Wherever you are
I swear that I'll find you
Just know that I'll be there
Whenever you're not ok
I've got a place to stay
I built it just for you
Sleep is for the weak they said
We don't need no sleep today
We'll never go away
Sleep is for the weak they said
We don't need no sleep today
We'll never go away
-"I will, I swear" Sleep
XxxX
When they approached the gate nervousness and doubt started to set in. Franky gave the man in front a sheet of paper and they were instructed to get out for a routine search. They turned up nothing, which was good because they were hiding a lot. Then they were inside the gates of the base.
Franky apparently knew where to go because he did not falter in his direction toward a smallish semi-circle of a buildings toward the back of the large enclosed area. As they neared it there was another layer of security to get through, which they passed with alarming ease.
"Welcome to hanger 18," Franky mumbled darkly as they drove toward the building. It was a large half cylinder building like all the all the others, it didn't look particularly special. The the buildings looked a little weird; they were very large because they were hangers but the shape made them seem somehow short and flat. It was really quite irritating.
The vehicle was parked in the large semi-full parking lot and the occupants slowly exited. As he looked at the toad like building in front of him Zoro felt a bubble of excitement. Sanji was in there somewhere, they just had to get him out. He was just worried about the state in which they would find him.
They calmly approached the doors, flashing their identification and stopping for the guards to observe them. There was a terrifying moment that each of them experienced when they were being stared down. There was that slight lingering doubt that maybe they hadn't been well enough disguised but the moment passed and they were allowed to pass through, once again with alarming ease. Zoro felt like somehow they were being led into a trap. That for some reason the mysterious and manipulative woman in charge had double crossed them and the whole time just wanted to capture a few people who were getting a little too close to the truth. It would not surprise him if that were the case but he very much hoped that it was not. On the other hand from the impression he got the lady seemed like a genuine sociopath who just wanted to watch something interesting happen. She wanted to play a little game of "outsmart your government by exposing something fucking horrifying". His motives may not be great but Zoro felt glad she was doing it and hoped she got away with it. Unless it was that first thing and she was just acting, sometimes he had a hard time telling if people were lying to him.
Inside the building looked more like a storage unit than a hanger, box upon box was piled to the ceiling in all different shapes and sizes. It was like a movie set for a sinister government conspiracy, except it was real. It was large but dimensions were off so Zoro determined that half of the buildings must have been on the other side of that back wall, what it concealed he had no idea.
What was actually behind that wall were a series of prototypes like those that Franky worked on. They were round in shape and gave off a very science fiction feel to them.
Franky walked with purpose toward a large stairwell, which was again guarded by a slew of security agents. So much protection, they must have something big to hide. Of course they had something big, they were there to retrieve that big thing. Or at least retrieve someone from that big thing.
The stairs led down, down, down deep into the ground passing many different people on the way. The climb down was long but not long enough that his was horribly excessive. They got off on a landing but the stairs went on down who knows how many more flights. They came out into an area that looked more like a hospital than a military base. The floor and walls had a hospital like aesthetic and the air carried the antiseptic smell normally associated with hospitals.
It was difficult to maintain a neutral expression when faced by all of this overwhelming data to process but they remained cool. Franky walked over to a man who was behind a counter writing something important looking. They were in a small room with what looked like a reception deck across from a door what probably led to something really fucked up.
"Hello," Franky said formally, "I have a man with me who is looking to work with you here as a doctor. He has special permission to tour the place," he stated, he handed over a file and nodded to Chopper who tried his best to smile although he looked a bit nervous. This would be understandable for a young doctor about to tour a very secretive complex to further his career. The man at the desk glanced at the file then turned to the computer at his side and began clicking and typing.
"Ah," he said, "Yes, I'll call in one of the doctors for you, sir. What will the rest of you be doing?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the collection of people.
"We are here to check the status of subjects 6990 and 8936," Franky replied. He and Luffy were going to subject 8936 to snoop around and pretend they were actually doing a job. Franky didn't know who that was, it was just who he had been assigned to. Franky actually had a very, very well hidden camera on him recording the events that took place. He had to stay carefully in front of everyone so as not to get them in view of the camera.
