"Please state your name for the court please." The judge says, looking down at the girl in the witness box.
"Perona Prince." His cousin (DNA be damned!) says primly, with a flick of her perfect pink hair.
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god?" The huge bear-eared barrister asks, holding out a bible in his hands.
"I do." Perona nods and sits down.
"Perona, how would you describe Sanji?" Igaram asks casually, Lucci raises an eyebrow, clearly considering this a frivolous line of questioning, Sanji smiles knowing otherwise.
"Uhm, he's kind, a little sensitive maybe. He's really fun to annoy, his looks so cute when he's all red and angry!" Perona giggles in amusement, Sanji rolls his eyes.
"But you like him?" Igaram confirms. Perona nods happily, making Sanji smile.
"Did the results of the paternity test surprise you? It must be shocking to find out that your cousin is not your cousin." The curly haired lawyer asks, Sanji smiles, knowing the answer full well from Saturday.
"Nope, we all knew. Besides, Sanji will always be family to me, you don't need paper to tell you that." She chirps.
"When you say that you all knew-" Igaram starts, but Lucci leaps to his feet.
"I object!" Lucci exclaims dramatically.
"To…?" The judge asks, raising her eyebrows.
"That's a leading question, your honour!" Lucci says firmly.
"Overruled. Perona, who knew that Sanji wasn't Spandam's son?" The judge questions. Perona pokes her tongue out at Lucci in childish spite before answering.
"I and my siblings all did, a bunch of the staff did too – all of Spandam's staff certainly did. Me and Coby overheard Spandam yelling to his lawyer Lucci about it one day. He was worried that Sanji was going to find out." Perona answers smugly. Lucci and Spandam look decidedly uncomfortable as she says that, the judge's eyes narrow as she glares at the two of them.
"Why do you think he was worried that Sanji was going to find out?" Igaram asks with a smug smile.
"Because he was blackmailing Sanji to be there, Spandam doesn't have any other kids to be heirs and he doesn't want us or my mother or uncle to take over the company, he wants to keep it in his hands and he could manipulate Sanji into doing what he wanted. If Sanji knew he wouldn't have been in that position." Perona explains calmly.
"Me and my sister don't want anything to do with the company so we didn't care, but Spandam has something over Sanji, that's why he always does what he's told. Why else would he have come back after all those years? Spandam made him." She declares with a glare at Spandam.
"You have no proof of any of this!" Lucci declares angrily.
"You have no proof that it's not true, besides, why would I lie? If anything I stand to gain from Sanji being disowned and thrown out of the company, it means more of a share for me." Perona points out.
A stare down occurs between Lucci and Perona, Sanji doesn't even need to look to see just how this is going to go, Perona could out stare anything. He's glad he told Igaram to call her to the stand today; she's done plenty to beef up his defence.
"No further questions your honour." Igaram smiles and looks to Lucci, the lawyer is clearly weighing up whether he has anything he can rip Perona's statement apart with without giving her more room to discredit his own arguments.
"No questions your honour." Lucci growls, apparently he doesn't have anything to say. Sanji grins along with Perona who daintily hops out of the witness box, her body language and her expression smug.
He doesn't know who Igaram is calling to the stand next, though when he calls it, it's a name he recognises but only vaguely.
Sanji is almost embarrassed that it takes him a few seconds to recognise the fucking talking reindeer that walks up to the stand, seriously, how many reindeers talk to him? Doctor Chopper sits in the witness stand looking nervous and fretful, casting frequent worried glances to Spandam who is eyeballing him threateningly.
He puts a shaky hoof on a copy of the bible held out by a big bear-like man and swears to tell the truth. He seems so… different from when Sanji met him first.
He'd been so bored that day, his father had dragged him to the institute and told him on no uncertain terms that he was to have a mate and that was that. He'd had to fill out the longest goddamn computer questionnaire of his entire life that covered everything from opinions on politics, exercise, fashion, music and more. Half of the thing was devoted to sex and attraction, asking him what kind of person he preferred over another looks wise, showing him pictures on a screen asking him to choose one person over another as the machine whittled down his tastes to some formula. They'd asked him about sex, about kinks and fetishes that he'd never even heard of and, frankly, never wanted to again!
