Hey guys! I'm back, feeling very bad after last chapter! But now the true adventure starts!

Review Responses

Seamy: I know. Sadness, huh?

Yusukes: Robin has many sides. She is like a polygon! I feel bad about all the badness, I really do :(

Sue: I enjoyed your review by read commentary. Luffy's puppy dog eyes are indeed dangerous things. I enjoy Ussop being a bit brave, I find he has a very strong sense of beliefs, particularly about friendship and bravery. Its one of the qualities I admire in him. I'm sure he would always try his hardest to help his nakama.

xhitsulover: Why thank you very much. I quite like my story too :)

Wandering Swordsman: Yea I get a bit carried away writing this story, so I tend to write a chapter in a couple of days. I'm gonna be bored once it's done! And don't just feel bad for Sanji, everyone was tricked! Don't fear, things will get better!

Sho-a0ycupid: I quite wanna know what you were thinking, but Im glad you liked my mini twist there! I wanted it to be a bit of a shock

Blu: I thought you meant you thought my writing sucked there for a second I got a bit upset! :D I bet you already know whats gonna happen in my story, then again it's marginaly obvious (or I think so, at least. But I did write it so...) I felt so guilty after I wrote this, more so than any of the sad things that have happened in my story. I felt awful. Robin and Zoro's conversation is a little different to how I originally planned, but I like how it's gone. Though Robin is a bit vocal, I think.

Anyway, thanks for all reviews and hits you've given my story!

Disclaimer - I don't own One Piece

Chapter 15 - Aftermath

Zoro vaguely recognised the rumbling of wheels turning as his senses returned. The stupid tranquilizer was wearing off, and the man was waking up. Memories of what happened hit him like a ton of bricks. A low sigh left his lips as he opened his eyes.

Dark.

His body rocked, and he could hear the chains binding him rattle, so Zoro quickly deduced he was being transported.

As he thought of what had happened, all manner of emotions surged through him. Zoro remembered the smug smile of Robin (that bitch – just wait 'til he gets his swords near her), the horror and upset of Ussop and Chopper, the shock and guilt of Nami and Sanji. And Luffy, it was too much for him. He just ran away.

He hated it. He hated himself for upsetting his friends. Hated Robin for tricking his friends, and catching him. And he hated Crocodile, for everything.

But hate was all he could do, as the swordsman was now incapable of doing anything else. As he shifted his arms and felt the familiar touch of cold steel around his wrists, the old feeling washed over him. Weakness.

Something deep in the swordsman prevented fighting back from this treatment. He was raised this way, to obey, to be bound, to be owned. His friends had almost eradicated those thoughts from his mind, but this humiliating capture brought everything back to surface. He was weak, weak to the powers of greater men.

"Shit"

Zoro cursed as he let his head fall back hopelessly against the wooden wall of the cart. There was nothing else to do, and nothing else to say.

As one rough and dark cart trundled on, another more luxurious one was heading in the same direction. Its passengers were silent.

Robin looked at her captive intently. Luffy was still asleep, lying along one of the seats. Belatedly, Robin noticed the rubber boy looked…different. The hat was gone, knocked off when the net hit him. Oh well, not like he'd need it again anyway. Not where he was going.

Robin shivered as she remembered the cold touch, and the pain it resulted in. Vegapunk would not be kind to the young boy. Oh no, she knew that all too well.

"Nnnngnnnnhnmeat" Luffy muttered quietly as he slept and the normally passive face of Nico Robin became lidded with sadness.

"I apologize Luffy-san, this was not the life meant for you." A disembodied arm stroked the boy's hair as he slept

"I have no choice, you see. It is either you or me."

The hand disappeared in a shower of petals over Luffy's sleeping form, and Robin used the privacy to mourn the fate of her friend.

--

Ussop and Chopper had been running frantically since the cart took Zoro away. Chopper was the first to move, once the cart was out of sight and the reality kicked in. He saw one friend depart, and his mind flashed to another who had run off.

"Luffy!" The reindeer ran down the street in the direction the rubber boy disappeared. He could hear Ussop, Nami and Sanji on his hooves.

"Chopper! Slow down!"

"No, Luffy was upset! We need to find him; he can help us save Zoro!" Chopper's voice frantic as he shouted to Ussop. The quartet ran past an alley, and the keen nose of the animal picked up a familiar scent.

Wait…two familiar scents…

He screeched to a halt and glanced down the dark alley. It was beginning to rain, and the small lane was dark.

"What have you found?" Ussop was heaving for breath, but stood side by side with Chopper. He intrepidly (an unusual event for the cowardly sniper) walked into the alley. He found only one thing, and it was enough to make his blood run cold.

"Oh no…" Ussop bent down, shaking now, and when he turned to face his friends, they all recognised the familiar straw hat in his hands. Chopper and Nami both gasped.

