.:Chapter 10 - Clones:.

Sanji was walking down a cold corridor, the weight of Judge's threats heavy on his shoulders. More than anything, he wanted to flee. Coward that he was.

But Sanji was not a coward, the Straw Hats knew.

He was so, so brave, actually, Chopper thought. Vinsmoke Judge just didn't play very fair, and the doctor – along with the rest of the Whole Cake rescue squad – wished they knew then what they knew now.

Retrospect was a bitch.

As Sanji made his return to his quarters within Germa Castle, he had no idea how to proceed now that he was shackled once again to the Vinsmokes.

Before he could think more on it, however, he paused mid-step, seeing that the door to his room was gaping open. Cautious, Sanji slipped inside. He immediately froze. His unlit cigarette fell from his lips to the floor as his jaw dropped open. Cosette was there. She lied on her side in the center of his room, beaten bloody and unconscious.

"What the hell?" Usopp gasped while the others glared daggers at the sight, shocked speechless.

"That's…" Nami's hands flew to cover her mouth. "Cosette."

Sanji was at Cosette's side in an instant, mind stumbling for answers, but hands gentle as he made sure she was alive for fuck's sake. She looked terrible and in pain, and every hair on Sanji's body stood on end as a raging fury washed through him.

"This is all your fault, Sanji," came Yonji's irritating drawl.

"Them!" Nami growled. After all this, she would never understand why Sanji insisted they save these people…

"An act of retribution," Robin muttered in understanding. This had Vinsmoke Niji written all over it.

"Because Sanji stood up for her?" Luffy questioned, eyes dark.

Chopper's gaze quivered at the sight of the poor head chef who hadn't done anything wrong. The knowledge that the Vinsmoke siblings had no compassion or empathy was a tough concept to digest. Especially for the crew's young doctor, who couldn't begin to fathom a mind without a hint of care for another living being. And if they were incapable of feeling anything, why did they seem to enjoy violence? Or get angry? Was Judge's conditioning only for things that wouldn't hinder them in war? It was all so terrible Chopper wanted to puke.

Sanji glared over his shoulder toward his overly casual brother. "And why's that?"

Yonji sneered in his usual way. "You gave that lowly commoner a taste of self-confidence."

"What do you mean by that, asshole?"

"Why don't you go and take that up with Niji considering he's the guilty party here. Come on. I'll take you to him now."

Usopp squawked. "No, Sanji, it's a trap!"

Cosette gripped Sanji's shirt and his attention. Her lips parted, but no words or strength could be mustered. Sanji tenderly lowered her hands and promised her everything was going to be okay before calling for doctors and leaving her in their care.

Yonji was impatient. "You coming?"

"Yeah." Sanji was livid. "Can't wait to settle this."

Luffy nodded approvingly. "Yep. He's got this."

"Do you have any idea what you're saying?" Usopp moaned. "It'll be three against one like it's always been. It's a death trap!"

"The cook isn't a kid anymore," countered Zoro.

"Perhaps." Robin agreed with a sigh. "Although I do wonder if that at all matters when the opponents play dirty."

Zoro grimaced. It was true they'd yet to see any Vinsmoke fight fair. There was always some spineless trick they pulled out their ass.

Sanji followed his youngest brother in silence. They walked down a flight of endless, curling stairways until they reached a heavily vaulted door that Sanji never knew existed.

Nami's eyes sparkled despite herself. "Is that a treasure vault?"

Usopp side-eyed her. "Focus here."

"What is this place?" Sanji asked.

"You wouldn't remember. You ran away before any of us were old enough to come down here." Yonji smiled wickedly before unlocking the vault and pushing through the door.

The Straw Hats' eyes widened.

A massive science facility greeted them. Half laboratory; half factory. Imposing machinery transplanted with glass cases and heavy vines of titanium filled the space, with emblems representing Germa 66 embossed on every surface. Throughout the room were hundreds of strange structures that looked like stacked glass containers. Inside these human-sized jars were…

Actual humans.