But then this sweet little kid doctor with his big eyes, tiny antlers and furry face had come in to see him. They'd just talked, they'd discussed some of his answers and his attitude to things for a bit but after that they'd just settled into natural conversation. He liked the kid. At the end of the session Chopper had given him a long careful look before asking something very quietly.
"Are you aware that not everyone that we have here is like they are in the adverts?" Chopper had asked gently.
"I don't think anyone you have here is really like they are in the adverts for this place, everyone's gonna be nervous at least, they're being thrown together with a total stranger with no idea what they're getting. I'm not exactly enthused about this either." He'd answered, blowing a stream of smoke up to the ceiling.
"Well some people are even less happy about it than that." Chopper had said softly, making Sanji look at him in surprise. But he had been looking off to the side, staring out of the window pensively as if deciding on something.
"I have someone here who matches up with almost all of the things that it seems you would like, but he's… not exactly easy to be with sometimes. He can be abrasive and stubborn, he's far from refined but he's…" Chopper had trailed off with a frown.
"Hah, that sounds like how my old man talks about me, although, with more cursing." He'd laughed. Chopper had looked at him with surprise and asked if he meant Spandam, Sanji had laughed his ass off at that and explained all about his fucked up relationship with Zeff, how they fought all the time but he knew that the old man still cared. The more he had talked the more Chopper had smiled, and eventually Chopper had beamed at him and said that he thought he'd be able to do something for him and said goodbye.
Only a day or two later he'd been standing before Zoro whose eyes were terrified and angry as he clicked the padlock at his throat shut. He'd not known then just what he'd been letting himself in for.
Sanji wonders what it was in that interaction that made Chopper think that he'd be good for Zoro, he's not sure that he was the right choice, not with what was happening to Zoro right now. Chopper had clearly been trying to protect Zoro, but he'd seen something in him worth trusting, what was it?
"Doctor Chopper, tell us what you do for my client." Lucci asks coldly, snapping Sanji back to reality as the lawyer stares down the clearly unnerved little reindeer.
"I- I'm the institute's doctor. I deal with injuries or illness in the mates under my care, but I also do evaluations of them and of clients, I try to find a good match." Chopper answers nervously.
"So you evaluated Sanji." Lucci deduces, flicking a look Sanji's way. Sanji raises an eyebrow, where is this going?
"Y-yes." Chopper nods, his voice shaking.
"And how did he seem to you? How would you describe his relationship with his father?" Lucci asks, his voice like silk and steel. Ah, Sanji sees where this is going now.
"It… seemed like a fraught relationship. Sanji didn't want to be there, he didn't want a mate. But you can see from how he reacted to Zoro being taken away that-" Chopper starts to explain quickly but Lucci cuts him off.
"I'm not interested in the mate, I'm interested in his relationship with his father. Do you think that he thought of Spandam as his father, or do you think that he knew that Spandam wasn't his father?" Lucci snaps out, his eyes cold. Sanji winces, geez, even he knows a false dichotomy when he sees one, those choices weren't opposite and exclusive. In fact he knew for a fact that he had neither thought of Spandam as his father but didn't know that he genuinely wasn't. This wasn't a "was it left or right" kind of question where it was either or. If Chopper was smart he'd point that out.
"H-he definitely didn't think of Spandam as his father." Chopper stammers out.
"So then in your opinion he knew, one further question, do you think that Sanji would lie?" Lucci asks, ignoring the fact that he'd effectively tricked Chopper. Sanji winces, Chopper was apparently very smart with medicine but not too bright about people.
"Hey wait- that's not what I-" Chopper protests, but to no avail as Lucci spins on his heel and practically pounces on the witness box, his hands bracketing the small furry doctor in and terrifying him.
