"It's nothing." Sanji insists calmly. No one in the room is convinced, that's a more telling statement now that Usopp, Franky and Nami are here too.

"You woke up, nearly threw up on me then kneed me in the kidney and jammed your elbow in my stomach so you could write something down and have a nosebleed." Zoro snaps angrily. Sanji's sleep shirt is still stained with blood and there are traces of it in his goatee.

"What's a kidney?" Sanji asks, entirely missing the point. Usopp quickly translates the word and Sanji nods.

"Were you feeling sick before bed?" Franky questions the blond and Sanji shakes his head.

"I felt good." Sanji answers and his cheeks go slightly pink. Zoro knows just how good Sanji was feeling before bed.

"Do you often get nose bleeds like that?" Nami asks with a frown pinching her thin brows together.

"Not anymore, Usopp don't you dare laugh I will kick you." Sanji threatens quickly, and Usopp and Franky suppress sniggering. Interesting, but that's for later.

"It took fifteen minutes to stop bleeding, that's not nothing. If you'd hit your face on something I wouldn't be worried but unexplained bleeding is concerning." Zoro tells him.

"I'm fine now; it was just a dream." Sanji says defensively. He's never liked a fuss being made of him, but that's too bad because it's happening anyway.

Nami sits down on the bed suddenly and grabs Sanji's face between her hands.

"Tell me everything about your dream, leave nothing out. And do it in Baratian, Usopp you're going to translate it all. I want it perfect. And show me what you wrote." Nami orders. Her tone is like steel, and she looks at the startled sniper until he wilts under her scrutiny.

"You guys agreed to be nakama with her; this is part of the deal. She gets to boss you around when she thinks it's in your best interest, even if it's not obvious why she usually ends up being right." Zoro tells Sanji with a sigh. He grabs Sanji's journal; it's still open on the blood-splattered pages and hands it to Usopp.

Sanji looks imploringly to Zoro for help but he's not going to do anything. He's had enough of being at the bedside of a sick husband, if this is the warning signs of something worse to come then he is going to ambush the life out of it. Sanji doesn't have to like Zoro doing that, but it's going to happen regardless.

"The phrase doesn't make a lot of sense, I think it's meant to be a metaphor, but I don't know what for. I can give you a straight literal translation though if you like." Usopp offers.

"Do that." Nami says.

"A poisoned fruit from across the sea." Usopp says in calm Tsukian.

"Poison? You think someone poisoned you?" Zoro asks in alarm.

"You mean did I, the only chef, poison the meal I didn't eat?" Sanji says flatly and Zoro winces at his stupidity. Those were easy details to forget for sure.

"What does that sentence mean?" Nami asks, finally letting go of Sanji's face.

"I don't know, it was just in my dream." Sanji answers, squirming back a little.

"Why did you write it down? What was so urgent about that line that looks like it means nothing that you had to write it down even though you were bleeding?" Usopp questions the man, he grits his teeth and snarls angrily.

"I don't know! It was just a dream, and it was just a nosebleed. It doesn't need everyone in my room in the ass-end of the night interrogating me!" Sanji yells at them all.

"Tell me about your dream, in Baratian." Nami orders him, entirely ignoring Sanji's temper.

"Just go with it, please." Zoro pleads, both because he wants to get to the bottom of this and because he wants to go back to bed. Anything that makes Nami leave sooner is best. Sanji seems to waver and then eventually sighs.

"I had the knowing dream again. Just… not my one. Or not right away. I was in Zoro's." Sanji explains in his own language.

Familiarity bubbles in the back of Zoro's mind, his dream had been interrupted by Sanji's awakening and subsequent bleeding. But he had been dreaming; he remembers seeing Sanji underwater. His gold hair curling in the currents as he scowled and folded his arms in displeasure.

"I- I think I was having that dream too. I remember you underwater." Zoro says as the memory comes back to him.

"Yeah, and a fat lot of help you were. I was the only one who was-" And then Sanji says some word that Zoro doesn't know.

Everyone looks at Usopp who is scratching his head.

"I don't think there's a Tsukian word for this. Have you ever had a dream that you know is a dream when you're in it?" Usopp asks. Nami nods, but Zoro isn't sure if he has for sure or not.

"Well, all of Sanji's dreams are like that. The Baratian for it is lucid and lucidity. He's aware even in his dreams, and he can usually change stuff, right?" Usopp says, looking around Nami to Sanji for confirmation.

"Yeah, the only dreams I can't control are that one nightmare and the knowing dream. So I couldn't control this one. Also, the top of my river now goes into my dream of your soul. They're the same place now." Sanji tells him, looking up from where he's sat on the bed.

Their souls really are stuck together like that? The place that Zoro had felt was entirely Sanji, the water, the fish and all of it was embedded in Zoro's soul's landscape? It makes sense but the idea is almost unbearably romantic. He's more than a little envious of Sanji for being able to be awake in a place like that.

"So you moved from one place to the other." Nami prompts the other prince once more.

"Fine. I got out on the river bank and Zoro was there, the tiger Zoro I mean. I was complaining that I had wanted to be lucid and alter a normal dream to help me figure out the problem with the crops here. I said that I wanted…" Sanji trails off with a frown.

"What? What did you want?" Nami asks after Usopp is done translating.

"Lucidity. And as I said it there was a window there." Sanji says slowly, his brow furrowing.

"Hanging in the middle of the forest?" Zoro asks, feeling lost. Did he misunderstand Sanji?

"Yeah. And it was the afternoon I think but the other side of this window was dark, and I could see my reflection in it. But I don't think I was me; I think I was someone else." Sanji says slowly and brings his palm up to his cheek as if to check that his face is still his own.

"Could someone else be interfering with Sanji's mind? Kalifa maybe?" Franky asks worriedly. Nami shushes him and waves for Sanji to continue.

"I was injured I think, or I had been. There were stitches on my skin, like Zoro's old scar. But I know that face, but it's hard to remember it." Sanji says, shaking his head.

"You remembered the rest just fine." Zoro points out.

"Well, this wasn't like the rest of my dream. From that point on I wasn't in control of my dream, when I spoke it was me and wasn't me. It was like it was someone else's dream, hers I think." Sanji argues back; he seems genuinely unsettled. Zoro supposes that if he could always control his dreams then he too would feel distressed at having that control wrenched from him, especially if it usually only happens for Sanji's nightmares about that rock in the ocean.

