Chapter Text
Three years had passed since Luffy's lifelong dream to be King of the Pirates had been achieved. Three years since his discovery of the One Piece had set off a chain reaction, toppling the World Government from the bottom up. Three years since that shockwave had shaken the Marines to the core and finally started its reformation. Those series of events three years ago resonated across the world...but for Zoro, it was just another Tuesday. And on this Tuesday evening, he had just woken up from one of his sporadic naps…in his bed? No, no, it couldn’t be, he rarely ever actually slept there nowadays and even when he did, it never felt this uncomfortable and stiff. Opening his good eye, he could not see much around him, the room being darker than night. Then the smell hit him. The scent of dank still water, of the rot of dead rodents, and of other desiccated and forgotten things left in a cold and unfeeling area. Pushing his body up, he felt around him, the bed he was on simply being a slab of suspended metal and the walls being suspiciously moist stone.
He was in a cell.
Fuck, how the hell had he been captured. Were the rest of the crew also captured? A quick pat down told him that not only had his swords been confiscated but…he had even been stripped down to his fundoshi! He squeezed his thighs together, instinctively, feeling a cold breeze shooting up somewhere it did not belong. Think, man, think, he thought to himself. WHAT happened for him to end up like this? Zoro wracked his brain, putting together what pieces he could remember. He was…he was on the Sunny, doing the night watch with the kitchen gremlin. To avoid any fighting, they had taken to being on the opposite ends of the ship at all times. It was deep into the night, meaning they were the only souls awake under the cloudy sky and relatively calm sea. And then…and then…
Zoro groaned to himself when he could not remember anything after that. He had to have been drugged and brought here if that was the case, but by who?
“Lights on.”
A set of bright, blinding lights switched on at the command of this deep voice and the swordsman had to squint hard for a few seconds for his eye to adjust to the change. When he could somewhat see again, he was able to realize that he was surrounded outside of his cell, with two figures in front of him who stuck out of the crowd. The larger figure was towering, with a shocking head of long and spiky hair and a mustache that looked like it could cut through flesh and frown that could cut through any lesser man’s heart. Next to him was a pink haired woman who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but here right now. It looks like they were seated and had been sitting there, waiting for his awakening, for a while. Around them were identical soldiers, eyes hidden behind opaque glasses and a rifle in every one of their hands.
“So, you're finally awake.” The large man growled. He shifted in his chair and straightened his posture to make his already gargantuan self look taller. An obvious intimidation tactic. Like hell Zoro was going to allow his bastard captor to even feel the satisfaction of making him feel small.
“Yeah, and I'd like some damn answers.”
He shifted his weight to get up onto his feet, but this sudden movement made the already jumpy guards cock the hammers of their rifles. He was strong, sure, but without his swords…
Zoro settled down and instead glared at his captors with more contempt.
“Quite a demanding little thing you are, even knowing what position you are in. Do you even know why I brought you here today?”
The tall blond spoke through his teeth, biting back on some deeply held anger.
“How the hell should I know? All I remember is being captured by your cronies and plopped into this cell!”
The blond tsked. He got up from his chair, slowly walking towards Zoro with his hands behind his back.
“Mister Roronoa, while we may not have met before, your reputation has preceded you. A reputation I can acknowledge, as a combat expert myself. But even with that, what you have done to my daughter…it is just unforgivable.”
This statement confused Zoro for a second. Something he did to someone’s daughter? Sure, he had fought some women before, and their blood spilt, as with many of his foes, but none he could remember that were part of a kingdom like this.
As the older man got closer, though, Zoro could make out the details of his face more clearly. Much of his face was covered by an ornate helmet, but at this distance, the swordsman could see his eyebrows…his curly eyebrows.
It all came together suddenly.
Zoro’s eye widened and his knuckles turned white from how he gripped the bench.
“You’re shit cook’s sperm donor!”
The man, the king, Vinsmoke Judge, growled and bared his teeth as his shoulders tensed.
“It took you long enough to see that. I am guessing Sanji has been blabbing about Germa to anyone who will listen, dispensing his sob stories?”
