King in the Field, Knight in the Grip of Hell

Day 88

"Whitebeard's, Captain, Corpal, six grunts. And an interrogator." Usopp finished his summary.

Luffy looked at his sniper once more, still looking through the scope of his rifle. "They got our girls in the open?"

"No, they have a field tent, looks like they'd be in there. But we can't be far from their base, they look pretty comfortable."

Luffy nodded, knowing Usopp couldn't see him. "Alright, i don't want to move in against that many, too risky to their lives."

Now it was Usopp's turn to nod, in the awkward way one does when aiming down a scope.

Both men slowly crawled back into the makeshift hole they had dug in the night, lowering the leafy lid over it, only only rays of sunlight to fully break through the shade.

The two sat in complete silence for over an hour. Something Luffy was sure a trained sniper was a master at, but something he himself was suffering through. Apparently personal despair was on advertisement the way Usopp looked up with a small smirk in place.

"Wanna hear the story of when i took on the three king fighters of Tarosa island?"

His voice was hushed, but conveyed a kind of campfire magic to it.

Luffy smiled, toothy as it was broad and nodded in eager readiness. Who cares if it was complete bullshit, there was always a shine to the stories that Luffy loved.

"So it starts out when i was a boy, tarosa being my home, the land of heroes and maidens naturally, and one day, a ship arrived barely the grim jolly roger of the king fighters, known as-"

…

Robin Stood in the center of the living floor. Law was sat on the far side of the table, his fingers crossed with a glare on his face, while Kaya drank some tea in a side chair. Chopper was in Sanji's room, were moans of the despaired erupted far to constantly.

"Anything we can do for her?" Robin's voice carried softly.

The pilot perked up, setting down her tea.

"Full blown amnesia doesn't have a quick fix. In fact there is no proven cure. Certainly nothing we can do about it right now." Law answered, his tone note overly welcoming. "This base is a fucking shit storm." he mumbled

"The last thing you remember," Robin started, catching Kaya's gaze. "You were flying supplies out to us?"

The pilot nodded "yeah, early on, i think the second week, has it really been months? It feels so weird, like i know it was yesterday, but it feels like i just sleep away all that time or something."

"In most cases, the memories will filter back in a fairly short span of time, usually starting off with bits of pieces, or times it all comes back in a flood. But there is also cases where they never come back. But Kaya, if you do remember anything, no matter how out of place or unlikely it seems, tell us so we can try and stimulate it, to see if we can help them come back." Law said calmly, watching the Pilot nod.

Robin gave a glance at Law who nodded, before she turned to Nami who was at the radio. "Anything Yet Nami?"

Nami freed one ear and shook her head. "Either they are keeping silent on purpose, or there is terrain interference, but i can't reach them."

"Alright. Well don't try to hail them again today, but keep a ear out."

"Robin!" Franky shouted from the roof, causing Law to stand and Brook to appear from below. Robin was halfway to a response when the echoes of gunfire started up.

"Return fire! Franky get down here!" Robin ordered loudly, with Law right behind her ordered for the machine guns.

…

"How much more do you want? Face the inevitability…" Mihawk said in a calm voice, withdrawing the white hilted knife from Zoro's gut."

Zoro shook, despite his fighting for it to stop. His working eye was covered in blood from his head, and the small amount of himself that he could see was tattered, bruised, snapped and soaked. He said nothing, closing his eye and tilting his head away from Mihawk.

Something metallic hit the floor, and Zoro felt the distinct texture of the meat hammer. "Every soldier wants day's.. Most only get hours before they give in. how long do you honestly think you are going to get?" Mihawk asked, sliding the meat hammer across Zoro's bare chest, resting it right over the fresh gut wound. In a swift movement Zoro felt the hammers cold steel leave his body, before returning with force, sending spidering pain throughout Zoro's body, making him convulse against his bondage, twisting his body in burning pain and he spit blood in a roar of pain.

"Come on, what use is the names of the prisoners you took in the raid? Just give me the names, and today will end." Mihawk said, almost comfortably, before swinging the hammer again.

As the white searing pain faded back to the easier to handle mind enveloping spasms. He looked up weakly, "it's funny… i don't really care what use you have with the prisoners. I just don't wanna tell you," Zoro paused while he waited for a rather strong jolting of pain to fade, twisting his head in the discomfort. "because you haven't said please."

Mihawk smiled, before pressing his hand around Zoro's throat, squeezing tightly, and forcing the chair Zoro was in to lean far back. "Nobody hold out forever Roronoa, if they don't break, or don't know anything, they die. Think about that." Mihawk's eyes glint dangerously as he released his throat, causing Zoro to fall to the ground with a clack of the wood.

The door opened and closed swifty, only the briefest of light showing in the miserable pit Zoro found himself in. on the floor, maybe some five feet in front of him he saw his knives discarded on the floor, and dirty with his blood. "I'm sorry Wado…" was all he thought to saw as he lay their, letting the blood leak from his gut. It wouldn't be long before he passed out, and that is when Mihawk would return to stanch the bleeding and deliver his food.

...

Day 88

Gunfire roared, close and far, causing Sanji to jolt from his bed to the corner of his room.

