I'm not sure if I should show you what I've found
Has it gone for good?
Or is it coming back around?
Isn't it hard to make up your mind?
When you're losing and your fuse is fireside

-"Fireside" Arctic Monkeys

XxxX

Even since the break in of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Franky had been on edge. More on edge than usual that is. As one of the officers who had been present when a subject had mysteriously disappeared he had gone through an array to testing and investigation. Nothing was found to link him to the disappearance, of course, Robin Nico was much to intelligent to let something like that happen under her watch.

She hadn't leaked any information yet, Franky knew because nobody was panicking, if there were that kind of breach then the media would have a field day and the spin doctors would be spinning. The whole operation was like a big web of carefully constructed lies constructed by a few sinister spiders, hanging over the head of the American people with their many glittering eyes and large fangs. Sometimes someone would go missing but it was never to raise alarm. And what would they do if they knew? Franky didn't even know the whole story, he doubted many people did. He doubted most people even higher up did.

As he was thinking all of this, Franky was in his hazmat suit cleaning up the last of whatever it was that had crashed in a field on the edge of farmland. It was probably one of those ships like in hanger 18. They had the traditional UFO shape and dimensions. He had only caught a glimpse of the mangled metal when it had gone to be analyzed. The bodies inside looked strangely deformed but that could be due to any number of reasons. One could never be sure of anything in a place like this one.

The doctors were monitoring their radiation exposure as well as their mental state. Some of them were new, like Franky, and some had been doing this for a long time. The older ones moved with that quick and irritated pace that comes with doing the same thing over and over for years.

As the sun started to go down they were called in to go back to town to sleep. He met eyes with Mrs Nico as he passed her, she gave no indication that she had shown any special interest in him. He passed her wordlessly and drove off into town where he could maybe escape from the insanity the he called real life. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Great, now he had a Queen song stuck in his head. But it was a serious question; was any of this real? It seemed far too from the norm of the usual life to be a thing that could happen but that could just be wishful thinking on his part.

XxxX

Robin Nico was good as at what she did. She had risen quickly through the ranks, as quickly as a woman could rise in such a male oriented military culture. Some manner of secret service had alway been her intention, she did love keeping secrets. For her this job was like one big puzzle, she wanted to know the whole story. There were still a good many things that she did not know.

She did not know where these mysterious ships came from, she only cleaned up after them. She knew they were tested out in Area 51 originally and perhaps that Roswell crash had been where the technology had originated from. Now these ships were constructed in hanger 18 and were common place in that base. She did not know where many of the technologies that were used came from, in fact, and it was not permitted for her to ask.

Robin did not intend this to be the height of her career, she wanted to rise to the very top. Then she could lord over her power and focus on tearing everything apart. Although she loved keeping secrets, Robin also loved things that were interesting and chaos was very interesting. Not only did she want to make it to the top, she wanted to do so even as she caused as many problems as she could. She wanted them to let the fox into the hen house and she wanted them to watch as the deceitful thing they had created fell to bits even as they invited her to join them.

Tonight she was going to leak the information. She had sent it by post to a group of conspiracy nuts who happened to have an useful set of hacking skills. Inside the mail she told them to hack a popular media outlet and play the video over their computers. Even if they didn't buy that the footage was authentic something would be said about how they were hacked and what had happened. The footage she provided had obviously been censored to conceal the identities of all the people visible. That was a shame because she probably wouldn't be able to use them again but it hardly mattered.

She dropped the package into the post box in town and stepped away. It was out of her hands now.

XxxX

During the first week of his return Sanji went to different places to interview for jobs. He wasn't really worried, he was an amazing cook after all. He was hoping to hear back soon because every time he was home alone it made him anxious, he felt like he was due to be taken away at any time. For that reason he liked to stay around large groups of people, even though he didn't really want to do that. Maybe he wasn't entirely put together mentally right now but he was dealing with it the best he could.

He ended up working at a nice seafood place. It wasn't as nice as the Baratie but then not many places were. He was glad to have the job and he enjoyed cooking sea food. Well, it mostly wasn't sea food so much as it was lake food; lots of fish and muscles caught in Lake Erie. That was fine, he liked fish a lot.

Sanji had been back for a week and a half when the information was leaked. He was looking through the news when he saw the newest scandal rattling people up. One of the media outlets had been hacked and they recovered a very strange video. Sanji clicked the video and his heart began to race.

The video quality was not great bit wasn't bad either, he suspected that the coloring was intentionally offset. The camera appeared to be on the breast pocket of a man in military uniform, judging by the sleeves.

