"Luffy, what the hell are you talking about?" Zoro asked his captain slowly, wondering if he'd heard right. Why Luffy would say Ace's name at a time like this didn't make any sense. What had that guy done to him?

Luffy didn't reply, staring at the same spot with a haunted look in his eyes. It was like he didn't even hear Zoro, stuck in some sort of trance.

"Zoro, we need to take care of these guys and get out of here!" Usopp yelled, bringing Zoro's attention back to his fight. He was right, they could worry about Luffy later. Defeating enemies came first. Whatever that guy did, he was heading towards Nami and the others.

"Those swords would be a great addition to my collection. I can't wait to kill you with them," the albino man said to him, red eyes following his every movement. He wasn't anything special, swordsmanship skills a far cry from his own. There was no real tactic behind his swings, they were wild and sloppy. The only thing Zoro could read about him was that he wanted to kill.

"Like I'd allow that to happen," Zoro grunted, dodging the cleavers hacking strikes and returning them with more controlled, precise ones. He'd landed several hits already, but it didn't seem to affect the man at all. More and more blood splattered onto the dirt, but it didn't slow him down. It was like he couldn't even feel it.

"You're not the first who's said that to me. You're just another pirate, another piece of meat. All of you are going to die."

Zoro didn't let the words get to him, he'd been threatened plenty of times, but there was something in this guys tone that made all three of his swords growl. They wanted to kill this man soon, and it made Zoro wary. He just hoped Luffy snapped out if it so he could go help fight.

"What did you do to Robin and Brook?" Sanji asked, anger spiking through him at the idea of his friends getting hurt.

"The same thing I did to your captain. Would you like to see for yourself?" the man asked in return, twisted grin never leaving his face. Sanji got a terrible feeling from the man, almost as strong as the basement gave him. It felt like he was looking right through Sanji into his very soul. The fact that Luffy had been incapacitated worried Sanji even more.

"I'm afraid we don't have time for demonstrations," Law said, creating a room and unsheathing his sword. The sight of the blade got the man's attention rather quickly.

"Ah, a cursed sword? How interesting," Law seemed a little taken aback by that, and Sanji wondered how he could tell the sword was cursed. Sanji had no idea, it had always just looked like a normal sword to him.

Law seemed to hesitate as the man stared him down. Sanji felt the atmosphere in the room change, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. It was like the man was doing something, but what? He noticed a slight tremor in Law's hands, and he wondered if he was feeling the same thing Sanji was. But as he took a closer look, he realized Law's sword was practically vibrating. He'd seen Zoro's swords do that, or at least Shusui, but he never really bothered to ask the marimo about it.

"Her name is Kikoku, isn't it?" the man asked, and that certainly got a reaction out of Law. His room grew larger, encasing the man in it as he slashed the air with his sword. Sanji wasn't overly familiar with his powers, but even he knew that move should have dismembered the man.

Instead, he stood inches before Law, body still intact. Law's eyes widened as he quickly lurched back, trying to create some distance. Sanji watched the man intently, careful not to blink since he seemed capable of moving at incredible speeds. Yet the man appeared behind Law this time and he still missed it.

Sanji felt his foot connecting with the man's side before he even realized what he was doing. He had to do something, Law couldn't fight him alone. The Warlord seemed to be having a hard time processing the man's movements, as was Sanji, but they had to stay on top of it.

"Oh, that was a mistake," the man chuckled, sending a chill down Sanji's spine. He had no idea what the man was talking about until suddenly, he felt his heart rate explode. The air around him seemed distorted somehow, his skin crawling in anticipation. It was the same sort of terror he'd felt in the basement, but this time it seemed unprecedented. There wasn't anything to feel this scared about.

Until suddenly, there was.

In the back of his mind, he knew it was a hallucination. But the fear was real. The pain was real.

Seeing Zeff's still body on the ground before him, surrounded by a pool of blood, hit a very large nerve in Sanji. It wasn't real, he knew that, but it looked real. And the fact that this man knew who Zeff was and why it would bother Sanji so much to see him dead was even more concerning. Just what was this man's power?

He was frozen like that, staring at the sight before him in mute horror. It didn't register that Law was still in danger and had no idea what had happened to Sanji, or that soon the man would do the same thing to him and they would be screwed. All Sanji could focus on was the intense pain in his chest at seeing his foster-father dead, real or not.

But that was only the beginning. Every fear that Sanji had seemed to be coming to life. Suddenly he wasn't in the living room of the house, he was back in the basement. His friends were around him, dead with their limbs strewn up on the walls. His crew mates, friends from the Baratie, Zeff, all staring at him with dead eyes. Insects flew around the room, spiders crawling over every inch of him. Maggots, flies, cockroaches. His shoes were soaked in blood, the walls dripping in the dark red liquid.

And then it was shattered as he felt himself being shaken, snapping out of his hallucination with a gasp. He blinked, feeling heavily disoriented as he realized they weren't in the same place they had been a few seconds ago. Now they were in a cramped, dark closet, and Law was covering his mouth.