"Wait, he said 'her' who is the woman?" Nami asks after conferring with Usopp.

Sanji looks deeply uncomfortable and won't make eye contact with anyone. After a few long seconds, he starts talking again.

"I heard my own voice, from behind me. There was another version of me, but he looked a little older maybe? I wasn't seeing things from his point of view and the longer things went on it seemed like he knew how the whole dream was going to go. My hair, I mean his hair was longer and I had a crown that I've never seen before. Zoro was there too and he had one as well." Sanji says in one long stream. It takes a moment or two for Usopp to catch everyone up.

"Where were you? And don't think I've forgotten my question about who you were but let's start with the basics." Nami questions.

"Some kind of castle I think? It was dark and cold, I think it was night time too. It started with me dropping a plate, I… she was wearing these black high heeled boots." Sanji says with a look of almost disgust on his face.

"And netted tights." Usopp translates because Zoro caught none of it when Sanji spoke. Unsurprisingly he and Sanji don't talk a lot about women's undergarments; it doesn't come up for some reason.

Sanji's disgust is an interesting reaction. Sanji certainly isn't averse to women and he made it clear before that he didn't regard the person in his dream that he was embodying to be himself. So that's unlikely to be disgust at having to wear those clothes either, not that Zoro can see a reason why that would bring disgust anyway but he doesn't get Baratian fashion. There's something else.

"I made that other me say those words that I wrote down, and I seemed upset about it but I said it anyway. And once I had it was like… a loop had been closed or something. It was scripted and I didn't know what was going to be said but he… the other me did." Sanji explains with a shake of his head. He leans forward and massages his fingers against his scalp.

"Then I stole a giant hunk of salt from myself and died, I think. Then I woke up, wrote that down and bled all over Zoro. It was just a weird ass dream and I want to go back to sleep now." Sanji says waspishly.

"You also kneed me." Zoro points out lazily.

"I'll do it again if you don't shut up!" Sanji argues loudly.

"Sanji, who were you in the dream?" Usopp asks again and Sanji goes still, as if Usopp might not see him if he's not moving.

"Why don't you want to tell us?" Zoro asks. Sanji isn't cagey like this for no reason.

"I was my mother, okay?" Sanji mumbles, looking down at his knees and avoiding everyone else.

The room is silent, everyone knows that Sanji's mother is dead. Zoro has never got Sanji to talk about her, not really and even then he wasn't sober. Knowing Sanji he probably thinks it's his fault. Zoro doesn't think that even he and Zeff talk to each other about her. Zoro has never particularly considered himself lucky to have both parents; everyone should have both, it's only fair. But the more he hears of his nakama's lives and Sanji's life he is grateful for both his parents being both alive and present in his life. He can't imagine Sanji's pain.

"Not too long after my adoptive mother died I had a dream." Nami says softly.

"I dreamt of myself surrounded by a storm that would never hurt me and did whatever I told it to. I woke up to a gale that ripped three trees out of the ground but stopped the moment I sat up. And I had one monster of a nosebleed." Nami says and Sanji rubs his still slightly blood smeared upper lip.

"That was the dream that you had which told you that you were a witch. You're saying you think that he is too." Zoro concludes and Nami nods.

"I told you people already, I'm not a witch. Nami was the first witch that I'd ever met, so I think it's pretty unlikely! Besides, I'm a lot older than you were then, aren't I? Isn't this thing supposed to happen when you're a child or a really young teenager?" Sanji points out.

"Sometimes it's later, but in those cases it's usually because it's hereditary." The witch explains with a nod.

"I don't know what that word means." Sanji says, looking at Usopp for help.

"Hereditary. You inherit something from a parent. Like... you having blue eyes is something you inherited from your mother from when you were born but being the King will be something that you inherit when Zeff isn't King anymore. The sense that Nami means is that one, she's implying that one of your parents is a witch and you're only getting the powers now from them... if one of them... died." Usopp only just manages to finish that sentence.

Zoro can see Sanji grinding his teeth together in anger, can see how Nami's insinuation is agitating him.

"My father isn't a witch, I would know if he was. And even if he were he's as old and strong as the sea; nothing is ever going to get him. As for my mother, she- it's very clear that she's dead! She's been dead for a long time, thank you very much. So if you're done rubbing my face in that idea I think you should all go!" Sanji snaps. His voice is angry but tight and Zoro has the uncomfortable feeling that Sanji is restraining crying out of anger and pain. Zoro wonders if he fell asleep now if Sanji's waters would be churning in deadly whirlpools, ready to drag down and drown people in vengeance.

"You were her in the dream, though." Nami points out.

Zoro frowns and looks at the floorboards. There is, of course, a terrible train of thought here which he cannot resist following.

He knows these things to be true.

Sanji and his parents were on a boat in the sea with plenty of other people when they were suddenly taken down by a storm. It left no survivors except Sanji and Zeff who were only rescued by chance. That is what everyone knows.

But there is already doubts as to whether it was the accident it appeared to be at the time. Could there not also be doubts on the number of survivors? If they were out at sea it's not like the bodies would have washed up, they have no proof that Sanji's mother is dead.

If she is alive or only just recently dead, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Nami's conclusion that Sanji is a witch to be true. But if that is the case then where has she been all of these years? Had she lost her memory? Was she kidnapped from the boat and the vessel sunk to cover the crime? Or did she simply not want to be with Sanji and Zeff anymore? None of these conclusions hold well for Sanji, either he'll see it as him failing to protect his mother or he'll be unspeakably hurt and betrayed.

There is no evidence for any of this. There is no reason to hurt Sanji on an idea that he stands no chance of disproving. It would just be cruel.

Nami and Sanji are still arguing.

"-kind of witch would I even be anyway? I've told you before that the fire thing is unrelated and that dream wasn't me using a power like yours was. You're wrong!" Sanji argues.

"Not all powers are so obvious! Sometimes it's seeing through the eyes of others or... or even seeing the future but- well ok that one is just a legend. That doesn't mean I'm wrong, though!" Nami retorts.

This isn't going anywhere good. Everyone is tired and upset, at this rate all that will happen is Nami and Sanji will damage their relationship with each other.

"You should all go. Get some more sleep, we all have a lot to do tomorrow. Clearly this isn't getting solved tonight." Zoro orders firmly and Usopp and Franky get up to leave. Franky shoots Sanji a sympathetic and supportive smile.

"Zoro you can't ignore this." Nami insists, not moving from her place.