The video was without audio, without the real audio that is. Classical music was playing in the background. The video began as a man was driving a vehicle toward a fence with the words "Wright-Patterson Air Force Base" printed on a sign to the side. The car was stopped and the man got out, the vehicle was searched by a person with a blotted out face and it continued through. As the man made it through every set of security it became apparent that he had more people with him although they were always out of frame.

As he stepped into an area that looked like reception the video cut to walking away from reception and down a long set of stairs, as there was another security check and he entered a series of hallways the video cut again and the man turned in the hall into a room that appeared very familiar to Sanji.

Obviously it was not his room but it was similar in appearance. The man walked around showing all the devices and then picked up the chart, which was mostly blurred out. The person who was in the centered chair was not moving. Their shirt was lifted to show a wound similar to Sanji's but angry and red with infection. Any identifying features of this figure were blotted out carefully.

There was a sudden jolt in the camera and the video cut again to leaving the base and driving away.

Sanji watched the video through twice and then showed it to Zoro. When they talked Sanji tried to make it sound like he was trying to convince Zoro that this was where he had been taken to and Zoro faked an expression of concern. He made himself seem paranoid and unstable. They didn't talk openly about it, if they weren't being watched before then they were now and that was a terrifying reality.

XxxX

Robin was pleased at the trouble she had stirred up on a public relations front. The government was laughing off this video as a joke but behind the scenes an intense investigation was underway. Everyone who had ever gone to hanger 18 was being interrogated. She knew she had to deal with Franky, he wouldn't hold up against their methods. He was a strong soldier but he lacked the will to keep this quiet.

She had him stay after at the site the day after she sent in the video.

"Officer Flam, I would like to talk with you," she said as the soldiers were set to leave. She did not miss the looks of sympathy or the sly looks he received from his fellow officers at her statement.

She led him back to the edge of the safety sight. He looked worried.

"Relax, I'm not going to ask anymore of you, you have done enough for me. I just wanted to thank you." She smiled in her sweetest way. At this he seemed to relax considerably although not completely, she seemed to give off an aura that made people wary of her. It was probably for good reason.

She stuck out her hand for him to shake, "It had been a pleasure working for you," she said as his hand neared hers. Just as their hands were about to touch, she pulled her hand away and pressed it quickly over his eyes. "Relax and listen to my voice," she said soothingly. How she did miss her past job of memory censorship. It was the first job she had that was confidential. Hypnotism was highly underrated by the masses and was highly effective when dealing with stressed individuals and if it didn't work torture always helped.

He did not respond although his muscles relaxed slightly. That was good. With her free hand she drew out a syringe full of a clear liquid, just to make him more willing to swallow the lies she fed him. She pressed the needle in and injected it, he barely flinched.

"Good, now remember when you broke into that base?" She asked. She had to track his mind through the events that had taken place, change things that needed to be changed.

He nodded.

"And then I guess you also remember that general Kalifa was the one who told you to do this, yes?" General Kalifa had been Franky's commanding officer before he had come to work under her. Robin had done extensive research on her and had concluded that she would be the easiest and best to frame. She was generally disliked by those she worked with and seemed arrogant enough to pull something like this. She had also been a good choice because she worked in Wright-Patterson and she left the base for extended time to do who knows what without any alibi. That was risky in and of itself. What possessed her to take such action Robin did not know, but she honestly didn't care either.

Assuming she had no alibi was a risk that Robin was willing to take and she had no qualms about having someone go down for what she had done. The final reason Kalifa was perfect was she was one of the few high ranking female Air Force officers and the nobodies Robin had Franky brought to the base had never seen her face or heard her name. Robin was going to frame Kalifa by saying that Kalifa had tried to frame her if she ever came into question. This way it could be assumed that Kalifa was the one instructing things. In a higher court Robin felt that she had the upper hand; she was liked by her associates, was willing to do the jobs no one else wanted to, and she had been in this line of work for longer than Kalifa had.

"But I thought-" Franky began. Oh, some of them resisted persuasion at first. Maybe he was more intelligent than she had given him credit for.

"You are mistaken. She found you outside of town and planned all of this out. Don't you remember?" Robin pressed without pause.

"I guess," Franky said thoughtfully.

"You guess? How could you forgot something like that?"

"I don't know, but I remember now," he said with more confidence.

"Very good, and you couldn't stand that guilt anymore so you had to tell me about her wicked plot, yes?"

