Breaking into a secret fortified mansion is a lot easier than it seems when you're accompanied by a cyborg, a sniper, a human bonfire, a rubber maniac, an undead swordsman, an angry reindeer and two lovely ladies who can respectively snap your neck or electrocute you from miles away.
Sanji vaults the wall, taking care to put his weight on his left arm rather than his right. When the ceiling fell on him he managed to catch it with his foot but at the cost of cracking his knee into his collar bone and fracturing it. He only just managed to avoid being crushed by falling masonry completely. Still, landing hurts like a bitch.
Usopp snipes two guards standing watch with two quick and accurate shots whilst Franky takes more of a spray of bullets approach to dispatching the two on the other side.
"Stop being so loud! We have a plan here!" Nami chides the cyborg, smacking him on top of the head with her staff. The electricity from it turns Franky's hair into a statically charged afro.
"Screw plans! I'm gonna burn this place to the ground!" Ace declares, catching fire.
Sanji tunes them out and runs to the building across the grounds. Guards appear of course, trying to take him out but a few lightning quick kicks dispatches the first and the neck of the second is snapped by two disembodied hands before he can get to him. He dashes inside, kicking down doors and trying to find any clue as to where Zoro could be.
After he'd come back to the Baratie with Zoro's eye in a box it hadn't taken much convincing to get everyone to agree to invade Blackbeard's mansion to get Zoro back. Law, Chopper and Ivankov had all warned him that Zoro might well be dead both inside and outside by the time he got there. He'd told them all that he didn't care, if Zoro was dead then he was still rescuing his body and giving him a proper burial, if he was dead inside then Sanji would look after him indefinitely, and if there was anything left of Zoro to rescue (and he had to believe that there was) then he simply couldn't wait any longer.
They had tried to warn him that he could get captured and tortured himself, that he could get killed; so many things could go wrong. He didn't care. He was already being tortured by Blackbeard at a distance and he couldn't take it anymore.
Nami was right though, they had a plan, his job was to break in with Ace and find Zoro and get him the hell out of there, regardless of who they ran into. Everyone else had the job of being backup and ensuring that they had an escape route.
A ball of fire streaks past Sanji exploding a glass wall open, he leaps through the hole created by it with Ace right behind him. He kicks a guard into a wall and the next life whilst Ace punches another in the throat.
"We gotta find some stairs, he's got to be keeping Zoro in some kind of dungeon below ground." Ace pants, backing up close to him. Sanji nods, when they'd told Law and Ivankov what they were doing Law informed him of what he'd learnt from Blackbeard's past victims. None of them liked the dark and they all preferred being in high light places as opposed to low dark ones, and not a one of them could be convinced to go into a basement, they'd all freak out immediately. Law had proposed that Blackbeard must keep them underground and in the dark, so that was what they were looking for.
"It looks like the main part of the building is this way, that's the best bet right?" Sanji agrees, pointing through another glass wall that leads out into a courtyard. Ace's grin spreads wide and he spins, kicking another blisteringly hot fireball into the glass, exploding it from the thermal shock. Sanji runs behind Ace this time. Zoro probably would laugh to see them working so close together but in a terrible sort of way Zoro's pain has brought them close together, Ace is hurt by Zoro's pain just as much as Sanji is, both of them love him after all.
Sanji isn't sure that he'd be able to be so nice if he was in Ace's position, if he'd been there first and then someone else walked into Zoro's life and stole him away and finally won his sought after love. Especially when that newcomer went and got him kidnapped and tortured. Sanji thinks that if he'd been in Ace's shoes he might have killed that kind of guy. He doesn't know if Ace has stayed his hand because Zoro would be hurt by that or if he really is the bigger man.
Ace skids to a halt in the far end of the courtyard, causing Sanji to run into his tattooed back and nearly drop Zoro's swords that he's holding in his arms. When they get to Zoro they're going to arm him, it'll be like therapy if he can cut his way out of the place with them.
Sanji looks around Ace to see what caused the sudden stop to see a short woman with blonde hair standing there with a blank expression on her face. Her neck has a pale white stripe on it, exactly as wide as a collar as it happens. She's one of Blackbeard's victims.
"You can escape, get out of here! We'll take care of Blackbeard!" Sanji calls to her.
"Shut up, idiot!" Ace hisses, elbowing him in the ribs.
The woman's head tilts disjointedly as she turns to look at him, her eyes are completely blank and dead as she looks at them. They remind him of Cindry and creep him the fuck out, she stares at them for a second or two.
"If Blackbeard lets her wander around here like that, she's clearly no danger to him which means that she could be a danger to-" Ace growls, only to be interrupted by the woman's hollow voice.
"Intruders…" She says unevenly.
"Oh great, and you can't fight women." Ace grumbles as the woman lunges for them both with a banshee like screech and murder in her eyes. Sanji squeaks and leaps back and Ace kicks her. He closes his eyes and tamps down his reaction to kill Ace for hurting a woman.
"I'm gonna go inside, I'll head right trying to find a staircase, catch up!" He calls and runs. He flings the door open, leaving Ace to his fight and runs indoors. He shifts Zoro's three swords against his side and looks around. Blackbeard's plush mansion is way bigger than his was, this is easily the size of his fath- Spandam's. He only said right so that Ace could follow him, but truth be told he's no idea what direction Zoro could be in. Yells and explosions echo around the building as everyone's fighting continues. He turns right and runs.