"Mr. Blackleg, you have to get yourself together and tell me what happened. What did he do to you just now?" Law asked him, keeping his voice low. Sanji felt himself trembling but was quick to snap out of it. They were still in danger, he could have a break down later if he needed to.

"He can create illusions," Sanji sighed, feeling exhausted now that some of the adrenaline had worn off, "I'm still not sure how, but it's like he can go into your head and find everything your afraid of and make it real. Or at least, it feels real."

"I thought so," Law muttered, his ever present scowl deeper than usual. Sanji belatedly remembered the man knowing something about his sword.

"He did it to you, didn't he? I mean, he knew your swords name."

"I had a feeling when he first showed up, like he was looking right through me. He could see things that nobody else could. Somehow, he can go into people's heads and get information about them. It seems like in order to create illusions, he has to touch that person first," Law said, Sanji nodding in agreement. So Law had felt the same thing he did.

"He must have done the same thing to Robin and Brook...and Luffy, too. What if he did that to everyone? We weren't prepared for this," Sanji growled, hating the idea of his friends going through the same thing he had.

"If we leave now, he'll only come after us. We can't endanger the town," Law said. Sanji knew he had a point, but they were running out of options. They were so unprepared it was almost laughable. But, they had made it out of some pretty crazy situations before. They just needed a strategy.

"So what are we going to do? You saw how fast he was, and we can't touch him. How do you fight someone like that?"

"He knows everything about us already," Law added. Their situation was only getting worse. They needed a plan, and fast, but the fact of the matter was there was no way they could win against this enemy. Not right now. "If we leave now, we need to find the rest of your crew first."

"Is leaving really the best option? If Chopper got Carol out of the barn, they already have a reason to go into town. But if we all retreat, we'll just be giving them another reason. We won't have any time to think of a plan, and we'll be endangering innocent people."

Law was quiet for a moment, trying to think of any other options they might have, but the situation looked bleak. "I know my powers will be able to take him down. I just need you to distract him long enough for me to do something."

"I can do that," Sanji nodded, knowing if anyone had the right power to fight this guy it was Law. The guy could control anything within a room, after all, and it didn't involve physically touching the man. But the man was fast, Sanji would have to keep him busy.

They heard footsteps outside of the door, and Sanji knew it was now or never.

"Tch, these guys are a pain," Zoro said, not quite sure if he fully understood what he was looking at. The guy he was fighting was full of wounds, literally, but still kept fighting as if nothing had happened. Zoro had a pretty good pain tolerance, but this was ridiculous. The guy should be dead.

Luffy had snapped out of it, sort of, and was helping them fight. But he still wasn't himself. All Zoro could gather was that the guy in the suit had touched him, and then he'd seen Ace, which made no sense. Was it an illusion? Luffy should have been able to tell it was fake, Ace was definitely dead, but he still seemed so affected by it.

Even more concerning, the guy Luffy had initially knocked out was gone.

Zoro could only assume he'd gone after Chopper, which meant the townspeople could be in danger. He only hoped Nami had found the treasure and was going back to town. At least then she could help fight the guy with Chopper.

"When will you give up? Your friends are already dead, you know. Boss won't let them leave the house alive," the albino said, not seeming to care that Zoro had cut off his arm.

"Why don't you give up? There's such a thing as blood loss, you know," Zoro remarked, a little fascinated despite the situation being so shitty. How could anyone keep moving after so many injuries? Well, maybe he wasn't one to talk.

"Hm, yeah, there is. Good thing my blood never runs out," the albino replied, confusing Zoro even more.

"What the hell does that mean?" he asked, boots slipping in the bloody sand. At this point there was so much blood the sand was more like mud.

"Devil fruits are fun things, aren't they? So many different kinds. Mine, for instance, gives me an infinite amount of blood. The blood-blood fruit."

"You have got to be shitting me," Zoro said, exasperated at how their already bad situation seemed to keep getting worse, "Do all of you weirdos have devil fruits?"

"Just me and Boss, although his is...well, you'll find out soon enough."

"Not likely. I'm gonna finish you off here, regardless of your dumbass fruit," Zoro said, stabbing the man in the heart. If he had an unlimited blood supply, Zoro would have to go for his organs. And what better organ than the one controlling blood flow?

"Did you really think that would work?" the albino asked, coughing up blood and swinging his cleaver at Zoro.

"Maybe. But if not the heart, then maybe the brain?" Zoro smirked, noticing the way the man narrowed his eyes and got into an actual fighting stance. If he was finally getting serious, then Zoro must have found his weak spot.

Maybe they could finally make some progress after all.

The plan had worked...kind of. Sanji had distracted the man while Law waited for the right moment to attack. By some twist of luck, Law managed to do some damage. Sanji wasn't really sure what, exactly, since he wasn't familiar at all with Law's moves, but the man had coughed up blood so he assumed it was good. But then...things went to shit. Again.

Evidently, the man could create illusions without touching his target, and this time it was Law's turn to suffer.

