This is the start of one of the "arcs" in this 30 Pieces series, first of four parts.
Title:Return of an old nemesis
Theme:Set #3 - Betrayal
Claim: Zoro
Words:3639
Rating: T
Warnings:For a spot of language, violence and unpleasant imagery. Also, contains an enemy!OC.
Disclaimers:I don't own One Piece.
Acknowledgments:Originally inspired by a pic by sybile titled Mind Control [pics. livejournal. com/sybile/pic/000q7xg5/g12]. The character Silvertongue is loosely based on Codfix, from "Asterix and the Great Divide", but...a lot meaner. Lastly, thanks to ZeldaAddict42 for giving me loads of help on this fic!
Chopper paused a moment in his work to wipe the sweat from his brow. It was hard work grinding herbs, especially in this heat, and he'd been going at it non-stop for half an hour now. He idly wondered how long it would be till the others were back from their shopping trip.
Swoop. Swish.Chopper looked across at Zoro, who was training with an enormous weight, each swift, sure stroke generating a fleeting gust of wind that Chopper desperately wished he was in the path of. They both knew from past experience that Zoro's katas would send Chopper's herbs flying if they got too close, and they'd made sure from the beginning of their watch to keep a safe distance apart.
Chopper watched Zoro for a few moments, lost in admiration for the man he regarded as an older brother. Zoro had made one concession to the heat, removing his shirt and haramaki to train, but otherwise he was still going strong, his furrowed brow set in concentration, seemingly oblivious to the sweat dripping from every pore, determined to push his rippling muscles to their limit and beyond.
Zoro seemed to feel the little reindeer's gaze on him, and his dark eyes swung around to meet Chopper's. Chopper's eyes went wide and he hurriedly returned to his medicines. After all, if Zoro could work this hard, so could he, Chopper decided. If Zoro was going to challenge the greatest swordsman in the world, he would have to become a great doctor too, capable of healing even the worst injuries. He just knew there would be more injuries to heal, more work for him to do. There would surely be more confrontations with the World Government to come, and Zoro would just as surely be in the thick of each one, flinging himself into battle to protect his nakama. Then, when the dust settled, it would be Chopper's turn to protect him. Chopper nodded sternly to himself and picked up the grinder once more, rolling it back and forth with more vigour than ever.
Sadly, his new resolution was thwarted two minutes later by the arrival of the land breeze, which forced him to hastily cover up his herbs before they blew away. He sniffed the air tentatively and jumped up. "Zoro! I can smell Sanji! He's on his way back!"
"Okay, Chopper." Zoro continued swinging the weight around nevertheless.
Chopper packed away his herbs into his backpack and jumped up onto the railing of the ship. "Oi! Sanjiiiiiii! I'll let down the rope ladder for you!"
"Thanks," the cook responded.
"Who's that with you?"
Zoro paused for a moment, looking towards the landward side of the ship. There was someone unfamiliar with the cook? It had better not be some girl, he thought, putting down his weight and crossing over towards Chopper and the rope ladder.
But Sanji got there first.
"Sanji? What are you..." Chopper's frantic question died down into a strangled yelp as Sanji picked up the reindeer and held him with an arm across his throat, cutting off his ability to speak.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, shit cook?" Zoro yelled, darting instinctively for his katana where they lay on top of the neat pile of clothes on the deck.
"Leave those swords alone, Roronoa. Otherwise your pet gets it."
Zoro froze, forced to stop by the threat to Chopper, stunned by the unfamiliar term of address. Sanji, calling him "Roronoa"? Calling Chopper "the pet"?
He straightened up, leaving the swords where they lay on the deck, and looked Sanji in the eye. It had to be the cook. He'd only ever seen one other person in the world with so curly an eyebrow, and Sanji had fixed that with his Parage Shot. Yet it couldn'tbe the cook. Sanji might be a flirtatious idiot, but he would never hurt one of his own nakama.
"Whoever you are, leave Chopper alone," Zoro ordered. "This is between you and me."
"That's right, Roronoa. This is between you and me."
Zoro whirled around to face the intruder, who'd just clambered up the ship's ladder. His eyes narrowed in recognition, his lips curling downwards in a disgusted frown. "You."
"Yes, Roronoa Zoro, me. Silvertongue. The man you once put behind bars, all the way back in East Blue."
Zoro remembered him all too well, this frog-faced man with the ingratiating smile and the silky, slimy voice. One of his easiest bounties, but by far the most annoying. The man was well-known for destroying pirate crews, using his gift of eloquent persuasion to turn crew against captain, nakama against nakama, making off with their treasure as they fought amongst each other. Then he got greedy and began targeting Marine bases instead, wreaking verbal havoc and stealing away from the chaos with the contents of their treasuries. Finally the Marines connected the dots and put a one million beli bounty on Silvertongue.