He pelts down a hallway with Zoro's swords clattering against his side, he turns randomly, hoping that fate might lead him to Zoro. Perhaps it does. He trips on an upturned corner of a run and nearly lands face first on the floor. He looks down at the rug; it's some exotic Persian antique rug, surrounded by pedestals dotting the walls. The upturned corner that he nearly tripped up on is right by a pedestal against a wall. There's… there's no way that someone just walking down the corridor could have snagged the rug like that. It's almost as if someone came sideways on from it and snagged it like that, but they'd have to be coming out of the wall to do that…
His sense of wrongness rises and he squints at the wall, if he looks very carefully he swears that he can see cracks in it. He touches his fingernails lightly to the wall and drags them sideways and- yes! His nails catch a ridge. He follows it up and down and manages to do the same on the other side. There's a door here and no doubt it leads to Zoro! But how to get in?
The statues on the plinths on either side, figures of naked Grecian men killing each other, prove no help at all in terms of secret levers or buttons. He kicks at the door fiercely but clearly it's meant to swing out instead of in so it doesn't budge.
He pauses and chews his lip, if he kicks the door too hard he risks making it completely inoperable and Zoro totally unreachable. If only he had something that he could slide into the door and pop it open with… The swords rattle temptingly in their scabbards. He winces as he draws the white one out, he'd hate someone doing this with his chef's knives but he'd rather that Zoro was alive and angry at him for using his swords like this than dead and respected. He jams the white hilted blade into the wall and shoves until it stops. Tentatively he slides the blade down until he hits what has to be the latch of the door, he tilts the blade and shoves forward, depressing the latch. The door springs free and Sanji levers the blade to pull the door open.
With a triumphant laugh he pulls the door wide open and slides Zoro's sword back into its home. His laugh falls dead on his lips when the stale smell of blood hits him. The hairs on the back of his neck rise up as millennia of evolution tell him that this is a bad place to be, that it's somewhere where big predatory things kill things like him. The place feels like death and some part of him wants nothing more than to slam the door shut and run off. He shoves the feeling away and kicks the carpet under the door to jam it open so that when Ace comes this way he'll know where he's gone.
Behind the door are stairs that curve as they go down, they're cold stone and he sticks as close to the far wall as possible. There's no light down here though so Sanji flicks his lighter open and holds it before him to show him the way. The place feels even spookier with the flickering flame casting dancing shadows on the wall. He shivers and makes his way into a cold, clammy, dark room. The place is huge and open though, there are large wide supporting pillars here and there that spreads out into wide archways which almost section the wide room off into a series of mini rooms. The cold cavernous spread of the room feels like some old cave; it must be what the mansion is built on. There's no bricks in the wall- the place just seems to be carved from the very rock.
"Zoro?" He calls out, ill at ease, his voice echoing in the empty chamber.
No answer comes back to him and Sanji hugs the swords a little tighter as a cold finger of fear drags itself up his spine. He swallows nervously and continues forwards, his eyes sweeping every darkened spot for a glimpse of Zoro and wary of Blackbeard suddenly appearing. He doesn't know how the man's devil's fruit works exactly, but he knows that it has to do with darkness and he knows how scared the dark made Cindry. Needless to say, being surrounded by so much darkness with only a little flame in his lighter to show his way makes him anxious.
A shine in the light catches his attention so he holds the lighter aloft. In the darkness hang heavy sets of chains with cuffs on them, the wall and pillar next to it displays a large assortment of whips, blow torches and blunt instruments. Sanji shudders and walks quickly on.
His heels click on the stone floor as he walks the room, his eyes search for any sign of Zoro but only land on more and more things that make him fear for Zoro's well being. The giant bottles of bleach scattered about the place certainly don't help his nerves either.
A rat squeaks and runs over Sanji's foot, making him leap in the air in nervous fright. His ears strain for the sound of any breathing but his own but he hears none.
Wait! A voice!
He strains his ears only to hear a distant crash, it sounds like a load of rocks falling. Clumsy in the darkness he sprints after the sound, not knowing or caring if he's running into a trap. He nearly runs headfirst into a door as it happens, not recognising the shape in the poor light until he's almost upon it. He pulls the heavy door open and the sound becomes louder and clearer until it suddenly stops.
He pauses on the second set of stairs, desperately listening for any noise at all. A gunshot rings out, followed by silence. With his heart in his throat he rushes down the stairs.
"ZORO!" A voice calls out, stilling Sanji's progress on the stairs. Was that an echo? No… he hadn't spoken. He comes out into another room, only this one isn't so dark. However the reason that it's not so dark is the giant TV screen playing. Across it, larger than life stands an image of himself. He recognises the room that he's in, it's his bedroom and on the bed is the black lacquer box that he knows so well.
As the reality of what is happening here sets in he swings his gaze around the room to see a figure slumped against the opposite wall, he doesn't need the flash of green hair to know who it is but it's there anyway.