The two of them couldn't go to Sanji because that would make it too obvious that he was the one who got him out. Also, when people did come in to check patients they worked in groups of two. Usually when they did check up on these subjects they were checking to make sure that any monitoring implants were in working order. It was dull and unnerving most of the time. Franky had only been on one of those procedures and it had made his skin crawl. The idea of having something track you beneath your skin without your knowledge made him want to compulsively check over every inch of his body, although he knew there would be no scar tissue for evidence.
The technology used was astoundingly advanced and not on par with the standard medical set up. They had ways of making scars heal at advanced rates, leaving no trace behind, it was nearly unbelievable. The devices placed under that flawless skin would track them and feed information to the information center for storage but it would not show up in any typical scans, nor was it large enough to make patients uncomfortable.
At some point Franky remembered that Zoro had said something about his friend being able to feel his implants. That must have been in his head because there was no way. What probably happened was his subconscious remembered something being placed inside him and as a response he felt like something was under his skin; creepy.
Franky had no idea where this technology had come from or why not everyone used it but no one ever talked about it. There were a lot of strange technologies in this department that were unexplained but you weren't allowed to talk about it so you didn't. End of story. But this led Franky to believe there really were aliens. Not just ones invented by the government as a method of abducting and testing things in human beings. But what the fuck did he know? He was just a mechanic and apparently off job worker thinking about all the non-mechanical work he had done. Maybe he needed to look over some of his life choices.
Nami and Zoro were going to get Sanji, subject 6990. The large number associated with him made Zoro's hair stand on end, they couldn't possibly have taken that many people, could they? Maybe it was just some arbitrary number but the dread he was feeling said differently.
More typing and clicking, then they were being led down a series of labyrinth like hallways by a person who appeared to be a nurse. Chopper had been left in the little room waiting for a doctor to take him on the tour.
As they walked through the echoey halls they passed many odd rooms. Some rooms had patients who were babbling or screaming about something indistinguishable, some contained strange machinery, some were storage rooms that shelved interesting objects of inhuman quality, a wide array of fetuses included. Fetuses looked like horrible little aliens so they were pretty creepy to see sitting in jars of amber liquid. This was all very unnerving, it was like being lead through a psych ward except you knew that the people being held there were being held against their will and were probably totally sane, they might even have families. Like a horrible zoo where they tortured the animals.
The nurse finally lead them to a room with the numbers 6990 on a card in the identification slot on the heavy, closed door. The door was swiftly pushed open by the nurse and held for them. The room was plain in color like the rest of the building. The walls were lined by all sorts of strange and grotesque looking machines that drew thoughts of torture into the mind. In the center of the room was a metal dentist's chair with binds locked around the thin limbs of an unconscious Sanji.
There he was, after so much time and stress he was literally right there. It was incredibly hard to keep a neutral expression when all he wanted to do was run over and slap him awake. From where they stood he looked so still and pale that he could be dead and this only made Zoro want to storm over there all the more so he could put his fears to rest. Repressing any and all urges to rush to his side, Zoro turned expectantly to the nurse who was on task and dealing with shit like she should be.
"Here are his charts and information," she said, handing over a clip board to Nami, "Call for me when you need me, I'll be down the hall." With that she turned and left like she had something far better to do. She probably did, this place seemed pretty important. Not the type of place for dilly dally.
As soon as the nurse was gone the two friends approached the chair. Zoro got out the weird scanning device that apparently checked the implants just in case someone were to walk by and see them ogling at Sanji, and how could they not? He was wearing what appeared to be a teal hospital gown. His head was lolled to the right at an angle that looked uncomfortable, he was pale and gaunt looking. There was a tube in his nose and an IV in his arm. He had a fading bruises around his eyes and in the places where the binds met his skin there were raw patches of skin. Those were just the preliminary wounds, who knew what horrors lurked beneath the clothes. Maybe it was best that he was asleep. Yes, it was very lucking that he was asleep. If he had been awake there was no telling how he could have reacted to seeing them. If he was in his usual state of mind he probably would have gone on acting how he usually did here to deter suspicion but if he had totally lost it, which didn't seem as unlikely as it should, there was no way to know. That was one of Zoro's biggest worries; that they would get him back and he would be totally destroyed from the inside. They would get him out but he would never really be out in a mental sense.
