed to spit in the face of common sense, on the other there was their own circumstance with memory that made them consider the possibility of this being something more.

Because Luffy was maybe just a little too accepting, even for him, of their undeniable strangeness. Of how affectionate and borderline obsessive they were with him, because while that was understandable to them after how they remembered saying goodbye and the enforced distance for so many years after, it should creep out Luffy at least a little.

He shouldn't be able to read just how much they needed him and curl up against their side when he wanted a nap or as they prepared to go to bed at night.

He shouldn't cheer and celebrate when they asked him if he wanted to be their brother after only having met them a week ago, and so shouldn't really know them at all.

When Ace cried out at night from dreams of fire and blood and death that still plagued him ten years later, Luffy shouldn't shuffle closer and allow him to cling to him so tightly without anything more than a few sleepy murmurs of comfort.

Now, two months later, they had decided to give up on trying to figure out if Luffy remembered or if the lonely boy was just that happy to have them. After all, Luffy was just a ball of confusion that they loved because he had the habit of believing in people and performing the impossible, even if those people didn't really deserve his faith.

During that time, Sabo and Ace had many late-night chats as they curled up around a sleeping Luffy and waited to go to sleep themselves. Some of their conversations were trivial, things like how old they should consider themselves or who actually was the oldest brother out of the three of them.

Other conversations, not so much.

Sabo, at long last, had managed to drag from Ace the fact that him not having any plans was only half correct. It was half correct as he intended to follow Luffy and Luffy was not something you could plan for long term. It was half incorrect because he had actually put thoughts into plans about the fire, Sabo being kidnapped, and how to save the Whitebeard pirates. Apparently, a year or two during which you could do nothing but wiggle in a crib and suffer the indecency of being so dependant physically and so capable mentally left a lot of time for thinking and plotting revenge.

The only problem with their memories and current living habits was that it made it in credibly difficult to remember what was supposed to happen on exactly what date, or even keep up with the current date to begin with. As such it was no surprise that three months just up and went without them noticing, or remembering why that day three months after Luffy had arrived had been important in the first place.

It wasn't like they could have known that some events would be determined to occur, a change in their actions or not.

Ace, for his part, was kicking himself for not seeing this coming, memories of the future or not. He knew they had made a name for themselves with the terror the three of them installed with their robberies both in Grey Terminal and edge town. He knew that Blue Jam was a greedy bastard who had no problem killing kids if it meant he could get more money. He remembered said bastard demanding their treasure as the world around them burned, nearly damning both him and Luffy as well as themselves.

So, Ace concluded, he should have expected Porshemy to sneak up on Luffy while his little brother was distracted by something in the junk pile, kidnap him while Ace and Sabo were distracted beating up the cannon fodder he had brought along, and walk off saying he didn't need them as the little one would break first to tell them where they kept the money. He should have expected it, even if he hadn't brought attention to his brothers by stealing from Blue Jam first.

Maybe all this wouldn't have mattered if Luffy was the kind of seven-year-old to break and tell them in order to escape the pain, but he knew from experience that Luffy would rather die first and that thought terrified him.

Sabo looked at him as he finally finished strapping his second pipe to his back in case the bastards sliced through the first like they had last time. They weren't wasting time, but there was no point to this rescue mission if they went in unprepared and got Luffy killed in the process.

While Ace and Sabo where collecting their weapons, and tracking down the pirates' hide out for the second time in as many lives, Porshemy was getting frustrated.

He glared at the small boy as he swung from the rafters of the hut. The rumours that the boy had a devil fruit ability were not few, neither were those that claimed they had seen his rubber body in action for themselves. That had been easily counted with the use of his gloves.

What no one had bothered to mention, and so he didn't have a counter for, was just how stubborn the brat was, and his apparent complete disregard for his own life. The three terrors were well known, and had a surprising reputation considering that they were only ten and seven, but it hadn't occurred to him that the youngest of the group would be able to deal so well with pain. Admittedly he hadn't been going at it long but it should have been long enough for a little kid.

'I'm asking you brat, were they hell do you lot keep your treasure?' Porshemy yelled as pulled his arm back again, getting ready for another punch.

'Not Telling,' the kid yelled back though his tears.

Porshemy's response was to punch the kid, hard. He smirked as he felt the spikes sink into flesh and tear out again as the kid gave a pained cry and yelled that it hurt.

'Your surprisingly resilient for a little brat,' Porshemy commented as the kid swung from his rope, yelling. 'I wonder if you'll die before you break, that would-be pity. I really need to find that treasure you brats have stocked up for the captain, and you're no use to me dead.'

The boy didn't respond as Porshemy swung his fist back and hit him again, just kept yelling that it hurt.

'Porshemy,' one of the other pirates said after about the fifth hit Luffy had taken within as many minuets, 'I don't think it's going to work. You've heard the rumours same as I have, they say these boys are devils in human skin. Even this brat has a reputation of taking down his fair share of punks, we can do this from dawn till dusk and I don't think he'll tell us anything.'

'Shut up!' Porshemy roared as his next punch connected with the unfortunate laky that had designed to speak up. 'Blue Jam wants these brats' money, it should be quite a stash by now, you know as well as I do what he'll do to us if we don't get it! How can we call ourselves pirates if we get beaten by a group of brats? Surely you know better than to put your stock in rumours?'

The man stared down at his unconscious crew mate, annoyed that he was out after one punch when the brat was still awake and tight lipped after at least twenty. A voice muttered in the back of his head that this was something to think about, that maybe there was something to the rumours after all, but it was quickly pushed out by his greed and reason, as those kinds of things were impossible.

