RILL
Rill leant forward, letting the blood spill out of her mouth and onto her lap. The mess was more tolerable than the risk of swallowing a part of this man. She wasn't sure what the chances of exposure to blood-born disease might be when ingestion played a factor, but spitting out his blood surely made her look a little more menacing and a little less frail. It certainly impressed her whenever her brothers did it after a fight.
She sneaked a glance at Vivi, relieved to see the sand had retreated from the princess as well. "H-how did you—?" Vivi started, but Rill had no answer.
"I do not know," the scientist admitted, frowning as she felt around her mouth with the point of her tongue, searching for impossible seastone fangs, the only weapon she knew that could puncture a logia Devil Fruit user.
"Never thought the hillbilly likes of this damn ocean would have Haki users on it," Crocodile muttered, nursing the bleeding tip of his fingers. She had sunk bone-deep. A regular man would require several stitches, maybe even surgery if his nerves were compromised.
Regular men never earned the title of Warlord, of course.
"Haki?" Rill repeated instead, wrangling her distracted thoughts. She frowned, trying to recall something from memory, confused when no such lesson returned to her. Maybe it was unreasonable to know everything, but it bothered her just the same. This cluelessness.
Crocodile provided no further insight and merely ignored her.
"Your sister's a haki user?" Rill heard Smoker ask.
"Rill hates sports and games," Luffy answered unhelpfully. "She's boring."
"Enough of this," Crocodile snarled. He covered his bleeding hand with a deeply-rich purple handkerchief embroidered in gold—undoubtedly an expensive piece of linen—and grabbed a nearby scotch glass, careful as he tipped the strawberries onto the table. As the desert spider skittered away from its tumbling, ruby-red lookalikes, Crocodile trapped it beneath the glass and scooped it up. He handed it to Vivi.
"I'm losing my damn patience. You can thank your friend here. Eat, princess."
Rill was definitely getting the Bananodile.
"DON'T DO IT, VIVI," Luffy roared from his cage.
Rill tried to help, like keeping his ire focused on her might stop this. "Your rules stipulated that the competition would end after each of us—"
"I made the rules—I'll rescind them as I please." Crocodile leaned forward and gently ran the back of his fingers across Vivi's tear-stained cheek. "Go on, princess. It'll be like falling asleep."
Nami screamed in outrage. "VIVI, DON'T YOU DARE—"
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU," Luffy roared even louder. He threw his body into the bars, like they might dislodge from the force of his rage, but his willowy frame just sunk back toward the marble floor.
Rill glowered at Crocodile. Vivi shook violently beside her as the red spider circled the bottom of the glass, repulsed by the jagged movement of the princess's shaking hand.
"I MEAN IT! You let Vivi and my sister go, right now! C'MON! FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!"
"Some scrawny insect that could barely outrun a marine isn't going to tell me what makes a man. Don't push me, Straw Hat. I could round up a dozen more of these damn things and feed them to every one of your crew, one by one."
"Like hell I'm scared of you," Luffy said. Nothing—not death and especially no man—would rattle her brother.
Crocodile, distracted by his prisoners. Crocodile, taunting Vivi. Rill's eyes swept the room, trying to hatch a plan that could protect her brother, his crewmates, Smoker, and the princess shackled beside her. The vision of Odis's dismembered corpse kept trying to push itself into view. She resisted. Now wasn't the time for grief, for dread. Now was the time to find a way to lift her leg and kick.
"I warned you in the desert to stay dead or I'd finish you off," Crocodile snarled. Luffy was, of course, unmoved by this threat. He furiously banged his head on the bars, slumping to his knees a second time when they only weakened him in response.
"If you weren't such a coward, you could've finished me the first time! LET ME OUTTA HERE!"
Zoro seemed to be the only composed member of the group outside of Smoker. "You're just going to make this worse," the swordsman said. "He's getting off on this. Don't let him see you so riled up."
Luffy ignored this advice. "YOU SCARED? IS THAT IT? YOU KNOW IT'S EASIER TO BULLY A BUNCH OF GIRLS?"
Rill tried to interrupt, turn the Warlord's rage back toward herself.
"I raised him. Settle your ire with me," she volunteered. Crocodile didn't need to know about Grandpa or Dadan. Ace or Sabo. Shanks and Makino. Longer than all of them, Rill was by Luffy's side, until the allure of her academic pursuit stole her away.