"His hat…" Nami shook her head in disbelief as she whispered. She and the cook feared the worst.

Chopper ventured into the alley more, sniffing a trail the straw hat left behind, and muttering a commentary to his friends.

"Luffy…I can smell him here lots. But it stops, here on the road. And the other smell, all around him before the trail disappears…"

Ussop was impatient "What, Chopper?"

"Robin…"

Nami stifled a sob, and it brought Ussop and Chopper's attention to the pair. They stood in a Mexican standoff, and Sanji's lighting of yet another cigarette was the signal for battle to commence. Ussop had never looked as angry as he shouted

"How could you guys do this?! He was our friend!" Rain began to fall heavily as Chopper wailed

"What did Zoro ever do to you?!"

"We didn't…it's not like…Dammit Chopper, how were we supposed to know Robin-chwan would go and do this, huh?"

"We were just upset, at the way Zoro was treating her, so she suggested something and we thought it was a good idea. We never knew…No idea she was planning this" Nami looked devastated as she spoke, tears welling in her eyes also.

"And that makes it okay? A real friend wouldn't have hated Zoro for his opinions of Robin in the first place! You guys have had it in for him from the start!"

"So did you when you first met him!" Nami shrieked as she pointed at the angry long nose.

"Not for long! I accepted him, like I thought you all did before you stabbed him in the back!"

Ussop's words echoed in the alley as the group fell silent. Chopper's tears were washed away by the rain, and Ussop shook in frustration. They had been betrayed, by their new friend, and by the pair in front of them for their part in things.

Nami and Sanji were silent. Nami wiped her face to stop the tears, and Sanji bit his cigarette so hard between clenched teeth it was practically in two.

"We all need to calm the fuck down. This is getting us nowhere." Ussop fumed

"Calm down! How can we be calm? Robin tricked us all and, thanks to you two, dragged Zoro off to Crocodile, and who knows what'll happen to him there! And now she's got Luffy too?!"

"We don't know that yet…"

"Like hell we don't! Since when has Chopper's nose failed?" The little animal sniffed and spoke up shakily

"It's true…I can smell Robin and Luffy together, and a salty, mineral smell. And some form of drug, only faintly. The smell ends over there, they must've got into a cart…" He dissolved into tears again and Ussop put his hand on the reindeer's head in support.

"See? Whatever Robin used to knock out Zoro she must've given to Luffy, and now she's taken him away too!"

The already tight knot in Sanji's stomach twisted more. His nose wasn't as strong as Choppers, but he could smell the faint scent of the drug Robin gave him earlier today. The guilty pair stood in shock.

"Everything would've been fine, if you two hadn't betrayed us. How do you think that made Zoro feel?" Ussop scolded and Chopper whispered

"We were the only people who accepted him…"

"And now he's gone." Ussop gave the pair a scathing look before he muttered

"Not like you two care, of course. After all, he was nothing right? Just a bit of property." He led Chopper away and said to him softly

"C'mon Chopper, let's try and follow the trail."

As the angry couple left, rain rang through the alley, drowning out all everything except for Nami's muffled sobs and Sanji's silent anger.

"Nami-swan…"

"Y, yes, Sanji-kun?" The blond hung his head and gave a humourless laugh

"We really fucked up, didn't we?" Nami hugged him tightly, overcome by grief.

"Yea…we really did."

--

Zoro could smell the sea filter through the cart long before he could see it. The cart had finally slowed to a halt, not after the long journey left his rough chained limbs stiff are sore. He could hear the waves, but the police hadn't given him the luxury of leaving his moving prison yet.

When he heard another cart pull up next to him, the green haired man's ears pricked up. He almost tried to break out the cart when he heard a voice he now despised.

"Put him on the ship, please. I'll be waiting to depart as soon as possible."

Zoro heard Robin's gentle steps walk away, and before he could think of any more painful deaths for her, the doors at the end of the rectangular cart opened, and Zoro was greeted with the sight of four very large policemen, two of who had guns trained on him.

"Get over here." The orders were direct and impolite, just as he was used to. The slave slowly rose, with slight difficulty thanks to the size of the links around him. As soon as he reached the door, rough hands grabbed him and pulled him down.

Through the dark and the rain, Zoro saw a black sea, and a grand boat in front of him. The vessel was ready to set sail and Zoro was dragged onto the boarding plank. His lack of protest didn't deter the scared guards to be rough with him.

Zoro glanced around the deck, and saw only police. He felt their gazes, and tried to give a dangerous glare to as many as possible before he was instantly pulled down a trapdoor and into the hold. After walking through the storage room, Zoro was stopped before a makeshift cell. A wrought iron frame was built around the back wall of the hold, making an average sized room.

