Disclaimer: Shiningheart of ThunderClan doesn't own One Piece. Have I said it enough times yet for people to get it through their thick heads-

Me: -thwacks Disclaimer over the head- Hush! Don't insult the readers, Disclaimer! You'll offend them!

Disclaimer: -rubs back of head- Yeah, that's kind of the point of insults, Shiny. But fine. On to the story, as I'm sure everyone's just oh-so-eager to see what happened to Nadeen and Law.

Me: But before that!

Disclaimer: -thwacks Shiny back- Stop stalling and get on with it. They've squirmed enough! I'm sure if they cared about how you have 186 reviews and only twelve chapters in, they'd mention it!

Me: But it's actually relevant! Someone said in a review that chloroform doesn't actually work that way, only in movies. So I feel the need to say that I'm practically BSing whatever sciency bullshnit I put in here, so don't get too offended if I get something wrong.

Chapter 13: Kidnappers

The trio of Heart Pirates wasted no time running through town, back to Doc's Dock, and to their submarine. They passed two family members of the shipyard workers, but none of them stopped to answer their questions. "Gather everyone on deck. Now. I want to take roll call."

Bepo and Sam ran inside, the human still looking a little shaken. Law figured he had a right to. Seeing what they did had to drag up some very bad memories. He paced back and forth across the deck, needing to be active before did something insanely stupid. Slowly, his crew filtered onto the deck, worried and tense. Law didn't know if Bepo and/or Sam had told them anything or if they were just reacting to his obvious anxiety. He mumbled off names as he spotted each crewmember. "Penguin, Shachi, Derek, Jake, Cyrus, Orlando, Merrik, Coryn, Kelvin, Kris... I assume Bepo and Sam are still down below. Kain, Aaron, Eric, Fredrick, Xavier, Victor..."

Coryn, unsurprisingly, lost his patience first. "You gonna tell us what this is all about, Captain? Or did you call us up here just to see our pretty faces?" The sarcasm wasn't appreciated, and Law made sure Coryn knew it with a particularly angry glare. Coryn wasn't afraid of his captain like the rest of the crew was, but even he knew better than to cross him when he was like this. "Captain?"

Law took a deep breath and released it slowly. "I'll explain when Bepo and Sam come back up." It didn't take long for the first mate and cabin boy to appear. Both held slightly panicked looks on their faces, and Law resisted the urge to curse up a storm. Someone was missing. "Who?"

Since Sam seemed to be having a mild panic attack, it was Bepo who answered. "Nadeen's missing. We looked in the infirmary, her room, the galley, and even your room. Those are the only places her scent leads. She's not anywhere on the sub."

The captain didn't quite manage to stop himself from cursing. He'd known something had happened, he'd fucking known, he'd felt it in his gut that something was wrong. At the time, he thought it was just his instincts warning him about what he'd been about to see. This was it instead. "Was there any sign of a struggle? Did you smell anyone unfamiliar? Anyone that didn't belong?" Bepo hesitated, and that was enough of an answer for Law. "Answer the questions, Bepo."

The first mate did slowly, like he was puzzling out his words. "There wasn't any struggling, but... There was chloroform in the infirmary. Lots of it. It covered up whatever else my nose might have been able to pick out." The concern and worry in those beady black eyes made Law's stomach tighten. "Captain, that much chloroform..."

Bepo trailed off, but Law knew exactly what he wanted to say. "Fuck. If they used too much and don't bother trying to keep her alive, she'll die of either a heart attack or poisoning." He cursed a bit more, acutely aware of his crew's shock. "Get Mister Doc and, if possible, the other two. But Mister Doc is our first priority." He gripped the hilt of his nodachi until his knuckles went white. "He has some questions to answer." Everyone but Sam shuffled off of the sub, separating themselves into teams of three. By the look in the boy's eyes, Law knew he hadn't heard the order. He clapped a hand on the youth's shoulder, and Sam's eyes snapped to his in a mixture of terror and self-loathing. All Law said was, "I'll protect you. I promised, didn't I?"

Sam took multiple deep breaths, trying to calm himself. "I know. I trust you, Captain. It's just that..." His eyes reflected his hesitation to give voice to his thoughts. "What if they're here for me and Nadeen was just in the way? What if they're trying to take me back, and they just took whoever they found first to use as leverage?" Law's jaw tightened. Neither thought had occurred to him before, and his reaction to his crewmate's worries showed it. "If it comes down to it... Am I worth Nadeen's life?"