"I'm not ignoring it. I'm saying that we don't need to do this now. Unless you have any evidence or a better argument we're just going in circles." Zoro points out, and Nami frowns.

"I'm not wrong." Nami insists as she gets to her feet and leaves.

Zoro shuts the door behind her and sighs. This isn't good at all.

"So what do you think then? Everyone else was saying their bit, but not you." Sanji asks, and Zoro turns to see his husband staring up at him willfully from the bed.

"Some of the stuff Nami said makes sense, but some of it doesn't. It explains the weird dream and the nosebleed, but the rest of it makes no sense. It could just be stress. I'm stressed being here, and I never went through what you did. Or maybe you're just weird." Zoro says and climbs back into bed as well.

"That was a very wishy washy answer." Sanji tells him and though Zoro has never heard that phrase before, he gets it. Shallow and moving this way and that in an unstable way, like the tide in a really shallow pool. Damn Baratians and their water metaphors, it's rubbing off on him.

"I don't know what's wrong. I don't like not knowing but that does fuck all to change the fact that I don't know. If something else happens, we'll work on it some more, if not then this will just be some weird memory." Zoro reasons and settles into bed alongside Sanji. He's left the candle lit and the gold light of it dances on Sanji's golden hair.

"I wish it felt as simple as you put it." Sanji says after a while and settles down properly too. He's not asleep, Zoro can see his eye open.

"She's been dead for a long time." Sanji says after a while. There's no emotion in it, just a statement of fact.

"I'm sorry." Zoro offers weakly. What else can he say?

"I saw her reflection in that window, I've never looked at her at the same height like that. I probably am her height now. I had almost forgotten what she looked like, what her voice sounded like." Sanji says in a strangled tone.

Sometimes when Shanks is away for a long time, Zoro finds that happens too. He'll hear his parents laughing and realise that he'd started to forget just how it sounded, even though it also feels like the noise is carved into his very bones. His parents are never apart for too long, but Sanji has spent so very long without his mother. Zoro feels stupidly guilty and selfish for having both of his parents or for ever feeling bitter that Shanks has to leave so much.

"Do you think it was just a dream or something else?" Zoro asks him quietly, instead of voicing those stupid thoughts.

"I don't know. It certainly didn't feel like I was the one dreaming, it felt like someone else's dream. Like... like hers." Sanji says slowly.

Zoro says nothing more. He has never heard of someone having such powers over their dreams as Sanji does with his. He supposes as well that it is not unthinkable that Sanji could explore his own soul as he does Zoro's, after all, they are meant to be bonded like that. He has the strange power to be awake and asleep at once, but maybe that is just a skill. But to jump from Zoro's dream to an unrelated person was... impossible. That was no mere skill like he could maybe argue Sanji has between his own dreams and Zoro's.

So he is left with this point again.

Either Sanji was just dreaming of a lost parent and a strange image of himself. Or he was developing magic related to dreams and starting to move from person to person with them. From his own, to Zoro's, to his mother's.

The only problem was, dead women don't dream.

Zoro doesn't so much sleep as he does doze, but the sunlight hitting his face stirs him into wakefulness after what must have been a few hours. Sanji blinks sluggishly at the ceiling and his stupid eyebrows are furrowed in thought.

"Morning." Zoro greets him warily, it's odd for them to sleep in this position. For Zoro to be curled around Sanji instead of the other way around.

"Brush your teeth and get dressed, we should get going." Sanji tells him and sits up then climbs nimbly over Zoro's body.

"Did you get to sleep at all?" Zoro asks as he peels his shirt off.

"I got an early start to the day, that's all." Sanji says in response. So, no then.

Zoro dresses and watches Sanji do the same. Not just to stare pervertedly at him, though there is that he supposes, but to see how efficient and quick Sanji is being. He's wasting no time and trying to busy himself with things. He's trying not to think, or perhaps he's eager to get to some of the answers that he's hoping they'll find up in the bandit's hills. Zoro is similarly eager to find solutions for his people and if Sanji doesn't want to talk about his personal problems right now then that's fine too.

The two of them are downstairs in no time at all. Zoro can hear the sound of breakfast being made from the kitchen; it's Franky's voice along with the innkeeper. He wonders if all Baratians are good cooks or specifically just those who spend time with Sanji. The other prince isn't loitering, though, he's going straight to the front door and out of it. He had no intention of eating breakfast, despite not having eaten dinner the night before.

Zoro scowls and marches into the kitchen. It's going to be a long hike today and he's not going to have Sanji do it hungry.

"Hey, bro. Are you out already? I thought Sanji might be helping us with food this morning." Franky says cheerfully.

"He's trying to go without eating, like last night." Zoro rats him out in Baratian and Franky scowls while the innkeeper looks puzzled.

"Oh no, he's not. Take these, he can eat and ride. I'll have Usopp help me before he gets started today." Franky says and shoves two large bread rolls into Zoro's hands. There's some kind of filling but Zoro can't tell what.

"See you." Zoro bids goodbye and goes to leave. How can he ensure that Sanji eats this and won't just return it for someone else to eat?

He rounds the building and goes into the stables thoughtfully. Sanji is already setting his horse's tack into place and is almost done. Hmmm.

He steps forward and quick as he can smacks the roll into Sanji's face. The blond yells 'FUCK' loud enough to startle several of the horses, though not Sanji's own who is clearly used to his outbursts.

"No one else will want to eat that after your ugly face has been on it, so eat." Zoro tells him and moves smoothly on by to his own horse and goes through the process of getting saddled up and ready to go.

"You're the worst." Sanji mutters bitterly from the other end of the room. Zoro hears the crunch of the bread roll and somehow manages not to feel bad at all.

As soon as his horse is set Zoro climbs on and retrieves his slightly smushed roll from his pocket and eats as they leave. The paste in it tastes familiar but Zoro isn't sure where from.

"What is this?" Zoro asks as they ride out of the small village with their horses.

"It's a kind of nut butter... paste... thing. I'm not sure what you call it in your language. I'm also not sure what the name of the nut is for you either and I suspect that if I describe what it looks like to you it won't be of any help either." Sanji replies.

Zoro wants to protests that he's not an idiot but he is right, Zoro's botany skills aren't massively high. His parents and trainers taught him enough to know 'this thing will for sure kill you' in the wild and then how to hunt but foraging for nuts wasn't something he did a lot. He knows the most common ones, like the autumn chestnuts near the castle that are perfect for roasting by the fire with a little salt. His father used to tell him stories of their ancestors whenever they did that when Zoro was small. It's strange how a taste, even a recalled one, can bring back a memory like that.