"Zoro quick there coming!" he shouted looking at the green haired man still in bed. There was no movement from the man. "Zoro!" Sanji cried out again, trying to stand before more gunfire made him stumble to the floor, smacking his head against the metal of the bed. He bit his tongue, but cared not for the blood leaving his mouth. He griped the sheets of the bed, both pulling himself up and tearing the sheets off, revealing Zoro's corpse, infested with maggots and worms. The body shifted. Zoro's body sat up, looking over at Sanji with sockets for eyes, and reached out one maggoty hand. "Sanji, take my hand it's so peaceful… come… don't you want to say it? Say it here, come…"

"O-okay Zoro, i trust you." Sanji reached out, slowly gripping Zoro's hand. The room slowly started to rot, as if everything had become flesh, rotting, decaying flesh.

"Sanji!" Law burst into the room, seeing Sanji grabbing a pistol. "Sanji, god damn it snap out of it!" Law yelled, ripping the pistol from Sanji's hands.

"Zoro no! Come back Zoro where did you go! You!" Sanji yelled, his eyes regaining focus as he accused Law, you took Zoro from me! Give him back, you bastard!" Sanji flipped onto his hand, nearly landing his violent roundhouse kick. Law pressed himself against the wall, dodging it my centimeters before tackling Sanji down, giving one hard smack to the face. "Goddammit wake up!" Law shouted.

Sanji laid there, in a daze for a moment, before the walls snapped back to reality, once more wood and concrete. "Law?"

…

"So then i kicked their asses, literally all the way back to their ship, and then everyone in the town pushed their ship out of the harbor, cause as you know, we were all tough swimmers." Usopp smiled.

Luffy cracked a grin of his own. "So what actually happened?" he asked, watching Usopp grin further and open his mouth, only to shut it as they both heard the snapping of a twig. Luffy brought his rifle to bear, very slowly turning towards the sound, the barrel just sliding under the edge of their leafy roof. Luffy felt the urge to berate himself rise up faster than a jet flies, but forced it down, emptying his mind of everything but sounds and sight. He heard Usopp's extremely quiet rifle load a bullet into its chamber, and just then the leafy roof was ripped away.

Luffy roared up to his fully extent, as did usopp almost automatically, facing down no less than twenty armed men, in the uniform of whitebeard's army. Luffy swung his rifle from the left to the right, he could maybe take down six, but Usopp could do maybe two. They were fucked.

"Get out of the fox hole you idiot." a voice spoke out from behind the men.

"Ace?" Luffy asked out lowering his rifle slightly.

Sure enough his brother emerged from the ranks, signally his men's rifles down. His voice may have been happy, but his face was not. "Tell your man to lower his rifle, i don't think my men appreciate the thought of a sniper round going through them."

"Captain?" Usopp asked, his voice steady but obviously terrified.

"Do it Usopp." Luffy spoke automatically.

Soon all the guns were lowered, Usopp's and Luffy's confiscated by their captors.

"Ah little brother finally learned some since." Ace finally cracked a smile. Luffy however did not smile, choosing to dawn his hat so it covered his eyes.

It was until night had fallen that the two men finally stopped walking, being pushed into chairs, their blindfold being removed along with their gag. Ace, who sat across from them in a chair swung around so he was leaning on the back, had shed his shirt, proudly showing off his muscular body, decorated with his Whitebeard tattoos. All three were silent for a number of minutes until Ace let his smile fade.

"Obviously this isn't the happiest reunion, but i'm still glad to see you. Little bro."

Luffy remained silent, not meeting his brothers eyes.

"Come on, don't give me the silent treatme-

"What the hell do you want?" Luffy asked suddenly, his eyes flaring.

Ace gave a hollow smirk before he straightened a bit, nodding. "Marco knows you were stalking one of his detachments, looking for the pilot we captured.

Luffly felt a quick glance from his sniper, but kept a straight face. Ace however did give a response to Usopp.

"Don't be too surprised Usopp. Being completely honest, you never stood a chance, being outnumbered almost a hundred to one. Now, he knows that he could torture all of the information she has out of her. But frankly he isn't interested in base locations and the such, he is more interested in that armor route. Now of course, Luffy, you aren't willing to give a inch of Shank's land to anyone, hell i'm sure your corpse would fight if it was possible. But that leaves us a predicament. You want your pilot. We want the base. Luckily though, i talked a solution into his head."

Luffy stiffened. He met his brother's gaze with level eyes. Those hard level eyes stared right back at him, smile or now smile, those eyes his brother had where the equivalent of a firestorm.

"What are you proposing?" Luffy spoke slowly, carefully, family or not he knew full well he was negotiating their lives right not, with no counter leverage. The feeling tasted bad in his mouth.

"The world knows your base, your men, they will die. However once it does, there will be four armies fighting over it, it and the scraps of shanks territory. But i think, and so does Marco, now, that maybe you could help curve the odds in our favour, in return, we release your pilot, in return, our two bases, share information, and together, we take cripple our enemies pushing capability." Ace smiled, his face wicked.

"In plain terms, you provide us information, then force us to act on it, sacrificing ourselves for your efforts." Luffy shot back.

"Think which ever way you want. Say yes by dawn, or we'll shoot all three of you." Ace said nonchalantly, standing up, stretching as if it was just a regular day. "Ill be back soon, nice to see you again."

TBC