This was an entry in the One Piece Yaoi Drabbles community, prompt "unexpected", but once again I fail at yaoi. Please note the warning, nevertheless!

Title: Warped
Rating: K+
Word Count: 500+
Warnings: Character death (kindasorta). Weirdness.

When Zoro wakes, it feels like it's from a very, very long nap. Consciousness trickles in, and as he becomes dimly aware of the welcoming feel of the sunlight hitting his face, and the ache of his back protesting the stony ground, his brain absently teases apart the confused cacophony of voices. Chopper...Nami...Usopp...Franky...Luffy...they're crying.

His nakama don't cry for no good reason.

He bolts upright, eyes scanning the horizon for threats before his mind's fully caught up to wakefulness, and for a moment here blends into back then as he recognises where he is. In the middle of a rocky clearing torn up by the power of an Ursus Shock, surrounded by trees and sky and the scent of freedom. A perfect spot to die.

Or perhaps it's a perfect spot to live. To make a stand against agonies that should have killed him. To prove himself to an enemy strangely determined to pinpoint the limits of his loyalty.

But instead of the proof he struggled so hard to show, he sees something else now, a body lying prone amid the ruins, blond hair caked with blood, and when he arrives by Sanji's side and sees the injuries the cook sustained, his voice joins the crew's cry of despair and rage.

They're too familiar not to recognise. How many times did he have to step into that accursed bubble to prove himself, how many times did he feel each wound etch its way through his body, one by one yet all at once, till his senses couldn't take it anymore? Even now, years later, old wounds still ache in sympathy...until he realises that they don't. They're gone, and what he's feeling is vestiges of memory saying hello to physical twins separated at birth.

It's all wrong, dammit. Those are his injuries, his scars to bear, and someone's stolen them and given them to Sanji.

He's felled by another wave of disorientation as should have been collides with isn't, and he finds himself on his knees, the irreality of the situation warring against the solidity of the body he's clutching to his chest.

This isn't happening. Nothing was supposed to happen.

It should be Sanji walking towards him now, feigning nonchalance until his eyes widen with shock and horror at the scope of his injuries. Zoro's should be the lifeless body carefully cradled. There should be joyous partying, new nakama, sailing, battle, separation, reunion...

But instead he's back here, back then, and somewhere in between two of those bubbles of pain, something got screwed up.

The cook stood up, got in the way, took one for him - and died.

His mouth hardens into a thin line of determination as he restores the body to the arms of his wailing captain and gets to his feet. He glances around for his katana, frowns when he finds them lying haphazard on the ground, and straps them into his haramaki. Next he takes his unbloodied bandanna from around his arm and ties it around his forehead, because he has an enemy to find and fight.

Someone's been messing with Time, with Zoro, with Sanji - and there's no way in hell he's gonna let them get away with it.

A/N: Reviews of any kind are very welcome, including concrit. Thank you!