Law's answer was immediate and absolute. "Yes, you are. There's something you need to remember, Sam: you're nakama. She isn't. Miss Nadeen has been onboard the sub for less than three days. As much as we've bonded with her, I would choose you over her any day. Nothing will change that." Of course, that didn't stop him from being furious and wanting revenge. These bastards, whoever they were, thought they could just sneak on his ship, steal his patient, right under his nose, and get away with it without a scratch? Ha, yeah, fuck no. He'd tear off their limbs and feed them to Chelydrus.

Vicious swearing made both of the Heart Pirates look over the railing. Cyrus, of all people, had Mitchell thrown over his shoulder with his hands tied behind his back. It was Mitchel that was cursing like a pirate. "Let me the fuck go, ya' fuckin' bastard! I didn't do nothin'! What the fuck could your bloody captain want that means you have to tie me the hell up!" Cyrus didn't respond and bodily threw Mitchel onto the deck, about three feet to the left of Law. "Ow! Son of a fucking bitch, that hurt!"

Law narrowed his eyes at the man and said icily, "I'm fairly certain it was supposed to, Mister Mitchel." Mitchel snapped his head over to where the captain stood, and Law was close enough to see the redness in his cheeks and smell the alcohol on his breath. "Are you drunk, Mister Mitchel?"

Mitchell instantly looked away and growled. "I have a fucking right to be. I'm losing my birthright just because I like to have a little fun! So what if I missed out on a meeting or two because I was out with friends? It always turned out alright! I got more business than Michael ever did because I connect with people while he just cares about the ships! You know he fucking talks to them? I don't mean, like, just rambling to them like you might to yourself late at night to keep the spooks away. I mean he holds fucking conversations with them! What kind of crazy shit is that, huh?!"

Well, at least now Law knew he was the rambly kind of drunk. Really, what made him think Law cared anything about his petty problems? But at least the rant served to distract both him and Sam from their thoughts. That brief respite ended when another angry cry drew their attention. Doc had just climbed the ladder and caught sight of his son tied up. "What is the meaning of this, Captain Law? Why is my boy tied up?"

It occurred to the pirate captain that he wasn't really sure, and he looked at Cyrus for an answer. The crossdresser shrugged innocently. "He took a swing at me when I said he needed to come back here. Apparently, he doesn't want to see you right now." The last part was aimed at Doc, who stooped down to untie Mitchel's arms. "Careful, he might bite you."

Mitchel didn't bite, but he did squirm away. "No, leave me alone! I don' wanna be anywhere near you! You're a' arse-turd!" Law bit the inside of his cheek to keep from snickering. An arse-turd? Why not call him a piece of shit and get it over with? He could only imagine what Nadeen would have thought of the insult, though. She'd probably hide behind him so no one saw her laughing. Maybe. Possibly. He didn't think he knew her well enough to accurately guess what she'd do, but he knew for certain it would be something along those lines.

He'd tell her about it when she came back. Make no mistake, he would rescue her. Not through any sense of attachment, but merely because he needed to put his pride back together. "I'll explain when my crewmates come back with Mister Michael. In the meantime, make yourselves comfortable." Doc scowled at him for the sheer mockery in the statement. Law met his eyes with a cool glare of his own, silently commanding him to do as he said.

The older gentleman wasn't a part of his crew, but Trafalgar Law was not a man to disobey. Doc dropped his gaze to the ground and grumbled incoherently, but settled onto the ground to wait anyway. The group waited in tense, uncomfortable silence. One by one, the Heart Pirates returned without the third dock worker. Shachi and Penguin were the last to come back, and they were both disgruntled and annoyed. Penguin was the first to speak. "We looked all over the place and even asked outside if anyone had seen Michael. The guy's disappeared."

Law immediately transferred a furious look to Doc, who growled at it. "What's that look for? You're the pirates here! If anyone should be suspicious, it's me!" He rose to a half-crouch, looking ready to throw a punch at the closest pirate to him. "What have you done to Michael, you bastards?!"

The tip of Law's nodachi immediately pressed against his throat, making Doc take a half-step back. "It seems that you've misread the situation, Mister Doc. I'll be asking the questions, not you." Doc lifted his lip in a silent snarl, not relenting but not submitting either. Law felt an unwanted bit of respect for the old man. "Not even an hour ago, I took two members of my crew to investigate the southern beach. The very place you told us you'd found scraps of your wife's submarine."

The faintest bit of confusion entered Doc's expression. "Investigate? Why? What could possibly have prompted you to visit that place?"

Law shrugged, placing one hand inside his pocket and resting the blunt edge of his weapon against his shoulder. "Let's call it morbid curiosity." He allowed the merest fraction of annoyance to slither into his tone. "Now shut up and let me finish." When he was satisfied that no one would interrupt, he continued. "We found a hill overlooking the beach, a vantage point to see but not be seen. Instincts are the only reason we don't have a more severe crisis on our hands."

