A/n: Confession time. I love torturing Zoro and Sanji way too much and it makes me way too happy. That's all.
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Love~
Chapter 26
Zoro continued to glare at Robin from his spot against the wall, arms crossed and brows furrowed. Robin returned his death glare with a mysterious smile that did nothing to placate the already suspicious man. Franky on the other hand, was reading some weird scrawls carved into the wall behind Robin. He suddenly grunted in satisfaction and clanged one of his large metal fingers on the iron wall.
"Here it is, Zoro and Sanji, I think."
"What's that?"
Franky turned to look at Sanji, who had just appeared from behind the pile of rubble that took up most of the destroyed underground room, and raised an eyebrow at him. "Your names, obviously."
It was Sanji's turn to raise his eyebrows. He smoothed down the lapels of his suede jacket and patted his black jeans – clothes he had 'borrowed' from the same house Zoro had taken his swords from – and looked skeptical. He hummed for a moment and then nodded, as though satisfied by whatever conclusion he had come to. He pointed his thumb at Zoro and said, "I sure as hell would never have a freakish name like Zoro, so I'm pretty sure that's him."
He ignored Zoro's annoyed 'Oi!' and walked up beside Franky, to examine the engraved words in the wall. The cyborg stepped back and gave the blond his space, moving to sit on one of the broken beams. Zoro continued to shoot his glare from Robin to Franky back to Robin to Sanji and back. Finally, Robin's soft chuckle broke the uncomfortable silence stifling the small space.
"You really are a very cautious man, aren't you, Zoro?"
Zoro growled lowly at the sound of his name coming from her lips. Neither his mind nor his body seemed to have any problems accepting that his name was indeed Zoro, and neither was the fact that the amount of familiarity Robin said his name with, bothering him as much as the fact that he was accepting these three strangers that he never remembered before, so simply, without any questions. His hostility towards them stemmed more from the confusion of his acceptance of them, rather than their actual presence.
Sanji suddenly exclaimed in surprise and staggered back, his arm stretching out to press against the wall for support. His other hand was covering his mouth, as though he was desperately preventing himself from crying out. Seeing the way the blond's face drained of colour, Zoro got his feet, moving towards him before he could even register what he was doing. He came to stand close behind Sanji, one arm reaching out, as though he were about to touch the other man. Suddenly conscious of his actions, he abruptly dropped his arm and took a step back, shaking his head slightly and clearing his throat before asking Sanji if he was alright.
The blond wordlessly motioned towards the words carved into the wall, as though too weak to repeat the horror the nearly illegible scrawls contained. Zoro turned, not moving from his position and scanned the portion closest to them. He could only make out a few abrupt phrases and random bits of information that didn't seem to make sense to him. Frustrated, he stepped farther back, so the entire wall was visible, and slowly began scrutinizing the scratches with a determined eye.
It was an arduous task, especially for a man like him, his mind said thoughtfully, to understand the hurriedly written words and allow the amount of information they offered, to sink in. after awhile, he too had to take a deep breath and shut his eye, willing his racing heart to calm the hell down and his throbbing head to sift through the information. A moment later, he knew whatever he read must be true, as his mind didn't seem to find it made up or carefully crafted simply to render them speechless.
He finally turned to the waiting duo, opening his mouth and wincing as his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and started again, "So this.. is all true?"
Both Robin and Franky nodded somberly and Zoro sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Apparently we have a habit of jumping head first into boat loads of shit," he muttered to himself. Walking to where he had been sitting before, he eased himself into a cross-legged position and finally raised his eye to where the blond was still standing, clutching the wall for dear life.
"Oi, how long you plan on staying there, curlicue?"
The annoying nickname seemed to snap Sanji out of his stupor, and he snapped his head up, teeth bared and nostrils flaring. Zoro couldn't help but scoff and Sanji huffed, sitting down and turning to face Robin.
"So Robin-chan—" Sanji paused, momentarily stunned by how familiar the name sounded on his tongue, and awkwardly continued, "—ah, so, you came here looking for us?"
Robin nodded again, as though waiting to see exactly how much Sanji had learnt from the scribbles. Sanji swallowed and continued, "and you found us, from what you've written. But a whole lot of stuff happened after that that I don't quite understand and—" he rambled off, his arms moving around frantically, as he frowned down at the ground.
None of the three interrupted him, as he babbled almost foolishly, repeating things they already knew about. He finally stopped, breathless and tired, his shoulders sagging from the constant gestures that accompanied his frantic talking. He looked up slowly, as if ashamed for saying everything he had, and swallowed when Robin smiled gently at him.
She tucked a stray strand of her long locks behind her ear and hummed softly in her throat, ducking her head solemnly, as she began speaking, "Well everything you've said so far, are the answers to most of the questions you had. From what it says, there were initially nine of us, and one another person who went off alone. There are three by a ship that is ours, and two – one of who seems to be our captain – still out looking for you. I myself didn't quite understand why exactly we split up after finding you, which was obviously our sole reason for coming here, but there are mentions of someone pulling certain strings from the shadows, about underground pirates, closing force fields and erased memories, so I'm guessing we all had some sort of reason for not leaving, or—" she raised her head now, the look in her eyes eerie and haunted, "—maybe we couldn't leave."