"Zoro!" He gasps, leaping he distance to him. There are no bars separating them, but instead two chains running from each of Zoro's wrists to the wall. He falls before him on his knees and takes Zoro's face in his hands, he's still warm and breathing, he's alive. Across one eye is a bandage that runs diagonally across Zoro's forehead and down to his ear, covering his missing eye. Surprisingly the bandage looks clean despite it being over a day since Zoro would have had his eye taken out.
His eyes are hungry for the sight of Zoro and drink in every detail of him, whether Sanji likes it or not. His skin is clean, or cleaner than Sanji would have expected. Bits of him, such as his eye and his ear, along with multiple other patches on his body are either bandaged or covered in large plasters. Apparently Blackbeard didn't want Zoro suffering from anything that could kill him like septicaemia or gangrene, that would take the fun out of making him suffer no doubt.
He's shirtless and slumped against the wall behind him, his arms hanging loosely by his sides against the slack chains. He's awake, his one eye fixed on the screen behind Sanji. Sanji isn't sure if he imagines the feather light flinch that runs through Zoro's muscles or whether it's his own but the words spoken behind him chill him.
"You did this."
It's his own voice and right now he accepts it, he did do this to Zoro. He looks into Zoro's blank eye but it's as dead looking as the one that Sanji's got in a box at the Baratie. No. He didn't do this to Zoro, and Zoro didn't do it either. Blackbeard did, and Blackbeard is torturing Zoro with this video, this shot that looks to all intents and purposes like his death, and he'd bet his ass that the gunshot he heard earlier was a video of Nami's "death" as she was escaping from the institute.
He growls and puts the swords down on the floor by Zoro, there's no way he can carry both them and Zoro out at the same time, so Zoro's going to have to carry them.
"I thought you could use these back marimo." He says out loud as he pulls the belt that the swords hang from around Zoro's waist and buckles it.
"We're getting your ass out of here." He adds, standing upright.
"Don't move, I'm busting those chains." He warns, not that Zoro has reacted at all. He brings his foot down as hard as he can manage by Zoro's right wrist, shattering the chain and freeing Zoro. He smashes the other and pulls Zoro's unresisting limbs through.
He pulls on Zoro's left arm and brings the man unevenly to his feet, he's standing but only because Sanji is holding him there. His gaze is still fixed on the screen before them, Sanji turns to see himself being crushed under rubble, it doesn't look like there's any way that he could have survived that. As if to remind him just how he did, his collar bone throbs painfully under Zoro's weight leaning against him.
The very thought of the pain that this has caused Zoro sends a bolt of fire through him. He flicks his lighter open and steps on a broken chain link with his toe, the thing is easily the size of his fist, the pressure on the link flicks it into the air and Sanji kicks it with practiced ease and sends it flying straight into the screen destroying it.
"You don't have to see that ever again Zoro, it's okay." He says softly, not knowing if his Zoro is really still inside the man he's holding up. He hopes that he is, he hopes that his words can reach Zoro.
"I'm here, I'm so sorry I wasn't here sooner, but I'm here now and I'm getting you out of here." He vows quietly in the near total darkness. He pulls Zoro to the stairs and starts climbing up a floor to the first dungeon level, Zoro's feet move with him, catching himself enough to stop from falling but it's more a reflex than it is walking.
"It's going to be okay." He says into the darkness, pulling Zoro a little tighter to himself, not knowing who he's trying to reassure more, himself or Zoro.
They climb the stairs with Sanji nervously narrating everything. He desperately wants Zoro to say something, anything, even if it's to tell him to stop babbling. But Zoro says nothing and stays silent. He's about halfway across the dungeon floor in the dark when a bright burning light in the shape of a man lights the room and all its gory contents up like a theme park for psychos.
"ACE!" He yells.
"Sanji… ZORO!" Ace shouts back, sprinting to them.
"Is he…?" Ace pants as he reaches them, his back and his legs are on fire but his hands extinguish themselves as they reach out and touch Zoro. Ace is wondering just what he's wondering, is Zoro still alive and is Zoro still alive?
"I don't know, help me get him out of here." Sanji pants, his collar bone protesting loudly and painfully. Ace extinguishes more of himself and slips under Zoro's other arm, getting his swords in the ribs as he helps Sanji pull the stumbling man from the room. Eventually they come out into the bright hallway and lean Zoro against the opposite wall as Sanji vengefully kicks the dungeon door shut, he never wants to go back down there again.
Zoro is still staring blankly ahead in the same way that Cindry had done, and from the way that Ace is holding him he's pretty sure that Zoro would be sliding down the wall right now if he wasn't being held up.
"Zoro, please still be in there, please." He begs, touching Zoro's chin and tilting his face to him. Zoro stares right though him, filling Sanji with dread.
"Zoro…" he pleads, his heart breaking in his chest as Zoro's empty gaze is unmoving.
"We don't have time to do this here, let's go!" Ace snaps, shoving him in the arm. Sanji looks at Ace and sees the same echo of pain in his face that he feels, Ace is just as worried about Zoro as he is, but perhaps he's smart enough not to let this devolve into the agony that it could do when they're in such a dangerous place.
"Right." He nods, blinking his eyes dry and sliding under Zoro's arm. Between the two of them they pull Zoro towards the way that they came, aiming to get him out of this place and back to Robin's safely.