Nami said nothing but flicked through the chart she had been handed. There was a lot of medical babble on it that she didn't really get but a chart of the front and back of a human figure on it circled the back of his neck, his right cheek, the area just below his ribs, and the back is his skull. The caption above it read "Tracking Info". Sanji had said that he thought there were more in his body than he knew of.
The next page listed in detail his reactions to various tests, most importantly those detailing reactions to some form of foreign pathogen that had been introduced to his body. He had apparently reacted well to the substance and had survived with very few side effects. The chart also said that he was a participant in project Honeycomb, whatever that was.
Just as Zoro thought he might die from all the tension an alarm sounded, just on time. Within seconds the nurse from before rushed through the doors, shoved Zoro out of the way and began unplugging Sanji from any attachments. As soon as he was free she instructed Zoro to carry him out while she ran off to deal with other patients. The information they contained was vital and losing them would be massively disappointing. Everyone had to get out and they had to preserve the merchandise or all of their effortless work would be for nothing.
Nami lead the way out after shoving Sanji's charts up her shirt, it was made easy by the layers of clothes she was wearing. At least they were good for something other than making her overheat. All around them doctors and nurses pushed through the crowd toward the elevators, which appeared to be for only privileged individuals, to bring up patients while the others rushed for the stairs. Nami and Zoro took the stairs, Sanji jostling in his arms as he ran. He had to be on some kind of depressant at the moment because there was no way that anyone could sleep through all of this, not even Zoro.
It was impossible to believe that all of this was really happening, both the fact that they were breaking into a government facility and that Sanji as actually there in his arms at that moment. He wanted to stop and appreciate this moment for all its worth, to hold Sanji very close and savor the feeling of him just being there. But now was not the time for that, it was time to stay focused and on task. They climbed higher and higher toward the surface and their escape. They were so close to a way out he could nearly taste it.
Outside there was chaos, people were trying to direct and organize but the majority were afraid. Zoro wasn't sure what sort of alarm had gone off but apparently it was super serious. They were all crowed around in the parking lot so this chaos gave the excellent opportunity to sneak off to the car and stuff Sanji's unconscious body into the space underneath the floor that had been so carefully hidden for this purpose.
They waited for the others to return. Chopper came back looking pale and haunted. He had actually gone through a partial tour of doctoral duties. He had been taken back to their lab where they had an astounding amount of human eggs, semen, and equipment to make more humans. He had gone past one of the rooms where a patient was being taken care of and by that it meant they were being cut open and poked around at. Chopper was incredibly grateful that he didn't have to go in there, just glancing it was enough. As a doctor in the training to help people it went against every fiber of his being and training to harm people instead of help them. Before they could go in the alarm went off and they all had to run out. He could not condone this kind of behavior no matter what they were doing. It was a blessing that it had ended so suddenly, he would be having nightmares about this for sure.
Franky and Luffy came back with varying degrees of exhilaration on their faces. Luffy looked like he had never felt so happy in his entire life and Franky just looked extremely relieved. They had done all the poking around that they needed for a successful mission.
They all piled into the vehicle and set off for the gate. It took a while to get back through, what with all the chaos inside but they passed inspection and were on their way. The small compartment that stored Sanji was very well hidden and combined with the rush to get people through it was overlooked. Oopsies.
Once the vehicle and its people were a few miles from the base they pulled Sanji up from under the floor. He was still unconscious and Chopper checked his vitals nervously. He appeared to be fine at face value but there was not a good way to tell until he woke up, at least not mentally.
After seeing what he had with the other patient Chopper nervously took off his shirt of his gown, for he was fortunate enough to be wearing a gown with a shirt and with pants, holding his breath. As the shirt came off the angry lines of stitched skin became apparent. In the center of his chest there was a Y shaped cut, like the sort they do for autopsies. It's stitches ran from the tops of his shoulders, coming together in the center of his chest and coming down to his naval, making a curve to avoid his belly button.
Everyone was struck by a sickening feeling because they all knew how he must have received that scar, a few gasps escaped some of their mouths. Whatever was going on back there Franky was driving he was driving and he couldn't see it. The stitches appeared to be only temporary, seeing as they were opening and closing him up a lot but they were secure enough that Chopper would not have to open them up and restitch them. Instead he just wrapped bandages around his torso while Nami held him up. He also disinfected his other wounds and wrapped them as well.
