"We must have missed everyone." Shanks mused as he looked around the abandoned floor.

Usopp brushed his hand across the tables that lined the room, facing the empty stage. His fingertips left lines in the dust that decorated it. "It doesn't look like anyone has been up here in at least a week."

He walked around the multiple couches and went over to the bar that lined the left wall. "Hmm, I wonder where the entrance to Floor Five is?"

"It should be behind that purple curtain!" Luffy called to him from the other side of the room, where he made himself comfortable atop one of the tables. He was leaning back on his hands and kicking his feet as he chatted with Shanks, looking unbothered by this turn in circumstances.

"Get off your ass and help us!" Usopp called, roughly pulling back the purple curtain Luffy had indicated. "We don't have enough time here for you to be lollygagging about."

He pushed against the wooden door that revealed itself behind the curtain, wincing at the loud screeching it made. The open door revealed an uneven stone stairwell that led down to the fifth floor. The cold air from the floor below was carried up the narrow path, causing him to shiver. "We definitely didn't miss them. They never showed up here."

"Where do you think they are then?" Shanks questioned.

"I don't know." Usopp pulled his earpiece from his pocket and inserted it into his ear. "Jinbe, what's going on? Where is everyone?" There was silence on the other end of the line. "Jinbe?"

Radio silence continued to meet him. With a heavy sigh, Usopp shook his head. "No use. He isn't answering."

Zoro put his own back in, pushing Luffy out of his face when he came bounding over. "Chopper, you there?"

"Chopper doesn't have his with him." Usopp reminded Zoro. "I haven't figured out a way to get them to stay in his ears yet, so he hasn't been carrying them around." Usopp pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. "We can try Franky, but with how much they've removed from him, I don't know if that will be viable. We should try and contact Nami and see if she has heard from anyone?"

Sanji felt his ear and then his pockets, frowning. "I've lost my earpiece." He frowned. "I wanted to talk to Nami-swan."

Zoro scoffed.

"What was that, asshole!?"

Zoro smirked and held up a hand to stop Sanji's rant. "Oi, Nami, you there?"

"Don't talk to Nami that way, you brute!"

"Shut up. I can't hear what she is saying, pervert cook!" Zoro growled. "Wait, are you saying you haven't heard from anyone since then?" His gaze darkened. "Okay. Just be ready. We will be there soon."

"What did Nami say?" Luffy asked. He was sitting on a nearby table, kicking his feet and picking his nose.

"She hasn't heard from anyone for about an hour now. Her last communication was when Jinbe was going to collect our weapons."

Usopp groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Okay. Let's not panic. It's entirely possible that Jinbe's earpiece didn't survive being in the water for as long as it had. I didn't make them waterproof."

"Why didn't you make them waterproof?"

"I don't know, Zoro. Why didn't you stop yourself from being hurled into Impel Down? We could ask needless questions that will get us nowhere all day long." Usopp snapped.

"What should we do now?" Shanks asked, trying to move the group along. "There's only about fifteen minutes left until the Buster Call."

"We will need to split up. The first thing we need to do is get to the fifth-floor elevator. Sanji, you can stay down there and see if you can get the inmates to tell you what happened to Limejuice and the others. Someone had to have seen something."

Sanji nodded. "They were heading to Cellblock Twenty when we left. There are a lot of prisoners on that path. Should be easy enough to find someone who saw something."

"While you are doing that Luffy, Shanks and Zoro will go to the second floor to meet up with Chopper, Franky and Monster. Everyone should go immediately to the docks once they find who they're looking for. If you can't find them, communicate that and get out. Especially if you have a devil fruit or are otherwise unable to swim, there should be small boats still at the docks. The rest of us can swim if we need to as long as we aren't weighed down."

"Where are you going to be?" Shanks asked. "You didn't say."

"I'll be going to the first floor to see what happened with the weapons— I am the only one here who can likely get through the lock quick enough if Jinbe didn't make it."

"You can't go up there alone!" Luffy yelled, balling up his fists. "I'll go with you!"

"You can't stay. I'll probably have to swim out, with weapons. You'll just hold me back!"

"You can't go alone!"

"There's no one here, and you need to help Zoro carry Franky out!" Usopp pushed back the purple curtain and descended the stairs, taking them two at a time. "Can we not argue about this? We don't have the time." He slipped, sighing when two arms wrapped around his waist.