"I know some, but we can just ask Franky and the innkeeper later." Zoro agrees and then they are out of the village and onto the farmyard roads.

No people are working, on Sanji's sensible orders. But between the lack of people, animals and plants it makes everything seem far too eerie. The hairs on Zoro's neck stand on end and he nudges his swords with his elbow just to feel that they're still there.

"It's this way, are you lost?" Sanji asks, leading on.

"I'm not lost!" Zoro argues and catches up to his husband. "I was just staring is all. It's still really creepy to look at out there."

"It is." Sanji agrees simply.

They ride on in silence, having to re-route at one point to avoid that fallen tree from before. Zoro watches Sanji as much as he watches the ghostly fields around them. The other man is scrutinising the plants as they go, trying his best to work out what or who killed them. There's no such activity for Zoro right now. To him, a dead plant is a dead plant. It's people that Zoro can deal with and he's anticipating talking to Luffy's people about all of this. Will their timeline match those of the people down here? Can they be persuaded to help those people more, and what are they already doing? Without those people here to question, Zoro has nothing to do.

The time until they get to green land again seems to drag forever, but they do eventually make their way to the edge of the bandit hills.

"So, is it this steep the whole way up?" Sanji asks as he looks up the green embankment which leads into the treeline.

"Not the whole way, no. The terrain is pretty challenging but they have horses up there too so you can get them there, we'll probably just have to walk. From what I remember it's pretty step-like, we call them the bandit hills but I suppose it's a mountain." Zoro explains, motioning with his hand the stepped cone shape that he means.

"Hill kind of undersells it." Sanji agrees as he climbs off of Seafoam.

"Yeah, I guess it's a mountain. Don't worry, though, there's no dragons at the top. Not like your mountains." Zoro teases, also dismounting.

"Go fuck yourself!" Sanji yells over the back of his horse and angrily makes his way into the treeline. Zoro snickers to himself and follows on foot.

Zoro allows Sanji to sulkily stomp through the undergrowth in the uphill woodlands for a while until he calms down. Or mostly calms down at least, only an idiot would ever assume that Sanji was completely calm and they were totally free from a screeching rant and a kick.

"I wonder how much longer it'll take Luffy and Robin to get here, or if Chopper is going to come too." Zoro says, a smartly neutral topic.

"There are sick people here, I'm stunned he's not run here on foot already." Sanji replies.

"Luffy knows the way here blindfolded. He'd be way better at getting to the bandit camp than me, I just know it's at the top." Zoro adds.

"Someone being able to navigate better than you, Zoro? Say it isn't so." Sanji gasps, presumably drowning under all of the layers of sarcasm he just put on there. Zoro bends down and scoops a pine cone off of the floor and maturely lobs it at the back of his husband's head. The next steep incline up the mountain goes very quickly with dodging each other's projectiles.

"So, how did you and Luffy meet then? I get that this isn't too far from your home but it's not like this is next door either." Sanji asks after their pinecone fight has abated.

"It's... a long story." Zoro hedges. His parents know the full version but most people only know the abridged version.

"Oh, yeah. I definitely have better things to do right now than listen to you answer the question that I asked." Sanji snarks at him and Zoro rolls his eyes. He may well have told Sanji the not entirely true but abridged version before, but he'll tell the real one now.

"I don't know how the whole prince thing goes in Baratie, but as soon as I was a competent swordsman and could ride and survive in the wild, I was allowed to go more or less anywhere I wanted. I had to study of course but my father wanted me to interact with my people, so I'd often ride out somewhere with Shanks on his way back to his crew and the sea and then come back on my own." Zoro explains.

"With your sense of direction?!" Sanji asks in horror.

"Shut up. There are signs about, and I could always tag along with other people if I wanted." Zoro argues. He doesn't say that his father occasionally sent knights out to find him and bring him back, often enough that it became a sort of trial for them.

"So you met Luffy one time when you were out on your own?" Sanji guesses.

"Yeah, I mean it was a town not too far from here. Further away I think but not too bad. There was a town run by this completely corrupt guy; he was attacking townspeople and overtaxing them. Things like that. It happens every so often but as a member of the royal family, it's my job to fix that whenever we see it. Luffy and I met at an execution." Zoro explains.

"Whose?" Sanji asks curiously.

"...Mine." Zoro mumbles.

"Holy shit, what?!" Sanji gasps and vault's Seafoam's back to get to Zoro's side.

"I didn't tell the guy who I was, and I made a bet that if I could outlast anything he'd do to me then he'd leave the people in the town alone. Part of it was going without food actually, which was pretty dumb of me but a local girl kept sneaking me this terrible food that she'd made herself. Seriously awful but she tried, you know?" Zoro explains. Even now he can taste that gross sugary rice, even if it was made with care, it still tasted bad.

It occurs to him that Sanji isn't saying anything and when he looks over at his husband the man is looking at him all misty-eyed and with a trembling lip.

"What?" Zoro asks.

"Nothing, I have... something in my eye. Go on." Sanji mumbles and looks sharply away.

"Luffy offered to free me because he'd heard about what I was doing and I refused. But Luffy had also heard that the corrupt leader knew who I was and was never intending on letting me win and wanted to execute me anyway. He could claim ignorance if anyone found out and people would have to stand by my dumbass bet and choice to lie about who I was, it wouldn't be treason. Anyway, he broke the deal by doing that so Luffy got me my swords and we broke out of there, kicked ass and removed him from power. We became friends on the way back and to thank him my father said that I could make him a knight if I wanted." Zoro explains calmly. He still feels stupid about his past self's choices, but it led to great things, because of that he can't truly say that he regrets it.

"And he said yes." Sanji nods.

"Eventually, after being told that there would be unlimited food in it for him and he'd be captain. Apparently, he thought that outranked my title, but it's not like I tell Luffy what to do most of the time. Eventually, we met Nami and then years later Robin." Zoro explains.

"So does he come back here often?" Sanji asks, looking around at the lush green forest. It's a stark contrast from the fields below.

