A/n: This was slightly hurried, so sorry if a lot of things happen too fast. I'll make sure to take things slowly from the next chapter~

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Chapter 12

The two men drew away from each other and raised their heads slightly, ears sharp and alert for the sudden change that had occurred around them. A shrill warning bell was going off overhead and the rather dull metallic lighting was now flashing red. Men were shouting and swearing and there was a general state of havoc and confusion everywhere.

"What the hell happened?" Zoro growled, as he tried to slip past Sanji to investigate. Instead, he was held back by strong arms, as the blonde snaked his long neck and peered outside. There was a loud grating sound followed by the clicking of gears and wheels falling into place and Sanji swore under his breath.

"If what you told me was right, then I think we have a problem."

Zoro inched forwards and looked back at the huge black mass of metal at the back that seemed to be slowly coming to life. Cameron wheezed and whirred like an old woman who was trying to stand up after having sat for far too long. Both men watched as the huge gears and belts started moving slowly.

"Oi oi, I thought the force field wasn't gonna be taken down any time soon." Zoro tried moving away again, but Sanji held him firmly in place. Zoro hissed and was about to bark at the blonde, but a quiet scuttling behind them effectively froze the two in place. Sanji inched forwards and pressed his lips against Zoro's neck, tilting his head slightly in order to see past the square pillar.

There was a thin, suspicious looking man who was scrambling around behind them and Sanji was sure he was one of the many who kept stalking him under Zeher's orders. He moved back slightly and motioned towards the man, "Looks like no one else was aware of this either." He glanced sharply at an agitated Zoro. "I know this happened too fast, but this might be our chance marimo. What say we make a run for it?"

Zoro finally looked at Sanji, his single eye boiling with rage and a thirst for blood. "Sorry ero-cook, but things just got way more complicated than either of us bargained for. And there are still a lot more things to be done before we get out of here."

This time it was Sanji's turn to look furious, "Lot more things to be done? Do you fucking hear yourself?! This may as well be our only chance to get out of here! And you can't come because you have unfinished business?! Don't shit with me moss brain! If you ain't getting outta here, I sure as hell am!"

Sanji twisted away and began stomping off, but Zoro grabbed him by the arm and pinned him harshly against the wall. "No, you listen to me cook, see those people? Well none of them are here because they want to be either. And none of them are gonna do anything about it if it's left to them. So I'm getting them outta here if it's the last thing I do, you hear?!"

"And how do you plan on doing that? How do you plan on getting thousands of people out of this factory and onto the surface and then off the island? Do you even know every single place these people are being made to work in? If we keep delaying, we're not gonna save anybody! Not them, not us, not anybody!"

"Well I sure as hell didn't plan for the force field to be brought down now did I?! Since we don't have a choice anyway, why not do as much as we can! There are innocent and honest people out there cook!"

"And we are neither innocent nor are we honest! We're pirates goddamnit, not heroes! It's not our job to save thousands of people by becoming martyrs! It's not our duty! Leave that to the Marines! Now let's go!" So saying, Sanji turned away and began pushing his way through the scrambling men. Not feeling the familiar presence behind him, he looked over his shoulder, only to see that Zoro was helping up a slightly older man who had been pushed over. Sanji cursed loudly and stomped back to the swordsman.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

Sanji's question was answered by a cold glare, "I'm not leaving. You can if you want, but I'm not."

"Fine then! I will!"

Sanji spun around and made his way to the stairway that was the only exit he knew of, but not before Zoro's words fell on his sharp ears, "I'm dissappointed with you cook."

Sanji continued muttering curses as he pushed people out of his way and stomped up the stairs to the top floor of Zeher's manor. Fuck that stupid righteous ass of a swordsman. Like he knew the shit Sanji had to go through on a daily basis after ending up in this shit hole. The cook swore loudly and roughly shoved a man out of his way as he stomped towards the exit. He hadn't expected to react so hard to the fact that the force field was being taken down either. Hell, he thought he was over the shit he'd been forced into. So why the fuck was he scrambling away like a victim instead of kicking a storm up?!

There was a sudden explosion and Sanji ducked his head just as a heavy cloud of smoke blanketed everything. People were running helter skelter and screaming in panic from the sudden blinding smoke. Sanji shut his eyes and concentrated so he could use his Haki to identify left from right. Several people bumped into him and jostled him and he was on the borderline of going berserk.

