Disclaimer: Do not own One Piece. All plot and OCs belong to Volleys-chan and I.

The Dragon Chronicles

Chapter 2 - Brigands

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."

-Khalil Gibran

Rei squeezed herself under the metal framing of the bed within her cell, praying, pleading to any deity that would listen that they wouldn't think of looking for her under there. She held her breath as she felt someone coming down the hall and almost started to hyperventilate when she recognized the soft pitter patter of the steps. She squeezed her eyes shut as the door that lead to the jail cells opened and the floral scent of her tormentor filled the room, instinctively making her tighten her grip around her knees that were pulled against her chest. She could hardly breathe in anxiety as the footsteps slowed before pausing before hastily making their way to her cell.

"Trying to hide from me, little Rei?" She heard the high pitch voice of the woman say. The woman's voice was laced with humor at the idea of the little girl being terrified of her. Rei knew that it had been a feeble attempt, but she was at her wits end.

She didn't know how long she had been a 'guest' of the Foxy Pirates, the days had long since started to blur from one agonizing day to the next, but she was beginning to give up hope of someone coming to save her from this hell. She had even made the mistake of trying to escape herself, only ending up in a predicament far worse than the one she had originally been in.

During the first few days, the Foxy Pirates had left her well enough alone, sometimes remembering to feed her while they continued to celebrate their biggest break yet. At first, Rei had spent most of her time crying in the corner, alone and scared and wallowing in her self pity. However, she eventually found the strength to suck it up and try to figure out a way to escape. The best thing she could come up with was to wait till they were close to an island before attempting to break out. She devised a few ways to do so, discovering that she was small enough to do one of two things- squeeze out the small porthole her cell had, which meant figuring out how to reach it since it was well outside her reach. Or squeeze between the bars.

She went for the latter of the two and when they had made anchor not too far from an island, she sprung her plan into action. It hurt a lot more than she had hoped it would, squeezing her tiny body through the narrow bars, but she managed it miraculously and began her journey through the ship. She had slipped out in the dead of night, after listening carefully for the noises of the men on deck. When there was the least bit of noise, she made her move and quickly found her way onto the main deck.

Rei had managed to almost get away without anyone noticing until she was climbing the railing and observing the tides below, seeing if she was comfortable enough with her ability to swim before jumping overboard. She didn't have much time when she heard a startled 'HEY!' and decided that she'd risk it before plummeting into the ocean and swimming with all her might.

With her adrenaline rushing through her veins, she thought she might actually have a chance of getting away. However, Rei then made her biggest mistake and put her trust in an absolute stranger. She had been halfway to the island when her little limbs began to burn from the over exertion it took to even keep her afloat in the rough tides of the high tide. It almost seemed like a gift from above when she saw a small rowboat a few feet away, rowing further into the sea and closer to her.

"Hey!" She remembered calling out to the person within the boat, not once suspicious of the odd timing. "Please! Help me!"

There had been a woman upon the small rowboat and she seemed legitimately surprised at the presence of a small girl swimming desperately within the waves of the ocean. She quickly bid the girl close and pulled her into the boat, inspecting her with great curiosity.

Still fueled by her adrenaline, Rei swiftly spoke to the woman of her current situation. "Please, y-you must help me. I-I was kid-kidnapped by pirates when my family was going to Water 7 and they've been holding me captive on their sh-ship. P-please. Please help me. I just want to go home to my fa-family." She had kept her voice low, so not to inform the Foxy Pirates, who were now desperately looking for her with torches and the moonlight, within the ocean. She could hear Foxy screaming at them for letting her escape and threatening them if they didn't find her.

"It's okay," the woman told her. "I'll hide you." There was something about the woman that didn't seem right to Rei, but she quickly shook the idea out of her mind, relieved that she was going to be okay. The woman had directed her to hide within the single burlap bag upon her little vessel. Rei remembers nodding and quickly opening up the bag before suddenly becoming perplexed by its contents. It was gold, jewels, and quick a fine sum of beli. Before she could even react to what she had seen, she found herself thrown into the sack and the mouth of the bag tied shut with a knot.

Stupidly, Rei realized too late that this woman had been apart of the Foxy pirates the whole time. She had yet seen her because the female pirate had been on a small recon mission upon the island that they had made anchor a ways away from and they were picking her up so they could head to their new destination where they were going to sell Rei. Through listening through the material of the burlap sack, she learned the woman's name was Porche and since then, she wished she had never learned of the pointy nosed woman.

