AN: Hi everyone! It took awhile to write this chapter because it was so long, but I hope you guys like it! Do remember to leave a review and feedback if you'd like, I would love knowing what you guys think and seeing that people enjoy my work really motivates me! (:
Bright lights blinded her as her eyes involuntarily fluttered open. A loud constant beeping noise was sounding noisily from somewhere to the left. Before she could even attempt to clear her head, her mouth took in a sharp breath as her body convulsed against her will. The strong smell of disinfectant entered her nose all the way down to her throat, making her feel like she was about to gag.
Where was she?
Her vision was blurred through her teary eyes, but she could somehow still make out a young man standing next to her and several other indistinguishable figures in the background. He looked familiar. Before she could think any further, her body lurched forward against her will. She felt her stomach muscles tighten repeatedly as nothing but strangled noises came up through her mouth.
Gasping for air, she fell back against a cold hard surface. It wasn't enough, but her body continued to heave forward again in a desperate attempt to expel something, anything from her stomach. She sucked in another sharp breath again. Her lungs were screaming for air as her diaphragm forcefully contracted once more and a warm rush of sour liquid spilled out from the corner of her mouth. She could barely find the energy to cough a few times before her entire body went limp.
"How's her heart rate?" she heard the young man ask over the loud pounding in her ears.
"Erratic," someone else replied from the other side of the room.
"Remove her handcuffs and let's get started," he said again.
"Aye aye captain!" the whole room resounded with voices, making her already messed up head ache even more.
Started? Started on what? As much as her head hurt, her mind went into overdrive thinking about all the possibilities that could happen. It couldn't be that it was time already, they haven't even reached Mariejois yet! Or perhaps, did they reach Mariejois already and she didn't notice as she drifted in and out of consciousness? Or did Aecus decide to move up the timing? Who was this man? Why was the crew calling him captain? It all just didn't make any sense, what was going on?
Soft voices whispered from one end of the table to the other as she felt her legs being restricted against the cold hard surface she was on. Then she felt some light tugging on her wrists as some men attempted to remove her handcuffs. If they had already reach Mariejois, or if Aecus had really moved up the timing, then this could only mean one thing. She tried to fight back, kicking feebly at her captors and emitting a weak snarl, but to no avail. Her body was still weak from all that has happened.
"Patient is gradually becoming more conscious, should we administer anesthesia?" someone asked.
"No, she's already over sedated," the young man spoke again, his voice calm. "If we give her anymore we might lose her."
"But then how should we proceed?"
"Just continue as per normal, we'll see how it goes."
The weight on her hands lifted as the handcuffs were removed and she instinctively cowered, bracing herself for the pill to be shoved down her throat. But instead, her hands were firmly grabbed and secured down by something on the metal table. When she was safely secured, there was a moment where nothing happened until she began to notice a small tingle in her left arm. It spread steadily throughout the left side of her body and to her alarm, evolved into a mild burning sensation. Was it already beginning? Her mind was screaming at her to move, but her body wasn't listening. The restraints disabled her from looking down, she couldn't see what was happening.
Suddenly without warning, pain seared through the mild burn, forcing her mind to alertness. She cried out as an electric shock from her left arm tore through her entire body and she jerked up as much as her restraints would allow. It felt like her entire arm was smoldering, as if skin had been ripped from bone. It continued to spread in increasing waves, creeping up her face and down to her thigh. In her desperation, she forcefully yanked her right hand free and grabbed hold of the young man's wrist.
He looked down at her, his eyes void of emotion.
"P-please… I don't want to die…" she weakly coughed out with a desperate sob.
Before the other could respond, her hand jerked backward as intense jolts of pain shot through the burning areas of her arm and face, like thousands of needles being stuck violently into her skin. Her mind threatened to pass out from all the stress and pain her body was receiving, but she refused, keeping her eyes fixated on the young man.
"You won't die," he replied, but his tone was cold.
By now the pain had rendered her unable to speak. A bullet would've been merciful right now, but she couldn't die. She refused to. But as much as her mind tried to fight passing out, the pain eventually won. Against her will, her consciousness gradually started to fade. Through her darkening vision, she saw the young man lean forward and bring one hand above her body.
The last thing she heard just before she blacked out entirely was a single word.
"Room."
"I'm so sorry," he heard Bepo say in depression as he made his way to the kitchen. Peering into the window, he could see Sachi, Penguin, Usopp, and Bepo chilling out in the dining area whilst Robin made tea on the counter. Zoro was probably off in the gym training as usual with the Wano natives, while Franky said something about checking the engines to make sure the sudden steep dive didn't take too much of a toll on the ship.