Once Sanji had been set down on one of the chairs, still asleep, everyone began to talk.
"Should you take out the implants?" asked Zoro hesitantly.
"No," Franky answered from the front.
"Why not?" asked Nami.
"I don't know but I was told not to let you take them out."
"But won't they be tracking him?" Chopper squeaked.
"Yeah, but I have a signal disrupter here so they can't tell where he is right now. Which reminds me. You need to put this inside him." He tossed back a small white tube, which Chopper carefully caught.
"What is it?" He asked.
"It's a chip like they use to keep tabs on people except it will disrupt the signal. It will probably still send back some information but it should make him really hard to track down," Franky explained, but he hardly knew what he was talking about. He merely regurgitated what he was told to say.
"Where do I put it?" Chopper asked as he took the tiny chip into his hand.
"I don't know, she said anywhere would work," Franky shrugged.
Chopper thought for a moment about where he should place it then he got out the medical equipment to cut a little hole in him. The spot he chose was the spot of another implant, one that he had tried to cut out. Chopper carefully made an incision over the scar tissue over the spot under Sanji's right ribs.
It was pretty gross that he had to do it with everyone else around but it was as sterile as he could make it. Sanji's only reaction was a pained expression; they didn't have any pain killers. The fact that he didn't wake up was concerning but he seemed to be fine so there wasn't much to do about it.
They all looked over at Sanji as he continued to be asleep, breathing steadily and deeply.
"What do you think they did?" wondered Nami.
Chopper shook his head, "I don't think I want to know."
"They have to pay for this," Luffy growled.
"We can't make them pay, idiot, we would have to make the whole United States government pay and there's no way that possible. They've done way worse and gotten away with it," Nami said remorsefully. Doing secret testing on unwilling citizens was pretty bad but the United States had a history of doing some pretty shitty things. Then again nearly every nation does.
"This is so fucked up," Zoro mumbled, "Why are they even doing this?" He hoped that Franky could answer that for him.
"I don't know," was Franky's response, "I just do my job and don't ask questions. Only the higher ups know."
"Does your commander know?" asked Nami.
"Maybe but if she did I doubt she'd tell you." She liked keeping secrets too much to share.
"They had a bunch of materials to make a lot of babies with," Chopper offered, although he didn't know what it really meant.
"Are they trying to repopulate some obscure corner of space or something so that they can invade earth later and make the creators the masters of the human race?" Thought Zoro aloud.
"Maybe they're trying to make a clone army," said Luffy.
"Then why would they need so many baby making supplies?" retorted Nami.
"Because it only works for certain people?" He shrugged.
They then started arguing about the various plots that this agency could be working toward. Zoro thought they had never before been in such a strange situation.
An hour and a half later Nami, Chopper, and Luffy were all asleep. Zoro, for once was the only one who could not find sleep which was very sad for him. Sanji's head rested non-responsively against his leg and he could not find himself completely relaxed even though they had rescued him.
What would happen now? What would they do about Sanji mysteriously appearing again after they knew where he had been? Why the hell had he though he had been abducted by aliens when it was really the government? What mental issues would he have coming back? These questions ran in cycles through his head as Sanji began to stir.
He groaned slightly and his eyes fluttered open, locking blearily on Zoro's face without any recognition. He tried to say something but his voice only came out in an unintelligible whisper.
"Are you alright?" Zoro asked hurriedly in a hushed tone. He wasn't sure what emotion he was experiencing but it made him want to explode into flames, or run around like a five year old, or kiss Sanji until he couldn't breathe anymore. He did none of those things of course, he just anxiously waited of a response.
Sanji's expression turned from deep confusion to alarm, "Zoro?" He rasped painfully.
Zoro nodded seriously, he was feeling suddenly overwhelmed with relief. Relief was better than whatever he had been feeling before. It was familiar. For a while he was worried that he would never wake up or if he woke up he would have amnesia or something stupid like that. It was however, slightly worrying when Sanji's alarm apparently grew.
He let out a little whine of dismay and lifted a hand to Zoro's dyed black hair. "Holy fuck, your hair," he said sounding very upset.
Zoro was confused for a moment, not remembering that his hair color had been temporarily changed, "What about it?" He asked.