"So what should we do to the little brat to teach her a lesson?" Foxy had angrily asked Porche when she had reunited with her crew and reported to them of the child she had captured.

Porche and she were still in the little rowboat when Foxy had asked that and Rei felt chills of fear run through her when Porche answered him, not the slightest hesitation in her voice.

"Have Hamburg come down here and dunk the bag into the ocean a few times, nyah. She can't get out and she won't be able to do anything to stop him."

And thus that was what they did. Rei had never been more terrified then she had in those long minutes when Hamburg kept the bag submerged into the water. She had tried to hold her breath for the long period of time, but after a few times of barely keeping her breath while submerged and the short respite given to her to catch her breath before being dunked once more, Rei nearly choked upon the sea water. By the time they were finished punishing her and releasing her from the burlap bag, Rei couldn't do much more than lie on the deck gasping and coughing for air as her poor lungs tried to regulate her breathing and empty themselves of any water she might of inhaled.

She vaguely remembers vomiting as well, but shortly after she had caught her breath, she had passed out. When she woke, she was in the same cell as before, but there were horizontal bars crossing the vertical bars of the cell now. She couldn't escape the same way again.

That wasn't the worse part though. During the time when she had been unconscious, Foxy had apparently assigned Porche to watch over her and care for her wellbeing. It was more like torturing her than it was taking care of her. Rei didn't really understand it too well, but the older female hated her. At first Rei thought it might be like in some of her books where a female didn't like the presence of another female within what she thought of as 'her domain', but Rei knew for a fact that there were other female members of the pirate crew and Porche and the other women got along fine.

Rei never really bothered to find out why the woman hated her so much, she was too busy being terrified for her life to figure out the internal workings of a sadistic woman. Rei knew that Foxy had forbade anyone, including Porche, from causing permanent damage, which would lower her overall value. But that didn't stop Porche from harming her. She would do all sorts of things that, though they don't seem like much, gravely hurt the small eight year old.

Rei was pulled out of her musings when a hand shot out and grabbed her, dragging her from the small space under the bed. Rei let out a small cry as she curled herself into a ball, flinching harshly when Porche gently caressed her back. She only ever did that before hurting her, trying to trick her into a false sense of security before promptly harming the child, like squeezing her small little hands until she screamed or pushing her fingers back as far as they could go before trying to push them beyond their limits, or pinching the sensitive skin between her thighs with her talon like fingernails and twisting the skin. If there was a way to harm her without lasting marks, Porche knew how to do it. Rei was littered with bumps, molting bruises varying in sizes and colors under all her clothing, and small little scratches.

These small things weren't even the worst of it. Porche had elevated in her cruelty as of late, taking any and all aggression she might have accumulated out on her. Porche knew how to dislocate limbs, like Rei's shoulder, and if the girl got too annoying with her crying and screams, she would pop on arm out of its socket and proceed to put it back shortly afterwards. She'd also make Rei eat her food (when she was given any) from a bowl on her hands and knees like a dog, calling her horrible names that made her shake uncontrollably. Porche had even forced her to drink scalding hot water, less she die of dehydration. Rei tried to refuse at first, but that only made Porche pour it on the girl instead. Though it wasn't boiling hot- thank goodness- it was hot enough to make her nerves shoot pain throughout her body as she tried not to scream and encourage the behavior.

She had started using her kunai to slice little cuts upon Rei's fingers, over and over and over again or use senbon to scrap under her finger nails until they bled from the abuse. Then she'd just smile and tell the little girl that they had to disinfect the cuts so she didn't get an infection and promptly forced the small girls hands into a bowl of lemon juice. The liquid burned her open wounds, causing pain to rush through her like no other. Rei would scream and scream and scream herself hoarse, begging for anyone to help her- to save her.

But no one ever came. She knew they could hear her, so she didn't know why no one ever came to stop the woman from harming her.

"Poor, poor, Rei," Porche cooed in a sickly sweet manner as she grabbed onto one of the child's small arms and forced her to stand. "She's all alone and away from mommy and daddy. Left to be taken care of by mean old Porche, nyah?"