"Not really. The leader of the bandits is a woman named Dadan. She basically raised Luffy and Ace after Garp dumped them here. But Luffy doesn't really see family like that, he doesn't think that you need to be near people to matter to them. Actually Shanks saved his life as a little kid and Luffy has this big thing about not seeing him until he feels he's good enough so he always tries to avoid him." Zoro explains with a smile. Luffy's disappearing acts are pretty famous, he's well known for throwing himself out of windows to avoid the man. It's lucky that Luffy bounces so well.

"Wait, I thought Luffy was related to Garp." Sanji says with a frown.

"He is. Garp is Luffy's grandfather." Zoro confirms.

"So... he just ditched Ace and Luffy on some bandit leader lady? Had they even met her before? And I thought you said that Ace and Luffy weren't related by blood." Sanji questions him with a frown.

"They're not. Well, they might be." Zoro says, also frowning now as well.

"How helpful." Sanji remarks.

"Look, Luffy's full name is Monkey D. Luffy, his father is Monkey D. Dragon and Garp's full name is Monkey D. Garp. With Ace, his name is Portgas D. Ace." Zoro explains. He doesn't go into how that isn't actually Ace's real name, both because it's not relevant but also because Ace may well fly across the country and punch him for mentioning it. A man's name should be his own choice.

"Your naming conventions are weird." Sanji sighs.

"The whole D part of the name does seem to be a family thing so they may be related by blood some way back but fuck if I know. Throughout history, people with that D in their name show up doing important and dangerous shit. All you need to know is that if someone introduces themselves and they're Something D. Something, they're fucking crazy. I mean, maybe in a good way like Luffy, Garp and Ace but still. Completely bonkers and unbelievably strong." Zoro explains.

"Noted. But my point was, why were Luffy and Ace brought up here and not with their parents?" Sanji asks and leads his horse around a large boulder.

"Well, Ace's parents are both dead and Luffy's father is... off somewhere? I know he's still alive but he just vanished off in some other country and we hear about him every now and then. Luffy doesn't care. And Garp was busy being one of my father's most trusted men." Zoro explains. It all seems perfectly reasonable to him but from Sanji's sigh and the shake of his head, Zoro would guess that Sanji doesn't feel the same.

"Just leap straight to bandits, ok. Well, it turned out fine anyway I guess. So my next question, you keep talking about this mountain like it's her territory. But it's still your country, isn't it? This is your mountain, right?" Sanji asks and scrambles up a steep incline with his horse. Zoro watches them and considers the way his father once put this to him.

"The bandits are strong and we value that, they're good warriors. They too recognise our strength and wisdom. The mountain, of course, belongs to my family but... only as long as we don't try to act like it does. You'd have to have a really small brain and really big ego to want to fight them for it." Zoro explains and he and his horse rush up the same incline that Sanji cleared.

"And I thought that kind of slippery logic was the sort of thing you accused my people of." Sanji says smugly and Zoro glares.

"I never said I liked it, but peace is better than war just for the sake of being honest. It's not like we never lie, we just try not to." Zoro protests and Sanji smiles affectionately at him.

"I'll make a practical man of you yet." He chuckles.

"So have you met this Dadan lady then?" Sanji asks curiously and Zoro nods.

"Well, what's she like?" Sanji asks and scrambles up a steep incline.

Zoro purses his lips as he tries to think of a good way to describe Dadan, the woman who raised several utterly chaotic children and maintained a stranglehold on this entire mountain.

"She's big, and she shouts a lot, and even though she loves Luffy, she'll still punch him in the ear for doing something dumb. She's a fearless leader, and I think she's pretty kind hearted if you dig really deep." Zoro explains.

"Huh, sounds like Zeff." Sanji says thoughtfully.

Zoro considers that for a moment and is a little unsettled to find that it could well fit Zeff. He needs to get to know his father-in-law better.

"I should get to know Zeff more when I see him next. He'll probably like me better when you're not on the verge of death." Zoro says to Sanji.

"I'll try to arrange my near death experiences with that in mind then." Sanji snorts and leads his horse along the narrow hillside path.

"That's not funny." Zoro says bitterly.

"Says you." Sanji shrugs and Zoro groans. How is it possible to both love and hate someone this much?

"You sparred with Mihawk, do you think that Zeff would spar with me when we see him again?" Zoro asks, because asking that is better than leaping his horse and strangling Sanji. Just.

"You don't have to spar with him just because I did with Mihawk; it's not like that was my idea anyway. But… hm, he might. Just not in the kitchen. He knows how important this stuff is to Tsukians so he'd be more likely to fight you seriously than he does me." Sanji answers.

"He doesn't fight you seriously?" Zoro asks in horror. The path widens here, and he can stand next to Sanji and his horse to look at him in shock. It's so insulting not to fight someone seriously, how can Sanji stand it?

"Hm, not really. We mostly just scuffle over small disagreements, a real fight is too destructive most of the time. He stopped properly combat training me about five years ago; I think I may have been a bad student." Sanji says and visibly cringes a little at the words.

Zoro frowns and thinks of how overly emotional Sanji and Zeff's verbal arguments are and how pissy Sanji can get when he's tired and frustrated. The pair of them are pretty alike so that potentially is a very bad teaching relationship.

"Do you think I'd win?" Zoro asks curiously.

Sanji pauses and leans against his horse's flank as he thinks, a frown of concentration deep on his face.

"I honestly don't know. Before he lost his leg he was a formidable fighter and he'd done a little piracy of his own back then and was renowned for being a force to be reckoned with. But now he's got one fake leg and doesn't exactly practice much. But he can still kick clean through any wall, last time we squared up against each other for real I lost so badly and I'm pretty sure he can still out kick me in pure force. He's not so agile anymore though and you are. I'm not sure, but I think it'd be pretty close whichever way it went." Sanji finally concludes and Zoro can see the other man watching him closely, perhaps for signs of offence.

Zoro is not offended.

He didn't realise that Zeff was so good, but likely Mihawk knew that and it's probably part of the reason that he agreed. Their bloodline is made up of progressively better fighters and there's no way that Mihawk would risk tainting it with weak blood and risking combat weak grandchildren. Of course, Sanji is a good fighter, perplexing with his fire skills as well, but Zoro hadn't realised that Zeff could well be better. And to think he spent all that time there in the same building as the man and never tested him. He wishes that he could fight him right now.

"Just don't demand a fight the moment you get through the palace doors, ok? Now come on, we're going this way." Sanji sighs deeply and leads his horse up the left fork of the path going up the hill. Zoro looks between the two equally good paths and scowls.

