Chapter 5: Survival

It was dark in the cell. That was how the guards wanted you to know this was the time they allowed you to sleep. It was like this for 5 hours or so every day, just enough to keep us alive. I moved in my chains to see if there was any way I could get more comfortable, as always there wasn't. I turned to look at my cell mate, Baloo. He was lying on his back fast asleep, snoring loudly. He'd broken every chain that the guards had placed on him, not on purpose but because he was big enough to rip the chains out of the wall by raising his arms. They decided that since the Kairoseki cage was enough to keep him from breaking free that he could forgo the shackles and chains. It brought a small smile to my face remembering how he'd wake up for morning attendance only to knock a guard or two out by the shackles giving out. I looked out of the cell, trying to see if there were any guards around; I couldn't see any but decided to just imagine they were there. A couple days ago most of the men in the prison had taken the submarines and went on some kind of mission. Baloo had tried to get the attention of a number of the guard to see what was happening but ended up getting shocked by their batons for disobedience. It was soon that the lights went on. I could hear the other inmates getting up, readying themselves for the guards. Baloo kept sleeping completely oblivious to the fact that he'd be prodded again with the guards' batons. Fortunately most of the guards had left on the mission so it gave me a little time to wake up Baloo. "Baloo, hey Baloo! Come on wake up!" Baloo simply snorted and flipped to his side muttering, "Just a few more minutes mommy then I'll eat my porridge," I just shook my head when a guard finally appeared and forced his baton on Baloo's side. Baloo sat up with a jolt muttering, "What? I'm up, I'm up." He turned to face the guard and gave him his usual care free smile. "Hey there Johnny, what's for breakfast today huh?" The soldier replied by zapping Baloo again with the baton. As he walked away Baloo just shook his head and said. "It's a shame, you try to be polite to people and they zap you with a stick." I chuckled and said, "What does it hurt all of a sudden?" Baloo simply looked at me and said, "Are you kidding me? Please, it's like there hitting me with a vibrator in the side. It's an insult to my size." It was true, Baloo was one of the biggest prisoners under lock down. He was easily 8 feet tall and nearly weighed 500 pounds, even though he wasn't able to use his devils power, he still looked like a bear. Baloo had eaten the Kuma Kuma fruit, a zoan type fruit that allowed him to turn into a bear. It was fitting seeing how he could easily eat as much as a bear, slept most of the day away and was nearly as big as one without transforming. "Well they could always just kill you, give me my own room for a while." Baloo just tskkd and said, "That's cold Ken, even for you." The cell door was then opened by a different guard then the one that had shocked Baloo. They went to Baloo and me to put on a pair of Kairoseki wristbands that would prevent us from using our powers outside the cage. They led us to what they called the "exercise room", but we knew that it was really an arena to watch the prisoners fight. We followed them but they didn't take us to the arena itself. "Guess we won't be fighting today huh Ken?" Baloo said non chalantly. "That's odd in its self, isn't it?" I asked followed by Baloo's nodding. We were lead to the bleacher seats where we were forced to sit down; they put shackles on our legs and arms, over the bands they gave us, to prevent us from trying to escape. We were still able to move but not get up out of our seats. "What do ya thinks going on?" Baloo asked. I only shook my head as I strained to see the "arena". The man in charge of keeping control in the cells, Varric, stood in the center of the arena.

"Prisoners!" He shouted for all of us to hear, "Today we have received some fresh meat for you today. NEW INMATES!" At the sound a few guards brought out three women, all very attractive, and a dangerous looking man. They were all wearing handcuffs, but only two of them were sea stone enhanced. "The big man upstairs wanted me to tell you all that these "guests" of ours are to receive a friendly welcome here at Grigor's!" This brought up a lot of angry noises from the other inmates. I couldn't help but stare at one of the women on the arena, something told me that she was familiar but I couldn't place my finger on it. She was wearing a tight black dress that hugged her body and curves, almost as if she demanded everyone look at her. "Baloo, doesn't that woman look familiar to you?" Baloo stretched his neck to get a look at the woman and then he shot out of his chair (breaking the shackles on his arms) and said "Holy smokes that's Boa Hancock!" As he was getting batoned in the side for breaking out of his shackles the other prisoners heard Baloo and recognized that he was right.

"Hey it is Boa Hancock!"

"What the Schichibaki?"

"What's she doing here?"

"Oh I'd love to get my hands on one of those women!"

As the prisoners were all hooting and calling out to the women I turned to Baloo. "What could they want with a Schichibaki? Surely the government wouldn't allow HER kidnapping."