"YES OR NO! Would he lie?!" Lucci roars in the doctor's face.
"Y-yes." Chopper answers meekly, his bottom lip trembling.
Lucci's grin is sick as he pulls away with satisfaction and purrs out a response of "no more questions" to the judge as he slinks back to his seat, a self satisfied smirk on his face.
"God, he's just a kid." Sanji mutters in disgust, but a murmur of agreement spreads around the room, so he must have said it a little louder than he thought. Igaram gets up gently, pours a drink and quietly walks to the witness box with the sniffling doctor in it. He's so small that he's actually sitting on a few thick books to be seen over the edge of it.
"Are you okay Doctor? Drink this." Igaram says gently, offering the tearful reindeer the drink. Trembling hooves take it from him and the doctor drinks and wipes his eyes.
"When you said that Sanji would lie, what do you mean?" Igaram asks softly, returning to the bench and standing there.
The doctor fiddles with the hem of his coat for a moment or two before answering.
"Everybody lies, it's just a thing that happens. Even when we try to be honest all the time we lie. We do it to protect others feelings, or ourselves, sometimes we do it to manipulate people. Everybody lies." Chopper says meekly.
"And Sanji?" Igaram prompts. The doctor's watery eyes rise and rest on Sanji for a moment.
"I think that Sanji would definitely lie to protect someone he loved or to spare someone's feelings, white lies certainly. But he'd be more inclined to be honest out of principle when it came to talking about himself. He's very focused on other people." Chopper says quietly. Sanji considers that statement for a moment, he supposes that it's fair.
"Do you think that he knew that Spandam wasn't his father?" Igaram asks.
Chopper stays silent, but Sanji doesn't miss the terrified look that Chopper sends to Spandam. Sanji looks over and sees his ex-father glaring a hole in Chopper's head, Sanji knows that look, it's the look that says 'I've got something over you and if you don't behave you'll wish you had'. It's the look Spandam used to give him when he wasn't obeying Spandam's every command, the kind of look that if he ignored used to result in the Baratie getting a surprise health code visit from an inspector with a surprisingly expensive new car.
"I-" Chopper tries, his voice catching.
The silence stretches on, the eyes of everyone in court on Chopper as his mouth opens and closes mutely.
"Doctor, please answer the question." Igaram presses gently.
Chopper shakes his little head and squeezes his eyes shut, tears leaking out and matting his fur. Sanji leans forward, his heart aching in sympathy, he's felt like this. When Zoro asked him to risk everything and come with him, he felt like this, he wanted so badly to do what he wanted but simply couldn't. Chopper is in this situation and he can bet that he knows just who put him there, he glances at Spandam to see the man glaring daggers at the poor kid. Sanji grits his teeth, feeling his legs instinctually tense and his heels dig into the floor as he represses the urge to kick.
"I can't!" Chopper gasps, shaking his head sharply.
"Why?" Igaram asks softly. Spandam's glare only intensifies and Chopper's panic continues to rise.
"I can't tell you that!" the doctor repeats with a sob. Spandam turns to Lucci and whispers something, Lucci pulls a small stack of stapled together papers out of his briefcase and hands them to Spandam who places them on the desk. Spandam rests his hand on it and looks at Chopper significantly. Sanji isn't the only one to notice this and the judge is eyeing Spandam critically.
"You are under oath Doctor, tell us if you think Sanji knew that Spandam wasn't his father." The judge reminds Chopper.
"Please, don't- does it matter? Can't I just go? Please?" Chopper pleads the judge.
"No. Tell us, or we'll throw you in jail for years for perjury." The judge threatens, her eyes narrowing.
"But- but I'm a doctor! My patients need me, the mates need me, I have to keep my job!" he pleads with wide tearful eyes.
"Then answer the question." Igaram states simply. Chopper looks tearfully to the judge who has no mercy.
