A/n: HAAAAAAAPPPPPYYYYY NNNNEEEEEWWWWW YEEEEAAAAARRRR! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D I hope all of you have another fantastic year filled with lots of ZoSan and M rated fics! Huzzah! So first things first, what's the best way to start off the new year? With some ZoSan angst! :D
Hope you enjoy this chapter~ Tried to bring back the lacking angst. You can't blame me, torturing these two is just so hnnnn~
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Lots and lots of love and wishes and prayers that all your dreams come true~
Chapter 14
"Just one damn minute. I know I said I'm working for Dragon and everything, but I never ever said I'm going to throw my life away to save his brat." Amoret spat the last word out, leaning in and poking Luffy's nose. Nami came up behind Luffy, sweat pouring down her face, "Waaait a minute, Dragon as in that Dragon?! The most wanted man on the planet?!"
"Yep, that's the one."
"Luffy! That's your dad she's talking about!"
"Shishishishishi~ So you work for dad huh? Cool!"
"It is not cool! You listen to me here Monkey. D. Luffy, the whole lot of you will get the hell off this island if it's the last thing I do, and it damn well isn't going to be!"
"Be what?"
"The last thing I do!"
"Do what?"
Amoret stared slack jawed at the raven-haired teen who just tilted his head and shot her a million watt smile. Nami waved him off urgently, "Don't worry too much, he's always like that. Now about what you were saying…"
"Hmm… Well well well, Dragon's son huh? Now that's news to me. Diara! Where is that useless child when I need her?! Diara!"
The man fiddled with the intercom button as he watched the crew interact with a woman he was sure he'd seen before. He wondered were he'd seen her. He really should start paying attention to things around him.
Amoret slowly went through everything that had happened after Zoro and Sanji landed on the island, using extremely simple ways to make the rather slow Strawhat Captain understand. Just as she was about to hit Luffy for being obnoxiously stupid, a loud screeching sound echoed across the island, causing everyone to groan and cover their ears.
"What was that?!" Usopp squealed, as he hugged a trembling Chopper close to him.
"Sounded like a microphone being tuned." Franky said vaguely, scratching his chin.
Before anyone else could speak up, there was some scrambling and muttering and another screech.
"What the hell?! It's like someone operating an intercom without knowing how to use it." Usopp squeaked, now hiding behind a terrified Brook.
Amoret's face grew dark as she turned and looked towards the trees, "That might just be it." And just as she said it, a voice replaced the clattering and scrambling.
"Uhhh…" The voice was deep and gruff and from the airy whistling sound when he paused, one could guess he might be missing a few of his front teeth.
Amoret had gone rigid as a board at the sound of the voice and the crew looked to where she was staring, both curiously and cautiously.
"Ah well I must apologize, I suppose, for not welcoming you properly. I had no idea the Strawhat Pirates were on my island, quite the surprise really." The crew stiffened at the mention of their identity, various thoughts racing through their minds as to whether their disguises had been seen through, or information had already been passed on, or any other possibilities for their immediate recognition. "Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself! You might have heard of me, I'm pretty infamous, if I say so myself." The man chuckled at his joke and shifted in his seat, the squeaking of the chair suggesting that he might be heavily built. "I am Nero of the Underworld and it is an honour to meet the son of Dragon himself. Welcome to my abode, the island Tanveria!"
There was more crackling, followed by static and then a loud click and silence enveloped them once again. For a moment, everyone stood stock-still, unable to discern what had just happened. Then just as suddenly, Amoret spun around, eyes wide and as pale as a sheet. She closed her eyes and swallowed. Then shaking her head, she pinched the bridge of her nose, muttering the entire time.
"Amoret-san?" Sanji questioned tentatively and the woman jumped three feet in the air, like she'd been attacked in broad daylight. She looked at him with wild eyes and shook her head frantically, "He knows… good lord, he knows! You have to leave. You have to get away right now! Before he shuts the force field! Get out! All of you!"
She shoved the crew towards the ships, the confused pirates moving along without complaint. Hiding behind one of the larger vessels, the doctor looked towards Nami, "Where is your ship? You can get on and leave immediately."