Focusing harder, he sensed a huge pipe nestled at the back of the corridor and from the movements within it, guessed it must be the ventilation duct. Several minutes of struggling and hustling and he reached the pipe. His eyes burned and tears made his vision blurry, but that was the last of his problems.

Jumping in place, he made sure there weren't many people nearby, before jumping high and smashing the pipe right in the center. The force of his kick dented the huge metal tube and with one more kick, fresh air was gushing out of the crack and pushing back the smoke.

By the time he managed to get past the people crowding by the stairs, hoping to get out of the factory, he spotted a flash of green and with renewed irritation, made his way towards the generator.

The farther in he went, the thinner the crowd got and soon he was able to stand in place and breathe for a good long minute before spotting a bunch of men huddled around what looked like a ginormous control panel. One man was shouting out instructions to the few brave souls who had stayed back and a bunch of others seemed to be trying to fix some short circuit on the board in front of them.

Sanji made his way towards the tall, blonde man who was currently calming down a hysterical worker. "Excuse me! But can you tell me where-"

"Black leg?"

Sanji turned sharply at the name, the hair on the back of his neck prickling as his body tensed for any sign of danger. He found the source behind the spoken name and was almost relieved to recognize the short, stout man Zoro had referred to as 'Freddy'.

'So this guy knows about us.'

"Have you seen him?" Sanji asked impatiently, coming to stand beside the shaking man. The blonde thought he was shaking out of fear, but on closer inspection, he found that Freddy's eyes were shining and his huge mustache was twitching with excitement and not fear.

Freddy nodded quickly and jerked his head off towards a set of stairs that led directly above the generator. "He said something about dealing with the source of the problem first and rushed off without so much as a second glance."

Sanji swore loudly and stomped his foot in agitation. Trust that stupid Marimo brain to storm off after whomever or whatever he thought was behind everything.

"Are you going after him?"

"Obviously! That fool's gonna get the whole lot of us killed!" Sanji nodded once at Freddy and zoomed towards the stairway, intent on catching upto the swordsman before he killed the wrong person, or worse, brought the whole damn island down on top of them.

Just as he made it to the second platform, someone grabbed onto his arm and he spun around suddenly, intent on breaking the enemy's neck before he could so much as blink. But Sanji found himself looking down at a mess of dirty blonde hair and heaving shoulders, as the man slowly stood up and tried to control his ragged breathing. Sanji immediately recognized him as the man who had been trying to mobilize the workers and ease the panic.

"You're his friend right?" The man asked, almost frantically, his grip on the cook's arm tightening desperately.

"You mean that shitty one eyed bastard? I wouldn't call him a friend, but yeah I know him. What's it to you?"

"Oh thank god!" the relief was so obvious on the man's face and by the way his shoulders sagged, Sanji found himself almost pitying him. "Oh! I'm Joshua by the way! And I might be able to help you!"

Sanji arched an eyebrow and extricated his arm from the man's tight grip. "Oh? How so?"

The beaming smile the blonde got in answer to his sarcastic question, caused his stomach to clench with guilt. As he followed Joshua up the stairs and down several corridors, Zoro's voice kept playing in his head, making him feel worse by the second. Finally, when he spotted the familiar light at the end of the long corridor, his mind was made up.

'Can't believe I'm taking lectures from that shitty Marimo seriously now damnit.'

Zoro zoomed past a certain heavily decorated room that he was sure he'd seen before. Nami's annoying voice in his head, going on about his extreme lack of direction sense only added to his growing frustrations. Not to mention every second thought of his seemed to be centered around a certain quick mouthed blonde, since the past few weeks. He cursed as he passed a fork in the corridor that he was sure to have gone through before and just as he was debating whether to take a different path or cut the whole place down, a familiar voice called to him from behind.

"Ah I finally found you! This way!"

Zoro turned back to spot a disappearing blonde head and the image of a smirking cook filled his mind, even as his brain registered the voice as belonging to Joshua. "Fucking blonde driving me nuts.." He cursed under his breath as he followed Joshua past a bunch of screaming, half naked women. Joshua chuckled as Zoro caught up with him, "You two are very close huh?"

"Hah?!"

"No no, I didn't mean to sound rude, but he reacted pretty much the same way to you."

"He who?"

"Huh? Your friend of course!"

"He is not my fucking friend!"

Joshua blinked at Zoro and then looked ahead, his eyebrows drawing in a frown as his face coloured. "It's nice that you're able to express your relationship so openly. People are usually more embarrassed about such stuff."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!"