Ridiculously easy money, Zoro had thought - a threatening blade across his neck and the man had surrendered. The ease of the capture was more than made up for by the trip to the nearest Marine base, which seemed to last an eternity as Silvertongue alternated between bribes, threats and cajolery, none of which had much effect other than to make Zoro seriously consider turning him in dead rather than alive. He'd resorted in the end to tearing off the man's sleeve and gagging him with it, wondering why he hadn't thought of this solution earlier. By the time Zoro collected his bounty, he felt that he'd earned every beli.
Now he regretted not killing the man in cold blood, as he looked helplessly towards Silvertongue's hostage, at Chopper's frantic, pleading eyes. He could try attacking Sanji to force him to release Chopper, but he knew that the blond man could easily snap the reindeer's neck before he could even reach him.
"What the hell did you do to the shit cook, anyway?" He was sure that the Silvertongue of East Blue wouldn't have been able to enchant Sanji with fine words. Maybe, if he'd been a woman. But the cook wasn't the kind to listen to another man's instructions. And he would never willingly hurt Chopper, Zoro was certain.
"I wonder if you've heard of a shichibukai by the name of Donquixote Doflamingo?"
"What about him?"
"He has a very interesting Devil's Fruit, that allows him to control other people's bodies like a puppet. I have the companion to that Devil's Fruit, which allows me to control people's minds. Your cook will say what I tell him to say, do what I tell him to do - and he won't remember a thing."
Silvertongue's mouth stretched into an toothy, vindictive grin. "I suppose I should thank you for bringing about my present happy condition. It was in that Marine prison that I found out about this Devil's Fruit, after all. After talking my way out, I entered the Grand Line and searched high and low for it. After years of searching, I finally found it, and with it the promise of great riches and great power. But first, I decided to come after you, the man who put me in that hellhole in the first place. Back then, I could do nothing to you because you were alone. But now that I have your nakama under my control, you are weak, Roronoa Zoro, and I am strong. I'm going to torture you, Roronoa. Not with pain, because I know that you're immune to pain. With words. With betrayal. You will die at the hands of your own crewmates, knowing how much your own nakama detest you, knowing that after you're gone, you will be remembered with hatred, if you're remembered at all."
"Like we'll let you get away with that!" Chopper suddenly grew into Heavy Point, shrugging off Sanji's grasp, rushing towards Silvertongue. But then the man made a gesture with his hand, and Chopper stopped mid-stride, his eyes glazing over.
"Chopper!" Now that Chopper was no longer in danger, Zoro grabbed his katana, unsheathing two of them as he launched an attack at Silvertongue. "Nitoryuu! Taka Na-"
Zoro blinked. He'd just been in the middle of an attack, he knew, so why was he pinned down on the deck of the Thousand Sunny? Where were his swords? His head ached, and he felt violated, somehow, as if his brain had just been raped.
"Whew, that was a surprise," Silvertongue said. "I had no idea your pet was capable of such a transformation." He wiped beads of non-existent sweat off his brow and grinned mockingly at Zoro. "Oh, please stop with the waves of haki or whatever that is, Roronoa. With my Devil's Fruit, I'm immune to such mind tricks. Now, let's see. I could use my powers to restrain you once more, but I would prefer if you were fully conscious of what's about to happen. Would you mind, my dear?"
"Sure thing," a voice said behind Zoro, the voice familiar but the word choice somehow disturbingly uncharacteristic. He glanced backwards as Heavy Point Chopper hauled him onto his knees, to see Robin approaching him - when had she returned to the ship? A moment later he heard two metallic clicks as a pair of heavy handcuffs snapped into place around his wrists. He tugged experimentally at the restraints, instantly recognising that it was useless to try and break them.
He glared at Silvertongue. "What the hell are you -"
"Oiiiiiiii! We're back!" It was Luffy's usual cheerful voice, and for a moment hope flared within Zoro, but when his captain actually used the ladder to climb up rather than extending his rubber arms to catapult himself on board, he knew that Silvertongue had gotten to him, too. As he had Nami, Usopp and Franky, who clambered up after him and stood staring impassively at him through glassy, unfriendly eyes.
Wonderful, Zoro thought darkly. There wasn't anything he could do to defend himself, and if anyone else tried to help, Silvertongue would just put them under his spell, too. That was one nasty Devil's Fruit.
"Well, I think your crew's all assembled, so let's begin the festivities, shall we?" Silvertongue sat down on a deckchair and folded his arms, as if he was spectating rather than masterminding the whole event.