Nami frowned and turned to Franky who looked like he'd seen a ghost, "Sunny! She's still tethered to the ships!"
A collective groan echoed through the group and Franky rushed off, swearing to bring Sunny back safely even if he died. Luffy started to protest, but Usopp, Brook and Chopper rushed after him and Nami laid a hand on her Captain's shoulder.
"Luffy, we have to do something and fast. Now that whoever that was announced our true identity to the entire island, we're no longer safe here."
"Any safer than we already were, you mean." Luffy said, his voice low and strained, as he shrugged the navigator's hand off and stood up slowly. Adjusting his hat, he walked to the front of the ship they were hiding behind.
"Luffy?! What are you doing!?"
"You said it yourself, they know who we are. So we might as well use the time to attack them before they attack us."
"Monkey. D. Luffy, I don't think that's a very good idea. I suggest you wait until we've planned something-"
Amoret was cut off by a sudden fit of coughing, as the strange fog surrounded them. The group doubled over, clutching their chests and coughing. Luffy turned back to see why Amoret had stopped talking and his eyes widened at the sight of them on their knees and heaving.
"Oi-"
"Luffy, run! Don't inhale the fog! It's some kind of gas!" Nami wheezed before bending over and hacking loudly. Luffy made towards her, but there was a sudden sound from the other side of the ship and Luffy eyed the men approaching them and then his Nakama.
Zoro growled and pushing himself up, grabbed Robin and Nami and dragged them toward a small copse of trees near the wharf. Amoret followed and Sanji moved towards Luffy. He pushed his captain in the direction of the town and bared his teeth. "Of all of us, you're in the most danger. You're of more worth to them than the lot of us put together."
Luffy began disagreeing, but Sanji shoved a hand against his mouth and glared at him, "Now you listen carefully to me Luffy. Go into town and find Freddy. He's a short, plump man and he'll help you."
"What about you guys?! I just found you! I'm not gonna be separated from you already!"
"We'll be fine Luffy! We've been here for a month already and we're still alive, so we'll be fine! Now get out of here!"
"But I don't know where to find this Freddy guy! I don't even know how to get through that forest!"
"I'll go with you." The two men looked up to see a tall, lanky, terrified man nod at them. Sanji remembered Zoro calling him Joshua. The cook didn't trust him, but it was either that or risking getting caught. He nodded at the man, then at Luffy and turned away before his Captain could complain.
Luffy ground his teeth, but noticing that the rest had already hidden themselves, he followed Joshua just as the men appeared around the corner.
Zoro peeked from behind a rock and watched as Luffy and Joshua disappeared behind the border of trees and the shitty cook squatted behind a bunch of crates. Where he and the others were, the air was clear of the weird fog, but it was still thick where the stupid blond was, his shirt pulled up to cover his nose and mouth, his face contorted from lack of oxygen. Not to mention the men were barely a few feet away from him, wearing gas masks and carrying fish hooks. They would barely be a challenge for him, but Sanji couldn't breathe and Zoro wasn't about to let him get dragged back into that shit hole alone again.
He turned to Amoret and motioned towards Nami and Robin, "Can you take them to some place safe?" The woman hesitated for a moment, an unreadable emotion flitting across her face at the thought of returning to that devil's nest. But she finally nodded and looked away, "I can't guarantee it, but I will try."
Zoro nodded his thanks, knowing from experience that trying alone would need a lot more lives than the single ones they had, on that island. He turned to Nami and looked her in the eyes. The carrot-haired navigator looked terrified, and considering the situation, Zoro would shrug that off as normal, but the situation was anything but normal this time. "You both stick with her at all times and do exactly she says.."
"What if we get caught?" Nami whispered slowly and Zoro's face hardened. "Make sure you don't." He looked at Robin, only to confirm that she's okay with things, but the expression of pure horror on the woman's face made his blood run cold.