"Don't move, Roronoa." The largest (and apparently, bravest) policeman ordered him as he went forward and unlocked the door. Zoro was pushed inside the cell.

"Against the wall, no sudden movements."

Zoro closed his eyes and complied, and felt the chains around his wrists loosen and be replaced by thick cuffs. Nothing unexpected there, then.

Experimental tugs lead him to determine the cuffs were loosely linked together, and connected to the wall. He saw the chains fall off the wall down towards the fall before rising up to his hands. He figured that let him move around the cell a bit.

Hmm, that was almost kind.

The doors clanged shut, and left Zoro alone with his thoughts.

Or so he thought.

"Comfortable, Zoro-san?" Zoro growled towards the voice.

"What the fuck do you want, woman?" Robin smiled

"Nothing"

"What, just came to gloat? I'm not an animal in a zoo, you know, stop staring."

Robin walked out of the darkness she was hiding in and approached the bars. She looked as indifferent as ever, which annoyed the swordsman even more.

"I heard you, the other day. Talking to him."

"…That was what caused the little argument at Longnose-san's yes?" Zoro snorted in answer, "if it weren't for that, I doubt Cook-san and Nami-san would have paid attention to my idea."

Zoro stared at her for a bit, trying to figure the mysterious woman out.

"Doesn't it bother you?" She started at his question.

"Does what bother me, Zoro-san?"

"Deceiving everyone. Acting like their friends, but stabbing them all in the back."

Robin said nothing, so Zoro continued

"They all liked you. Trusted you, even. Not one on them believed me when I told them about you. They all wanted to believe you were good."

Robin's eyes were shadowed in the dark, but Zoro could've sword he saw sadness mar her features.

"That was their mistake to make." Zoro frowned at that.

"And I suppose it was my mistake, too. To end up like this." Robin lightly smiled, her eyes glinting with some unknown emotion.

"No, this was to happen anyway."

"...Why not just arrest me? Why wait until I can be properly humiliated?"

"You just answered your own question, Zoro-san."

Zoro grunted, a sign Robin correctly took for confusion.

"Orders. Sir crocodile didn't just want you caught, he wanted you to suffer. And I was well aware, that physical suffering would have done little to a man such as yourself. To belittle you in front of your friends, that is what was needed."

Zoro stared at the floor.

"It is true suffering, to break a man's pride."

The room fell silent, and the shouts of the other men on board signalled the beginning of their journey. As the waves lapped against the walls of the room, Robin finally spoke up and a disembodied hand unlocked the cell doors.

"At least you are not alone, Zoro-san. Here, some company."

Of all the things Zoro expected to come through the door, he did not expect a scrawny, rubber body to be pushed from the darkness to fall unconscious at his feet.

"Luffy!"

--

It was common knowledge that Shanks loved to sail, and on the harbour one beautiful boat belonged to him. Acquired from a friend Kaya, the Going Merry was a swift vessel.

It was also about to be stolen.

"Shhhh Chopper! Hurry up!" Ussop used all the stealth he could (which was little) to climb aboard the ship. Chopper jumped on board fairly nimbly, thanks to his devil fruit ability.

"Is this okay Ussop?"

"Of course! Why I am a master sailor!" Chopper frowned, making Ussop sigh

"Well, it'll have to do, won't it? This is the only way to get to Luffy and Zoro and Robin!"

Chopper gave a look of resolve and ran off to unfurl the sails. He was stopped by the sight of two unwelcome faces on board.

Nami and Sanji looked solemn; the redhead clutched her hands into fists as they looked at their two friends.

"Guys, please. Let us help." Ussop was cold

"Why should we?"

"Look, what we did was stupid and wrong. We just trusted the wrong person." Sanji tried to explain, and Nami butted in.

"We didn't want this to happen, we just want to get Luffy and Zoro back home where they belong. So please, just let us make things right."

Ussop and Chopper crumbled like wet paper.

"Sanji, help hoist the anchor. Quickly, before someone catches us." Sanji flashed a weak grin before running off with Chopper, and Nami gave Ussop a brief hug.

"The others'll have a good few hours head start, at least. Let's hurry up and catch them, huh?"

Ussop nodded, sniffing away tears that threatened to drop. Now they were all working together, there's no way they could loose.

As the four rescuers set off towards Alabasta, the two captives arrived to its shores, and towards ever impending doom.

-.-.-

The adventure begins! I had a great time writing the confrontation between Nami Sanji Ussop and Chopper, it was great. And alot more emotion on Zoro's part in this chapter. He's so passive most of the time, the only way to explain it really is through discriptions, rather than conversations or anthing. But I hope I showed the hoplessness I imagined he'd be feeling right now.

Next Chapter: The crew race towards their rescue! The captives reach Alabasta! What will happen?

Thanks for reading! - Pamplemoose