Joshua waved him off and laughed in embarrassment, as he sped off towards a heavy wooden door. It took Zoro a whole minute to figure out what the man had meant. And he swore he'd slice up anyone who looked twice at his red face and vowed to train his body and emotions to master self-control.

Sanji dove past a couple of squealing women and managed to fit himself behind an open door, just as Zeher bristled past him and forcefully plucked the receiver hanging on the wall. He dialed a three-digit number and tapped his foot impatiently as the person on the other end of the line took their time to answer the call. Sanji shifted uncomfortably in the narrow space and Zeher snapped his head up. The blonde almost thought he'd been found out, but Zeher began barking questions and insults into the receiver, giving the blonde a moment to reposition himself into a more comfortable position.

"Diara! What is the meaning of this?! I wasn't told about this at all!" Zeher's voice had reached a nearly painful volume, as he screeched into the hand-piece. "No I do not care that you weren't informed about it either! Well do something about it! This place has turned into nothing short of a battlefield, with everyone trying to run out! This is what happens if you keep tampering with peoples' memories!"

A jolt ran through Sanji as Zeher's last sentence registered in his brain. He waited with bated breath for the hysterical man to run out and then made his way to the phone. His heart was thudding painfully against his chest as he slowly reached for the receiver. A drop of sweat slid down his brow and he swallowed back the lump forming in his throat. Just as his finger tips brushed against the warm plastic, the receiver vibrated against his skin, the shrill tune sending needles of pain shooting through his skull. Sanji bit his quivering lip and after a moment of bracing himself, snatched the hand-set up with trembling hands and placed it against his ear.

A soft, extremely nervous female voice echoed in his head and his brain was processing information quickly enough, to decipher that she was the same person Zeher had spoken to less than a minute ago.

"..Diara?"

"Yes? Who is this?"

Sanji held his breath and counted the seconds of silence that passed between him and the person on the other end of the line, almost tentatively he opened his mouth and breathed carefully, "Are you still there?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by several scraping and rattling sounds. Finally, the voice spoke again, this time much softer and just as tentatively, "..Sanji-san?"

Sanji started at hearing his name. He didn't know who this person was, but she definitely knew him. The fact that Zeher had called her and not anyone else, signified that she was of some importance. The blonde didn't know what to make of this information. His head was pounding with his heart and the huge room seemed to suddenly become stifling and suffocating. His vision swam as he tried to recollect several events that had happened in the past few hours.

He found that, the second he reached the part about leaving Amelia's clinic, his mind drew a blank. Beyond that, his memory was just foggy flashes and blurry silhouettes and mind numbing pain. He had tried remembering what had happened, but his brain refused to connect two and two together and the only thing he got from the effort, was a splitting headache.

Tampering with peoples' memories…

Zeher's words echoed in the back of his mind and he took a deep breath, "Yes, that's me. And you are?"

"Ah, I-I'm Diara.." The girl almost sounded thankful that Sanji had identified himself, instead of faking his identity. "Sanji-san, I know none of this makes sense to you, but all of you are in grave danger. You need to find Amoret and get out of here!"

"What about the people?" Sanji asked, his mind sifting through names and faces, trying to recall if he knew anyone by the name Amoret. The girl replied hurriedly, telling him not to worry about the people, "At this point, their minds have been so severely damaged, it wouldn't make a difference to them if they were saved or killed."

"What does that-"

"Sanji-san please, you must find her! And you must get out of here!"

Sanji almost yelled at her, saying he didn't know any Amoret, but something stopped him from saying it, almost as if his brain was telling him that he knew. There was some sort of disturbance on the other end and the girl began chanting some sort of strange mantra.

"Listen to me, you must leave. I didn't know things had gone this far, it's too dangerous for you or Roronoa-san to remain on this island. First you must find Amoret and tell her everything that happened to you. Next, you must take Roronoa-san and go to the farthest corner of this island. If you manage to attain a boat, get off this island. And by no means, must you try to save anybody! Promise me that!"

Sanji nodded mutely, then realising she couldn't see him, stuttered a yes. "Not even people who help us reach there?"

Diara hesitated a brief moment, before there was more rustling and clicking. "No, not even if they were your Nakama."

Before Sanji could ask what she meant, there was a gunshot and the line went dead.

A/n: Em I think I managed another successful cliff-hanger with more plot twists.. Ahaha I might be getting better at this stuff.. Anyway, see you next chapter!

[Sorry for not having a sneak peak my mind is still a mess]

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Love~