"Right."

"And who was it that you broke in with?"

"Zoro, Luffy-"

"No, they all stayed home while you broke out their friend. You met them at a bar and when you discovered that their friend had been taken you went to Kalifa for help." She had the decency to not let innocent people suffer just to get herself out of trouble, at least while it was still easy that is.

"Then who were-?"

"They were people who Kalifa employed, you did not know them."

"No, I don't think I did actually." He thought of the strange faces of the people he had gone in with, they did not look like the people who he had met in the bar.

"Now, can you tell me what happened? For the purpose of keeping your story straight, I mean."

"I met Zoro and he invited me to the bar where I met Sanji's friends and I found out that he had been taken. I knew what had happened so I rushed off to Kalifa for help and she set me up with a super team. We broke Sanji out and I realized how big of a mistake I had made so I had to tell you."

"Good, now when I remove my hand I want you to forget this happened." She was taking a calculated risk in changing his memory and not erasing it. If she had erased it then the trail could have led back to Franky and they would find that his memory of the event was gone so a hypnotist must have been involved and she just happened to be one of those. If she did this then she might draw unnecessary attention to herself but she could direct it toward someone else.

She slid her hand away and slipped it into his, firmly shaking his had. "I'm very glad you came to me with this information."

Franky did not falter, "I just couldn't keep it in anymore," he breathed, "I can't believe I actually did it."

"I'll have to tell my superiors, you know."

"I know," he nodded in understanding. He was ready to suffer the consequences of his actions, whatever they may be.

"All I want to know is why?" She dipped her voice in convincing confusion.

"Because people should have a right to know," he said it with such conviction that it made Robin proud of her work.

Robin sighed and gave the blue haired man a long sorry look, "That may be so but we have to do our job, regardless of what that may entail," she paused, "But if you were to go to the media with this information they couldn't make you disappear. I've seen it before and I don't want to see it again."

"I don't want to be that crazy UFO guy, that's seriously not super. I'll deal with the consequences of my disobedience, they were going to find out sooner or later anyway." Although oddly enough he couldn't remember why he wanted to tell her all of this in the first place.

Robin was slightly disappointed at this, she had hoped that this man, flamboyant as he was, would to onto shows and become the spectacle to highlight this conspiracy. Oh well, thing would still work out despite that.

Bidding the man fair well Robin journeyed to her temporary home and called up central command to tell them about the leek. They came to take Franky away that night. Robin was commended for her actions and Kalifa threw a huge fit about not knowing anything but no one could vouch for her so she was held under intense suspicion and Franky gave all the right answers to help Robin's case.

As the investigation went on the friends of Sanji were being very heavily monitored despite Franky's claims that they weren't involved.

Sanji. Robin had read his file and felt very bad for him. He had first been taken from his home in Maine at the age of five. He was selected because his parents were good for nothing and hardly noticed the absence of their child enough to care that he was missing. No report was filed.

He had gone through his first bout of tests. When in hanger 18 they tested a good many things from new vaccines to the advantages of having a parasitic worm living inside your small intestine. Many subjected died under these testing conditions especially when injected with the strange oily liquid that was administered to all the patients. Robin had no idea what it was but it seemed to cause considerable pain and fever for many days.

On top of all that, the doctor originally in charge of Sanji had been new and inexperienced in this line of work so there were some unfortunate incidents. Most unfortunate of which involved the business of his implants. Implants were meant to to track and transmit data when necessary, and they sent out signals when they were switched on. The doctor who put in the implant near Sanji's nasal cavity placed it too close to the Kiesselbach's plexus, containing many blood vessels. When the device sent out a signal it was prone to have some influence on the tissue around it and this one would cause prolonged and gushing nosebleeds. This was not entirely uncommon in abductees as it was hard to get such a small implant into such as selective area.

The real trouble was with the implant in the back of his head. It had been common practice for a time not long ago to cut open the back of a subjects head and put the implant into the gray matter of the brain to prevent any chance of it being removed. This unfortunately led to some loss of life and sever side effects. Sanji's affects weren't as bad as some. When the implant was turned on he would suffer sever headaches and when the implant was on for extended time he would have seizures. For this reason the agency had to survey him over a longer span leading up to his disappearance than most.

The practice of putting implants into the back of the head was discontinued a while ago as the sophistication of readout of the other implants had been increased. There was a safety measure set in wait should any of the implants be removed. As soon as it was torn from the skin a series of chemical reactions would begin to slowly kill the subject with a bad spider bite being the official cause of death.