"Your profession gives you no exceptions, you either answer the question – and answer truthfully, or you go to jail. I appreciate that you're a doctor but the institute can find another, your patients can survive without you. So answer." The judge says.
"You don't understand, it needs to be me there for them, the doctor before-" Chopper pleads, his voice catching.
"Yes?" The judge prompts. Spandam shakes his head slowly and Chopper falls mute.
"Doctor, I'm getting tired of this, answer the question." The judge snaps irritably.
Chopper looks bleakly from the paper under Spandam's hand to the judge and back again, he looks cornered and trapped. His bottom lip trembles before he bursts out into a wail and a stream of words.
"Oh god, he didn't know! Not at all. I suspected that he wasn't Spandam's son and I knew he was only there because Spandam was threatening the man who saved Sanji's life, he threatened the restaurant Sanji used to work at and everyone he loved. As long as he did what Spandam said he could keep them, that was the deal." Chopper sobs.
"Sanji didn't want to destroy the company, it was the only thing guaranteeing the safety of the people he cared about! I just- I meet so many people and I try, I do my best to make sure that everyone gets to a good home, with someone who'll respect them, but the institute doesn't turn anyone away so anyone who can pay gets a mate, no matter how much of a sadist they are! And I do all that I can to prepare the mates for what's going to happen and to fix them up when I can, I try to make the best out of a bad situation for them, that's all I can do! The doctor before me used to hurt them and if all I can do is to keep them from that then I have to do it, but he didn't know. He didn't know ANYTHING." Chopper bawls into his little hooves.
The intake of breath from the gallery and the jury at once practically drains the oxygen from the room and is only broken by Spandam tearing the piece of paper under his hand in two. Chopper's broken sobbing echoes around the room until he's taken out by a bailiff.
Spandam's face is livid and Lucci looks like he could chew through steel right now, but all Sanji feels is sad for Chopper. The little doctor had kept Zoro back from people for years after he was eligible to be mated off, trying to protect him and find someone who could handle his personality and give as good back. The little doctor had probably saved Zoro's life countless times over, after all, hadn't he been the doctor at the institute when Zoro got cut in half by Mihawk's blade? Was it Chopper who had patched Zoro back together body and mind when all he wanted to do was scream his lungs raw when he thought Nami had died?
"I think… I think that's enough for today. Dismissed." The judge says quietly and bangs her gavel. She slips off of her chair and disappears out of the back of the court room.
Sanji rises from his chair and exits into the court's lobby, he spots Chopper but keeps slightly out of sight, making an excuse to fiddle with rolling a cigarette should anyone ask him.
"Please, Lord Spandam, I didn't have any choice! Please don't-" Chopper begs, reaching towards Spandam. The man looks coldly at the little doctor through his leather mask before kicking him and pinning him to the ground with a boot. Sanji winces, he remembers being that small and trapped under that heel, it never felt good.
"Consider yourself fired, I can think of a few people that I could give your job to, but while we interview I'm sure Cabaji can fill in your place for a while. He'll like that." Spandam hisses angrily, shoves Chopper away with his boot and stalks out of the building.
Sanji leans into the shadow and lets Spandam storm angrily by without noticing him, being invisible to his father was a well perfected life skill born out of necessity. Once Spandam has passed, Sanji leans back out and observes the small doctor picking himself up with a sniffle, Sanji bites his lip.
"Hey," He calls out, making Chopper look over to him. He wants to thank Chopper, both for saving him in court and for all that he did for Zoro, but there are no words to express that level of gratitude, they just don't exist.
"Do you… want dinner?" He offers instead. Chopper looks at him for a long sad moment before nodding silently.
They're barely inside the back of the Baratie before Usopp hurls himself headlong at Sanji, grabbing his shoulders and spinning him excitedly, disorienting Sanji.
"IT'S DONE! IT'S DONE, IT'S- who's that?" Usopp trails off, looking down at Chopper from where he stands frozen with his hands tight on Sanji's shoulders. Sanji opens his mouth to explain but isn't given a chance.