"They must of found someone else to take the fall," Baloo reasoned as he was being re shackled to his seat. Varric then got the attention of the inmates. "These prisoners," He said gesturing to Boa Hancock and the other brunette, "Are not to be harmed in any way, due to orders from Edward Blanch and the Master." He then gestured to the man and red haired woman, "These two will be placed in the testing room, you MAY harm them." The sound of the inmates yelling at the woman disturbed me, and I could tell that the young woman wasn't any more excited than I was. The man kept a cool composure but there was no way he wasn't somewhat afraid. They ended the assembly at the exercise room and sent us back to our cells. We made it to our cell, where I was being re chained to the wall while another guard brought in one of the woman from earlier. "This woman will be staying with you for now, she's in Edward Blanch's custody so keep the bruising to a minimum." The guard threw her in still handcuffed behind her back when he shut the cell door and left. It was the other brunette from earlier. She looked at Baloo and me with a cold composure but I could see a hint of fear in her eyes. Baloo stood up and smiled at the woman. "Weeeell Lookie what we got he-"

"Keep away from me," the woman said in response to Baloo approaching her. He put up his hands defensively and said, "Now hold on their princess I was only going to remove your handcuffs." Baloo took another step forward which responded to the woman retreating a few steps backwards. Sighing Baloo threw up his hands in defeat and said "Fine, have it your way." He then went to his corner of the room and sat down. The woman looked at us for a moment and then out of the cell again. I could tell she wanted the cuffs off but didn't trust Baloo enough to get close to her.

"Miss," I said carefully, "Would you mind telling us how you were captured?" The woman eyed me for a few moments before nodding and saying, "I was kidnapped by those, guards of yours. We were on an island owned by the Schichibaki Boa Hancock when they attacked." She looked down to the floor with a sad look on her face. "I'm worried that the rest of my friends didn't survive, the others here are part of my crew, excluding Hancock." She looked back up at me and asked, "Why would they capture us?" Baloo just shrugged and said, "Well there either going to experiment on your devil power or try to copy it so other people can use it." She stiffened and stared at Baloo. "How did you know I was a devil fruit user?"

"This is the zoan ward," I answered for Baloo. "Everyone on this floor is a zoan."

"Yup we're the highest occupancy of devil users here," Baloo said. "Then they got a few Parmecia, and over a hundred people with no powers to experiment on." Robin turned her head in shock, "Experiment on? What do you mean?" Baloo and I just looked away not wanting to tell the woman what goes on here. "It's probably better if you don't know; it's not pleasant to say in the least." She didn't say anything but she nodded obvious that she wanted to know what was happening. She then turned to Baloo and asked, "Could you get these off me?" referring to the handcuffs behind her back. Baloo reached for her and turned her around, he then grabbed both of her arms and pulled them away from each other, breaking the cuffs like cheap plastic. As she rubbed her wrists I reached out my arm to her until the chains stopped me, "I'm Gamaken, Ken for short. And you've met Baloo already." She reached out and took my hand and said, "Pleased to meet you, I'm Nico Robin." Baloo frowned and thought for a minute. "Wait a minute, Nico Robin… You're not that little girl from Ohara are you? Worth 79 million berries?" Robin just smiled politely and said, "Yes that's me, only now I'm worth 80 million berries." Baloo chuckled and said, "Well that's not bad for a little girl like yourself." Robin looked up at Baloo with an accusing chuckle, "Not bad… little girl? I suppose you have a bounty to then?"

"You better believe it sister, and so does Ken over there," he reached into his vest (Know that he isn't wearing a shirt under it) and pulls out two worn and tattered wanted posters. He hands them to her. She takes the posters and looks at them in shock. On the posters were two men in zoan form, one was Baloo as a giant bear with a marine in each… Well paw, with Baloo's Name on the bottom followed by the bounty 338 million berries. The other one was of Ken in a human toad hybrid wielding two katana, the name Gamaken on the bottom followed by his bounty of 480 million berries. Robin looked up from the posters and asked, "What could you two possibly have done to get bounties this high?"

"We didn't take any shit from those other guys that's how," Baloo said proudly.

"Other guys? Robin asked seeming confused. I simply sighed and responded saying, "Well there was the World Government, That "misunderstanding" with the Celestial Dragons, the Marines, we gave Admiral Sakazuki a run for his money a few times didn't we?"

"That guy rubs me the wrong way," Baloo declared sitting down with a thud that shook the cell. "Always killing everyone that he can't control or manipulate." Ken agreed with him and continued the list of who they'd defied. "We had to run from CP9 for a few years because Baloo threw two of their members out of a bar (Baloo: How was I supposed to know they were with the government, besides that Kalifa broad was into me.) and then there was our final battle back home." Robin turned to face Ken and sat down crossing her legs. "What happened?" she asked. I just sighed and said. "To make a long story short Baloo, my brother and a small group of fighters defended are home from Greigor's men, that's the name of this prison." I said at seeing Robins confused look. "They had disguised themselves as Marines and attacked our home nonstop in hopes to find a natural deposit of Kairoseki in the mountains. They used our bounties as a means to capture us, claiming if we left with them they'd leave our island.