"She totally a human, a human!" Sachi's voice came next in clear protest.
"Yeah, we saw her on the operating table, she's a hundred percent human," Penguin agreed while nodding.
"I'm so sorry..." the polar bear's ears drooped before he spoke up again, "ah, but then captain mentioned that she was most likely a Zoan type devil fruit user."
"She is," Law spoke up as he pushed open the door, turning everyone's attention to him.
"Ah! Captain!" Bepo's ears perked up happily as he stood up in greeting. "How did the procedure go?"
"She'll be fine," the dark-haired man replied coolly as he cleaned off his hands with a white towel. He took a seat beside Bepo and continued to busy himself before a cup of steaming hot tea was placed in front of him.
"How do you know for sure that she's a Zoan type though?" the Strawhat archaeologist asked as he glanced up at her.
Law nodded in thanks and placed the towel he was using aside on the table. He closed his eyes in thought for a moment before answering, "it'll be easier if you see it for yourselves after she wakes up."
"But her condition is stable right?" Bepo asked anxiously, settling down back into his seat.
"Yeah, she's stabilized," Law glanced over at his crewmate. "But... due to the number of drugs she was given, something strange happened during the operation," he paused. "I can't guarantee her reaction will be one of a sane person when she wakes up, and we still don't know who she is yet."
"Well, she was being held captive," Robin sipped her tea calmly as she took a seat opposite Usopp. "The only logical explanation would be that she was a new slave being transported to Mariejois."
"But couldn't they have just placed a bomb collar on her to prevent her from escaping like what we saw in Shabody?" Usopp pointed out as he leaned back in his chair. "What's the point of locking her up like that?"
"She does have the hoof of the soaring dragon marked on her back, so she's definitely a slave of some sort," Law interjected. "But like what Nose-ya said, they went through a lot of unnecessary trouble to keep her captive."
"Does her face look familiar to you?" Robin spoke up again. "If she has a bounty it'll be easy to find out her identity."
"Ooh, smart thinking Robin!" Usopp exclaimed as he brought his fist down on other his palm.
Law shook his head, "I checked, she doesn't have a wanted poster." He glanced over to his crewmate who was sitting quietly beside him. "The only person here that seems to know her is Bepo."
Everyone turned their heads to look at the polar bear mink who jolted up in surprise. "W-well, to be honest everyone in our crew has met her, they just don't remember…" he trailed off before looking towards Sachi and Penguin. "Sachi, Penguin, don't you remember the mink that was always around with Clover?" he tried again to trigger their memories. "I mean, she was more reserved and didn't like to mix with us as much as Clover did, but she was always around whenever Clover was."
Both Sachi and Penguin scrunched up their faces and made a humming sound as they thought hard for a moment. The latter finally relented with a sigh, "well I think I can kind of remember someone like that…"
"But like we said earlier, this girl is human," Sachi scratched the back of his head. "Even if she is a Zoan type, their hybrid form still looks pretty different from their human form. How could you tell?"
"I'm sorry… I don't know…" the white polar bear sighed as his ears drooped forward again. "But the moment she said Clover's name, I immediately thought about that mink that was always following her around."
There was a moment of silence as everyone contemplated their own theories and guesses, before Law spoke up again, "don't think about it too much, we can ask questions later when she wakes up." He paused and took a sip of his tea before continuing, "although, like I said before, she's undergone some changes that she might not take too well to when she wakes up, and we've yet to find out who she really is as well as her reason for being on a Tenryuubito's ship. She could still potentially be an enemy."
The room remained silent, except for Bepo who was fidgeting a little in his seat as he looked down at his hands.
"Bepo, I already said she was stabilized," Law reminded him without needing to look over at his crewmate.
"No, it isn't that…" he mumbled. "I'm worried about Clover."
Everyone except Sachi and Penguin exchanged a look with each other at the name that they've been hearing all this while but never knew who it referred to.
"Who is this Clover?" Robin inquired curiously as she leaned forward unto one hand. "You've been mentioning her all this time but you've never specifically told us who she is, I'm assuming she's another mink from Zou?"
"We didn't meet anyone like that when we were on Zou though," Usopp remarked as he recalled the few short days they had spent on the gigantic elephant.