"CHOPPER!" Nami and Vivi shriek in unison, flinging themselves at the furball and nearly knocking Sanji and Usopp over in the process. Goddamnit, is everyone in this building just waiting by the door for him to walk in and hurl themselves at just anyone who comes through the door?
The two men stare in confusion as Nami and Vivi fawn all over the little doctor, hugging him, kissing his little nose and rubbing their faces in his soft fur. Lucky little bastard.
"Vivi told me once that they all feel like this for Chopper, he kept them all as safe as he could, most of them owe him a great deal." Igaram says quietly at Sanji's ear. Sanji looks up at the lawyer in surprise and wonders just whether Igaram had planned this or not.
"He's the institute's doctor, or was, Spandam just fired him for answering question honestly in court." Sanji explains for Usopp.
"Is he cool?" Usopp asks with squinted eyes, like they're in some goddamned gang or something (Usopp probably thinks that they are). Sanji decides not to answer that dumbass question.
"Sanji, it's ready, Usopp has the code ready!" Nami exclaims, looking up at him from Chopper's side and affording him a pleasant gaze down her shirt.
Usually that would distract him but the mental image of a bunch of ones and zeros flying through the air and popping open Zoro's collar and freeing him is just too distracting. Zoro was chained up by his collar and if he could get free from it, he could escape, he could come home. He could have Zoro back again, he could keep him safe, he could feel him in his arms. Sanji closes his eyes for a split second and Zoro's gold flecked eyes flash before him in a smile, perfect lips curving up into a conspiratorial grin as the feeling of smooth tanned skin slides under Sanji's fingers.
He forces his eyes open, shoving aside the memories and effects of his imagination, all of it will pale when he has Zoro back with him.
"When can we release it?" He asks, severely hoping that the answer is now.
"Tonight, I'll sneak into the institute once it gets dark. Usopp has the code on a memory stick that I can just plug in and run, Zoro's is the first collar on there followed right by Vivi's- if hers pops open we know Zoro's will have." Nami states, her voice all business as she stands up with a serious expression on her face.
"But- Nami-san, surely I should be the one to-" he starts to protest but Nami cuts him off.
"No, you've never broken into there, Zoro and I used to break in and out all the time. I can get in and out without being seen and that's what we need." Nami states sternly.
"They've put armed guards in there, just this week they shot a mate who got too close to the wall. Nami, if they catch you they'll kill you." Chopper breathes in shock as he looks up at Nami.
"That was always the deal, ever since I got my collar off. But Zoro's life is in danger here and I'm not going to shy away from risking mine to set him free. But… I will be careful because of that." She concedes with a tilt of her head.
"I have a bulletproof vest if you want it." Robin offers suddenly from behind Sanji, making him jump. He looks at her in confusion, trying to work out if he wants to know why Robin has a bulletproof vest at all before deciding that, no, he doesn't want to know.
"Thanks Robin. So, tonight then." Nami nods with an air of finality.
At sunset Sanji is sat on the roof of the Baratie smoking a cigarette, Nami left for the institute all of ten minutes ago, planning to get there just as it's getting dark and scoping out the place. She wants to learn the position of the guards to best work out how to get in and out without being seen, she was wearing Robin's bulletproof vest so he feels a little easier about it.
He turns when he hears footsteps behind him and sees that it's Vivi, her long blue hair turning almost teal in the red of the setting sun.
"What are you doing up here?" She asks him quietly, joining him on the roof edge.
"Well, when everyone's collars pop open Zoro's going to make a break for it, he's chained up by his collar, see?" Sanji says, passing Vivi the photo of Zoro that Blackbeard sent him. Vivi runs long slender fingers over Zoro's image with a sigh.
"You think that's all he has keeping Zoro there?" Vivi challenges him.