"Is it… quiet?" Sanji asks, stopping suddenly after a few minutes of running.
"What?" Ace frowns, but the building has gone quiet. They stop and listen but there's no sound at all… it's far too quiet.
Sanji feels a sudden snap of tension run through Zoro's back as the man suddenly straightens up and pulls back against them, his gaze is sharp and focused now but not on either of them.
"Zoro?" Ace questions hopefully, looking at the man. Sanji though follows Zoro's gaze and sees a slithering mist of… something black creeping towards them across the floor. Zoro's breathing is speeding up and he takes a step backwards, followed by another, pulling him and Ace with him.
"Blackbeard's power is darkness…" Sanji breathes.
"So there'll be no darkness." Ace growls, his hand catching alight. He shoots a stream of fire at the creeping dark, setting the carpet and the wall alight.
"ACE! You'll burn the building down and kill us all!" Sanji snaps, kicking him. Ace stops. The darkness has receded but soon slides directly for them with increased speed. Zoro bolts, breaking free of their arms and running, only to skid to a halt less than ten feet away as a sudden solid wall of darkness rises up, blocking his path.
Sanji backs up as Ace ignores earlier advice and indiscriminately shoots fire at the darkness, but no matter what he does the darkness returns almost instantly, like stomping in a puddle doesn't leave a hole in the water, this doesn't banish the dark.
"Black hole." The voice rings along the hallway, as if carried by the darkness.
Sanji backs up until he hits something, he turns his head to see that he's walked into Zoro. The man's eye is darting around at the encroaching darkness with a simply terrified look on his face. He slips his hand into Zoro's and for the first time Zoro glances at him and really seems to see him, Zoro's hand tightens in his as the darkness rushes over their feet and drops them into nothingness.
It's not like being in the dark, not really. In the dark you're still aware of your body, of your breathing, of your heart beating. But here he can't feel anything, not even himself. He can't move his own limbs because he can't even feel if he has any. He's just… a disembodied brain floating in absolute nothing.
He understands now what Law meant when he said about complete sensory deprivation. So Blackbeard has him now then, and Zoro again too. But Zoro was still alive inside, he saw the way that Zoro had looked at him, the way the other man had squeezed his hand back. Zoro was alive.
"Liberation." That voice again, Blackbeard's voice.
Sanji gasps in air as the darkness retreats from him, giving him a body once more. Light floods back in, glorious light. He blinks, trying to focus and struggles vainly against the tightness against his chest. His arms are pinned to his side and he's mired in the darkness up to his ribs. Around him his nakama are all in similar states, they're all circled around Blackbeard and Zoro in the centre of the room.
Zoro is standing on normal flooring, not darkness, but around the six foot circle that he stands in darkness surrounds him, darkness filled with his trapped and furious friends and family all trying to get free. Zoro is stock still and staring at nothing again. Blackbeard is eyeing Sanji smugly from the centre of the ring, sitting as he is on a throne made of darkness.
"Did you really think that this would work? That you could break into my home, take my toys and run away?" Blackbeard laughs loudly.
"He's not your toy!" Sanji shouts back, struggling against the dark uselessly.
"Hm, I suppose not, not now that you and your little friends have destroyed Spandam's company. The sheer number of lawsuits that man is facing right now is hilarious, there's no way he can ever pay everyone for all of those collars breaking open and freeing their mates. He's going to have to flee the country." Blackbeard muses as he gets up and walks close to Sanji.
"However, since he has given me so many fun toys over the years I thought I'd do him a favour. I told him that I've got you here and that he's welcome to show up with a baseball bat and smash your skull in for all that you've done. He's going to hit your brain right out of the park and Zoro here is going to watch." Blackbeard says tauntingly, tapping the side of Sanji's head with a fat finger.
Sanji's eyes flicker to Zoro. He had seen life in him earlier, he had. But right now Zoro is standing behind Blackbeard, his expression blank and his body free of tension. Blackbeard tracks his gaze and grins.
"Oh, you think that your love here will save you? You think that he'll use those swords of his and stop me? Honestly Sanji, your lack of respect for my work is upsetting." Blackbeard says in false hurt, pressing a hand over where his heart would be if he had one.
"I have broken every last bit of Zoro's little mind, he's never going to move to rescue you. Do you know why?" the evil man demands, leaning over him.
Sanji's mind flicks back to the video that was playing on repeat in the dungeon for Zoro's benefit. How many times had it run since it had actually happened to him? How many times did Zoro think that he'd died?
"Because he thinks I'm dead." Sanji growls, glaring at Blackbeard.
"No, he knows you're dead. And I've filled him with enough mind altering substances whilst he's been here that he knows better than to believe his own eyes. And even without that he dreams about you anyway, dreams about you dying and there being nothing he can do to stop it. He's not going to help you because he knows you're not real." Blackbeard says mockingly, running a hand along Sanji's jaw and pulling an angry growl from his lips.
Blackbeard stands up, his hands on his hips and a smug grin on his face.
"Zoro is stronger than that, stronger than you! If you really thought you'd broken him he'd be wandering around your house freely, not locked in a dungeon. You know he's still in there!" Ace shouts, struggling against the darkness holding him in place.
"Really?" Blackbeard laughs with mirth, his hands holding his large shaking belly as he chuckles out loud.