"It's not right, you don't even look like you. It's weird and I don't like it." He said, his face pinched in unhappiness as he ran his hand through Zoro's unnaturally colored hair.
"You were just rescued from a government facility when you were being tested on like an animal and the first thing you feel the need to talk about is my hair?" He laughed in exasperation.
"Shut up, don't tell me what to freak out over. This is a totally justified reaction. Don't make me feel bad for over reacting," Sanji said in a slurred, in a lazy way. His eyes started to roll back like he was going to fall asleep again but Zoro shook him to attention, mindful of his injuries.
"Hey, come on, cook, you have to stay awake so Chopper can make sure that you're okay," Zoro protested.
"Then why haven't you made him do that yet?" asked Sanji with a shake of his head. He wanted to grab the marimo and squeeze the life out of him but right now he had hardly the energy to keep his eyes open. It was too out if it to feel much emotionally, only muddled feelings that threatened to overwhelm him with their heaviness.
Zoro blinked in shock. Oh, he should probably have done that. He turned toward the sleeping doctor in training and shook him awake. The doctor was glad to see Sanji awake even though he was in a half asleep daze.
He did only a few tests to make sure nothing was seriously wrong with his senses. He told Zoro not to wake the others up because what Sanji needed was rest, not the stress of an excited Luffy or the stress of appearing brave of Nami, because even at a time like this that is what Sanji would be worried about.
Everything seemed to be in order so Chopper instructed him to sleep and things would be taken care if. That was done with absolutely no protest, Sanji was nearly asleep as the whole thing was taking place and he slipped back into the world of dreams as soon as Chopper allowed him to, his head still resting once again against Zoro's leg.
Not long after the blond had drifted off to sleep a stop was made on a desolate road in the middle of a large array of farm land. Franky's commanding officer was already waiting in her car for them. As soon as the car stopped Zoro tried to shake Sanji awake but he only stirred and remained sleeping so he was forced to carry him out. He opened the door and stepped into the warm summer air. Fireflies lit up the land in small bursts and the bugs called in a deafening chorus.
The others in the car were roused from sleep as he left but did not follow as Zoro carried Sanji out of the car. As he approached the car she rolled down the window.
"Put him in the back," she said without inflection, revealing nothing. The windows were all tinted and he could not see anything of her appearance. All part of the plan Zoro assured himself although he still did not trust this woman, she was a snake and had only her own interest in mind, of that he was positive.
Zoro did as he was told, setting Sanji gingerly in the back of the car and shutting him inside. Before he left he turned to her, "You better take car if him," Zoro said with the most menacing voice he could muster, although he doubted that it fazed her in the slightest. She gave him no verbal response as he turned and left although he could nearly feel her smile on him like some kind of lingering dread. The car pulled away and Zoro felt the nervous feeling come back to him on full blast. Leaving Sanji with her made everyone anxious but it was necessary all the same.
The lot with the cars was not far away. Usopp was ecstatic they had all made it back safely. He had been nervously watching the security feed from Wright-Patterson. When he saw that they were all in position he told Robin that it was time to set off the alarm. At the same time all of that data recorded for the whole day had been deleted. Usopp wasn't sure how she pulled it off but it was incredible. He was so, so glad that everything had gone over smoothly.
They did not linger in the lot, as soon as they got there they parted ways, exhausted and anxious for Sanji to be fully returned to them.
Nami and Zoro drove home in silence, they were both tired and had no words for what had happened. When Zoro was finally inside his apartment, at around two AM keeping his face well out of view from any cameras, he wanted to collapse into bed and never wake up again but he knew that he had to get all of the stuff off of him. He took a shower and scrubbed the ever loving shit out of his hair until it returned to it's usual vibrant green, if a bit dulled. He removed every trace of make up from his face and he was glad to be himself again. Before he went to sleep he wrote down everything that had happened on the piece of paper in his shoe. Every time he did it he felt like a crazy person. When he finally did fall into bed his sleep was restless and he found no comfort in it.
XxxX
A/N: Geez, I made Franky so sullen. He's not happy with life right now. Sorry, dude.
Conspiracy theories are fun though. It's been so long since I wrote this story that I've actually forgotten a huge majority of the plot XD
Thanks.