“He told me enough to know how much of a short sighted, bigheaded, cowardly mad scientist you are.”
The swordsman could not help his tone becoming more aggravated and edgy, making the already on edge soldiers poke their guns directly into his cell. Judge put a hand up to keep them from trying anything further. The pink haired woman, still in her chair, face partially covered by her hair with her head downturned, shrank into her seat further.
“So you do at least know about us Vinsmokes. To an extent. Hmph, only makes what you did far worse.”
What the fuck was this man talking about? Judge kept yammering about what Zoro did to one of his kids but…he couldn’t recall ever meeting one of them. He definitely would remember seeing someone else who isn’t Curlybrow with those coiled brows.
“You sure you don’t have the wrong guy? I’ve never even seen any of you people until now.”
Judge’s frown deepened and the room somehow felt even icier than before. He gripped one of the cell bars hard as he brought his face closer to the space between the metal.
“Oh you most definitely have, Mr.Roronoa. Or did you forget your little rendezvous on Innsmouth?”
Innsmouth…Innsmouth…
Zoro’s eyes flicked over to the pink haired woman again, which had to be…Reiju. She shrunk away at Judge’s mention of that island. And while her arms were covering her midsection, it was undeniable how…round it was. In a solid way that could only mean…
Oh God, Zoro was a fucking moron.
His mouth and throat felt dried up and incredibly parched.
“No way…no way, there is just…that woman didn’t even have her eyebrows or tattoos!”
His floundering was obviously unfounded and desperate, the product of his mind trying not to believe what was right in front of him. Judge seemed to revel in breaking this news to the man, seeing him squirm a little.
“Reiju has been trained to be a little more covert than her brothers when it comes to assassinations, including the ability to disguise her most prominent features with makeup. Either way, though, it does not matter how you try to worm your way out of this, considering I finally got Reiju to give up the identity of the sire.”
A shaky exhale came from the woman. Zoro clamped his lips together as he kept eye contact with Judge. Looking away at this point would just be giving the man what he wants.
“It took a few months, though, to get it out of her. Despite my best efforts to make sure she would not keep secrets,” he turned away for a moment to shoot a look at Reiju, “she did keep this child situation out of my sight until it could no longer be hidden. And then she kept you out of my knowledge until I managed to twist her arm enough.”
God…fuck…
“And that leads us to now. You, here, in my dungeon, Roronoa. Do you know why I brought you here now that you know what has been done?”
“You…you want me to marry her?”
It was all Zoro could think of on why he was forcefully brought here, that usually was the byproduct of the father of the woman you knocked up dragging you to his home, but this made the king laugh at him mirthlessly.
“Not in your life, you little whelp. You may be part of that Straw Hat crew, but to me you’re still just a commoner. No, I brought you to my home because I am beyond livid that this was done without my consent. Who are you to try and stake your claim in my kingdom, in my daughter, by sowing your seeds around so carelessly? You’re just some uppity little pirate who does not know his place. So, in order to keep our image, and so you will not reap the rewards of your harvest, I decided it would be best to keep you here at Germa…permanently.”
Zoro’s heart was pounding in his chest, thrumming in his ears, as he kept his body still. A blood lust was coming over him at this revelation. He was being kept down here, kept from his crew, all because this big blond bastard was possessive over his daughter? At least from what he heard from Sanji about his former family that this was par for the course.
Sanji…oh shit, Sanji.
“Where is my crew, then,” the swordsman snarled, “where are you keeping them?”
“Feh, I am keeping my promise I made to Sanji all those years ago. I left him and alone along with the rest of your crew. Though, I cannot say they might not have been roughed up by the extraction crew for resisting.”
Oh.
Oh he was going to KILL this man.
Composure lost, Zoro ran up and slammed against the bars of his cell. He heard a gun fire in his direction before Judge put a hand up for his soldiers to halt.
“What did you do to them!” The green haired man bared his teeth.
“As I said, I do at least know they are still alive…though, from the mission reports, they are not in the best shape. All because you could not keep it in your pants.”