"How do you know it's this way, you've never been here!" Zoro argues as he rushes to catch up to Sanji.

"We're looking for bandits, right? Well, the trees on this path have arrows stuck in them still. I think this is the right way." Sanji points out smugly and Zoro has to agree, at least in the privacy of his own head.

A silence forces its way between them and Zoro tries to run over a few different ways of bringing up Sanji's dream again. It's possible that he'll be less defensive about it when it's just the two of them. On the other hand, asking about it may well piss the temperamental prince off further. Should he push it or should he trust that if Sanji wants to talk about it, then he will?

If it were any other subject then Zoro wouldn't feel this level of hesitation, but it's about the death of a parent. A pain Zoro can't possibly understand and dearly hopes that he never has to. What right does he have to intrude on that? He knows Sanji but he doesn't own every inch of his mind and soul, he can't command Sanji to do only what Zoro pleases. It's not the same.

"Is it bothering you too?" Sanji asks from up ahead and Zoro's back stiffens with worry.

"How everything up here is so green and lush and everything down there is dead? It's not just unfair, it's unnatural." Sanji continues and Zoro almost sighs with relief.

"It could be dangerous." Zoro says, willing to have this conversation at least.

"Not really, I've been looking. There's no sign of poison or plague anywhere up here; we won't get sick." Sanji tells him, looking back over his shoulder to do so.

"I mean, a group of starving people down there looking up at this green and healthy mountain inhabited by lawless bandits." Zoro amends. There's a reason that their country hasn't engaged in many big conflicts lately, supplying an army with food is hard and hungry people are angry people. And armed people, as almost everyone in this country is, are far worse when they're angry. If the bandits weren't so fearsome they may well have been stormed for supplies sooner.

"I think 'lawless' is a little harsh, don't you?" A smooth voice says sweetly. Zoro looks up in alarm to see Robin and Luffy perched in a tree, looking down at them grinning.

"Holy shit!" Sanji yelps in alarm.

"Did you climb up there just to be dramatic?" Zoro asks incredulously, and Robin drops down with a dramatic swish of her skirts.

"Drama is always valuable." Robin says tartly.

"The village is just up there around the corner; we could hear you two talking." Luffy explains and drops down.

"How long have you been here?" Sanji asks in surprise.

"We arrived around dawn this morning. We left approximately forty hours after you, we couldn't fool Mihawk for long I'm afraid. Indeed many of the hours that he was 'fooled' for he was asleep. He's very sharp indeed." Robin says with some approval.

"We rode here and on the outskirts of the direct route to this mountain Luffy encountered a giant sabre-toothed lion, which he fought spectacularly, and so the three of us rode here on that far faster. Our horses, a few guards, a carriage with supplies and another with diagnostic tools elected to go by road instead for some reason." Robin explains.

"A… a giant what?" Sanji asks in confusion.

"Oh, Zoro. Before I forget, your father asked me to give you this when I saw you." Luffy says over Robin quietly explaining what a giant sabre-toothed lion is. Luffy reaches into his vest and pulls out a folded sheet of fine parchment. In the centre of the fold where the paper overlaps, there is his father's wax seal, a deep amethyst purple wax with gold flecks and their family crest in it.

A letter, from Mihawk to him.

Zoro holds it in his hands, the reigns of his horse looped over his elbow. His father knows that he snuck out, disobeyed his direct orders and lied to him through his nakama.

"Your other father told me to give you this as well, but to read it after Mihawk's one." Robin adds, handing him another letter. This one is folded into a paper square, the kind of silly origami that Shanks had taught him when he was little, you could flick this clear across the table and play games with it.

He looks again at Mihawk's sealed letter, and dread fills him. It's the hot and unpleasant feel of guilt and shame, the kind he used to get as a small boy when he played too rowdily in the castle in areas he had been told not to and accidentally broke something. He was in trouble, and now he just had to wait to find out how badly in trouble he was. How is it that he is an adult, but he feels just the same?

"Just open it Zoro, the waiting will be way worse than anything he'll say." Sanji assures him.

Zoro thinks that Sanji doesn't know Mihawk very well if he believes that.

Still, he slides his thumb under the seal which comes free cleanly. He opens and unfolds the letter and is dismayed to find out that it is two sheets of paper.

To Roronoa Zoro, son of Dracule Roronoa Mihawk, grandson of-

This goes on for some time. It practically lists every person in Zoro's direct family line! He wonders if Mihawk knows all of that off the top of his head or if he had to go to the reference section of the library for this letter.

You have lied to me and betrayed my trust.

Zoro feels like he might throw up.

I explicitly ordered you to stay in the castle whilst this matter was cleared up suitably by people who were perfectly capable of doing so. I reasoned with you and still you disobeyed, putting your own life at risk as well as the life of your husband. I had thought that I need not remind you that the health and wealth of our country is directly tied to that of your betrothed and yet you act foolishly and recklessly.

I do not agree with your actions.

Zoro closes his eyes. Maybe he can be a bandit and live in the woods, that sounds nice. He returns to reading.

However,

Zoro's eyes widen. However? There's a however after that scathing beginning?

However, I do not rule this country in the same manner that my predecessor did and I know that you will be different from me. I am sure that in my youth some of my own actions may have been considered reckless by some. I can only hope that your choices here reflect the values that you have learned and are of sound judgement, rather than some teenaged rebellion. If it was the latter I would be, for the first time, disappointed in you.

You are an intelligent and sensible young man, and I hope to see you soon and unharmed. When you return I shall expect you to inform me on everything that has happened and all of your choices since I saw you last.

Sincerely,
Your father,
Mihawk

Zoro squints suspiciously at the letter. Did… did two different people write that? Maybe he should read his Dad's letter next.

Hey Zoro,

I leave the castle for two days to chase down leads on this witch and come back to find Mihawk completely losing his shit over you. So, he's writing you an angry letter, or several I guess because this seems to be his third draft already. All I gotta say is, don't listen to him.

When he was younger he did dumb shit all the time; he snuck out to see me whenever he could. We'd meet up in a bar and then fight anyone else in the bar for fun, I mean, I may have started those fights but he liked 'em.

I love you Zoro, I probably won't be there when you get back so I'll either see you next time you're home or I may find you in Baratie. We'll see where the sea takes me.

Love you,
Shanks

P.s. Your father just asked me how he should end a formal letter to you. I told him to go with 'yours sincerely and kindest regards' please tell me he did! That's hilarious! If he did then I owe you a drink because that's brilliant.