"Maybe, maybe not. Blackbeard is a cocky son of a bitch, so keeping Zoro so close to freedom but just out of reach by keeping him just chained up by his collar is the sort of cruel thing he'd do, so if that's the case Zoro will be out of there like lightning. If not and he's got some more defences, well, Zoro's not one to let a little thing like that stop him, is he?" Sanji grins confidently. He turns his gaze back to the streets below, it'd be happening any time now, the sun dips below the horizon as night properly begins. One by one the streetlights flick on.
"So… why are you up here though?" she asks him.
"Well, Zoro will escape and try to get somewhere familiar, right? He'll know that my house isn't mine anymore, so he'll come here or he'll go to Ace and Luffy's, Luffy is there and he'll call me if Zoro ends up there. But you know how bad Zoro's direction is, the moron could get lost in a straight hallway, if I stay up here I can see him coming and make sure he gets here." He laughs. He's giddy with the thought of Zoro's return. He can't wait to have Zoro back with him, things will be tough and Zoro may be a little fucked up by Blackbeard, but he will make things better.
He lights a cigarette and smiles, it's all going to be okay.
"You have a lot of faith in Zoro. And in Nami too." Vivi says softly and sits down on the roof.
"Zoro is strong and capable, both of them are. Nami loves Zoro and I know she'll get this done." He asserts and sits down next to her.
They sit in companionable silence for a while as darkness falls. Sanji is surprised at how relaxed he feels, but everything that can be done has been done or is being done by someone else.
When it happens, it's a soft sound, a gentle little click that belies the importance of it. Vivi gasps and Sanji turns his gaze on her just in time to see her hands rise to her throat and pull the stiff collar of in two rigid pieces. It clanks to the ground and Vivi's pale hands roam over her pale empty neck with a sigh of pure happiness.
It had worked, Nami had actually done it. And Zoro's code was right before Vivi's, Zoro's collar would be off right now! Sanji leaps to his feet and stares off into the night even though there's no way that Zoro could be anywhere near him yet. He laughs excitedly and pulls Vivi into a hug as the woman half laughs and half cries in joy.
"Igaram!" She exclaims and pulls Sanji down the stairs with her. His lawyer looks up at them as they comes back into the kitchen and beams at them.
"It worked!" She squeaks happily and throws herself at Igaram.
"I'm so happy princess." Igaram says, his voice gentle and his hand on the back of Vivi's neck. Sanji smiles at the scene and the pet name, soon that'll be him and Zoro.
"Sanji, come see this." Franky calls from the next room. Sanji obliges and follows the voice. Everyone else, except for Ace and Luffy who are at their own house, are sat on sofas and chairs around the TV watching the news. A reporter is exclaiming that there seems to be some kind of fault with mate's collars as they're all popping open.
"The program runs at 100 collars per second, the whole thing will take four point one minutes, by now thousands are free already." Usopp grins, looking at his watch.
"You're both geniuses." Sanji grins broadly, clapping his hands on Franky and Usopp's shoulders.
"Nami's message was a stroke of brilliance too." Vivi comments with a smile as she joins them.
"Message?" Sanji frowns, looking at her.
"Nami decided to throw in an audio message that plays when the collar opens. She just says "This is Nami, run and don't look back." it should do the trick, hopefully Zoro will do just that." Franky smiles.
"It is still unknown how this happened, but we're getting reports that this may have been a deliberate attack. Security footage streamed from the Institute's grounds show someone escaping just as the incident started, the woman, seen on screen, is dressed all in black as opposed to institute standard dress. It's unlikely that this woman is an escaped mate, but the institute's security seems to have caught her." The TV reporter says, making everyone in the room fall silent.
On the screen a figure all in black leaps into view on the top of the institute's high wall, only a flash of orange hair confirms that it's Nami until the camera zooms in showing her signature tattoo on her shoulder. Suddenly there's a bang and she stumbles back from a shot to her chest, a spray of something black catching in the light. Everyone in the room gasps as one.
On screen Nami tumbles backwards, limp as a ragdoll as she crashes through the branches of the tree behind her, hitting every branch and bough on the way down. She lands on the floor but it's too dark to see anything there. The clip rolls a few times to the silence of everyone in the room.