Zoro drew a sharp breath and Sanji stiffened visibly. "So," the blond said darkly, "What do we do now?"
Zoro huffed and stood up, clutching his abdomen as pain shot through him from his nearly healed wounds. "It's obvious, isn't it? We finish whatever we started. There's some guy to find and beat up and I'm pretty sure that's our only way outta here, so not like we've gotta choice anyway."
Sanji staggered to his feet as well, his eyes wide with shock. "And how are we going to do that?! We have no weapons—" Zoro clanged his swords together "—nor do we know where the rest of our.. crew is, nor do we know who or where this person is, so how exactly do you expect to take him down?!"
Zoro scratched his head and moved towards the hole Franky had blasted through the roof. "Well, I didn't expect a wuss like you to agree anyway. I'll just have to take care of it."
A tick mark appeared on Sanji's cheek and he stomped behind Zoro, too hotheaded from the insult to notice Robin's chuckle or Franky's grin, or even Zoro's smug smirk.
"I really think we should go together."
Both Zoro and Sanji paused in their bickering, to regard Franky. The cyborg shrugged and scratched his head – now covered with blue hair which was in the shape of what was probably a machine gun – and looked relatively unnerved for his size. He shrugged sheepishly and clicked his sunglasses onto his nose. "I'm just saying, we've been split up twice and both times brought us nothing but bad luck.
Robin nodded thoughtfully beside him, her hand at her chin, as she regarded the enormous mansion behind the dynamic duo, with unease. "I would agree with Franky—"
"But?"
"—but I have a feeling we should be looking for the others. Especially now, since they've lost their memories too."
Franky sighed and shrugged his huge, metal shoulders. "Alright then, split up it is. But—" he pointed at Zoro and Sanji, eyeing them seriously from over his sunglasses, "if either of you aren't in that place by the allotted time, I'm blowing up that mansion."
Robin looked mildly startled by the violent exclamation, but both Zoro and Sanji grinned at the cyborg and turning, made their way towards the enormous wrought iron gates.
Robin and Franky watched silently as they climbed up and over the gates and crept away into the shadows. Robin was the first to speak.
"I have a bad feeling something dreadful is about to happen to them."
"Yeah.. me too. Let's just hope that this time, neither of them gets killed."
The two slowly made their way back to the centre of town, neither mentioning the bloody bandages that had been discarded in a large pile outside the destroyed factory.
"Shh!"
"Shh yourself, dumbass! You almost blew our cover!"
"And whose fault was it that we ran into a bunch of guards right at the door and had to knock them out?!"
"They took me by surprise! And you should be thanking me for saving your sorry ass instead of getting us into more trouble!"
"You're the one that kicked the guy towards me!"
"I was aiming at the freak behind you!"
"He was already knocked out!"
"How was I supposed to know?! His arms were around your neck!"
"Because I was lifting him up to put him in the cupboard!"
There was a loud bang somewhere above them and both men were startled into silence. They raised their heads and listened wearily, expecting someone to have heard them. Sanji drew close to Zoro and hissed in his face, "This is all your fault!"
Zoro spat back, "How the fuck is it my fault?!"
Sanji flipped him off and stalked away, leaving a grumbling and cursing Zoro to follow after him. After nearly an hour of mindless wandering through the maze of corridors, they finally reached what looked like a grand pair of double doors that opened up to an extravagant ballroom. Sanji whistled softly, and Zoro muttered about bloody rich bastards, as they made their way through the mahogany doors.
The room was enormous, complete with polished marble flooring, thick maroon drapes pulled up to show wall length windows and glittering chandeliers overhead. Sanji grinned to himself, admiring the finesse with which the ceiling was made, completely covered with mirrors; which was the only reason he spotted the thin black pipe that was forced through the minute crack between the farthest two windows.
He spun around, shouting to Zoro – who was busy inspecting the plush red sofas at the far side of the room – and ran towards the doors. There was a sickening screech, as his shoes skidded on the slippery floor and he landed face first, feet away from the swiftly closing doors. He heard Zoro roar, bodily launching himself at the thick mahogany, landing against them with a crash, just as they clicked shut, the sound echoing across the huge room.
Sanji was on his feet in an instant, shoes in his hands, as he rushed to the windows, trying to pry the glass open. Coming away with bleeding fingers, he searched frantically for something he could use to break the glass, but he hadn't realized that the room had already been filled with the clear, odorless gas even before they stepped into it.
"Oi, Marimo—" Sanji gasped, moving toward the door where Zoro was hacking away at the wood with his swords. He clasped the man's shoulders, his knees going weak. Zoro looked up from what he was doing and gave a startle yelp, as Sanji collapsed in his arms. Zoro shook the blond, shouting his name, feeling the familiar word echoing around the room, almost like it was taunting and mocking him. His vision suddenly blurred and he had a bitter sense of déjà vu, as he fell back, his back thudding against the door. He pulled the blond toward him, his mind swimming and his consciousness fading rapidly.
The last thing he remembered was a shrill, high-pitched laugh. And then everything went black.
A/n: Mmhmm, now we are back to nice, wonderful, angsty angst, ladies and gentlemen. More torture, morer torture, morererererer torture, coming up in the next chapter so stay tuned!
Review, favorite and follow!
Love~