"No," Smoker raised his voice, losing his patience with her. "Shut the hell up, girl."
"You're not the boss of me," Rill countered.
"Shut up, or I'm taking you straight back to your school."
Vivi's hands trembled as she brought the bottle toward her. Rill drowned out the commotion around them, watching the young princess try to steady her breathing so her hands might follow suit. She squared her shoulders back and whispered "for Alabarna," like it was an oath that would protect her people.
Rill doubted the merit of Crocodile's word. The smiling creep watched Vivi so gleefully, no shame that an innocent girl was going to die for her people—and save no one in return for her efforts.
The princess wasn't going to survive the poison of a desert strawberry.
Vivi's bottom lip touched the rim of the jar. Crocodile would have a million ways to kill her, but Rill could think of nothing else in her current predicament, no way to help Luffy out of his cage or to save Vivi and her people. They needed time.
She looked down at the ropes, knowing what escape would entail and the sand-bath that might await her if she succeeded. Still, there was no time to dwell on the fear of pain, not when Vivi was trying to stuff down a croak-sounding sob in order to kill herself for Crocodile's pleasure.
Quickly, Rill pulled back on her thumb, snapping the bone in half and with a strong, forceful tug, pulled one arm free from the ropes. She slammed her fist into the glass, nearly knocking it back into Vivi's face as the glass went flying and cracked into the beautiful, marble floor. The desert strawberry disappeared from Rill's vision as Crocodile swerved his hook behind her throat and pulled her across the table.
"I've had enough of you," he snarled in her face.
She braced herself, expecting a punch, maybe even spit in the eye—he seemed the type for degrading punishment. But the hit greeted the side of her head, propelling her across the room and into the seastone cage that enclosed her brother, his crew, and her ex-lover.
When Rill came to a few minutes later, she discovered she was slumped against the cage still, the mangled debris of the chair uncomfortably piled beneath her. Someone must have propped her upright—likely Nami or Zoro when neither Luffy or Smoker could safely reach through the slots.
Luffy and Crocodile were roaring at each other again. Rill suspected she was a prime candidate for a concussion as she leaned over to puke out what little acid still clung to the walls of her stomach.
"Rill," Smoker said behind her, his voice soft. Concerned even. She closed her eyes, hating how good it felt to hear him worry over her. "Don't say another damn word to that lunatic."
"Can't," she sighed.
She felt something coarse brush against the back of her neck, seconds too late to realize it was his gloved hand. "Do you see what I see?" His words were so soft, like footsteps down a carpeted hallway. Not an inkling of fear or worry or even panic.
Rill frowned, tilting her head back to give him a look, only to discover his gaze fixated on the corner of the cage where the metal was dented inward, allowing a narrow opening just large enough for her arm to fit through, if she felt inclined to try.
"Not another word," Smoker warned, even softer this time.
This was it, she realized. This was his opportunity to come out and deal with the menace far too powerful for a scientist or a princess.
But Crocodile didn't seem patient enough to wait for his arrival. One of his minions anxiously crawled along the floor, searching the area impacted by the broken glass. It bugged her how determined Crocodile seemed to watch the princess die by poison. Like a death so terrible and degrading would be the cherry on top of his master plan.
She tried to give Smoker time. She even tried to mirror Nami's gaping expression, wanting to look startled and not privately tracking Smoker's progress. It would take the captain minutes to maneuver through the opening, but if she could distract Crocodile long enough and give him that time… surely they would have a better chance?
The minion found the desert strawberry, crawling up one of the table legs. He carefully supplanted it into a new scotch glass, nearly dropping it on the table in his haste to get it out of his hands. She snorted when he added a strawberry in, like anyone in this room could still be confused at this point.
"I'll eat it," Rill called out to Crocodile, trying to stall as long as she could. "So let Vivi go."
"Rill—"
Rill ignored Smoker's furious warning. He needed to shut up, keep himself invisible.
"We both know she's not going to get through the seastone," Rill said. She forced herself to her feet, ignoring the pulsating tremour of her broken hand. Every muscle in her back felt bruised and she couldn't see straight, even when she squinted toward the table. Neither Crocodile nor his minions intervened as she wobbled back to the table to stand next to Vivi.