Blackbeard leaves Sanji's side and strolls to Ace. Sanji should probably be watching but he can't take his eyes off of Zoro. Zoro is free, standing without a collar and not in darkness, he could move if he wanted, run even (though Sanji isn't sure where he could go as he's surrounded). He's armed, he could attack Blackbeard, and yet… and yet Zoro stands there like a statue. The only sign that Zoro is actually alive is his gentle breathing moving his bare chest. He stares at Zoro, willing him to move with his eyes. Any trace of Zoro's mind that he'd seen moments ago is gone.
Blackbeard struts back into his field of view with a knife in his hands, Ace's knife, Sanji dimly recognises. Ace and Luffy are screaming and shouting all manner of obscenities at Blackbeard, threats of death, of unimaginable pain should Blackbeard lay so much as a finger on Zoro. The two D brothers are suddenly silenced as the darkness rises and smothers their mouths.
They struggle against it but there's no use.
"Much better, quieter." Blackbeard sighs with relief.
"Now, you don't believe that Zoro's completely under my command? Well let's see. Zoro, give me your neck." Blackbeard orders, stopping before Zoro.
Unhesitatingly and unthinkingly Zoro tips his head back, looking skywards and bearing his neck to the armed Blackbeard. Sanji stares at the pale stripe on Zoro's skin where his collar used to be. Sanji wanted to be the one to take Zoro's collar off, he wanted to see the skin that hadn't been free for years, but he didn't want to see it like this with a knife against it! He snarls angrily and thrashes against the binding darkness.
Blackbeard presses the knife lightly to Zoro's skin, just kissing it with the blade under his Adams apple. The psychopath's thumb runs along the flat edge of the blade almost affectionately.
"Zoro, lean into it." He orders casually.
Sanji watches the slow tilt of Zoro's body, watches in open mouthed horror as Zoro slowly leans forward onto the blade firmly held in Blackbeard's hands. The blade presses against Zoro's skin indenting it until finally the pressure builds enough for the blade to cut, thick dark red blood blossoming and flowing over it, dribbling down Zoro's bare neck and chest.
"Stop." Blackbeard commands and Zoro stops. Blackbeard keeps the blade exactly where it is though and Sanji can still see the blood move along the blade and drip off as Zoro's sluggish pulse expels that vital liquid from his system. Zoro doesn't even seem to feel it, his expression is still vacant. His point proven Blackbeard drops the knife and turns back to face them.
"He's dead inside, I've broken him and there's no getting him back, can't you see that? He doesn't care about his own life, he doesn't care if he dies!" the man laughs outrageously as if this is the funniest thing in the world.
"Zoro, snap out of it!" Sanji calls, struggling some more.
"Oh yes, please do shout out for him, beg him to run or to save you, I do love watching other people's pain. So come on, please, tell him that you're real, because he won't believe you. Tell him that you're alive, because he's seen you die a thousand times and he hates himself for not being able to stop it. Come on, I've got all day, go for it!" Blackbeard laughs, sitting down on the floor by Sanji and grinning sickly at him.
"Well, I say I've got all day, I've got until Spandam and his baseball bat get here and splatter your brains across the room right before your love and all of your friends. So actually, get a move on, I want to hear this!" he hoots.
The words don't come to Sanji right away, he stares at Zoro standing before him, his gaze directed straight ahead of him and off to the side of Sanji. The blood is still inching down his chest from his slit throat in measured, even pulses. Blackbeard is right, there's no way he can convince Zoro that this isn't a dream or some hallucination, that's what Blackbeard wants him to do.
"I'm sorry Zoro." He apologises quietly.
"I'm sorry I left you here for so long, I was trying to be strong, to win and get you back so that no one could take you again. I thought that I could win in court but I didn't realise that it was just a distraction to keep me from you. I'm sorry." He says, feeling the tears well in his eyes.
"I love you and… and it hurt so much, seeing you and hearing you get hurt. I never thought anything could hurt like that, Zoro." He says, the confession ripping raw and painful from his chest, but it needs to be said. A tremble runs through Zoro's frame, a shudder almost.
"Sanji, stop it! Don't you think that Zoro's been hurt enough without you making him feel worse?!" Nami shouts for the first time.
"Yeah, stop it!" Usopp agrees angrily.
"But it's true! He ripped you apart and sent me the pieces Zoro! It broke my heart hearing you in so much pain! And I'm sorry I put you in that position!" He shouts.
"Gee, you're almost better at this than I am." Blackbeard grins as the shudder becomes an all out flinch, a pained whine slips from between Zoro's lips.
"I'm never going to forgive myself for everything that happened to you Zoro, no matter how much Blackbeard hurt me by sending me those things. It doesn't matter how much time I spent sobbing because of hearing you scream, or agonising about what might be happening to you, it still doesn't excuse me!" He shouts desperately, speaking truthfully now.
"Sanji, shut up! You're hurting him!" Franky shouts over him, and it's true, Zoro's looking at him now – really looking at him, with agony on his face.
"I know I can't convince you that this is real, I know I can't convince you that there's even a chance that it might be. I know you think that this is a dream, or a hallucination!" he calls to Zoro, desperately leaning forward. Blackbeard is grinning like a fool, expecting him to say that it's not, to claim that he really is real.