"N-n-no Porche-s-s-san." Rei stuttered, trying to avoid with her words what she knew what coming. "Y-y-you ta-take go-good care of m-m-me."

She hated this woman with a passion. Rage always burned through her when she was finally left alone to wallow in her pain and misery. She only hated Foxy more than Porche and that was because he was the whole reason she even knew this wretched woman.

"Yes," she purred in that high pitch voice of hers, "I take such good care of you. And never, ever forget it, nyah~"

The woman let out a laugh, one that sent chills down the young girl's spine as Porche gently caressed Rei's cheek with the back of her hand. Rei flinched, knowing that sharp pain would soon erupt from her face after the woman backhanded her violently.

However, Porche never got the chance. The ship suddenly rocked heavily, causing both females within the cell to stumble about from the unexpected movement. Porche recovered first as Rei collapsed to her knees when she was unable to regain her balance.

"What was that!" Porche screamed out to the men rushing past the prison room.

"Marines!" Was the rushed answer of one of the men, as they dashed about and prepared for a counter attack.

Porche let out a string of foul words as she released her grip on Rei, kicking her to the side harshly before exiting the cell, the door locking automatically upon closure.

"I'll be back to deal with you later, nyah." She sneered before disappearing back into the hall to help her nakama deal with the unexpected attack.

Though her body throbbed in pain from the harsh treatment it had just endured, Rei ignored it, her mind running a mile a minute as she tried to figure out what to do. The Marines were attacking the ship. The Marines were attacking the Foxy Pirates! There was a low chance that they'd overtake the Sexy Foxy, since the vessel was actually quite expedient upon the ocean, but if she could somehow get off the boat, there was a very high chance that the Marines would rescue her.

The only problem now was that she was stuck in the cell with only a single, small porthole too high out of her reach as her only hope of escape. She gritted her teeth as she stood up, her body protesting it due to the days (weeks?) of abuse it had endured. Adrenaline was the only reason she was able to stand and quickly assess the problem she had noticed during her first attempt at escape.

It was still too high. Rei almost let one of the many new words she had learned from Porche escape her mouth as she tried to jump and reach it. Her bed was attached to the other wall and allowed her no way to get closer to her only hope. Pressed for time, Rei's mind was spiraling in a flurry of thoughts and ideas. It was almost too much for her poor eight year old mind to process, but just as she was about to try to scale the wall, hoping her little cut up fingers could fit into the narrow cracks between the planks, she realized something.

The horizontal bars of her prison, the ones that had been added after her first attempt at escape, could be used to get at height with the porthole! Wasting no time, Rei quickly scaled the bars like they were a ladder, climbing up as high as she needed so that she was slightly higher than the porthole, with was a good length away from the bars, but close enough that she might be able to jump to it.

Without hesitation, Rei began to attempt to grab onto the metal frame of the porthole. The first time she attempted, she had successfully made it, but fell as she lost her grip when she had been opening up the window. Unfazed, she climbed the bars once more, jumped, missed, and hit the ground hard.

Rei didn't give up though. She tried again and again, her poor body using up the all its energy as she tried to reach the porthole once more. She let out a cry of joy as she finally succeeded once more, getting a better grip now since it was open and began the difficult processes of pulling herself out of its small frame. Though it wasn't nearly as bad as squeezing through the bars, it was still difficult because of its location. She had to make sure she didn't lose grip until she was mostly out the of the window and even then, she was afraid of falling back into the small prison.

Quickly glancing around, she located the Marine ship, greatly startled when a canon ball flew over her head and missing the vessel entirely. She would have to risk being hit if she tried to seek sanctuary with the Marines. Frightened as she was, she hesitated for a moment, almost afraid of dying after enduring such agony for so long. She was pulled out of her retrieve when she hear the startled shout come from the prison room. It was Porche's voice- she'd know it anywhere.

Deciding it was better to risk swimming between the two warring vessels than to be stuck with that devil woman any more, Rei continued pulling herself outside of the boat and was readying to jump. After getting one leg out of the small porthole, placed against the side of the ship so she could boost herself off of it and further away from the ship, Rei felt those talon like fingernails of Porche wrap around her lone, vulnerable leg.

"No you don't, you little bitch!" She heard Porche screech as she tugged violently upon the small appendage, but Rei was too hyped up on adrenaline to cower.