"What're you planning?" Zoro growled.
"I'm going to release my hold on your crewmates."
"You're going to do what?" Zoro asked in disbelief.
"Only partially, of course. Enough to let their own personalities surface, but not enough to let them actually control their own actions. I'm going to tell each of them to vent their resentment of you, on you."
"Resentment? Why the hell would they resent me?" Zoro's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oh, please. What do you take me for, a fool? You're Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, the Demon of East Blue," Silvertongue spat, emphasis on "Demon". "And, incidentally, the most unpleasant man I've ever met. Clearly, you rule this ship with a fist of terror."
Zoro couldn't help but be amused. "You do know I'm not the captain of this crew, don't you?"
"Only because your captain must be an even more unpleasant man. Just look at that grin on his bounty poster. He's obviously a maniac."
"Obviously." Zoro rolled his eyes. It was kind of embarrassing to be put in so degrading a position by a man who was not only a weakling, but who hadn't even done the most basic research.
"So, I'm going to set them free. Let them show just how much they hate you, all the while telling you why. I have found this an excellent way of destroying the bonds of a crew - and, of course, a highly entertaining way of destroying a strong man's mind."
"I see." As ways of dying went, Zoro reflected, at least this one promised to be interesting.
"Let's start with the cook, shall we? Since I detect a certain amount of enmity towards you in his mind. Go ahead, Sanji-kun," Silvertongue said encouragingly.
Sanji tapped the toe of a shoe against the deck a couple of times, something Zoro recognised as the prelude to - "Anti-Manner Kick Course!" the cook yelled, and a split-second later Zoro was sent sprawling, too hampered by his restrained hands to dodge the kick square to his abdomen.
"Very good, Sanji-kun, very good," Silvertongue said eagerly. "Now, tell Roronoa just what you hate about him."
"You have the worst table manners in the world," Sanji sneered.
Zoro could have laughed out loud at the cook's first choice of insult.
"What! Is that the best you can come up with? Say something more negative!" Silvertongue screeched.
"You're also too fucking strong, -" Zoro's head reeled with another kick - "too fucking self-sacrificing," - yet another - "and too fucking obstinate for your own good!" Zoro coughed up some blood with the last kick.
"Yes, well, although the insults could have been stronger, at least you did some damage," Silvertongue said, sounding doubtful for the first time.
"Yeah, right," Zoro said, running his tongue over his lips to lick off the blood. "That's just the shit cook's minimum setting."
"I must have made a mistake with this one," Silvertongue frowned. "Well, what about your pet, then? Go ahead, Chopper-kun. Tell Roronoa what you really think of him."
Chopper's eyes sparkled with hero-worship. "I wanna grow up to be like you someday, Zoro!"
Zoro was too touched at the reindeer's earnest declaration to laugh.
"No! Something bad! Something you hate about him!" Silvertongue hissed. He turned to Zoro, gesturing in frustration at the Strawhats. "Are all your crew this bad at following instructions?" he asked.
Zoro thought about the zany chaos that every Strawhat day usually wound up descending into. "Yeah, pretty much," he admitted.
"Let's see whether they can follow these instructions, then," Silvertongue said, eyes glinting with malice, and in a moment Zoro found himself under attack from his nakama. He automatically curled up into a foetal position, clenching and releasing muscle groups in turn to minimise the damage, and distracted his mind with trying to identify each of his crewmates in their onslaught.
The barrage of rubber fists could come from no one else but Luffy. Chopper was clinically precise in the way he applied an almost-but-not-quite unbearable pressure to Zoro's spine. At such a close range and with so much interference, Usopp couldn't make as much use of his usual bag of tricks, and seemed to be contenting himself with a few kicks at the prone swordsman, which were nowhere near Sanji's level. Nami's punch was easily recognisable after all the times Zoro had been given a taste of it before. The swat across his face had undeniably come from one of Robin's disembodied hands. Franky's fists were hard as steel as they slammed Zoro into the deck of the ship.
Five minutes later, Silvertongue called off the attack and inspected the bruised and battered swordsman with vindictive pleasure. "So much for the love and respect you seem to think your nakama have for you," he taunted.
"Don't get too cocky," Zoro panted. "They're like that all the time." He knew that if any single one of them had decided to go all out, he'd be deader than a shadowless zombie.
"Is that so? Let's hear what they think. Your most negative impressions, mind!" Silvertongue instructed the crew.
Chopper went first. "Zoro! You're the worst patient in the world! Refusing to rest, taking off your bandages before you're supposed to, forgetting to take your medicines..."
Zoro raised an eyebrow at the familiar complaint. If that was the worst Chopper could come up with... "Uh, sorry?" he offered.