Hollowell's interest was piqued. He and his specialists were used to sitting through the mundane, frivolous, and pitiful aspects of their guests lives, but this… It was moments like this that made it all worth it.

Sanji found himself staring far too long, brain trying to piece together what he was seeing. Every face seemed familiar, but they also looked the same. Identical. Like copies. The same features plastered together in succession, and it only took a moment longer for Sanji to realize why he recognized them.

Germa soldiers.

They were the exact same Germa soldiers from outside. In fact, they were the exact same Germa soldiers that he had always known!

"Huh?" Nami leaned forward, she and the others also trying to make sense of what they were looking at. "What does that mean?" she wondered.

"Why…are they in water?" was the first thing Sanji thought to ask. His own voice seemed distant to him.

"It's bio-culture fluid," Yonji corrected.

Franky and Robin shared a look and a shrug.

"Are they actually alive?" Sanji asked.

Yonji shook his head, as if 'alive' was such a naïve notion. "Sanji…human beings can be constructed."

Robin gasped. "Their soldiers aren't modified…"

"They're manufactured!" Franky finished.

Before them, Hollowell's eyes glinted with delight. "Marvelous… ~Teeshishishi."

"Germa has always been renowned as 'The Kingdom of Science'," explained Yonji. "He may not look it, but our old man was once hailed as a brilliant scientist back in the day. Long before we were born, he was a member of a foreign research team operating outside the law, exploring and developing hi-tech weaponry right alongside the infamous Dr. Vegapunk."

The Straw Hats gaped. "HAAH?"

Onscreen, Sanji was just as surprised.

"He worked alongside that guy?!"

"In his younger days, yeah. And the groundbreaking feat he and Vegapunk managed to pull off? The discovery of bloodline elements in living things."

"Genetic lineage," Robin nodded. "We already know he successfully altered such elements in each of his children, which must have evolved from this initial discovery with Dr. Vegapunk."

"This feels weird," Brook sang. Zoro couldn't agree more.

"In layman's terms," Yonji continued, "they had basically discovered the blueprints…to life itself!" He gestured grandly around them before turning back to Sanji with a shrug. "Of course, that's bound to ruffle some feathers. Playing God and all that. So, when the world government caught wind of things, they arrested Vegapunk, and the research team was disbanded.

"Or rather, it was absorbed into the government.

"However, Dad was able to evade their reach and secretly continue his studies here in Germa. That research being…duplicating and augmenting a life."

Chopper gaped, shaking. "Cloning?"

"The soldiers," Robin gasped. "They are constructed, but…"

Zoro's face twisted. "They're also living people."

"That's the very reason this underground facility was built! All the soldiers here are synthetic duplicates of a select few superior fighters. They're clone soldiers!"

Sanji's wide-eyed stare couldn't believe what he was seeing as listened to Yonji's incredulous tale.

"Countless nations shake and tremble at the thought of our military might, but as great as that fear is, their envy of us is greater. You can't blame them, really… Strong, fearless, and loyal soldiers – all programmed to stare death in the eye without flinching, while being eternally faithful to us, no questions asked!"

The Straw Hats thought of the wall of soldiers Judge had commanded in his duel with Sanji, and everything started to make sense.

Terrible, horrible sense.

Sanji felt sick. According to Yonji, the soldiers were blissfully unaware that they were – in fact – clones. They were programmed to not fear death, and to never turn on their masters, but there was nothing else. There were no memories for them to look back on. Or families to care about. There was no recollection of a past, and they didn't – couldn't – realize it was weird. There was no sense of humanity. No freewill.

Nobody to even care about them. If they died, they could simply be replaced. Easy.

"You're looking at our soldier storage depot!" Yonji declared, knocking on a capsule of a clone. "Check out this guy! Technically five years old, but ready for war."

Nami hugged her knees close. "It's so sick."