That aside, when Sanji was first hypnotized he was accidentally made to forget too much and as a result most, if not all of his memories were erased and he was dropped off in Ohio because the pilots were being lazy. Luck was not on that boy's side. Thankfully after he was dropped off Sanji was taken in by an orphanage then adopted by a man who owned a restaurant. From there he lived a relatively normal life until the implants started transmitting again approximately six months before he turned fifteen. The general stress if being a teenager was mounted with the stress of feeling the implants weigh heavily inside of him. Nosebleeds were more frequent and every now and then he experienced a seizure. The signal blocker she had instructed to be given to him should help lessen the affects of the small devices.

He was taken away again that coming summer where another series of tests were preformed. Because he was now of relative sexual maturity sperm samples were taken and sequenced then for their usefulness. They didn't have anything of use because the they didn't contain the right sequences, so they were stored away.

Upon returning home Sanji had hit a rough patch. He had spoken of his thoughts of being abducted by a UFO. He had been given the usual story that abductees were given. They were taken away by short gray aliens, taken to a flying saucer, and tested on. It was all too easy to set up. The people who did the abducting dressed as aliens and rode around in spherical crafts just in case someone were to see them take someone away. It would make any witness seem totally insane.

Sanji's life had gradually settled down again until he was twenty four and the implants were switched on once again. But enough about Sanji, there was a council waiting to give their decision on how the agency should progress knowing that a subject knew what had happened. Or what they thought had happened. A week later a decision was reached.

XxxX

Since returning Sanji had been having problems. He was always having problems it seemed. Actually remembering what happened wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He was constantly on edge and suspicious of everyone around him. This was probably due to the fact they he couldn't tell with certainty that he was being observed, although he got the strong feeling that he must be.

This threat observation was particularly awkward to think about when he was changing clothes or taking a shower. He felt like someone was defiantly watching him take his clothes off and that was something he wasn't all about. It made him want to cover his body in an uncomfortable and self conscious way.

It was also really, really uncomfortable when he was making out with Zoro. They would be going at it when he would get that nagging feeling of being watched and suddenly everything felt wrong. He hated the idea that someone was watching them do this in their own home, well it was Zoro's home but he was currently living there so right now it was his home too. He didn't want a video floating around somewhere out there of them sucking face, or worse, having sex. That was privet and no one else needed to know that it was happening except them... And anyone who may or may not hear them. This factor of having hidden cameras maybe everywhere made relationship stuff pretty uncomfortable sometimes. The fact that they both knew what was going on did make it much easier.

Their friends knowing was also a constant weight. Keeping all those secrets bottled up inside was a very difficult task. Every time their were met by a knowing look it was nearly impossible to contain that secretive little bit of information. This also made it difficult to talk about the nightmares that Sanji had nearly every night.

As time went on Sanji got less and less sleep. When he closed his eyes and his brain shut down it was like he was back there, strapped to that cold chair. He consistently dreamed about being cut open and having his insides pulled out then being sewn back together again empty inside. Other times he would dream that he was with everyone again and suddenly the windows and doors would be broken in and they would all be hauled away. Worse still was the dream he would have where everything would be like it was now and nobody would believe him no matter what evidence he showed and no matter how convincing he was, they would just shut him up in a loony bin. The worst dream of all was the one where he was back in that place and everyone how had helped him was taken with him. He would be forced to watch them be cut up and experimented on then when it was over they were made to believe that it was all Sanji's fault. It was his fault but in a greater sense Sanji was the victim here. Sanji knew that he shouldn't blame himself for getting his friend into this horrible mess, that was his life but he also couldn't help it. If they had never met him then they wouldn't be in such a dangerous position but they also decided to get involved on their own so he couldn't be entirely to blame, despite what his brain wanted to tell him. This information did not help him when he woke up frantically in the middle of the night, terrified that he had gotten everyone killed or worse.

He had yet to wake up verbally screaming but sometimes he woke up silently screaming. He was always in a cold sweat and breathing very heavily. It was impossible to avoid. He felt like the worst person in the world when he woke up Zoro like this. He was always good about it, he would always just pull him closer and listen to whatever fucked up dream he had experienced. He would always tell him that there was nothing to worry about, that it was all just his brain trying to frighten him, none of it could ever happen but they both knew that those statements weren't true. They were just to the benefit of the hidden cameras and microphones. The dreams led to him dreading sleep so he would stay up until he was forced asleep by his own body. When he decided that he should just sleep regardless of his fears because he was going crazy from lack of sleep he found that he was not able to.