"Ah… you guys wouldn't have met her," Bepo looked up forlornly as he reached for an apple from the fruit basket in the middle of the table. "Clover went missing just before Jack arrived on Zou."
"Missing?" both Usopp and Robin repeated together in surprise. Law looked up from under his hat, this small detail catching his attention as well.
"Now that you mention it, we didn't see her fighting against Jack's army," Sachi said as he recalled the night that Jack started wreaking havoc on Zou. He thought that perhaps she had been on the other side of the battlefield or that she was tending to the injured, so he didn't think too much about it and focused on the battle at hand. But now that Bepo revealed this detail, he did find it strange that someone as hospitable as Clover didn't come send them off when they left Zou.
"I don't know the details, but I overheard some guardians talking about it as they were being treated for their injuries," Bepo sighed as he bit into the apple he had taken. "Clover was one of my good friends from when I was younger before I got lost at sea. We used to play together a lot."
"When we first arrived at Zou, she was the first one to greet us and bring us to Nekomamushi," Penguin added on, a dumb smile forming on his face.
"She would bring food for us almost every other day and ask us about our adventures at sea," Sachi's face reddened slightly with a light blush.
"Clover was totally cute too," they both said in unison and sighed like a couple of lovestruck idiots.
Law stared at them for a moment, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Well, her friend won't be unconscious for long," he informed them. "We didn't give her any more sedatives in the procedure, so I'd say she should wake up tomorrow or the day after latest."
"Mm…" Bepo gave a small acknowledgment. It didn't seem like it reassured him too much, but it'll have to do for now.
"Torao!" a loud voice echoed down the hallway and it was only a moment before Franky burst into the kitchen launching himself into his signature pose. "I just finished checking out the engines, your ship is still in a super condition!"
"Oi oi, don't do that here, the room's too small!" Usopp yelped as he narrowly missed being punched by Franky's gigantic arms.
The room erupted into laughter, and just like that the conversation about Clover and the strange girl had come to a close.
Pain.
Pain deep through her entire body, searing through each nerve and vein. It was worse than a branding iron being pressed against her back. Like acid slowly oozing down her entire body, slowly taking it's time to digest away her skin, muscles, and flesh to burn directly into her bones.
She wanted it to stop so badly that she would even die.
"It's okay, it's alright..." a soft reassuring voice echoed throughout her agony.
But… that's right, she couldn't die.
"Clo… ver…" she reached out towards the voice, but it had already turned into a blood-curdling scream that resonated throughout her body and awakened her senses.
"Please! Please give her back, she did nothing wrong, take me instead! Please, please!" she stood up and launched herself against the jail cell, begging and pleading the shadows walking past. But not a single one stopped. Not a single one. She rammed her head into the metal bars till her vision was tinted red with her own blood.
"I'll do my best to endure it…" the voice trembled, trying to keep calm. "I love you okay?"
"Clover!" she jolted up with a gasp.
She panted heavily for a moment, trying to grasp the situation before realizing it was a dream. Her vision cleared and she slowly realized that the blanket that lay messily on her lap was different from the one she usually had. The bed was a lot softer too. She looked around, her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness. The whole room was different. It was bigger. Cleaner. And there was a strong smell of disinfectant in the air. She was also strangely… Awake and in control.
Then as she tried to figure out what happened, she remembered. A weird dude had come into the room after the doctor had given her a dose of sedation, but she barely remembered anything because she passed out. Then, when she next woke up she was in some sort of operating room and the same weird dude was there too!
Ah! Her hands flew to her side, grabbing each arm. Arms intact. She touched her chest next. Nothing wrong there. She slowly wriggled her toes and slid her hands down her thighs. Legs intact. Nothing out of the ordinary except that half her body was wrapped in bandages. Letting out a sigh of relief she relaxed. Looks like the weird dude wasn't lying when he said that she wasn't going to die.
Then she remembered something else. She had… grabbed his wrist and literally begged him not to kill her. Her hands flew to her face as she felt her cheeks heat up. I mean true perhaps he might've killed her if she didn't ask him not to, but still! How embarrassing! She shook it off, Clover would laugh if she saw her now. She was always pointing out her awkwardness.
She then froze as reality hit her.
Clover.
Clover!
Before she could stop it, a wave of emotion swept over her and her eyes filled up with tears. She sat still for a moment as a quiet sob escaped her lips. But then as quickly as it had come, she shoved everything to the back of her mind and angrily wiped away the tears that dared to escape from her eyes. This was no time for feeling sad. She needed to get out of here as fast as possible.