Her fight or flight instincts quickly kicked in, causing her to thrash that one leg about in Porche's hold. She hit something hard, Rei secretly hoped it was that stupid big nose of hers, causing Porche to release her on reflex while Rei pushed herself off the boat before plummeting into the ocean.

From there, everything was relatively blurry to Rei. All she could see was that lone Marine ship that was causing such havoc upon the Sexy Foxy as she swam desperately against the ocean waves. She was barely managing to keep her head above water and moving towards her goal to focus on much else than that one ship. She knew that Porche had probably alerted everyone of her second escape and perhaps they were getting men ready to jump in after her. Her arms and legs burned with all the stress her desperate swim was causing, but she refused to look back. She refused to be captive upon that dreadful ship ever again!

It wasn't till she was halfway between the two ships that she realized something was amiss. Someone should have been swimming after her by now. Foxy was a greedy bastard and he would never allow something he considered a 'gold mine' from escaping his grasps.

It was then that she actually heard the frightened sounds of the pirates, shouting something that was indecipherable to her with all the water in her ears, but when she heard the low hissing noise and the sound of water falling away from something emerging from water, she knew that the Foxy Pirates were the least of her problems now.

She turned her head, freezing in her spot upon the ocean in fright as she stared at the massive beast that had made its presence known to the two ships and the small girl between them.

A Sea King...

Unable to stop the startled scream that erupted from her throat, Rei knew she was done for when its gaze landed upon her instead of the pirate ship.

Rei looked at it with fright, all her energy sapped away from her limbs as the mighty beast lunged towards her.

She was going to die. She was going to die and it was all because of her dreadful red eyes that had gotten her into this predicament in the first place.

She cursed her eyes as she squeezed them shut, too afraid to watch the final moments of her life.

A lone gun shot sounded before the beast made it to her.

Volleys-chan A/N: Now, I normally don't write the author notes for this story. I do help write the story, edit it, beta it, add details, or fix dialect, but I normally leave Ryu-chan to do all of the author notes, probably because I'm such a motormouth, even when I'm writing it down instead of actually talking...

Anyways, I decided to write my notes on this because of the fact that I wrote this entire chapter from scratch myself. Normally Ryu-chan writes the chapter, we go over it, I add in my ten cents, and then I rewrite the chapter so the everything is uniform in the writing style and add a few more details or a scene or two that she and I discussed in our overview of her draft of the chapter. Then she rereads it, makes sure I used the right words like 'than' instead of 'then' and 'they're' instead of 'their' in the right spots before uploading it.

This time, however, I wrote the entire chapter because I was the one that pushed for this chapter. Since it was my idea to give Rei such a traumatic incident with the Foxy Pirates, I had the unfortunate task of relaying her time with them. I was slightly vague in this chapter, not wanting to go too into details, because I would stop writing so I could curl up in the corner and tell myself that I'm actually a nice person repeatedly. I'm not violent, so I hated writing this chapter because I don't think it is right to abuse a child, but pirates obviously have different morals than me and I had to portray that (despite how much it hurt to write it).

We will never be writing a chapter like this again, just so you know.

Though it was never really said why Porche hated Rei so much, it will come back up in later chapters. Ryu-chan and I have been writing this for over a year now. More like she's been writing it and I've been poking holes into her plot line or offering my advise to her about how to further develop Rei's character, including her interactions with other characters, canon and non-canon alike. So basically, Ryu-chan's already written and rewritten this whole story up to the part where Kuma Bartholomew separates the Straw Hat Pirates. Yeah, she's that far into the story. I'm the hold back...

I'm sorry...

So all the plot twists and turns that this story will take have been planned out for almost a year now.

Anyways. I'm a bit of a motormouth, even when typing, but I am almost through writing up my notes (for a second time mind you, I accidentally deleted my first write up and now and attempting to write it all again from memory).

Thank you all for your time. Both Ryu-chan and I hope you all enjoy reading this story and will become more and more addicted the further we get into the plot line. This is a very in-depth story, practically an in-depth character study.

We love hearing from you, the audience, and will take the time to answer your questions or requests from your reviews. If you have a question for me personally about the chapter, just add it to your review and we'll get back to you. If you want to converse with me personally about something, pm me. Ryu-chan's got me on her favorite author list if you want to look me up.

Thank you for bearing with us (and my ridiculously long author notes)!

Ja Ne~

Vo-chan