The audacity of this statement, just the thought of his crewmates being hurt and him being unable to do anything about it…fuck the guns around him, he was ready to go for this man’s throat, swords be damned. One of his hands shot up from the bar it gripped, ready to choke this man out…
…until his eye locked with Reiju’s. The tiredness. The despair in them. The arm around her stomach.
None of this was easy for her too.
He…couldn’t be tough in the way he usually was, not now at least. The woman looked stressed enough as is. He started yapping from his cell and bringing Judge down from his humiliation high, and she might have to pay for that.
Zoro pulled both his hands back and stuck them to his sides. His movements were robotic as he contained all the emotions he had at the moment.
The blond king clucked his tongue condescendingly.
“Aww, nippy little thing, aren’t we? Well, don’t worry too much about that, I took the liberty of installing a little extra security on your person while you were out.”
Judge reached into his breastpocket and pressed something. In an instant, Zoro’s wrists and ankles slammed together and were stuck with great strength. He attempted to pull them apart but it was a fruitless effort. On further inspection, Zoro finally noticed what was keeping his limbs together: deep black tattoos, freshly inked, circled his ankles and wrists like cuffs.
Satisfied for now, Judge pressed a button again and his limbs were released.
“A new piece of technology,” he coolly informed the swordsman, “so you do not get any escape ideas. If you try to jump or swim off, all it takes is a push of a button to leave you retrievable…or to leave you to drown.”
“You…you…” Zoro felt like he was about to explode again with the mounting pressure, until he flicked his eye over at Reiju again and back at Judge. He could bark all he wanted, but even then he knew Judge was the one with all the cards in his favor. There was nothing sharp in his cell he could use as a weapon and slice through the bastard, he was outnumbered, outgunned, all of this was not to mention the king would most likely sic his super powered sons on him to pound him to mush.
Reluctantly, he deflated and took a few steps back. The king of Germa sneered at this, feeling a shot of satisfaction at Zoro’s silence.
“No more comments, then? Then we’re done here. I assign a handler to you tomorrow to wake you up and get you ready for work,” he waited a second to see if Zoro would react to this new phase of his life, “Do not think just because I have you imprisoned here that you will get any sort of special treatment from work. Being in Germa means being useful, and I am sure many of my citizens would have usage for you, especially when it comes to the jobs no one else wants to do.”
“So are we done here?” Zoro finally said in a bid for defiance. Judge’s expression simmered down a bit now, his face turning stony as he nodded.
“Yes, yes it is.” He shot a lighting bolt look to his daughter before gesturing to the entourage of soldiers to lower their weapons and leave. They left in single file, marching away robotically, leaving Judge and Reiju alone with Zoro. The pair did not leave quite yet, Judge looking straight down at his daughter, his expression unreadable. Reiju herself could not even bear to glance at the captive man, her blue gaze averted and paying much closer attention to the floor.
“Reiju,” the blond king’s voice was crisp and devoid of empathy, “look at Mr.Roronoa Zoro.”
The woman’s head snapped up, as if possessed, and her hands gripped her nightgown skirt with a tremendous force. Her pair of eyes made firm contact with his remaining one.
Even though she did not say anything, the apologetic and strained look in her eyes made the message clear.
I am so, so sorry.
The few seconds where the two were forced to soak in each other’s states seemed to stretch on for infinity, his heart seemingly twisting in on itself as all the information dumped on him began to sink in. The discomfort between the pair was thick and palpable until Judge finally broke it with a snap of his fingers. He ordered Reiju to follow him upstairs and she obliged. As Zoro was left alone with just his thoughts and digesting all the information that had been shoved onto him, one thought kept repeating itself over and over throughout the night:
What was he supposed to do now?
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“So,” her father shifted his hulking form around to face her as the door to the dungeon was closed and locked, “do we have an understanding now?”
Reiju forced her neck to crane her head up to look at Judge, even though the floor was a much more enticing sight at the moment.