The air was getting too thin for Sanji as his heart rapped against his ribcage. Too loud. His stomach churned, spinning with the room. Because all he could think about was that these weren't robots – these were people. Living, breathing people, regardless of how they were 'made'. And they had no freedom. Created by Vinsmoke Judge and trapped within Germa's insidious grasp just like Sanji was.

Yonji was oblivious as he grinned up at the sleeping clone soldier. "He doesn't even realize what he's being robbed of," he laughed.

"That's enough!"

Fists clenched, Sanji shook. Yonji arched a brow at him.

"This makes me sick…" Sanji stomped away to sit and smoke. He couldn't take it anymore. Everything he learned about his family disgusted him.

"Sanji." Ichiji's cool voice was like ice as it rang through the sterile facility. He and Niji approached from the edges. "Back when we received word that you had become a pirate, we thought the little failure had maybe gotten his feet wet and grown up some."

"Turns out you're still a disaster," Niji snickered.

Zoro was getting sick of having to listen to this guy. "The only disaster will be wherever this asshole's body lands once I mutilate it."

Usopp leaned toward Robin and Franky to mumble, "Is it just me, or is Zoro getting scarier?"

Nami whined at that. "Why am I always stuck in a cell with the crazy ones?"

The sight of dark blue hair distracted Sanji enough from his panic. His family's diabolical research pushing Cosette back to the forefront of Sanji's mind. An innocent, beautiful chef harmed by the hands of his own flesh and blood.

"Niji… You sick bastard!" Sanji suddenly launched through the air. "How friggin' dare you—" he spun on his hands and the heel of his foot rammed into the side of Niji's skull "—hurt Cosette!"

There were several smirks among the Straw Hats as Niji went flying, neck cracking as he slammed into the wall.

Yonji gawked, stunned he had landed a hit.

Sanji ran forward for another blow with full resolve.

"Back off, Sanji," Ichiji said, as dispassionate as ever. Nothing ever phased him. "Remember, we're still holding a certain somebody hostage in East Blue."

Sanji faltered, – the Straw Hats sighed in aggravated unison – and Niji used that in his favor, activating stealth mode and re-appearing directly behind Sanji, locking his arms around the blonde.

"Are you mad?" Niji antagonized. "Oh, come on. Do you actually like that little cooking wench?"

Sanji's foot lit up at the thought of Cosette again, and Niji's voice was right in his ear, low and threatening. "Don't fight back." Sanji could hear the smug smile. "Make one wrong move, and someone will die."

The flame of Sanji's foot went out.

Several Straw Hats groaned, looking down, to the side, up at the ceiling – anywhere but at the screen. They couldn't keep watching this. Knew now that the reason their cook had always seemed so resilient was because he had no choice but to become it. And they especially couldn't take the fact that this specific remembrance was of their current Sanji, forced back into a position of powerlessness by exploiting his emotions with dirty threats.

Luffy didn't like it. Not at all.

And Zoro?

Zoro was learning just how much wrath he could accumulate.

Niji's own leg lit up blue, a zig-zag of electric current vibrating up to his thigh. He roared, jamming his ignited knee into Sanji's back with vicious force. Sanji's back bowed painfully, and as his head whipped backward, Niji struck the back of his head. Sanji went crashing forward.

The Straw Hats flinched.

The three Vinsmoke brothers rounded on the fourth. Yonji leaned down to meet Sanji's unfocused eyes with a laugh.

"That was the stupidest thing you could've done. Getting yourself zapped to protect a low-level servant like her. What a moron!"

Chopper had his hooves over his ears, trying to drown out the cruelty. He didn't know how Sanji could take this. Knew deep down he probably wasn't taking it well at all, but still.

Niji bent down, too. "Oh ho, why didn't you tell me? If I knew you liked her, I wouldn't have messed up her face. But oh well. Too late now, I guess."