Zoro squints at the two letters and tries to figure out what the hell just happened. So neither of his parents are angry at him? Or Mihawk might be but if he is then it's just temporary and he used to do the same kind of things before so he understands or…?

"Did you break your brain or something?" Sanji eventually asks, and Zoro snaps out of it.

"Uhh, no. My family is weird." Zoro answers.

"You're weird." Sanji responds immediately.

"Hm, I hate to break it to you Zoro, but you but are weird." Robin agrees, the traitor.

"So are you in trouble or what?" Sanji asks curiously, and Zoro can see genuine compassion in Sanji's eyes, so he knows that he's only half screwing with him about this.

"I don't think so. He's not happy by any means, but I don't think I'm in trouble." Zoro says uncertainly. He could well be in trouble for the lying part, but Mihawk didn't exactly give him much choice.

"Great! Let's get going then. I know everyone wants to meet Sanji and you're always welcome here Zoro." Luffy says warmly and leads the way. He accidentally sets off a trap on their way into the bandit camp, but Luffy simply catches the arrow clean out of the air as if it was nothing. Zoro supposes he grew up here after all.

"How was your journey Sanji, uneventful I hope?" Robin asks cordially as they enter the outskirts of the camp.

The camp itself is a series of small and squat buildings, some of which have gained extra floors through merging with treehouses. Up above them in the trees are rope bridges, vine swings and hidden weapons caches. Zoro knows from prior experience that most of those were set there by Luffy, Ace and their other brother Sabo who Zoro has never actually met. Sanji is protesting to Robin that people don't constantly try to kill him, thank you very much, when he notices the appearance of the camp. The blond goes starry-eyed immediately and Zoro starts to see the resemblance of the buildings with tree houses to Sanji's own palace which is partially inside a giant tree.

"It's so lovely!" Sanji says in delight.

"It is certainly very lively I've found. Plenty of drinking and carousing to go around at night." Robin nods sagely.

The people are milling about and occasionally looking at them hardly look like Baratians though. They're dark-skinned like Zoro, only more so from spending all their days outside. They're dirt scuffed and their clothes are ragged or stitched together from separate articles of clothing. By contrast, the Baratians seem to pride themselves in always showing their best face to the outside world, even if it makes them look weaker to Tsukian eyes. Sanji couldn't stand out more if he tried. Actually, he probably could and Zoro won't challenge him to that, who knows what levels of finery Sanji can reach if goaded to?

A large woman lumbers out of a building and stares them down. She has the kind of body that looks like it's constructed with beer barrels and cowhide with a good deal of fat between the two. Top it all off with a mess of ginger hair, and she certainly is a striking kind of lady. Both visually and literally, Zoro has seen Dadan smack Shanks clean across the ear before. She is not a timid lady.

"Oi! Luffy, what're you doing over there? Who's that? Oh, hello, Prince Zoro." Dadan says with a half-hearted nod.

"Dadan." Zoro nods respectfully.

"Hello, I am Prince Sanji, I am very pleased to meet you." Sanji says politely and bows more than he needs to. He's still not completely got the hang of measuring that.

"You're the foreign prince Luffy was telling me about? You survived getting your throat cut and then kicked your attacker through several trees so hard he caught on fire? A little slip of a thing like you?" Dadan snorts.

Zoro scowls at Luffy, did he absolutely have to tell her that? He knows that Sanji is still... touchy about that subject.

Sanji squints at Dadan for a moment and then grins, something sinister and sly. He tilts his head as he does it, making the large scar visible in ways that he usually avoids.

"Nothing wrong with being underestimated, people don't do it twice." Sanji says smoothly.

Dadan bursts into uproarious laughter and slaps her knee in amusement.

"Oh, I like you, boy. What was your name again?" Dadan roars in amusement and Sanji beams.

"It's Sanji." He repeats.

"Sanji," Dadan tries, rolling the word around in her mouth, "let me show you around here. Get you something to eat and drink too. I want to hear all about where you're from and if Luffy as been minding any of the manners that I drummed into his rubber skull."

"What manners?" Robin whispers to Zoro and Zoro has to restrain himself from laughing audibly.

Dadan leads Sanji away with a large hand on his back and enthusiastically gestures to everything of note that they pass as Sanji is brightly keeping up the conversation. Perhaps she is just like Zeff after all.

"They seem to get along like a house on fire." Robin notes.

"Why do people say that's a positive thing again?" Zoro asks warily, watching Dadan burst out laughing again. He's always felt that both bandits, pirates and Baratians were weird, although all for different reasons. It looks like it's turning out that the three may have more in common than he'd first thought.

He finds himself thinking of Shanks and his unusual ancestry, it seems like he's from everywhere. Of course, that means that Zoro is too in a way. Zoro wonders if he has any Baratian in him. Actually he'd like some... no, no, he's not going to finish that thought.

Zoro takes his horse and Sanji's horse and ties them up with food and water in reach, they deserve a rest. Robin follows him and talks of their speedy journey. Eventually she gets to the point that she's been avoiding.

"It was night time when we passed the nearby village in the distance so I couldn't see how bad it was. What state are they in?" Robin asks.

"Everything is dead, every single plant. The others have figured out that it has to be some kind of poison applied to the soil somehow, it's also got into the river water so there's no fish and the water is toxic to drink. It's a miracle it's not reached the well water yet. Sanji isn't sure how it's done yet but I think the group are leaning towards magic or something like it as a cause." Zoro explains and Robin's face falls.

"That's exceedingly troubling to hear. What brought you two up here then?" Robin asks.

"Hoping for more supplies and any extra information we can get. Sanji says there's no way he can bring those crops back, his hope is to fix this before they lose another growing season. They might have to resettle." Zoro whispers quietly.

"That won't be a popular choice." Robin says grimly.

"Well, it's better than starving to death." Zoro says unhappily.

Zoro looks for Sanji only to see that he's already sitting down by a fireside with Dadan explain much the same kind of thing as Zoro had just been explaining to Robin, only in more detail. Luffy is listening with a frown and so Robin and Zoro go to join them.

"So magic or devil's fruit." Dadan concludes at the end of Sanji's speech.

"That's the thinking. Can you tell me if your understanding of what's been happening matches up with the timeline they gave us? Any information at all is useful." Sanji says and Dadan rubs her large chin thoughtfully.

