Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Zoro POV.

It takes them nearly a day to realize something is wrong. In hindsight this seems to be an unreasonably long time despite the fact that most of them disappear for most of the day every time they land on a new island. In fact, half of them don't even come back that first night, finding new places to explore, new foods to try, different beds that don't roll with the waves, brand new people to get into bar fights with. There's no end of new things in the Grand Line and they are never afraid to try something that looks interesting.

But Sanji, unless he states otherwise, generally comes back to the ship to whip up something for those who decide not to try the local cuisine (or have already spent out all their spending money). The fact that he doesn't, is what tips them off.

Chopper, having drawn the short straw to watch the ship, was whining when Nami and Robin returned late at night, that he was hungry and that he couldn't get into the fridge because it was locked and he'd already eaten all the fruit that Sanji had left out for him. The girls, knowing the cook's propensity for making sure his nakama were fed, were duly alarmed.

Which is why Zoro, having had the misfortune to arrive on ship at that moment, was dispatched back into town to look for the stupid dartbrow. He'd been angry at first, stomping back down the gangplank and into the town sure he'd find the cook flirting with some woman or another, and had simply lost track of time.

But it'd been five hours and he'd checked every bar in town, some twice when he'd gotten turned around, along with every motel, inn and restaurant and had come up empty. The only people who'd seen the cook were the grocers close to the port.

The unease which had been brewing since hour number two was a full-blown storm now. The way the hair on the back of his neck kept trying to raise wasn't helping. There were people watching him.

They'd been watching for a while now. But they hadn't tried to attack. He didn't think they wanted to but he didn't think it was coincidence either. He'd spent the last twenty minutes slowly herding his elusive watchers to a part of town where'd he'd be able to pin one of them down. He needed information and he needed it fast. Bad things tended to happen when his nakama were captured and he had no doubt that the curly-browed idiot was in their hands, had been since this morning.

He had to work to keep his expression annoyed instead of furious. But not for long.

Fifteen minutes and ten unconscious bodies later he has his answer. Goon number eleven is still conscious because he needs directions to wherever they'd stashed the cook.

It doesn't take them that long to get to the edge of the town and to the building where the goon had said that the cook was being held. It didn't look any different from the houses around it, but apparently there was a secret underground bunker. Having no need for goon number eleven anymore, Zoro dispatches him into unconsciousness and then crossed the street to the unassuming door and kicked it in.

Five minutes later he is covered in blood, one ear ringing from a pistol shot at close range and standing in front of a heavily barred door. There's a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, some tendril of warning. He's heard not one peep from the cook the entire time he's been here and if it's one thing the bastard can't do is shut up. He would think maybe the goons were lying but he knows in his bones that the cook is here.

"You better be here, stupid cook," he hisses anyway as Kitetsu and Shusui whirl through the air, slicing the door into pieces.

He steps through the doorway and stops. The view inside seems to come in tiny snapshots.

Lanky blonde hair, dirty and limp with sweat and blood.

Rusty chains, thick as his biceps, but barely a foot long, clamped around the cook's ankles, keeping him bound to the corner of the cell with no leverage to kick out.

The blood seeping out from under the cuffs says that the cook tried anyway.

His shoes are gone. Zoro doesn't know where. He hadn't seen them on his way in. He feels a surge of irrational anger at that. Those damn things are custom made and they always have to spend an extra week in port for them to be finished.

The rest of the cook is hunched into a lump. The jacket he'd had on that morning is gone. The white shirt he'd worn underneath is filthy. Brown and black and red all stain it. It's practically in tatters. Zoro feels another irrational surge of anger. The stupid, prissy cook will probably be whining about the loss of the suit jacket and shirt for days to come.

Then the lump that is the cook twitches, shifts and manages to sit up. He blinks at Zoro with eyes that are bleary, pupils blown wide, and slurs, "Mar'mo?"

Zoro….Zoro's vision flashes red, then white, then fuzzes to black before fading back in. He feels like he's falling, like his head is flying far away, like it's cold suddenly.

The cook is sitting up, his right hand braced on the ground to steady him and the other is curled up against his chest.

What's left of the other.

Bicep, elbow, and then…then nothing. Nothing but a tiny stump, not even bandaged, only a tight black tourniquet wrapped around it to keep the cook from bleeding out.