There were very few things in this world that could scare Robin and fewer still that she actually allowed herself to express. And Zoro would rather see that sadistic and mysterious smile on the quiet beauty's face than the expression she was currently wearing. He found himself reaching toward her and gripping her arm tightly, giving her as much reassurance as he could without betraying his fear of leaving them to fend for themselves.
The simple action seemed to snap her from her thoughts and she re-arranged her face, giving him a small smile. "And what if we do get caught?"
Zoro opened his mouth to answer, but Amoret beat him to it.
"Then you kill yourself."
Zoro snapped his head towards her, ready to yell at her unnecessary answer, but she was too busy peering over the boulder, mouth stretched into a thin line.
"Ah Zoro, here." Nami placed a long, wrapped bundle in Zoro's lap and the swordsman immediately recognized the weight and feel of his beloved swords. He grinned at her and she smiled back tentatively.
A sudden commotion behind them indicated the men had found the stupid cook and Zoro stood up, looked at the three women once, mouthed two words to them and disappeared into the thickening fog.
Nami shuddered and laughed emotionlessly. "Who would've thought Roronoa Zoro would be worried about us and actually show it?"
The two women next to her couldn't find anything to say in reply, so they simply stared into the greenish mist, praying they all make it out alive, Zoro's silent words forming a barrier of sorts around them.
"Be safe."
Zoro crouched a few feet behind Sanji and slowly creeped to where the cook was, doubled over and shaking, desperately trying not to breathe. He reached out, wound his arm around the man's neck to grasp his chin and jerked him backwards. Before Sanji could react, Zoro had his mouth covering the other's and when they pulled away, Sanji nodded gratefully. "Thanks." He breathed, and Zoro tsk-ed. "What's the point of wasting your breath for something like that when I just gave it to you."
Sanji shrugged and turned back, slowly peeking over the crates to check for their enemies. There was a sudden grunt and Sanji spun around, just as one of the masked men knocked Zoro unconscious. Sanji bared his teeth and was about to jump, when something hard collided with his head and his vision blurred, the jolt of pain shooting through his skull and causing his body to cease all movement. He made sure Zoro wasn't hurt otherwise, before he fell to the ground and blacked out.
Sanji opened his eyes slowly and immediately noticed that his vision was extremely blurry and he could see black and white spots whenever he tried to look around. He blinked several times, trying to clear his sight, but after a few minutes he figured he figured it wouldn't get any better and concentrated on the rest of his body.
His head was throbbing painfully, like his brain was beating a rhythm against his skull, making his reactions and thoughts sluggish and strained. Next, he tried moving his arms and found that they were bound at the wrists, the painfully tight cords cutting into his skin whenever he moved and causing his fingers to go numb. Next, he realized he was kneeling down and that – surprisingly – his legs weren't bound at the ankles. He also figured out he must not be wearing any pants, because he could feel the cold bite of the tiled floor against his knees and toes. It took him another moment to realize he was completely naked, when a sudden draft of chilling wind blew past him. That led to the realization that his bonds criss-crossed across his chest and around his neck. His head was bent back at a weird angle which he could only say was because the cords led from his neck to the ceiling above him or a stand, he couldn't make out the shape or colour for sure.
Another thing that came to his notice was that someone was screaming out, like they were being tortured relentlessly. It surprised him that he hadn't noticed the voice before and that it sounded very familiar. He was surprised still, when he realized the voice belonged to him and that the reason his vision was blurry, was mostly due to the tears that flowed down his face and dripped down his chin onto his burning chest. He blinked some more, trying to decipher what exactly was holding him up and he made out a metal frame, with lots of hooks and niches, through which a thick black cord ran down and around him, holding him in place.
His lethargic brain then seemed to decipher the reason as to why he was crying out painfully, it being that he was continuously being whipped across the chest and that his tender skin was already cut and bleeding and the whip was opening up more of his wounds, cutting up his flesh and striking the raw gashes over and over again. He could feel his body shivering from the cold draft that kept blowing past him, causing his chest to sting and smart agonizingly. The only warmth he could feel, was from the tears running down his face and his hot blood running down his chest and legs.