"A load of shit if I ever heard one," Baloo snarled. Robin turned with another confused look on her face and asked, "What about your brother? I thought you said he surrendered himself to?" I looked away not wanting to explain about my brother. Baloo took the hint and said, "Ken's brother is in a more secured area, he'd destroy the entire prison without knowing what was going on," Robin nodded and took a closer look at the bounty posters, they were each dated 30 years ago. "How long have you two been in confinement here?" She asked. Baloo just shrugged, I looked at Robin and said, "A very long time, we lost count after 3 years." Robin continued to stare at the posters and then looked up at us again. "How old are you two?" she asked. I looked at Baloo who was counting on his fingers, "Well Ken is 10 years older than me, and I think I'm about 55. That sound good to you ken?

"I'm pretty sure I'm 60 Baloo,"

"Ahh whats it matter? We can't never leave this place." Baloo sighed picking at his back. "Isn't there some way to escape?" Robin asked I shook my head and answered, "You just got here but trust us, escape is impossible. All you can hope for now is to survive without any of the higher ups getting interested in you, that'll make your life miserable quick, trust us." Robin looked away at the last comment and said, "I'm afraid Edward Blanch already has an interest in me.'

"Why are you a mystical zoan? Or an ancient one?" Baloo asked Robin shook her head and said, "I'm not a zoan, I ate the Hana Hana fruit. It's a paramecia fruit."

"Why would you be here then?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear an answer. Robin didn't answer and just turned away more. Baloo seemed to get it a lot sooner than I did because he got mad instantly. "Why that no nose chump, what makes him think he can just kidnap pretty ladies and turn em into his slaves? I'll murder him! I'll tear him apart!" He continued ranting for a few moments. Robin just shook her head and said, "I'm not worried about myself it's my friends and Nakama I'm worried about, what'll happen to them?"

"Well Boa Hancock will be in a high security location until there ready to experiment on her. The other two being non devil users will be in the prison zone for the non-devil users and I don't think your pretty friend will last long here."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked

"Look princess," Baloo started, "There aren't a lot of women here in Grighor's and the ones that are aren't too good looking. A couple of pretty things like you two? Well let's just say you're lucky Ken and I was married." Robin looked out of the cell in fear, wondering how Hancock and the others were doing in this hell hole.

Nami and Zoro

After being separated from Hancock and Robin the guards took Nami and Zoro to a separate floor all together. There were a lot of people around, mostly either sickly looking people or strong looking people. As they moved Nami worried that there weren't many women here, and none as pretty as she was. She just hoped that the men wouldn't get any ideas around her. The men had taken her Clima-tact and Zorro's Katanas and were leading them to their cells. The minute Zorro had woken from the drug he attacked everyone within the submarine they were put in, they were forced to give him more of the drug that knocked him out on the island. He had gotten over the original overdose of the drugs but he was still groggy and unable to focus long enough to attack any one. This put Nami under instant suspicion and worry, Zorro easily drank enough sake every day to cause an army to pass out, what had they put in the drug that could knock him out? As she pondered on what could have drugged Zorro they finally reached a cell with a number of other men in it. The guards unlocked the door and brought them inside of the cell, being sure to shackle Zorro to the wall. Nami watched as the men left after chaining Zorro to the wall, not caring why they hadn't chained her. She began to shake Zorro trying to get him to regain consciousness.

"Oi Zorro! Come on you have to wake up!" She kept shaking him but to little avail. So she shook him more violently and with acid in her voice. " OI BAKA WAKE UP WEVE BEEN CAPTURED!" Zorro began to stir but showed no signs of waking up. She continued to shake him when she heard some noises from the other end of the cell, she turned to the noises and saw a group of dirty matted men leering at her. She did her best to ignore them and continued on her efforts to awaken Zorro. After a few minutes however she felt a pressing sensation on the small of her back. Without even looking she brought her fist down on the head of the man touching her. She turned and yelled with an angry snarl, "BAKA WHERE DO YOU GET OFF TOUCHING ME?!"She then suddenly noticed a group of men from the cell advancing towards her, even the man she hit was getting back up. They all had a look of desire on their faces and were approaching her. Nami knew what they were thinking and knew if they got to her she'd be in trouble, the only chance she had was to wake Zorro up to protect her. Just as the men were about to grab her Nami yelled out, "Hey you thugs, let go of Zorro's katana!" At the sound of katanas' being taken Zorro's good eye shot open and sent a flurry of kicks towards the on comers. The men were all sent flying to the other side of the cell while Zorro looked around confused.

"Hey Nami, where are we?"

"BAKA DON'T YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING!"