"Usopp, be careful!" Sanji scolded, pushing him upright. "Luffy, stop shoving!" Sanji snapped, elbowing the captain in his stomach. "You're going to make us fall down the stairs."

Usopp stopped at the bottom of the icy stairwell and pushed against the door, grunting and shoving against it with his shoulder when it didn't move.

"Move over, Usopp." Zoro pressed his hands against the door and shoved hard, causing it to crack open and for the freezing air of the fifth floor to come rushing in. "I forgot how cold it was down here." He said through gritted teeth after he and Usopp shoved the entrance the rest of the way open.

Usopp walked through and kneeled to study the ice and snow at their feet. "It doesn't look like they made it this far. I don't see any footprints."

"How can you tell?" Luffy asked, leaning down beside him to stare at the ground. "The entire place looks smooth."

"Given how it should have been less than an hour if they had come this way, their footprints would still be here. The snow being this smooth means they didn't." Usopp started towards where the cauldron lay in the middle of the floor. "Not to mention, they would have passed by the cauldron and the spilt blood. If they had, there would be bloody footprints or, at least, pink snow around."

Usopp stood and ran ahead, Luffy following close behind. They stopped by three cauldron and Usopp looked around, frowning at what he found. "They were here!" Sanji, Zoro and Shanks caught up to them and glanced down. Sure enough, there were footprints in the blood.

"I'll question the inmates in the cells and try to figure out what happened. You guys go on ahead." Sanji said, glancing at the cells to decide who he would question first.

"That's weird." Usopp muttered to himself as he counted the footprints he found in the blood. "There are five different pairs of shoes. Who are the other two people?"

"Usopp, let's go!" Usopp sighed, quickly catching up with the others when they stopped for the elevators.

"There were two other footprints with theirs." Usopp told them. "They were bootprints, not the shoes the prisoners wear here." Usopp turned to Shanks. "Any chance there are people from your crew running around that we don't know about?"

Shanks frowned thoughtfully before shaking his head. "Benn is under strict orders to have the crew ready to go for a rescue mission during our planned executions at Marineford but to not break into Impel Down."

"But there is a planned execution. It's just not happening at Marineford like usual." Usopp pointed out. "That's what the entire Buster Call is about."

Sanji's voice echoed down the corridors, causing them all to stop and listen to what he was saying. "You tell me where they went, you shit-heads before I turn you all into chop meat and serve you to the fishes."

"At least he isn't threatening to feed them to us?" Usopp said lightly, laughing.

Zoro rolled his eyes and shoved Usopp into the elevator as the doors opened, Luffy and Shanks following in after them.

Usopp muttered angrily under his breath while he pressed the button. The elevator doors open after several long moments revealing the desolate corridor of Floor Two.

"Chopper! Franky!" Luffy called, running out of the elevator with Zoro on his heels.

"Monster!" Shanks called, following his protege out of the elevator.

"Go through the doors! They were with Franky. He was laying on a slab in one of the cadaver freezers!" Usopp yelled after them. "Grab them, then go to the docks! There's an exit with stairs that lead there down the corridor!" Usopp said just as the elevator doors closed and zipped him up to the first floor.

Usopp's footsteps echoed as he walked through the dark corridor. "The vault should be right around this corner." He muttered to himself, taking a left and stopping in front of a large golden vault.

Jinbe hadn't made it to the vault. There were no traces of wetness, either on the floor by the vault or on the keypad. Usopp dug through his bag for his code cracker device. He pressed the device to the keypad and pressed the purple button to have it start solving the lock code to the vault.

It was faint, but he could hear footsteps coming down the corridor towards him. He rolled his eyes. "Luffy, I told you to let me do this alone."

There was no telltale laugh, or slapping of straw flip-flops, causing him to furrow his brows.

He held his breath and grabbed his Kabuto from his bag. Steadying his hand, he readied himself, pulling back on his slingshot. He was about to let it go when his haki revealed the person approaching. Usopp hesitated, thinking that it was surely a mistake. Why would that person, of all people, be there?

As they rounded the corner, his hands dropped to his sides. He stared at the person incredulously, mouth working to try and form words.

"Y-you!?"