Mitchell perked up with narrowed eyes. Honestly, he'd been so quiet that Law had thought he'd passed out by now. Even drunk, he seemed to catch something within the captain's words. He looked around the deck, eyes darting around, before looking Law straight in the eyes. The redness that had been in his cheeks evaporated in a surprisingly quick amount of time. "Where's Nadeen?"

Doc followed his son's train of thought. "What does Nadeen have to do with why we're tied up? What could you have possibly seen that would make you treat us like prisoners?"

A cold smile came to Law's features then. He chuckled, both in amusement and to hopefully unnerve Doc into telling the truth. "An interesting choice of words, Mister Doc. Tell me something." He leaned forward to make sure he got his next point across vividly. "Would you like to explain to me why there is a slave trader camp down there?"

-Nadeen's POV-

The first thing she noted when she came to was the pain in her head. It felt like an elephant had been tap-dancing on her skull, taking extra care to mash the temples. She groaned, but even that seemed to echo in her brain. Wait... She did it again, just to check. It wasn't in her brain, it was actually echoing.

She blinked open her eyes, but it didn't make a difference. At first, she thought she was blind, or something was covering her eyes, but that wasn't it either. Wherever she was, it was just completely dark. It was at times like these where Nadeen felt slightly claustrophobic, but not enough to cause a panic attack. Her arms and legs weren't bound, so she carefully stood up, cursing softly at the pulse of pain, and raised her arms to see if she could touch the ceiling. Regularly she couldn't, but standing on her tiptoes let the pads of her fingers just brush the top.

So a pitch black underground... something. Cave, room, cage? Not the marines then. As much as she wouldn't put it past the bastards to bury a pirate alive, they'd at least put her in something first. Like a coffin, or a metal box. Bounty hunters, then? Nadeen carefully edged forward closing her eyes to better let her senses spread. There were wooden beams holding the ceiling up, probably to keep the room from collapsing on itself. So whatever was usually kept here held some merit, otherwise they wouldn't bother.

The space was bigger than she'd first thought. It seemed to be circular, and she kept tripping over rocks and her own feet. To her surprise, there were bars on a remote section of the wall. So it was a prison of some sort. Not even stretching with her full arm let her touch the other side, but exploring to either side said wherever it led was a straight shot.

Nadeen learned all she could from touch. Now to listen. Very dimly, she heard the shouts of men. They were angry about something, but she couldn't discern the words. Either there was too much space between them or just too muffled. Either one could work. "Hey, who's out there?!" she yelled. The shouting stopped. "Hello?!"

There was a sound, like stones grinding against stones. Nadeen had to shield her eyes with her arm when a sudden light appeared. Three people walked in, two of them dragging a fourth person between them. The group stopped and Nadeen's eyes adjusted to the light. The walking ones she'd never seen before. The guy being dragged, though, it took her a second to place. When she recognized who he was, she gasped. "Michael! Let him go, you bastards!"

She barely kept from throwing herself at the bars in an attempt to break through. Michael was black and blue all over and had multiple cuts on his face and arms. It was... Well, to be honest, it looked like she probably did when Penguin and Bepo found her in that cell. He looked close to fainting, but managed to give her a soft grin. "Hey, Nadeen. Glad to see you're awake." he croaked out.

A chuckle made her snap her head to the leader of the trio. Nadeen glared at him, wanting nothing more than to end his pitiful life right then and there. She wasn't usually such a violent person, but she felt he certainly deserved it. The man had long blonde hair, long enough to put into a ponytail at the back of his neck. He wasn't exactly the bulkiest of men, but he certainly had muscles. If anything, she could say he had a similar build to Law: slender, but well-muscled. His eyes were an eerie bright green color; the intensity of them made a shiver run down her spine. She couldn't make out his clothes in the lighting, so they were probably on the darker shade.

If they'd met randomly on the street or in a bar, Nadeen probably would have jumped him. As it was, she scowled angrily at him. "So glad my anger amuses you. Really. Warms my heart." The sarcasm would probably either just amuse him more or get her hurt, but she was pissed and she'd let him know it.

Amusement won it. The chuckle morphed into a full-blown laughter that echoed in the room. "Ah, you're as amusing as my scouts made you seem." Oh God, even his voice was sexy. It was deep, almost purr-like sound that came from his chest. This was so unfair! "It's such a shame we'll have to beat that temper out of you before selling you to the auctions at Sabaody."

Nadeen's eyes widened in shock. The only auctions on that cursed place were slave auctions. She'd been taken captive by slave traders. Son of a bitch, was her karma really that bad? After she got out of here, she vowed to be a better person so shit like this stopped freaking happening to her. "Slavers." she growled out like a curse.