"Do you think the jacket stopped the bullet?" Brook asks quietly, looking at them.
"I hope so, but that was a nasty fall." Sanji murmurs.
"She could be dead or paralysed." Robin points out morbidly. Sanji winces but doesn't say anything as they watch the news unfold. The screen shows video of mates streaming out of the institute, their sheer numbers swamping guards who clearly weren't prepared for this kind of situation. Reporters theorise about what could have caused this. Sanji and the others simply wait in silence.
The door of the Baratie slams open and Nami stumbles through it, causing everyone to leap up out of their seats and crowd around her. The front of her shirt is completely blown away, hanging in tatters. Some of the padding in the bulletproof vest is blown out too, clearly that was what exploded into the air, not her insides.
She groans and pulls the ruined shirt off and unfastens the bulletproof vest pulling it stiffly over her head with a whine. Over her left breast is a rapidly purpling bruise the size of a grapefruit, the rest of her body is pretty scuffed and bruised up.
"God, that was like getting a kick to the chest." She groans, rubbing the sore flesh.
"It saved your life, that would have been your heart.." Robin notes, pulling the huge metal slug out of the jacket, that was a round meant to kill and no doubt about it.
"Yeah, well, I hit every branch on that tree on the way down." Nami groans, sitting down and letting Chopper fuss over her, feeling her limbs for broken bones. There doesn't appear to be any and Nami is for the most part fine.
"It hurt I'm sure, but hitting everything slowed your fall enough to save your life, you're very lucky." Chopper concludes, getting out his little medical kit and cleaning her cuts and scrapes.
"It worked Nami." Vivi exclaims, her hands on her bare throat. Nami gasps softly, her fingers reaching out past Chopper until she touches Vivi's neck. A giddy laugh escapes her as she pulls the other girl into a careful hug.
"Zoro! Crap, I need to be on the roof, if you're here he could be almost here!" Sanji curses and runs up the stairs. He breaks onto the roof and stares, his gaze snapping around looking for that familiar flash of green hair, his heart and soul searching it out.
"Come on, come on." He mutters impatiently as he watches.
Time passes but still no Zoro, he calls Luffy several times to check that Zoro isn't there, but he isn't. Anxiousness builds in Sanji's gut. He supposes that Blackbeard didn't make escape so easy, perhaps Zoro had to fight his way out, that'd take a little time. Or perhaps the moron was ass backwards lost. That'd be it. It's not enough to calm his mind though as he smokes cigarette after cigarette and stares out into the city.
His phone rings and he snaps it open without even checking the number.
"Hello?" He gasps hopefully, but instead of Luffy or Zoro's voice in his ear it's Spandam's.
"You bastard, you motherless son of a whore, I will get you for this. You think you're so fucking clever, my revenge will be-" Spandam snarls.
"I don't have time for you." He snaps down the line and hangs up, his eyes returning to the city.
Where was Zoro?
Anxious hours pass but still no Zoro. Sanji calls Luffy over and over again, he calls Ivankov, he calls hospitals and checks for anyone matching Zoro's description but no one has seen him. He waits fretfully and stares at the people on the street praying for one of them to look up with Zoro's eyes and see him.
His phone rings again and this time he checks the number, it's not listed in his phone but he picks up anyway, perhaps it's a payphone or a hospital. If Zoro was hurt in his escape he might have had the sense to go to an emergency room before coming to the Baratie. That could be it.
"Hello?" He says down the phone, worry coiling in his gut.
"You're a ballsy guy Sanji, I like that." Blackbeard's voice says, pouring poison in his ear.
"Blackbeard." Sanji hisses out, his free hand snapping into a fist at his side.
"Spandam is so pissed, I thought a blood vessel was going to burst out of his forehead when I saw him. You really are stronger and smarter than him, I like that. So, you get a reward, a little token of my amusement. That masked freak isn't going to be in a position to keep paying me for my work and I've got no loyalty to him, so you can have your little pet back." Blackbeard laughs in his ear.