"And you and Cook-bro keep damaging the ship in your fights!" Franky added his usual grievance to the mix.
"Sorry, Franky, we get carried away sometimes," Zoro said, wondering why he was bothering to apologise, when he knew he wasn't really talking to the shipwright. He looked towards Usopp, wondering what his complaint would be. He'd once said he was always negative, so he should be able to come up with a good grudge.
"Zoro, remember that one time on Drum Island..."
"Drum Island?" Zoro had been so sure the sniper would mention Water 7. Usopp must have heard something about Zoro stopping Luffy from inviting him back onto the crew. He couldn't remember anything he'd done to make Usopp resent him on Drum Island.
"When I was trying to carry Dalton-san, and you took over? Why didn't you wait till we were out of sight of the villagers, like I planned?"
"Oh yeah," Zoro chuckled at Usopp's indignation, recalling the incident. "Next time, tell me your plans beforehand." He glanced over at his red-faced nemesis and shrugged. "Can't say I'm feeling too depressed by what I'm hearing here." And Zoro knew what depression was, from his encounters with Perona's Negative Hollow.
He looked at the next in line. Robin. He was truly curious to hear what she would say. Did she mind him not trusting her in the beginning? Or was she okay with it simply because she was the same way?
"If I had to mention something negative about Swordsman-san, it would be that he doesn't read enough," Robin said, consideringly.
"What?" Zoro exclaimed in disbelief. "I don't read enough?"
"Is that the worst thing you have to say about him?" Silvertongue howled. He whirled around and jabbed a finger at Luffy. "All right, Strawhat," he hissed from between clenched teeth. "This had better be good."
Both Zoro and Silvertongue looked expectantly at Luffy, who just stood there, looking as confused as a man whose mind is being controlled can look, until finally they realised that the instruction hadn't registered, somehow.
"Say something! Something negative!" Silvertongue ordered.
"About Zoro? But there isn't anything negative to say about Zoro," Luffy objected, cocking his head to a side.
"I'm sure there's something. Think!" Silvertongue snarled menacingly.
Luffy furrowed his brow and looked so thoughtful Zoro could swear he smelt burning rubber, before Luffy's face cleared and he said eagerly, "Oh, I know! I know! Zoro spends too much time training and sleeping and not enough time playing with us!"
"PLAYING?"
Zoro almost laughed out loud, but he swallowed his laughter when he saw Silvertongue turn purple with rage. He knew his opponent had just snapped. Ordinarily, this would be the moment for him to turn the situation to his advantage. But this time, he didn't have an advantage, and he watched as the opportunity slipped by, as Silvertongue collected his wits once more and turned on the swordsman.
"Fine," Silvertongue said, sounding eerily calm now. "If they like you so much, they can't have you. You will die by those swords you're so proud of, at the hands of one of these nakama you're so close to. I'll even let you pick which one."
Zoro gave one last ineffectual tug at the handcuffs, cursing himself for letting down his guard. Just because his enemy hadn't done any research, just because he had the stupidest plan for revenge in the world, didn't make him any less of a threat.
Zoro hated Devil's Fruits with a vengeance right now. All it took was for a Devil's Fruit to fall into the wrong hands, and cowards became bullies, friends turned into killers, rendering years of nakamaship and training useless in an instant.
But if it had to be...
He looked from each of his nakama to the next, and made his decision, nodding towards the blond-haired cook.
"This man? So I was right from the very beginning, eh? Interesting. Very well."
Zoro watched dispassionately as Sanji picked up Wado Ichimonji from where it lay on the lawn deck.
"Dammit, cook, at least hold it like a katana, not like one of your kitchen knives," Zoro snorted. It would be the height of embarrassment to die being filleted like a fish.
"What, like this?" Sanji asked, changing his grip. Zoro looked at Sanji in surprise and saw the lucidity in his eyes.
"Oi, cook!" he began, only to see the look, and his last hope, slip away, replaced with the dull, lifeless gaze of an automaton.
"Sorry, Roronoa," Silvertongue cackled. "I was enjoying myself too much and got distracted. It won't happen again, I assure you. Now, before I give the command, any last words?"
"None I'd let you hear," Zoro retorted, but in his mind he was apologising. To Kuina, for not keeping his promise. To Luffy, for not protecting him and the crew all the way to Raftel. To Sanji, who he knew would never forgive him, for choosing him to be the instrument of his death. To everyone, for betraying them with his weakness.
But anyone else observing him would have seen only a man who had lived by the sword and was prepared to die by the sword. Zoro shut his eyes, his expression serene, and stood tall as the blade swung towards his throat.
A/N: To be continued.
As usual, let me know what you think!