"What are you doing?" Vivi whispered. "Rill, don't do this. It's me he wants to kill—"
"It's both of us, Vivi," Rill whispered back. "He's going to kill everyone in this room. Trust me… if anyone's going to eat poison…" She let her thoughts trail off, lest Crocodile overhear her. There was no guarantee she wouldn't choke to death on her foaming vomit, anyway. It's that Vivi couldn't withstand the bite of a bananodile, but the only person who had a hope of surviving a venomous creature was the woman who was repeatedly poisoned by one for months.
"Crocodile," an unfamiliar voice called softly from a doorway. Rill's head instinctively snapped toward it. The woman standing there was beautiful. Leggy, raven-haired, unfazed by the commotion in this room. She smiled, like she was peeking in on a luncheon meeting.
An envious pang pushed against Rill's throat. She looked strong, too.
"You've taken too long. We need to go."
Crocodile nodded at the woman, then turned his greasy stare on Rill and Vivi.
Rill reached for the glass, her hand gently covering the top with her palm.
"You cannot do this for me. Take the strawberry. Take it," Vivi begs.
Rill ignored her.
Smoker was slowly billowing through the top of the cage, but it would be a few more minutes before he made it out, enough to deal with Crocodile and by then, Vivi would be dead.
Crocodile ignored her, probably tired of how she wouldn't stop trying to dictate his own game. It pleased her in a way—to finally annoy someone who deserved her ire. Not Smoker, not a professor—well, when they liked her prior to this internship. Or maybe all this time, everyone in her life was plotting ways to poison her, to put an end to the abrasive, off-putting disposition they so often complained about. She was made of the same atoms and tissue and organs as everyone else, with an added condition that made her disarming to so many. Something that kept her disconnected from the rest of the world. Stranded on the outside, always looking in.
It's like the charisma gene had ceased to exist when she was born, like it knew in just a few short years, Luffy would follow and need the entire supply from their parents. It wasn't that people didn't like her—people assumed the worst in her.
"I'm sorry, Luffy," Rill said. She couldn't help her smile as she looked at her brother, perhaps for the last time. His big round head, usually swallowed by his all-teeth smile. She wished she could see it now. "I'm so proud of you. You really are the most special person I've ever known."
She stared at the straw-hat gifted to him nearly a decade ago, a golden sun crowned over his unwashed, sharp black hair, the same hair they shared from their father, their grandfather. We are made of the same bones, spliced apart, she thought.
She and Luffy never understood the conventions of what it meant to be person-like, but Luffy had succeeded in finding a space to belong. Her eyes moved to Smoker.
"This is the desert strawberry," Rill said, as she carefully lifted the spider's sack between her thumb and index finger. She held it under the candelabra's glow, until it slowly unfurled its eight, red-vined legs.
Crocodile watched, unimpressed.
"I am extremely competitive," Rill said, non plussed. Her eyes darted back to the cage, but it killed her to see Luffy yelling at her to wait, to hold on a little longer. She looked to Smoker instead; his mouth free of cigars, his lips mouthing at her not to do this. He looked like a ghostly apparition of himself, half of him already gone, a smoky haze somewhere in the corner of the room.
"Rill," he said louder, when she turned away from him.
I'm so sorry for being difficult, she wanted to tell him.
I'm sorry for crossing boundaries as if they existed for everyone but me.
And I'm sorry if this does kill me.
"Your word was to release the victor, right?"
Luffy roared over Crocodile's reluctant agreement. "NEITHER OF YOU NEED TO EAT IT! STOP IT, RILL! LET ME OUT, CROCODILE. JUST FIGHT ME HEAD ON!"
"Enough," Crocodile said, his mind made up. "Fine. You can eat it." He leant back in his chair, looking triumphant. "But if you spit it out—if you drop it—I'm going to snap your neck."
Smoker would be free of the cage, and a menace far more deserving to a tyrant than two, undeviled women.
She smiled at the squirming spider, pitying that its last moments would be pulling her into death, doomed to rot in the prison of her stomach. It wouldn't even digest by the time the venom worked its course through her bloodstream.
"Cheers." Rill smiled at Crocodile, gesturing toward him with the spider before raising it to her lips. She tilted her head back as if she were taking a shot and dropped the spider into her open mouth.
Author's note: Was that a stupid hockey pun? Absolutely.
There was so much dialogue in this chapter. I tried to organize it with lots of tags, but if anything is unclear, please let me know!
For my readers of ffnet, I will stop updating on this site going forward. I prefer the ease of formatting on AO3, and truthfully, I'm not sure how much longer this site is going to stick around. I use the same username over on ao3. You can also search by the fic title. I hope you all understand.