She swung her legs over the bed and stood up quickly, but collapsed back unto the bed as she did so. She had to take it slow, her body was still feeling the effects of the sedation and her muscles were sore from all the time she hadn't used them. She carefully placed her feet on the ground, shivering a little as she did so. The floor was so cold. Then after she had prepared herself, she slowly stood up.
The way her dress fell against her legs told her that her outfit had changed as well. She looked down, her clothes from before were gone and she was wearing something that resembled a hospital gown. Was this a hospital? It certainly resembled a hospital room, but she could hear the soft whirring of engines in the background. Where the heck was she?
Making her way towards the door while using the walls as a guide, she quietly slipped out into the corridor. The hallway was dark and empty, save for a dim light shining out of a room nearby. Someone was probably inside. She decided to forgo that room first and see what else she could find, she was still weak and not in any form to face an enemy.
Feeling her way through the hall, she started to hear light snoring as she walked further down. It gradually grew, getting louder and louder till her hand came into contact with what felt like a door frame. She stopped, quietly shifting closer towards the doorway before peering inside. Then she froze. Male humans, at least twenty of them, were all sleeping soundly inside the room. Before she could even think about what to do next, a quiet voice spoke up.
"Who's there?"
It came from inside. A shiver went up her spine at the low intimidating voice and the feeling of needing to run for safety intensified.
She instinctively activated her abilities to flee back to the room she had woken up in and was pleasantly surprised that her Devil Fruit powers were still in working order even though she haven't used them in so long. As soon as she felt the dangerous presence disappear, she realized how weird it felt to finally be in control of her body again. She couldn't even remember how long it was since she had last been fully conscious.
Okay, next. She wanted to check out that dimly lit room she had noticed earlier. However, this time since there was a light source and she might be seen, she'd better take precaution first.
Law had just relit the candle that was almost going out by his table. He figured that he should head to bed soon as most of the crew were already sleeping after a hearty meal, but he wanted to finish this last chapter before he turned in. Then all of a sudden, he noticed a presence near the door. Turning sharply towards it he asked coldly, "who's there?"
For the briefest moment, he thought he saw a kid disappear from behind the door frame. A small girl who looked about five, with brunette hair in pigtails. His eyes widened as he stood up sharply and dashed forward towards the entrance.
As he entered the hallway, he glanced around for a moment before realizing that it was entirely empty. He made an annoyed sound as he relaxed, was it his imagination? Was he that tired? Despite his doubts, Law walked further down the hallway just in case.
Then he heard footsteps. But these footsteps were not of a young child, they were heavier and definitely more intimidating. He narrowed his eyes as he tensed up and quickly transported his sword that he had left behind earlier from the library into his hands.
"What, it's just you?" a familiar nonchalant voice sounded. His eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness, and he could just barely see the silhouette of the Strawhat swordsman walking down the hallway.
"What are you doing wandering the hallways at night, Zoro-ya?" Law relaxed, standing up straight and tapping his sword against his shoulder in mild annoyance. Did he mistake Zoro for a small girl? That logic was completely off the charts. He took a moment to glance into the room that they were standing in front of and could just make out the outline of a person sleeping soundly in a bed at the far end. It didn't make sense but it was the only explanation. Perhaps he was really tired.
"Me? I was going to ask you that!" Zoro spat back in annoyance. He thought there had been an intruder on the ship after he felt that weird presence outside the male dorms with his Haki, and left to check just in case. But it turns out it was just Law being creepy.
"Whatever," Law sighed as he walked forward. "I'll bring you back to the dorms."
"I can go back on my own," Zoro growled, walking forward in the other direction.
"It's this way," the doctor said as he jabbed his thumb in the direction that Zoro had come from. How bad was this guy at directions seriously? The other swordsman froze, made a pissed off sound before he turned around and stormed forward. "I-I knew that!"
As their voices slowly disappeared down the hallway, she huddled up in her blanket and stared blankly at the wall she was facing. All hope of escape had disappeared from her mind. One was a significantly intimating man with three freaking swords slapped to the side of his waist. The other was an ice-cold weirdo doctor who had some kind of Devil Fruit power to transport things. Did everyone on this ship know how to use Haki? They detected her even before she had a chance to observe them! They were all male humans to boot… And to top it all off she knew that she wouldn't stand a chance against the two she had just met. Her instincts were screaming at her to run as far away from them as possible.
How was she ever going to escape?