"Yeah. Kind of a shame." Ichiji grinned. "Well, if the busted-up face isn't a dealbreaker then maybe I can make her your personal attendant."

Sanji scowled fiercely through the blood on his lips. His head pounded as he watched his amused, self-righteous ass brothers converge around him. Just like they always had.

"Look at all of us," Ichiji said, as if reading Sanji's thoughts. "Together again."

Something dark twisted deep in Sanji's gut.

"You're one of us now, Sanji," his eldest brother said. "And on that note, I think we should re-establish the hierarchy around here. As you know…you're a worthless…failure."

Robin tilted her head sadly. "I fear this resurgence of mistreatment on Whole Cake Island might've affected our cook more than he let on." Working so hard to be useful, to find a purpose and achieve his dreams, only to walk right back into the hell he escaped from and be reminded of everything they believed he was. She knew it wasn't their place to reach in and pry his feelings out of him even now, even after all this; yet, she was also far too aware how much those who suffered in silence craved for those hands to reach out to them.

Was there a right answer to this?

None of them truly knew.

As three fists came at him, Sanji's memories blurred, combining with a recall long past. The shadows of the three grown men beating down on Sanji transformed into three younger boys pushing their way through a barred iron door.

Little Sanji whined as little Niji threw him to the ground and pressed the ball of his foot into the metal helmet to keep him down. Sanji's face lined up with the uneven stones of the dungeon floor and he shivered, thinking of the creepy creatures that lived within those cracks and came up at night to bite at him. Never-ending. For days. For weeks. For months. Always there waiting for him, just like his brothers used to.

Usopp's head shot up. "That's why Sanji's afraid of bugs?" He cleared his throat to force away his guilt when his fellow crewmates gave him deliberate looks. "I…won't ever fire spiders at him again," the sniper promised. Nami, however, is fair game.

And now his brothers had found him, too. He was scared. He had nowhere to go now, nowhere to try to hide. He was locked away, and they would keep coming back. Just like the bugs.

Sanji struggled to get away.

"Let me go…" he pleaded.

Niji only laughed. "You've always been a failure, Sanji." He ground his shoe harder against the iron at Sanji's sensitive skull. "You deserve to die!"

"Zoro, no."

The swordsman – who had jumped to his feet like a demon from hell, instinctive grip on the hilt of his first un-shackled sword – braced to retaliate, meeting Luffy's stare.

Luffy evenly – in that eerie way he had sometimes – stared Zoro down.

Nami was already regretting giving the reckless brute his weapons back, but… She glanced at the distracted specialists in the room who didn't so much as peek back at them. Nobody was bothered to care about Zoro's tantrums anymore, it seemed.

Blue and green united to kick at Sanji's steel-clad head. The small cook curled up against the cold, insect-infested floor, taking the abuse as silently as he could muster.

They wouldn't really kill him, he knew. Because then they'd never get to beat him up anymore, right? So, if he just let them get it over with, then they'd go away.

They'd go away…

Adult Sanji – back in Germa's underground facility – took his abuse just as silently.

In flickers of paralleled assault, from tiny shadows to over-powered suits, Sanji's past and present collided, and he found himself right back in the fetal position, being pummeled to the ground by his brothers with no hope of defending himself.

"Luffy—" Zoro started, but the captain shook his head.

Luffy understood. He was pretty sure he knew how Zoro was feeling. He saw the looks on his crew's faces, and knew they were feeling it, too. And he felt just as sick to his rubber stomach as the next Straw Hat. He didn't understand why so many people seemed intent on making Sanji's life miserable when he was the nicest person ever, but he didn't care. He had no doubt they were getting Sanji out of here. Zoro could take care of him then.

But, to do that, his first mate needed to keep his free swords a secret – he gave his typical too-big grin – until it was time.

1.) Luffy thinks he's someone who makes plans.

2.) Luffy thinks he's someone who can keep to a plan.

3.) It's a recipe for disaster, honestly.