Along with the insomnia and the nightmares, Sanji suffered many other side effects of his abduction and recovery. He still got the painful headaches every now and then, they weren't as frequent as they were before but they were still horrible. Last time after he had been taken when returned he hadn't had many headaches afterward, nor did he have as many nosebleeds. This time Sanji suffered both, not at the same rate he had before but enough that it was an inconvenience to him. Then there was the uncomfortable matter of letting his stitches heal. He hated stitches with all of his heart and the more that the wound healed them more he realized that he was going to be marked by this for the rest of his life. It was a heavy weight to bare. The thing he currently hated the most about it was that he couldn't kick Zoro in the face without worrying about splitting open. Zoro was so good about all of this and so were his friends, which made him feel more guilty. They shouldn't have to deal with all of this nonsense, it wasn't fair.

He was very steadily getting worse and worse. All he wanted to do was curl up under a blanket and stop existing. This is why he was unhappy but not altogether angry when Zoro recommended that he go see a therapist.

"I'm just saying that it might make your feel better," Zoro argued when Sanji had made a horrible face.

"I know but they're just going to try to convince me that I'm crazy and made me doubt my sanity," Sanji sighed.

"Would you rather continue on like this?"

He sighed again, "No, but I hated going to my old therapist and I don't want to waste time and money on another one."

"Did it help last time?"

"Not really."

"But you were an unruly teenager back then. I still think you should go, just to see if it helps you now."

Sanji groaned, "You're probably right. Ugh, this is going to suck."

But he went along with it anyway and Sanji hired a shrink to help him through his difficulties after some mild searching.

Despite all this difficult stuff the relationship Sanji and Zoro had started was stable and off to a good start, which they were both grateful for. Everyone else knew they were a Thing now too. Sanji had hoped that they would just catch on but as it happened it wasn't quite that easy. They all found out after Sanji had been talking with Vivi and said something probably about making out with Zoro's stupid face or something when she stopped him for a second.

"Wait, are you two like together?" she asked cautiously, worried she might offend but still very much wanting to know.

"Yeah, we have been since I got back. Was that not as obvious as I had hoped it would be? I though that everyone would just catch on so we wouldn't have to announce it or something weird like that."

"Ah, well, is a but difficult to tell. You two are not especially touchy and your actions toward one another can be construed as just a really intense bromance rather than an actual relationship."

"So, everyone just thought we were really gay but not like actually homosexual gay?"

Vivi made a face, "Yeah, I guess that would be accurate."

"Huh, I guess we should have been more clear."

Vivi now had her phone out and she was texting someone. A few seconds later Nami burst through the back door and shouted, "I knew it!" Pointing an accusatory finger at Sanji who simply smiled back.

"Sorry, I thought it would be obvious," Sanji apologized with a laugh.

"Well, it wasn't. We just thought there were some serious unresolved sexual tensions floating around."

That's when Zoro walked though the door, oblivious to what was going on. He sat down beside Sanji while everyone stared at him.

"What?" he asked in confusion.

Sanji started laughing, "Everyone thought we were really gay."

Zoro looked now very confused. "I don't even know what the fuck that means so I will counter with; you are really gay."

"Well, you make out with guys so that makes you actually really gay," Sanji informed him.

"Well, I don't know about you but I only make out with one guy and it's your fault so you are gayer than me. Plus, you have a girly face."

"I do not," Sanji said, banging his fist on the counter.

"Sure you don't." Zoro rolled his eyes and turned to Vivi who had yet to pour him any alcohol. "Can I have my sake now?"

"Right," she said, hurriedly pouring him a glass.

He received it happily but then he turned his gaze to Nami. "Hey, cook, any idea why Nami is giving us a death glare."

"She's angry that we didn't inform her of the nature of our relationship. Apparently it was clear enough."

"Oh, well in that case." He grabbed the front Sanji's shirt and tugged him forward, crushing their mouths together. When they pulled apart Vivi was blushing and Nami was still glaring at them.

"You messed up my shirt, you bastard," Sanji said mournfully looking at his wrinkled shirt.

Zoro rolled his eyes and continued to drink his alcohol.

XxxX

A/N: As I said, I don't know much about the military.

I love spiders, especially when they have many glassy eyes and large gnashing fangs.

And I think you deserve a few explanations about why some of the things that happened to Sanji happened and what was really going on. At least as far as Robin knows.

Thanks.