The blonde nodded, seeming to be rather pleased she'd made the connection without asking. Nadeen continued when it seemed he had nothing to add. "So that explains me. You guys have a habit of kidnapping pirates and selling them to nobles because they have higher tolerance to pain. But that doesn't explain why he's here or his condition!" She looked at Michael in worry when he coughed.

Blondie barely spared the injured man a glance. "He spotted my minions kidnapping you from Trafalgar Law's submarine." Nadeen let short one snicker and Blondie narrowed his eyes. "I hardly think this is the time to be laughing, woman."

She smiled sarcastically and replied sweetly, "Sorry. I just didn't think anyone actually used the term 'minions' in serious conversation. I've only ever heard it used before as a joke at a subordinate's expense."

There was a short moment where all the slave traders stared at her blankly. Michael was smiling, even though she knew the bruises on his face must have hurt like a bitch. He probably would have been laughing too if he didn't seem to have troubles breathing. Blondie closed his eyes and shook his head, seeming to be finished with the exchange. "Enough. Back away from the bars, now, we're going to move this gentleman inside."

Nadeen growled dangerously, but did as he said. Blondie removed a key from somewhere on his person and unlocked the cell door. She tensed her muscles in case they came anywhere near her, but the two lackeys didn't go much farther than the door. They just dropped Michael on the floor, like he was just a sack or something. As soon as Blondie relocked the cell, Nadeen was by Michael's side checking on him. She didn't know much about doctoring other people; she only knew her ribs were broken because she'd felt the cracks. 'Law would know. He could help.' A tiny voice in her mind spoke. Nadeen promptly reminded it that Law was currently unavailable so it could kindly shut the fuck up. It didn't bother her again.

Blondie motioned with his hand for his lackeys to leave before bowing at the waist mockingly. "My name is Abaddon. I'll be your companion, mentor, owner, and proprietor for the next two weeks until the next shipment. I hope you enjoy your stay." Nadeen took a random rock from nearby and chucked it at his head. Abaddon seemed to have expected this, because he dodged quite easily and laughed again. His laughter echoed even as he left, closing the two prisoners in pure darkness.

More by touch and memory, Nadeen brought Michael over to the far wall to lean against. "What are you doing here Michael? Do you realize what this will seem like once the others discover I'm gone, if they haven't already? You'll be lucky if Law asks questions first before killing you!"

He turned away from her to cough again before answering. "Like Abaddon said. I saw them taking you and tried to follow them. I couldn't just stand by while someone was kidnapping you. They found me and brought me here to teach me a lesson." Nadeen sat next to him, close enough for their arms to press against each other. She was shocked to discover his shaking a little. "Mitchel would have been able to follow them. He would have kicked their butts. And now he hates me because of my father's stupid decision to leave the business to me. I don't even want to have it."

Pity and sympathy caused Nadeen to rest her head against his shoulder. If she could see better, she'd have wrapped him up in a hug. "I know how that feels. More than you'd think, actually. If you want, I can talk to Doc about it. I might be able to get him to change his mind. And if not him, then Mitchell might listen to me. Just please, don't cry. I hate seeing grown men cry."

Michael wheezed a laugh. "Good thing you can't see me right now, then." Nadeen laughed softly and nodded, but stayed pressed comfortingly against him. It took a couple of minutes, but the trembling stopped. "Okay. I'm fine now." Nadeen took her head from his shoulder at the proclamation, glad for it. Her neck was starting to cramp. "So, what's the plan? Are we just going to stay here until Captain Law comes to the rescue?" She hesitated answering, but it was apparently a pause too long. "Nadeen? Captain Law will come for us, right? I mean, he's your captain. He won't let them take you so easily, right?"

She took a slow deep breath until her ribs started to hurt before releasing it just as slowly. "He might come. But he might not as well." Michael made a shocked sound. "First of all, he's not my captain. I only met him a few days ago, in fact, when he raided the marine ship I was held prisoner on. He's not my captain, just my doctor. And I can't be sure he'll risk his crewmates to come get me. If anything, he'll just be pissed that they took me from his submarine while it was occupied. It's an insult to his crew and his ability as captain. And Law doesn't take well to personal insults, so he might just come by himself." She shook her head slowly. "No, we can't depend on him for escape. We need to rely on ourselves."

Words: 3688

Pages: 7

Me: Bam, another chapter down! Now ya'll know what Law found and who kidnapped Nadeen. Is it cliche that it's slavers or not? I certainly hope not. I like to think I have at least some originality. Thanks for reading, now review please!

EDIT: I changed the bad guy's name from Sullivan to Abaddon. I had to keep looking back to remember his name and I just wasn't feeling it. Abaddon should be easier to remember, as it's translated to 'ruin; destruction' in Hebrew.