“Yes, father,” she forced her voice to be pillow soft and docile, “I cannot hide anything from you and…” she swallowed down the build up of saliva in her throat.
“And?” her father pushed on in anticipation.
“And anything that has to do with me or my body has to be approved by you first. Because I am not just your daughter, but your soldier too.”
Something resembling a smile crossed his mustached lips and he gave her a pet on the head, a rough one.
“Good girl. And now you know what happens when you try to slink around me. Now, go to bed.”
Once she was relieved from having to spend a second longer in the display of punitive shame her father just put her through, Reiju beelined back to her room and shut and locked the door behind her. She pressed her back against the wood and breathed slowly and deeply. It was like there was a heavy weight pulling down on her lungs.
She was expecting this, to an extent, but this did not mean that it hurt to see any less. Her father wanted her to regret her actions and it worked. He won. He got what he wanted, at least in this case, and she was left…having to take it. Having to see the father of her child confined, taken away from his true family, all because of her father’s ego.
Most of Judge’s anger seemed to stem from the fact that this was something he had no control over. He could not oversee the…copulation, and he could not oversee the first trimester of her pregnancy and make any modifications in the early stages. Maybe he would make changes to her child post birth, but…
Reiju grit her teeth together hard enough they felt that they would shatter from her head.
No…no, she could not let her mind be clouded by such horrid thoughts, not with this much more pressing matter in the present.
Today's outcome…had been expected. After all, she held out on her pregnancy until there was no way she could ever hide it. The excuses of stomach bugs and overindulgence only held up for so long until she was practically cornered by her father who told her that he would extract the truth out of her the easy way or the hard way.
Needless to say, she had a child now to look after, and as much as it pained her, she admitted what she had done…for the most part.
Using a loophole in the programming that controlled her, she had been able to skirt around the subject of the father of her child, Zoro, up until a few weeks ago when she was given an ultimatum.
Bile rose up and burned the back of her throat at the memory.
Needless to say, betraying the identity of her child’s father was a far better option than that.
Reiju had hoped and hoped for weeks that her father would not be able to track down the Straw Hats, at least for long enough until his anger ran out. That would at least mean he could be safe from the man’s wrath. Of course, it was a pipe dream, as she sat here in front of her door, the swordsman rotting in the dungeon.
A small limb hit her stomach with all the force the small being inside of her could muster. It was enough to put some of her thoughts on pause as she looked down at her stomach.
“So, you're awake,” she stated rather matter of factly to the child inside of her, “right on time.”
Yes, now was the time of evening when her child became active, moving and rolling around her abdomen without a care in the world. If only she were so lucky as to have that attitude. Reiju placed a hand on the crest of her stomach, the child giving a good kick just right next to her palm.
“So…that was your father back there, in the dungeon, if you did not know…though, not like you would know anything at this point. Except…maybe my voice…but you do not seem to always react to that, so perhaps I am assigning traits to you that are…” she pursed her lips and lowered her voice even further, “...nevermind, I am just rambling.”
The pink blonde’s nerves were still frayed, with seemingly every misstep she had made up until this point culminating into the present day.
She just wanted to see Sanji again, just one more time and never again due to extenuating circumstances, but then that swordsman…he just waltzed into her world, even if unintentionally, and it was like something had been wrenched out from the recesses of her chest and exposed to the sunlight for the first time ever. No man, woman, or person had ever been able to tickle her fancy and the princess had assumed love and pleasure just were not for her…but maybe it was more that her lock needed a very specific key, so to speak.
Now if only that key was protected…
Once she figured out she was pregnant, Reiju labored over what to do with this situation, with this life growing inside of her. A life that was innocent of the sins of Germa and the sins of their mother. A life that deserved nothing more than to be free, to be someone good.
The princess would put something good out in the world if it was the last thing she would do. She spent months feverishly scheming any and every way to give her child a better future than that of Germa. Just as she was about to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat…
Well, needless to say, she could still hear whispers from the staff and soldiers concerning the blowout her father had at the discovery months ago.