"Mar'mo?" Sanji slurs again, chains clanking as his legs shift.

"Cook," he says.

He doesn't know how the word comes out. He is not human right now. He is a seething entity of rage and revenge and reprisal. His mouth should be filled with fangs that cannot speak human tongue. The damned demon of the East Blue. A nightmare made flesh.

But Sanji is kicking, weakly, trying to snap the chains once more, blood leaking out from under the chains and that spurs him into motion finally.

"Hold still," he growls. The cook doesn't need to lose more limbs. Sanji stills and the fact that he is letting anybody near him with blades right now, that he trusts Zoro to cut only what needs be, hits the swordsman in the gut.

He breathes in, steady, calm, and then slices the manacles off.

There's a sharp intake from the cook but nothing more. He kicks again, shaking the pieces of the manacles off of him. Zoro sheathes his swords and, without bothering to ask, scoops the cook up, one hand behind his back and the other under his knees.

"Wha…?!" Sanji says. He wriggles a little but Zoro holds him firm.

"Come on," he says. "Let's get you to Chopper."

"Ch'er?"

"Yep," Zoro replies, maneuvering them up the stairs and out of the bunker. He wants to get out of here before the reinforcements arrive. And there are reinforcements, according the goons he'd questioned before.

"Mis'd din'er," Sanji says, head lolling on his shoulder, still deep in the grasp of whatever drug they'd pumped him full off. "He hungry?"

Another wave of something flows over Zoro, vision wavering. He wants to call it anger but it isn't. Stupid cook.

"The witch and Robin are with him," he says, standing outside the building, the cool sea air rushing over his too-heated skin, bringing relief.

"'Kay," the cook says. He seems to be getting weaker.

Zoro has never wanted to be yelled at for calling Nami a witch so much before. They don't have time though. He needs to get back to the ship and he cannot afford any unnecessary detours.

Luckily, he had spent five hours crawling all over this stupid town, so there are some landmarks he recognizes as he runs through the streets.

Sanji had whimpered at the first bouncing step and then clamped his mouth shut and buried his face in the swordsman's throat for the remainder of the journey.

The Thousand Sunny, when the ship finally came into sight, had never looked so beautiful before.

Zoro charged up the gangplank, yelling for Chopper.

"Zoro?"

Luffy voice. The captain's voice. Waiting for them to return, no doubt. Nami is next to him, book in one hand, clearly waiting for them as well. He thinks he sees Robin in the crow's nest but then Chopper is there in front of him, brow knitted together in concern.

Zoro doesn't know when he'd gone from standing to kneeling on the deck, still holding the cook's too still form in his arms. Chopper gasps when he sees the cook's condition.

"Chopper," Zoro says, almost not recognizing his own voice. The swordsman doesn't beg but this is a plea nonetheless. He needs his nakama to do what he can't.

Chopper's eyes go from horrified to professional and he nods, transforming to heavy point and easing Sanji out of his arms.

Zoro feels the exact moment that Luffy sees what's been done to his cook.

The air goes so frigid it's hard to breathe.

The deck, full of clamoring nakama a second before, is silent.

It is the calm before the damned hurricane that will wipe everything off the face of the world.

Nami's stifled sob breaks the silence. Tears are streaming down her cheeks, over her fingers, clamped tightly over her mouth and Zoro has never seen her so heartbroken and so furious before.

"Zoro," Luffy says. His hat is shadowing his black, black eyes. "Who did this?"

Zoro stands.

"Bounty hunters," he said. "They wanted you. But they wanted to know what weaknesses you had before they tried to capture you. I know where the main force is supposed to be. This was a node, to gather information." His voice is rage incarnate.

"Show me," his captain demands. He nods.

"Chopper!" Luffy calls. Almost to the infirmary, the doctor pauses. "Take care of him," his captain demands.

"Always," the little doctor says, quiet steel in his voice.

Luffy nods and then turns and strides off the ship, Zoro and Usopp right behind him.

Hey I hope you all enjoy! Leave a comment and let me know!

If anyone is OOC please know that I have only recently begun watching One Piece again in the most haphazard way and prior to that I had maybe read up to Alabaster like a decade ago...