"What?" Sanji says numbly, he gets Zoro back?
"You deaf or something? You get Zoro back. Like I said, I've no loyalty to Spandam, I was just doing this for fun and for money. But the money is gone and Zoro's not much fun anymore, besides, what will be fun is seeing your reaction to him. When you see what I've done to him, eye to eye, as it were. He's broken now, in bits and pieces." The man chuckles darkly. Sanji grits his teeth, he's had enough of these fucking games.
"Where the hell is he, you bastard?! I'll get him back and then I'll kill you, I swear it!" He shouts down the phone.
"Back in your old house, with all the other things you don't own any more. I've tied him up to your bed, maybe if you don't get here in time I'll have to find some way to amuse myself with him." Blackbeard purrs.
Sanji snaps the phone shut and sprints down the staircase, ignoring the calls of everyone as he speeds past them. He supposes that he should have asked for the car, but he's not sure that it'd be faster. His feet are like lightning on the wind and not even God could stop him from reaching where he has to be.
Zoro needs him, he won't let him down again. He doesn't care if it could be a trap, if there's a hundred men in his house, a thousand even, waiting for him to get there he'll kill them all. He'll burst in, kill them all and save Zoro. His soul simply can't handle Zoro being hurt any more than he already has been, the consequences to himself be damned!
He bounds over the fence to his house, lighter than air, and lands already running on the other side. He bursts through the kitchen and sprints through the apparently empty house as quickly as he can. There's no guards, no muscle, no resistance at all. That's bad, what is he going to find in his room?
The light is on in it, he can see the glow spilling out into the hallway. He skids as he turns and runs inside, a million memories washing over him as he does so, memories of him and Zoro in this room, making love, talking, touching. His eyes land on the bed and… there's no Zoro there.
"ZORO!" He shouts, but there's no answer. Fuck, he's not here.
But… there's something on the bed. Warily he steps closer it's a box with a piece of paper on the top. Eyes darting around the room nervously he picks it up.
"You did this." He reads aloud off of the paper. He frowns, what does it mean?
The box is smooth and black probably about four inches wide and deep. With trepidation and shaking hands he flicks the latch on it and opens the lid, terrified about what he might find within.
He stares for a second, his brain not able to quite process what he's seeing enough to form a reaction to it. Spandam's words about revenge echo through his mind as he stares into the box, what was that expression about revenge? It was a biblical quote or something. An eye for an eye.
He's memorised every inch of Zoro that he's had the privilege of examining and inside the box, nestled in the centre is an eye. An eye that Sanji has seen light up with laugher, where the gold flecks in it have sparkled seductively, an eye that he's seen go from mistrust in him to complete trust. But there in the centre of the box is Zoro's eye, and just his eye. Cut out and dead, expressionless and staring back at him.
Some sound rips from his throat, some primal wounded sound as his imagination catches up with him. His knees buckle as Zoro's name spills from his lips in an agonised howl with prayers to a god for this to not be real, for apologies for a sin he can never atone for as Zoro's solitary removed eye stares him down. Was Zoro alive for this, is he still alive now? Was he awake when this was done to him? He clutches the box to his chest as he struggles to breathe and cry at the same time.
A sound, a beeping fills his ears and makes his alert senses snap to attention. He looks up through streaming eyes and sees… a camera. A security camera fixed on him from its position hastily screwed into his bedroom wall. But that's not what's beeping, the thing that's beeping is something stuck to the ceiling and the other wall. Sticks of dynamite with little red flashing beeping things on them.
He sucks in a breath as the room explodes into noise and fire around him, hurling him through the air like a ragdoll. He smashes into a mirror, knocking the breath from him. His head snaps back painfully just in time for him to see a chunk of the ceiling the size of his bed come loose and tumbling down towards him. He cries out and the world goes black.