Which is how they ended up in the closet again. Sanji had to drag Law in there, but thankfully the man was too busy being wounded to go after them.

"Law, snap out of it already!" Sanji was shaking the warlord, a bit disturbed to see the man so...affected by something. Usually Law was stoic and serious, with the occasional sassy remark or face of disbelief as he watched Luffy be...well, Luffy. But now…

Now he was shaking, eyes wide in horror and face pale, muttering nonsense. Sanji wondered if he'd been the same way.

"C-Cora...Cora-san..." Law kept saying that name like a mantra, Sanji figured it was someone important to Law, but he really needed Law to come back to reality already.

"Do I have to kick you? We have to go, Law!" Sanji shook the man harder, sighing as Law suddenly blinked and focused on him.

"Mr. Blackleg...But how did we get here? I thought..."

"He can create illusions without touching you. He's injured, though, so we need to either finish him off or get out of here. I don't think he'll follow us if he's hurt."

"Damnit.." Law growled, grimacing as he tried to wrap his head around what just happened. "We need to leave and think of another strategy. I tried to kill him, not injure him, and by all means he should be dead. The fact that he's not means he's got something else up his sleeve that we don't know about."

"Can you get us out of here?" Sanji asked, hoping Law could just teleport them to where the others were.

Law sighed, still trembling slightly as he nodded, "I can, yes."

Sanji watched as he created a room, hand quivering in the process, and then suddenly they were standing outside. It was a weird feeling, but Sanji was grateful to be out of that house. He noticed Robin and Brook not to far away, both lying on the ground.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" he yelled, running over to his fallen friends and sighing in relief as they both seemed to snap out of their daze.

"Sanji? But how...what happened?" Robin asked, looking a little shaken as she tried to comprehend everything.

"It's a long story, but for now we need to find the others and get the hell out of here," Sanji replied, helping her up and then turning his attention to Brook. The skeleton seemed okay, though it was kind of hard to tell.

"Are we retreating then?" he asked. Sanji nodded, making sure Robin was okay to walk before leading the way towards Luffy and the others.

"We don't have a choice. Their boss is stronger than we're prepared to handle, but luckily Law managed to wound him pretty badly. We have to go back while we can."

"What about Nami?" Robin asked, wondering where the navigator had gone off to.

"She should be back at the inn by now, we managed to find the treasure," Sanji said, frowning as they approached the barn. Chopper was missing, so he assumed the doctor had escaped with Carol. That was good, only now they had several people to fight and no time to do so.

"Oi, you guys were supposed to have things taken care of here," Sanji remarked, eyes directed at Zoro in particular. He was fighting a peculiar looking guy, with an alarming amount of blood surrounding them. Zoro didn't seem to have a scratch on him, but could all that blood really belong to one person? And was his arm missing? Things just kept getting weirder.

"What took you so long, curly-brow?" Zoro asked in turn, aiming for the man's head with his swords. Sanji wondered what that was about, Zoro didn't usually go for head shots.

"Long story, but we gotta go. We'll have to finish this later. Nami got what she wanted anyways," Sanji said, mentioning that last part just to piss off their enemies. Now they knew their precious treasure was gone.

"Impossible...you should all be dead. Where's Boss?" the pale one asked, fixing his empty looking eyes onto Sanji. It was a rookie mistake, and spoke volumes about how experienced these people really were when it came to fighting. But Zoro took advantage of the opportunity, Shusui plunging through his head and coming out through his forehead. Now the albino's eyes really were lifeless.

"Your boss is busy dying, and if you all don't back off you'll be in the same state," Sanji said to the remaining lackeys, all of them surprised to hear their leader was injured. Luffy's head shot up at that, and Sanji could tell he'd experienced the same thing as Sanji. He was far too serious.

"You killed him?" he asked, sounding none too pleased by the news. Sanji shook his head and nodded towards Law.

"He's still alive, Law did what he could though. Don't worry, you'll get your chance to beat him. But we need to go back to town and rethink some things," he expected Luffy to argue and say they needed to finish him now, but surprisingly he agreed.

"Do you think we'll just let you all leave?" one of the remaining men said, and suddenly one of Law's rooms was surrounding all of them. With a flick of his wrist, all of them were suddenly gone.

"I suggest we leave now. I was only able to injure their boss, but he could come after us any second," Law said, looking a little worse for wear. Sanji figured it must be the extensive use of his powers tiring him out.

"Let's go back then. We'll think of another new plan, and when we come back I'm going to kick that guys ass for real," Luffy growled, taking the same path Chopper had taken through the forest. They ran fast, knowing time was too valuable to waste right now.

Next time they left that house, it would be in ruins.

Still no Lawsan, but it's coming soon! Maybe the next chapter. I hate to write them retreating since it's not something I think they would do, especially Luffy, but in this case I think it's necessary. Also, I'm terrible at writing fight scenes, so if I start leaving out too many details during a fight that's why. I'm honestly not used to writing something with so much plot, usually it's just smut with a little bit of plot, haha. Hope it's still enjoyable!