I'm baaack! For all you poor bastards who read this crap, I may be going to hell for writing this but I'm taking you all with me! Hope you enjoy.

MossyDrake.

My beta thought it would be a bright idea to add in a conversation between us before the new chapter like I'm a common little pet who rips her precious carpet. Hope you find amusement in my suffering and embarrassment.

Well if you ask me you need some public humiliation to learn.

But Grovisionnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn I don't wanna be humiliated in front of readers.

Oh my -! I have to beta this conversation? No (previous, obviously) capital letter for your nickname of my penname?

Heh heh.

... "Tweaks" you said. That you assured me you could handle yourself.

It wasn't that bad...

I was ashamed to be called your beta for a while.

Aww, you don't mean that. I know you wuv me.

... I'm leaving that one there. And let me assure you that I was.

Well we shouldn't bore our faithful readers with idle chit-chat.

Oh so it's "our" now.

Well you do help... Anyway! On with the show!

Please, do enjoy this properly fixed chapter. Also, if any of you were as pained as me at the last chapter, I have now fixed that.

Chapter 5

Sanji caught the man before he hit the ground, wincing when it put strain on his injuries but ignoring it in favour of helping his kin.

"You're making a habit of this, Mosshead," Sanji murmurs as walks past the doctor and puts the moron on the bed. Getting an ironic sense of Deja-vu, usually it was Zoro putting him on the bead, or futon…almost always the floor. He quickly walks around the very pretty doctor and it took all of his restraint not to comment on how beautiful her eyes were; a shade of gold that rivalled the shine of a dragon's hoard. Drawing his eyes away from her tempting golden orbs, Sanji's eyes slowly lower themselves downward, widening when he caught sight of a purple mark.

Oh fuck him on a North Blue cheese day, fate just liked to screw with him doesn't she? If he ever met lady fate he would probably want to kick her. But he won't because she is a lady.

On her very…bestowed chest there was the mark of the Whitebeard-fucking-Pirates, in all its purple glory. Of all the –

Turning to the man who brought him here, Sanji notices that he is looking at them strangely. Figuring that he wants something from them Sanji glares, pulling back his teeth in a very Zoro-like way. "What?!"

Ace didn't look very frightened. In fact he looked at the duo like one would look at a wounded animal; cautious, curious and wary.

"It's just you and your friend have the marks of fighting slaves…" At Sanji's startled expression he quickly went on obviously not wanting to anger him, "I mean that very little people escape the cage, some don't even want to. You have obviously fought since you were young – in two blues none the less. Yet your mannerisms and behaviour is… It's human," Ace said the last part with such sadness it made Sanji suspect that he was talking from personal experience of witnessing a Cage Coronation. Weighing his options Sanji slowly walks up to the man until they stand face to face.

"Your doctor, is she competent enough to treat a half human?" Sanji asks, staring at the man's face to read any tells that say he is lying. "Don't worry he's not feral as you would say. No matter what he did before we came." The last part was aimed at the doctor, reassuring her that the injured party would be of no harm to her.

"Only if she knows what the other half is," Ace confirms without missing a beat, face calm and eyes honest. Sanji had to give the guy credit – he was brave. However, bravery is just a kind word for stupid. He should know as the Mosshead is the embodiment of said psychological defect.

"Half-demon," Sanji says, watching for the fear and prejudice that usually overtakes a person's face when they find out what his brother is, although he was pleasantly surprised when the man just nods taking in the information.

"I'm surprised," Sanji murmurs still looking into chocolate brown eyes. "Most people would have tried to kill, sell or steal him." Turning away Sanji sits on the bed opposite of him leaving Ace to his thoughts and staring at the doctor, not missing a movement as she examines and cleans his brother's wounds. Sanji smirked slightly to himself, blood loss always was the best anaesthetic. Speaking of which…

"Hey Doc," Sanji called out to catch the nice doctor's attention while she was washing her hands. When she looked at him questionably Sanji decided to ask, he hasn't been near any doctors who had a degree in medical science after all, only scientists.

"Does it count as blood loss when you're internally bleeding?" Ace narrowed his eyes at Sanji, suspicious but unclear what exactly he was suspicious of in the seemingly random question. The Doctor seemed surprised but shrugged apparently deciding to humour him.

"Some doctors have different views on this but I personally believe that internal bleeding counts as blood loss because the blood escapes the artery or vein, just like external wounds. Internal bleeding occurs in many areas of the body and can cause significant local inflammation and pain. If enough bleeding occurs, signs of shock may be apparent. All these symptoms also reflect external bleeding."

Sanji is overwhelmed with the slew of information, confused and a little frightened because the nice doctor now has a not-quite-sane look in her golden eyes.

Ace, sensing Sanji's wariness, decided to save him. "Come on doc, stop scaring the poor guy. Besides I gotta take him to Oyaji." At Sanji's look Ace quickly continued, "Nothing bad I swear, just simple questions and maybe some food – we have a great chef here. But don't tell that bastard I said that." As Ace looked at Sanji from head to toe, Sanji was careful to mask his unease under the scrutiny. "But first I gotta get you something to wear…maybe Marco has some things that fit." With a gleam in his eye that rivalled the doctor's in terms of inducing fear, Ace ushers Sanji out of the infirmary and around the ship. Quickly memorising the route just in case, Sanji let the strange man push him into a room and look around drawers that obviously aren't his.

Sanji looks around the room and is surprised at the organised mess that it was in. It looked like it belonged to someone relatively intelligent and with only one bed; that meant someone important. With these types of big crew ships Sanji guessed a navigator but there aren't any treasury forms as well as maps. That made no sense because no matter how easy going Ace was he couldn't trust an unknown near so much exploitable information. Maybe it belonged to one of the commanders that the Whitebeards are famous for.

Sanji is startled out of his thoughts when he hears a loud 'Aha!'

Looking at Ace, Sanji sees that he is holding brown trousers and a deep purple shirt that only had buttons halfway up. With a sigh Sanji takes the blanket off and (ignoring Aces staring – he was desensitised to it by now) after putting the clothes on he finds that they are a bit too big for him and that means that most of his scarred chest and his mark was shown.

"Does your crew know what this mark means?" Sanji asks knowing that there was no way out.

"Only the commanders and creature crew."

Sanji isn't shocked at the fact that the Whitebeard pirates have creature crew members, after all it had brought strength and reputation to the Whitebeard pirates.

With a sigh Sanji walks to the door and waits for Ace to lead the way to the deck. "Well looks like I'm going to meet the infamous Whitebeard. Lucky me." With no enthusiasm Sanji followed Ace, memorising the way there.

When they reached the stairway Sanji couldn't help but feel trepidation. With his luck this is going to go very, very bad.