Another flutter rippled through her stomach and Reiju managed to pull her body away from the door. There were two beings who needed to escape Germa now, and only if one of them would even want to work with her or even talk to her now. The princess desperately wanted to talk to Zoro back there, give him anything, words of comfort, a heartfelt apology for dragging him into her world, anything at all, if only her father had not commanded her silence in his presence. For someone who was often called a “demon” or “king of hell”, he looked so vulnerable and tender, nearly naked in that cell, like a turtle that had lost its shell. It made her feel even lower than before and her chest seemed to tighten.
He probably hates her now, and for good reason, but hopefully he would cooperate enough to get him back to where he belongs so he would never have to see her again. Reiju only hoped that none of his animosity towards her would affect how he saw his child.
Another kick hit her square in the ribs, causing a grunt to escape her lips as she sat down on her bed.
“I have never seen you be this excited before,” the princess commented, rubbing the kicked area. It did not hurt, of course, but feeling anything physical like that, and in such a rapid succession, was very unusual for someone of her body type. Reiju welcomed it in a way, though. Her family was not touchy feely, obviously, but even handshakes or a hand on the shoulder was nearly alien for her, so having this sort of…touch, it really was…
…No, no no no, she had to remind herself to stop getting so attached to the baby. Setting down roots would only make it troublesome for the tree to be planted somewhere else.
Well, as much as her head was swirling with emotional pain and guilt, it would have to subside for the evening so she could get some sleep. Her father had kept her up for the example of Zoro and she had already lost an hour and some minutes of precious sleep. She needed all the rest she could get if she was to start planning out the new escape route for the new prisoner now that the leash was tightened around her neck. If her resources were limited before, her father had strangled them to nearly being cut off now. Her life was already just work, training and sleep, with mercenary missions in between, now it was just work and sleep and now without any access to more sensitive areas such as the armory or treasury. Her already closed off world was even smaller and more cramped than ever and she was not how long this would keep up.
Either way, she had managed to pull off two miracles with her brother Sanji before…perhaps the third time would be the charm. Or at least it had to be the charm, nothing less.
Slipping under her covers, she gathered up her long pillow she had begun using and hugged it close to her body, belly supported by its cooling comfort. With the stress her body still had curled up, sleepiness began to unfurl it, leaving all behind until tomorrow…
…which was the idea, but was not working in practice as something small and still awake kicked her square in the kidneys. Reiju breathily groaned and wrapped an arm around her stomach.
“What has made you so riled up?”
Only the silence responded.
She had no idea what she was going to achieve by asking such a question, but for some godforsaken reason, it felt right. Reiju had become accustomed to talking to those who could say nothing back during her pregnancy, starting with the trips she made to her mother’s grave and evolving into relaying whatever feelings she had at the moment to her child. She felt foolish and a little bit like her sanity was slipping whenever she did so, but it provided some comfort, and that was enough for her.
“...Is it because of what happened today?”
Nothing once again, not even a stir.
“Look, I…” the words seemed to die on her lips as she tried to put together something comforting. Reiju was never good with being able to say comforting or soothing things, stumbling over the basics of language whenever she tried. If anything, she was a woman of action, though mainly because it was a role forced upon her. Words meant nothing if she could not back them up with anything. So, wetting her lips, she tried again.
“I know this situation has taken a turn for the worse, but…I can at least promise you that I will do everything in my abilities to solve this. Your father will be freed, you will be freed, and I will make sure of that even if it…”
Kills me were the last words she wanted to say, but some winding and tight part of her heart could not verbalize that. The princess was far from superstitious, but considering the fate of her mother…
Two more kicks poked her stomach and her baby seemed to calm down after that. Hopefully now she can get some sleep. She would begin her machinations in the morning along with the usual humdrum of work.
Once she was able to fall asleep, for once, Reiju’s slumber was dreamless.