"So maybe this isn't real. But if this is a dream and you're armed and Blackbeard is right here… don't you want to take the chance to get revenge? If Blackbeard really did kill me, if he really did crush me to death… don't you think you ought to run him through with one of your swords, shouldn't you avenge me?" He challenges.
Blackbeard turns sharply and looks up at Zoro, Sanji doesn't miss the doubt and worry that flashes across his face, because Blackbeard knows that there are still bits of Zoro that he hasn't reached. He knows that there is strength in Zoro that he simply couldn't take and right now Sanji's words have him afraid of what Zoro might do.
Zoro is staring right at Sanji, his expression inscrutable but not the picture of agony it was a few moments ago. Sanji stares back, hoping and praying that his words really have got through to Zoro. Zoro blinks slowly (or is it winking if he's only got the one eye now…?) and turns his gaze back straight ahead away from Sanji and lets the blank expression settle over his features again.
"Zoro…" Sanji pleads, feeling desperate but already seeing that his best wasn't good enough.
"Oh wow, you really had me going for a moment there Sanji." Blackbeard laughs, slapping a hand on his shoulder. Sanji keeps his face neutral as his eyes register movement, Zoro is still facing forward but his visible eye has slid back to Sanji, he's watching him.
"Zoro, please." Sanji begs. Blackbeard glances back but Zoro's gaze is forward and neutral again. He chuckles to himself.
Blackbeard reaches forward and snags Sanji under the chin, forcing him to look up. Over Blackbeard's shoulder Sanji sees Zoro's gaze return to him again.
"I could kill you right in front of him you know, he wouldn't do anything, even though you've armed him with those pretty swords. He doesn't dare disobey me, not anymore." Blackbeard threatens quietly, hissing in Sanji's face. Sanji growls but doesn't miss the way Zoro's left hand twitches sharply, as if itching to do something.
"Zoro's stronger than you are, you underestimate him." Sanji hisses back, he keeps his glare on Blackbeard but in his peripheral he can see Zoro's left arm slowly tracking against his bare torso across to his right hip.
"No, you overestimate him. He was the strongest I've seen, sure. But he broke, just like everyone else. They're all weak." Blackbeard taunts him, squeezing Sanji's cheeks painfully.
Zoro's hand silently wraps around the white hilt of his favourite sword. Sanji glowers at Blackbeard and struggles fruitlessly against his bindings, keen to keep Blackbeard's attention on him.
"He broke because of you, because you made him love you. Don't you know how much time he must have spent in his life vowing never to do just that, to fall for his master? And yet you came into his life and broke him, you broke him before I did, cracked his heart open and climbed inside. You're just as much of a monster." Blackbeard continues with a sick grin.
"I'm nothing like you." Sanji argues back as Zoro silently pulls the sword free of her sheath without making so much as a scraping sound.
Do it. Sanji begs silently in the confines of his head.
"I might not have been able to break him if not for you, you're his weakness." The psycho taunts him. Zoro's bare feet move silently on the rug behind Blackbeard as he turns.
"Caring about someone- loving someone… that's not weakness, that's strength." Sanji counters. Zoro flips the sword in his hand, so that the blade is pointing downwards.
"I love Zoro, more than anything. You'll never have that, and that's why he's stronger than you are, that's why you couldn't break him, because he loves me too." Sanji breathes.
Zoro strikes, it's so fast that Sanji doesn't even see it. One moment Zoro was raising his sword arm and the next there's a blade sprouting from the front of Blackbeard's chest. The laugh that Blackbeard had started at Sanji's words turns into a wet gurgle.
Zoro's jaw tilts defiantly, as if considering his position. Sanji watches as the blade in Blackbeard's chest tilts slightly and pulls out with a sickening sound, cutting him anew from a different angle as slowly and painfully as possible.
Blackbeard's eyes bulge wide as he coughs out a mouthful of blood. His body trembles and the darkness around them all suddenly evaporates, dropping Sanji onto his knees before Blackbeard. Zoro flicks his sword, splattering a line of Blackbeard's blood across the wall and floor.
"Die." Sanji curses, pulling his strongest leg back in his crouch and powering up into a kick that sends Blackbeard's head snapping back and his teeth spraying through the air like morbid confetti. Zoro springs to the side out of the way, as light and nimble as he ever was when training outside in Sanji's garden. Blackbeard stumbles, pained and disoriented, clutching the bloody hole in his chest with one hand and his bleeding mouth with the other.
The others are rising to their feet now, Luffy is pulling back a fist, Nami and Usopp are raising their weapons, Franky is transforming and Ace is indistinguishable from the inferno that surrounds him. Blackbeard eyes them all fearfully and pulls up a wall of darkness on his side of the room just as lightning, fire and bullets lance across the room towards him. Luffy and Ace sprint to the wall of darkness but stop short of touching it, wary of being sucked in again, Blackbeard is escaping but there's nothing that they can do about it. The blackness in the other half of the room dissolves with Blackbeard nowhere to be seen.
But… they've rescued Zoro. Blackbeard is on the run and clearly in no condition to fight them, and Zoro is alive! He turns, beaming, to Zoro and… stares. Zoro isn't looking at him, or at the wall of darkness, he's not really looking at anything. The blank stare is back and his posture is loose and uncaring again, his hand relaxes and his white sword tumbles from it onto the floor with a clatter.