Even though he knew he was hurting, he could barely feel it. His unresponsive brain wasn't registering the acute pain, even though he was screaming and crying and writhing from it. He decided that it was pointless to get his brain to notice the obvious pain he was feeling and decided to figure out where he was.
From the awkward position his head was in, he couldn't really see much, but he could tell he was in a large room made completely of black marble and that right opposite him there was a sort of platform, atop which was a throne of sorts made of the same black marble and sitting on it was someone he had spent an awful lot of time with recently. The ivory hair and pale skin surrounded by flowing robes and scantily dressed slaves, was someone he knew very well, and loathed his brain told him, though it didn't tell him who the person was. He also noted there were other people in the room. Eight guards dressed in black. Two standing behind and on either side of the ivory haired man, two on either side of him and four to the far right, guarding another person who seemed to be tied up as well and forced onto his knees.
The man was half naked, wearing only some sort of ragged shorts and the pillory that kept his hands and head in place incapacitated him, even though he kept wriggling and twisting in order to escape. Sanji continued to stare at the man, his shocking green hair and face contorted in rage, something even more familiar to him than the man sitting on the throne. His tired brain went back to various events involving the moss-haired man and Sanji found another tear running down his face, as he swallowed the lump in his throat and rasped painfully, "Marimo."
As Sanji, watched, the shitty swordsman's face went white and twisted into a pained expression, like he was being tortured unbearably and he couldn't take it anymore. Sanji found himself smirking at the man and his pathetic state.
"I always knew you were a weakling Marimo. You look pathetic."
Zoro hung his head, shaking it and Sanji found it comical to watch the little mass of green bob left and right against the dark wood. He really looked like a moss ball. The blond found himself laughing, or atleast he thought he was laughing because all he could do was croak. His vision was still blurry from his incessant tears and he found himself screaming once again, as the whipping began.
He couldn't feel the whip's lash against his flesh as more than a smarting bite, but the pained expression on Zoro's face seemed to hurt him more. So much that it felt like the whip was coiled around his heart and was squeezing the life out of him. He winced and more tears spilled down his pale face and he caught Zoro's eyes, two wide black orbs begging and pleading for the torture to stop. Whose torture, he didn't know. So he tried to smile past his tears as reassuringly as he could at the stupid national treasure.
"It's ok Marimo. You'll be fine. It's ok."
The swordsman shook his head, as if to tell him he wasn't hurt. Sanji smiled some more and tried to move closer to him, but his bonds cut into him and he could feel the blood dripping down his arms and neck. He croaked silently, encouraging the man to hold on.
"You're ok. You'll be fine. It's all ok."
And Sanji still couldn't figure out why it was that Zoro was crying.
A/n: Ehem.. Well.. You can't hate me? Ahahaha~ Well i missed writing angsty stuff with my OTP and I thought the new year was a perfect time to restart it! So yeaaaaaay! Next chapter will be updated in a few days! Thankfully the new year has brought back my writing spirit!
Sneak peak at the next chapter: Zoro can't watch Sanji being tortured anymore. All his confused and complicated emotions and feeling are turning into mind numbing rage at one moment and blood chilling helplessness at another. He wants to save the blond, do something, anything, but he can't find the strength to break through his bonds. Whatever gas that was had made his body and brain slow and lethargic and each time the whip lashed against the man's pale, bleeding chest, Zoro's body grew heavier and weaker. How will he cope with the mass of emotions he's feeling and will he be able to save the blond before he bleeds to death? Stay tuned to see what happens next!
P.s, it might get complicated while reading because most of the time I just switch between POVs. It's easier that way, but I try not to do it orz. Sorry if it gets confusing, but I think if you pay attention and read you can make out whose POV it is. It'll mostly be either Zoro's or Sanji's, but when they aren't there on the scene, it'll be one of the others. You can tell who it is, because I'll be starting with them and focusing on them and their POV through out that bit. just wanted to say this because someone told me it gets confusing sometimes :D
That's all! Hoped you enjoyed it! -laughs maniacally-
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Love love and more love~~