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With a makeshift respirator over his face, making each of his puffing breaths muted, Chopper was dashing back and forth between patients in the infirmary, checking vitals, observing their status and keeping Luffy and Robin breathing, getting fresh air into their lungs and ridding them more and more of the crystallized seastone powder out of their lungs. The ship’s captain started heaving, gagging as if to vomit, and the young reindeer caught it just in time to catch the now watery expulsion into a bucket. Sanji could no longer watch much more, limping through the hallway to the upper deck, where Franky was repairing the front mast. The cook turned his attention to their navigator, who was all bandaged up from the previous events of the evening, and giving commands to Jinbei on where to steer to get to the nearest populated island as soon as possible.
He took a huff of his cigarette, so much so, that he almost sucked the whole thing down in one breath. Sanji let the tobacco pool in his lungs for a minute, soothing his nerves to an extent before slowly letting it out.
Zoro is gone now. Snatched away, right in front of their eyes, and by Germa soldiers, no less. The operation seemed to be planned out far in advance since it seemed like every possibility had been accounted for. Some sort of seastone gas had been released, catching Robin and Luffy before they could act and rendering them too weak to fight. The rest of the crew mates had to fight packs of clone soldiers, all specific types that played into their weaknesses, that kept them busy while Zoro, looking like a pin cushion with all the tranquilizer darts, was gathered up and pulled into the clouds.
Sanji got close, so close, to rescuing Zoro before a soldier took a pot shot at his knees while he wasn't paying attention with a large and heavy weapon. The cook was sprawled across the galley, his knees burning with pain (he wouldn't be surprised if they were broken in that instant before his healing factor kicked in) and he was unable to pull himself up. All he could do in that time was watch, and listen, to a pair of guards holding Zoro by his arms and legs as they were hoisted up to the clouds. For a duo of soldiers who were still just pulling away from the ship they had just shanghaied someone from, they seemed calm enough to begin talking to one another.
“Hopefully this’ll fix the king’s mood.”
“I dunno about that. He's been in a real tizzy ever since what happened to the princess.”
Their short conversation was eating at him, Sanji’s mind replaying the moment over and over along with what happened to Zoro, as if the 56th rewatch of it would reveal new information. If the soldiers didn't confirm his father had a hand in this, their direct mention of him did, but then hearing Reiju be brought up and it threw his mind into a tailspin. “What happened to the princess”, what in the hell did that mean? What happened to his sister that required capturing one of his crew mates? WHY would it require Zoro? Was she still-
Sanji sucked down on the tobacco smoke even harder, letting it infest his body and his brain, smoking out the terrible thought.
She was fine when he last saw her, he was sure of that, but there still was the question of what connection those two had. The cook had told Zoro about some of his past after the failed wedding while they were in Wano, including about his sister, but that was the extent of it. There absolutely was no other connection between the two that he knew of. But…perhaps there being no connection was the point. Maybe he was looking into a crackpot theory, but what else was he supposed to work off of?
The cook took another gaseous swig of his cigarette, nearly done with it already. The burning end of it threatened to nip his fingers with heat, but that was nothing right now.
He knew that he and his crew would heal up soon enough. They always had freakish recovery rates that made most people not accustomed to them drop their jaws to the floor considering the damage they took. Luffy, Robin, Nami and the rest would get better by, at most, tomorrow, and they would begin to try and find Zoro again. That was all a fact.
They would find Zoro, and maybe, no, would find his sister, and they would kick some ass to get their swordsman back, this was also a fact.
What wasn't set in stone, though, was what the swordsman would go through while in that hell hole.
Sanji bit down on the butt of his cigarette, no usable tobacco left in the burnt out end.
He had escaped his former family once and had escaped them again, and now it looked like third time was going to be the charm from the way things were shaping up. The cook had every intention of leaving those people in the rearview mirror and now he was u-turning right back into that world. Every cell in his body was trying to implode on themselves so he wouldn’t have to confront them again, but he couldn’t do that…not to Zoro, not to any of his crewmates. Sanji would just have to suck it up, whether he liked it or not.
In the meantime, though, all he could do was hope that whatever was happening to Zoro, he could make it through for just long enough for them to pull through and rescue him…but since Germa 66 was the cause of this…there were no guarantees.