"Zoro!" Nami exclaims, rushing forward and grabbing Zoro's precious sword up off of the floor. She wipes it on her sleeve hurriedly and places it back into its scabbard, staring at Zoro's empty expression the whole time.
"Zoro, where'd you go?" Sanji asks, touching Zoro. The swordsman doesn't react at all; it's like Sanji's not even there.
"He's been really traumatised Sanji, we need to get him out of here. Let's just go." Chopper says, pulling on Sanji's sleeve.
"Right… come on Zoro." Sanji nods absently, grabbing Zoro's arm and pulling him out towards the exit, following Nami and the others.
"He's not getting away from me!" Ace fumes from up ahead, angrily glancing in every room they pass for a trace of Blackbeard. Sanji wants to kill him too but right now his priority is getting Zoro somewhere safe.
They burst out onto the manicured lawn of Blackbeard's mansion; the darkness surrounding the house makes Sanji somewhat uneasy, though it's the natural darkness of night. They don't get too far from the house before figures leap around them, surrounding the group. They're his father- no, Spandam's men.
Jabra is the one in front of him and Zoro, Sanji instinctively steps before Zoro and slides the nonresponsive man behind him.
"You can't protect him, and this time when I bite him I'm gonna take a chunk right outta him." Jabra laughs maniacally.
Sanji's eyes widen as his mind flicks back to the morning when he and Zoro had awoken and were tricked into thinking that the night before Sanji had raped him. The bite on Zoro's neck hadn't been his. The teeth were crooked and jagged just… just like Jabra's. He remembers seeing a flash of something canine on the beach too that night.
For the second time that night he kicks the teeth right out of someone's head. For the second time that night he wishes that he could do it again and again.
Ace takes out Lucci, and that pleases Sanji to no end to see the bastard lawyer's cat fur burning as the fire fist attacks him. Nami and Usopp take on Califa, Franky and Chopper fight Kumadori, Brook takes on Kaku and Zoro and Robin stand there doing nothing.
"Spandam." Robin's voice says quietly, her voice so out of place that it startles Sanji from grinding his heel into Jabra's face.
She's staring across the lawn to the figures in the darkness; Spandam is at the front, looking furious that his best fighters are losing. He's cursing and shouting, giving orders to his remaining guards to shoot them.
"Do you remember Ohara?" Robin yells, her face so furious that Sanji has to take a step back.
"I burnt it to the ground, and I'll burn you too!" Spandam shrieks at them. Ace quirks an eyebrow and casually hurls a bathtub sized fireball at Blackbeard's house, as if to prove that he was the only one burning things here.
"That bastard, I'll kill him." Franky says darkly, looking at Spandam from over his shoulder.
"I got here first." Robin says flatly, raising her hands up to her chest and crossing them at the wrists. Sanji gasps and looks back to the man he's hated his entire life, it's dark but the light of the burning building lets Sanji see the arms sprouting on Spandam's body, pulling and contorting him backwards. They bend him into an arch that is painful to pretty much everyone who isn't Sanji or made of rubber like Luffy.
Robin's eyes are hard as diamonds as she surveys the burning scene before her and her mortal enemy bend and entirely at her mercy. Sanji looks back to Spandam, unfortunately for him Robin is without mercy.
"Clutch." Robin says with a voice like ice.
The snap of Spandam's spine seems to echo throughout the night.
"Well, as much as I'm going to treasure the memory of seeing that, we need to leave." Nami says after a moment. Silent agreement runs through them all and Sanji grabs Zoro's hand and pulls him away.
Their escape plan is brilliant in its simplicity. They need to escape the police for a laundry list of charges, theft (of Zoro), murder, assault, breaking and entering, property damage, grievous bodily harm, and probably a whole bunch of other things too. The simple solution was to just flee the country. It was kind of Zeff who had suggested it, he'd had a floating restaurant once, before Sanji met him and he said that the sea could be a place where men could live free. Luffy had then exclaimed about pirates and the fact that Ace was actually already in a pirate crew, though apparently Ace had chosen to be land bound as long as Zoro needed him.
After that there hadn't been any stopping them.
Franky had got his brother and all of his friends to help in building a ship to take them to sea, Nami had started amassing sea charts and island maps, the Baratie staff had started loading him up with supplies and Chopper set up medical facilities in the knowledge that someone would surely need them immediately.
They run to the ocean together, Zoro's slack hand in his as the man keeps up with no care for where they're going or even anything giving a hint that he's aware of what's happening at all. Their feet slam up the board of the new ship, thusfar unnamed, all of them except Ace.
The freckled man hesitates at the bottom of the plank and stares up at them.
"Ace, get up here, you're on my crew!" Luffy calls out to him.
"Sorry Luffy, you know that's not happening. Besides, I'd be captain not you." Ace grins up at his younger brother from the dock.
"No way!" Luffy argues back.
"See?" Ace chuckles softly.
"Anyway… I have a ship of my own, and a crew to get back to Marco and Whitebeard need me. And… Blackbeard is getting away, that just doesn't sit right with me. I'm going to hunt him down." Ace says sternly, his fists tensing at his sides.