"We don't exactly patrol the roads but we make note of any encounters we get, strange things like foreigners or large groups of people. We also note all the trades we made with people, we've been getting a lot of trades for food from that place. We don't have an outrageously large amount, but we had enough to trade with them." Dadan explains.

"That'd be incredibly helpful. I was hoping that I might be able to ask you for another favour while we're here." Sanji asks carefully, eyeing the larger woman.

"Oh?" Dadan says curiously.

"Your mountain is very large and though the land isn't really suitable for farming I'd like your permission to set up a few small patches in the spring in case the fields fail again. But before then I'd like your permission to set up something else." Sanji says slyly.

"What's that?" Dadan asks.

"A trap. I tell everyone that I'm planting fields in the mountain and I leave one very visibly by the roadside with transplanted crops in it. If this poison on the fields has to be re-done then that person won't be able to resist poisoning this one too. We keep a guard hidden and watch. Potentially anyone who is doing this could undo it, so catching them is absolutely needed." Sanji explains.

"And if you catch this person, what will you do? Anyone who can do that to plants is going to be able to do it to people too." Dadan points out.

"This is the worst kind of crime in Baratie, ma'am. There are three Baratians in our party who are itching to put this fucker to justice, two of which are long ranged fighters too. One of my nakama can also shoot lightning at will We don't even have to touch them to beat them. I think we'll be fine." Sanji says with an idle wave of his hand.

"You're assuming that it's not any of us." Dadan points out.

"I think it's unlikely." Sanji says slowly.

"Oh, you have some counter plan for that, too? You are a cunning boy indeed. You know, I've never met a Baratian before but I think I like you." Dadan laughs and slaps Sanji sharply on the back.

"I'm happy to hear that. This place is far more organised than I had imagined, I'm very impressed." Sanji tells her with warmth in his voice and a smile on his face.

"Ooh-hoo I bet those fancy castle folks wouldn't like to see you complimenting the likes of me!" Dadan roars in amusement.

Sanji snorts dismissively and Dadan laughs even louder.

"Sanji has taken to confusing and upsetting people on occasion, this is true." Robin confirms.

"Excellent. Which reminds me, next time any of you see Garp you kick him in the balls and tell him to come see me. We need to have WORDS about his family." Dadan says ominously.

"I'm his family, what words are you gonna have with him?" Luffy demands, perking up.

"None of your concern, kid." Dadan says with a shake of her head.

"How is it not my concern if it's my family?" Luffy reasons.

Dadan looks uncomfortable, and her eyes roam over the group crowded around her, Sanji, Zoro, Robin and Luffy. She bites her thumbnail for a moment and then seems to deflate.

"Luffy, the three of you were my boys too. That doesn't change just 'cause you've gone and made yourselves other people's problems. But Garp's boy is making trouble across the sea and people ain't happy, to make it worse Sabo's over there in the thick of it too. Garp should be fixing this, not pretending like it ain't his problem." Dadan says sternly.

"Is that where Sabo is now? Can't you be more specific than 'across the sea'?" Luffy asks with a frown.

Zoro's brain is churning over that phrasing, translating it from one language to another and his mind runs up against the obvious conclusion. Those were the words from Sanji's dream, it sounded a little clunky in Baratian but is far smoother in Tsukian.

"Could it be connected?" Sanji wonders aloud.

"What do you mean?" Dadan asks, squinting at Sanji suspiciously.

"I mean that I've been wondering why someone would go to all this trouble just to screw over one small village. But if people abroad are pissed off at Luffy's father then maybe they'd strike at the place closest to his family. And... and if people were trying to take down this whole country, then a revolution started by famine is an easy way to do it." Sanji muses.

"Yeah but my father doesn't care about me, this place shouldn't be special and even if it was then it'd be here not down there that was sick." Luffy argues.

"Your brother cares about you and this place, though, doesn't he?" Zoro reasons.

"Okay, but... no one is gonna starve. Not now that Sanji is here." Luffy says and Sanji smiles a little at Luffy's show of confidence in him.

"As much as I hate to bring up a sore point, Sanji was very nearly not here. How many people have tried to kill you now?" Robin asks, and Sanji scowls.

"Just two, don't make a big deal out of it." Sanji mumbles unhappily.

"But it nearly was a big deal, we nearly ended up with war. And... and that would have given us a famine for sure." Zoro says as a sick feeling coils in his stomach.

"So this isn't one shitty run of luck then, it's connected. With Kalifa and Kaku in the castle that would give whomever they're reporting to solid information on Garp, Luffy and me." Sanji says grimly.

"This sounds interesting and I don't like interesting. I also don't like people trying to outmanoeuvre me, we'll do whatever we can to keep those people fed and help you free that town of their sickness. There's good people down there and I'm not letting them be someone else's pawn." Dadan says firmly and gets up from the fireside to walk off. She lumbers up to some of the other bandits and starts barking out orders for supplies to be gathered and other such things. Sanji has, it seems, secured an ally.

Zoro has bigger problems right now, ones that Sanji is far too conveniently ignoring.

"Sanji, you can't tell me that you aren't noticing the connection here." Zoro says quietly, reaching for his husband's hand.

"Didn't we just have a big conversation about that?" Sanji says with a frown.

"I meant, the connection with your dream. 'A poisoned fruit from across the sea'? Can't you see the connection there? The last part was directly quoted!" Zoro insists.

"It means nothing, it was just a dream." Sanji hisses and pulls his hand back.

"Really? And you getting that message about someone who has come over here from across the sea to poison these fields in some act of subtle war is a coincidence? And the specification of it being a fruit wouldn't be helpful at all when you're here trying to work out if this is witchcraft of devil's fruit powers. You don't think that's relevant?" Zoro presses.

"I am not a witch! My mother is dead, and my father is alive, the dream meant nothing now drop it!" Sanji snarls and leaps up from the fireside and stalks off to his horse.

"Care to let us in on what that was about?" Robin asks slowly.

"I don't think I've seen him that angry at someone since Kaku. What happened since we saw you last?" Luffy notes, looking at Sanji's retreating form.

Zoro looks at his two nakama, he needs their advice and they're Sanji's nakama too. They can't be expected to help him unless they know what's wrong.

"Well, Sanji had this dream." Zoro begins and he slowly fills them in on every detail, including all of Nami's theories. He doesn't know what all this means or if he wants Sanji to actually be a witch or not, but right now he'd rather have information on why everything is happening than continuing to live in the dark.