Instead he started to wonder about something else.

'Blue Jam wants money,' he stated, surprisingly calm, 'and there's more than one way to get it from the bodies of a couple of brats.' The grin that spread across his face was just as fowl as the stench from the trash heap they frequented. 'I wonder just how much those Nobles would pay for a slave with a devil fruit ability.'

The other pirates began chuckling at the idea. 'Maybe you should test him, Porshemy, see just what uses a body like that has.'

Porshemy grinned even more as he unhooked the struggling boy from the ceiling. 'I might do just that.'

When Sabo and Ace arrived at the hide-out, pipes at the ready, they almost froze at the sight in front of them. Against enemies like these pirates the slight hesitation didn't cost them much, but both knew that in later fights a moment like that could be the difference between life and death.

But even then, they didn't think the sight of their little brother covered in blood, tied up, and held to the floor while the men around him pulled at his flesh and clothes was something that would ever cease to make their blood run cold. The fact that they had more or less followed Luffy's shouts to his location did not help.

The so-called pirates didn't know what hit them. Sabo vaguely noticed that they were significantly stronger this time round then they had been the last time they had had to rescue Luffy from these idiots. In seconds Ace was dashing around, smashing furniture and heads as a distraction while Sabo used a knife to cut Luffy free before making his way towards the hole in the wall they had left during their entrance. This felt familiar to Sabo, he knew it should, but he hoped for one major difference from last time.

Which, apparently, he wasn't going to get.

Porshemy was the only one left standing after Ace's rush around the room, but his brother didn't seem inclined to run any time soon. In fact, if Ace's face was anything to go by, he wouldn't be leaving until he had put Porshemy's cold corps in the ground himself.

Sabo cursed, on one hand this was foolishness and they needed to get Luffy out of there now. However, they were both stronger, furious at what these freaks had done to their little brother, and if Ace was going to beat this guy up then like hell was Sabo going to let him get all the satisfaction.

He set Luffy down a lot gentler than he had last time, and turned to face the bastard that had dared to threaten his brothers.

It was, unsurprisingly, a lot easier to beat the hell out of Porshemy than the last time they faced him. The bastard, however, also seemed to be slightly more determined this time round. Ace and Sabo both knew they had knocked the guy senseless, so they were more than a little surprised to see him stand back up again when they turned to leave.

He wouldn't remain that way for long.

'Gomu Gomu no … Bazooka!' their little brother's voice startled both Ace and Sabo as they watched his arms extend out between them and hit Porshemy in the chest, finally putting him down for good with all the damage that Ace and Sabo had already done to him.

The move would have been even more impressive if the return of his arms hadn't managed to knock Luffy out completely. Needless to say, that "panicked" was a slight understatement for how Ace and Sabo felt after watching their little brother collapse to the ground unconscious.

Sabo would later theorise that because of how young he was, and how hurt he was already, his body hadn't been about to handle the recoil. Ace would kindly ask him to shut up.

Luffy woke a few minutes later to frantic shouting and Ace and Sabo desperately checking him over to try and find all his injuries. Luffy burst into tears about how scared he was the second he realised that he was safe, and this only made his older brothers even more frantic. Things eventually calmed down and found Luffy crying into Ace's shoulder, while Ace just wrapped him in trembling arms and told him in a shaking voice not to be such a cry baby.

'I'm not a cry baby, I'm strong!' Luffy yelled indignantly.

Ace gave weak chuckle, 'Yeah, you are strong,' he managed to choke out, 'but I'm still stronger, and I'm the older brother, and as your stronger, older brother, I kindly request that you refrain from scaring us like that ever again, you damn cry baby.'

Sabo just stood back, his own frame trembling as he tried desperately to calm his own wildly beating heart. A few minutes later had him standing next to his brothers and trying to enfold both of them in hug without it getting too crowded.

It was as they were patching Luffy up around the camp fire in what they had claimed as their clearing that they finally got up the guts to asking Luffy exactly what had happened.

'He said he was going to sell me as a slave to the nobles,' both Ace and Sabo went very still at this, before Sabo returned to his bandaging and motioned for Luffy to continue. 'He hit me with spiked gloves, and when I wouldn't tell them where our treasure was he said he would just have to get money by selling me. Then one of the others suggest they see just what use the Nobles could make out of someone who was rubber. They took me down from the ceiling and that's when you arrived.'

Luffy gave a small hiccupping sob, 'I was so scared!' he started wailing for what felt like the hundredth time that day. 'I didn't think I would see you again!' Part of Ace wanted to tell his brother to shut up, he hated when he cried and the pain it seemed to cause in his own chest.

'Luffy,' Sabo muttered quietly, 'did any of them … touch you?'

Luffy looked confused, Ace wasn't sure whether to take this as a good sign or not. 'They hit me, and tugged on my skin, I just told you that.'

Sabo looked slightly frustrated, he didn't know how to ask what he needed to so that Luffy understood. Ace, surprisingly, asked for him.

'Did any of them touch you in places where your underwear would normally be?' now Luffy looked really confused.

'No, why? Does that matter? Would it matter if they did?'

Sabo breathed a quiet sigh of relief. 'It wouldn't have mattered to us, but that's good, it's good that they didn't.' Ace looked similarly relieved. Luffy still didn't get it.

Eventually he just shrugged it off and curled up between his brothers, both of which kept firm grips on him which made him feel happy and safe, though he would never admit it, and fell asleep quickly.

Neither Sabo or Ace would fall asleep for a long, long time that night. Not until the sun was almost ready to show itself again for the new day.