The cowboy hat wearing man pauses and looks up at Sanji, his dark eyes flick to Zoro and then back again.
"Take care of him, okay? If you don't I'll kill you." Ace says seriously.
"I hope you would. I'm not going to let any harm come to him, you've got my word." Sanji nods.
"Well okay then." The fire fist sighs, pushing the brim of his hat back with one flaming finger.
"Later!" He calls out and runs off into the night.
They all stand silently on deck for a few moments before Nami begins barking out orders and the ship sets off into the ocean, taking them away from the law, from the people hunting them and (hopefully) from Blackbeard.
Chopper pulls Zoro off downstairs into his medical office and though Sanji tries to go with him, Chopper shoos him away and says that it's private. He worries and frets over Zoro's injures, both physical and mental. He keeps getting glimpses of the swordsman under that blank nothingness but he keeps slipping away, like water between his fingers. And really… he'd not seen Zoro under there just yet. He'd seen the swordsman and he'd seen a panicked reaction to darkness but Zoro… actual Zoro had yet to be seen.
He cleans up the dishes from the exhausting dinner that they'd all just had, wiping food from plates and wishing that he could wipe his conscience clear as easily. What would become of him and Zoro now? What if Zoro didn't come back? What if he was this empty figure that only showed flashes of who Zoro used to be? Or what if he did come back but was so traumatised that he couldn't bear to be near Sanji? Could Zoro ever love him again? Something deep in his gut aches at that. It's selfish but he can still remember the smell of Zoro's skin as they made love, the feel of his body against him, the sounds he made. He doesn't want that to be just a memory. But if Blackbeard really did torture Zoro as Cabaji recommended… well… Zoro may never want anyone near him again, much less Sanji.
He sighs and goes below deck, the washing up done. He catches notes of Choppers voice and follows, a bedroom door is open and he peeks around the edge to see Chopper and Zoro inside.
"You should sleep now Zoro, you might feel better in the morning." Chopper instructs, pulling the covers over him. The little doctor seems to sense his presence, his ears twitching and his gaze turning to take Sanji in. The doctor sighs, strokes a hoof over Zoro's hair before walking quietly to the door.
"How…" Sanji begins quietly.
"Not good. His injuries are extensive, but manageable, his mind however… I've seen no sign that Zoro is really in there. What we saw tonight may have been exceptional. He's showing no reflexes to pain or even any indication that he hears any of the questions that I ask him." The doctor sighs, fear coils tightly in Sanji's gut.
"Can… can I stay here with him? Someone should keep an eye on him right?" Sanji offers, unable to take his eyes off of Zoro long enough to put the request to Chopper with any amount of eye contact.
"Sure, just be careful not to spook him and get me if you need me." Chopper says gently, patting Sanji on the leg and leaving.
The thought occurs to him that Chopper might be trying to fix his pain as much as he is Zoro's, clever kid. He moves into the room and shuts the door behind him, the soft lamp throwing a warm glow around the room. He sits down on the edge of the bed, Zoro is on his side, staring at nothing still.
Sanji picks up Zoro's limp hand and studies it, the feel of the rough calloused palm, the long strong fingers, they bend gently under his touch as he runs the pads of his fingers over them.
"I know it's stupid, but I'm having kind of a hard time believing that this is real. I thought I'd never see you alive again…" He says quietly to Zoro, tracing a finger along Zoro's life line on his palm.
"You saved us all when you stabbed that bastard you know, but I'm sorry if I upset you with what I said before you did it." He says softly, running his fingers over the angular bones of Zoro's wrists. They're still a little raw from where Chopper cut the cuffs off.
"I do love you, you know. It's so stupid but I never said it until they took you from me, I was scared you might not feel the same. But I love you." He says regretfully, running his finger along the inside of Zoro's wrist.
"I wish I hadn't been so stupid, that I'd got to you sooner." He sighs and turns to look at Zoro's blank expression. Only... Zoro's expression isn't blank; he's watching him with one gold-flecked eye. There's not much of an expression there but Zoro is watching him.
"Zoro?" He questions hopefully. Zoro's fingers slide into his.
"I don't care if I'm dreaming or not." Zoro says, his voice rough and uneven like he's not used it in some time. Zoro pulls on his arm and pulls Sanji into the bed with him. He pulls him against his front and presses his forehead to Sanji's cheek.
"I don't care if I've lost my mind, just keep talking." Zoro chokes out.
Sanji isn't the sort of man to refuse a request like that. He wraps his arm around Zoro and kicks his shoes off onto the floor. He tells Zoro that he missed him, he tells him about the ship, about all the cool little places it has in it, he speaks about the kitchen. He does his best to keep off of subjects that might upset Zoro like the torture, or how being away from Zoro and knowing what happened hurt him, he keeps away from the subject of Zoro getting better. So he speaks about inane shit because every time he stops talking, even just to get a drink from the glass by the bed or to collect his thoughts he feels Zoro start to tense by his side, he feels Zoro's hand clutch tightly to his shirt as if he might vanish. So he talks until his throat is raw and Zoro's slow even breathing speaks of the deepest of sleep. Only then with Zoro safe against him and relaxed can Sanji sleep too.