"BITCH I WAS PASSED OUT! AND WHY AM I CUFFED TO A WALL?" Zorro made to break out of the chains that confined him but was only able to free one hand, the drugs still left him far from full power and he was unable to completely free himself. He slumped to the ground with his one arm stuck over his head with Nami hovering above him pacing back and forth. "We have to think of a plan to get out of here Zorro what are we going to do?" Zorro didn't answer he simply looked around and got a look at the surrounding area. "I don't know if that's a good idea, our best bet may be to wait for Luffy and the others to save us."

"How do you even know they'll be able to find us? Let alone be able to get to us?" Zorro turned his good eye to look at Nami and gave her a confident smile. " Luffy was on a date with Hancock before the war on her island took place, when she was captured and he was contained in stone I could feel his anger seething from him. He'll be here, trust me." Nami just nodded, relieved by Zorro's confidence in Luffy when her brain added something he said together. "Wait a minute, LUFFY AND HANCOCK WERE ON A DATE?!" Zorro just nodded and closed his eye, a sign that he wouldn't speak about it any further. Nami just sighed and slumped down next to Zorro. "So what are we going to do until Luffy saves us?" Zorro thought for a few minutes and gave her a simple answer. "We survive."

Hancock

As soon as Varric's speech was over Hancock had been taken away from Robin and the others and led to an upper level of the prison. As she was being taken she tried to get a look at her surroundings. There were a number of cells on this floor with men in every one, aside from each of the men leering at her there was little difference from anything around her. The cells were all kairoseki made and the halls all looked the same, the only thing that caught her eye was a heavily guarded and locked vault that said Confiscated Weaponry. She laughed silently to herself and thought that it'd be easier to escape then she thought. She tried to adjust her wrists but they were too tightly trapped by the cuffs that were put onto her. She was finally led to an elevator, two of the guards that were with her stepped to the door and inserted two keys. The elevator door then opened and Hancock was forced into the elevator before she could voice any kind of protests the guards removed her handcuffs just as the door was shutting. By the time the cuffs were off the elevator door had shut and Hancock was the only one in the elevator. It went up and all Hancock could do was wonder where she was going. Suddenly and abruptly the elevator stopped the doors opening behind Hancock. As she turned her mouth dropped in amazement and shock, as she walked out she saw that the entire area was surrounded by water! She looked around and corrected herself, the prison was underwater! It was, from what she could tell. Not attached to the ground or any structures and many times deeper than Impel Down was located under water. As she stepped out of the elevator she couldn't guessed what kind of glass was surrounding the area of the prison she was in but all she could so was stare at the ocean surrounding her. She saw endless miles of the ocean in all directions with the sights of creatures of the deep in the cracks of the earth. She was mesmerized by the beauty of the ocean when a raspy, almost metallic sounding voice came from behind her. "A beautiful sight is it not?" Hancock jumped in surprise and turned to face the voice. It was a man, easily 6 foot 5, bald, wore a vest with no shirt under it but unlike Baloo he was very muscular all around his body. He had on a pair of pants that tightly hugged his legs and a mask that covered his mouth and nose. Hancock stared at the man in a defensive fighting stance but he made no move to attack Hancock. He simply walked past her to get closer to the glass. "No matter how many times I look at the ocean like this, I am simply awed by its beauty." He turned his head to look back at Hancock, "As a devil user, you cannot even swim can you?"

"Who are you?" Hancock demanded ignoring the mas remark about the ocean. The man simply laughed (which was quite disturbing from the mask) and turned so he could face Hancock completely. "Haven't you guessed by now?" He asked. "I am the one who ordered the raid on your island to have you captured, though I must say; capturing half of the Straw Hat crew makes for a good day as well." Hancock hearing what she wanted to hear rushed at the man and made to kick him in the side of the head, but just as her kick made contact she was forced into the wall behind her, fortunately the glass did not break. The man approached her with a blank expression in his eyes. "You have spirit Boa Hancock, I will enjoy breaking it." Hancock stood up again and leapt at the man, instead of hitting him directly she went to sweep his legs from under him. But again as soon as she made contact she was thrown in the opposite direction again. The man just slowly walked towards her and said, "Believe me Ms Hancock, the less you struggle the better, it will be less painful for you." Ignoring the man's words Hancock threw a punch imbued with Busoshoku Haki. As the fist neared the man grabbed it in his hand, Hancock screamed from the force being sent into her fist, forcing her to the ground in pain. She realized that the man was also using Busoshoku Haki to counter all of her physical attacks. She freed herself from his grip and put her hands in a heart shaped form and yelled "Merro Merro beam!" The beam hit him straight in the chest but failed to turn him to stone. Realizing there was little she could do she crept backwards trying to get away from the man immune to her strength and her powers.

"What are you?" Hancock asked fear edging into her voice. The man reached to grab a hold of Hancock as he said,

"I'm the man in charge."