Chapter Text
"Don't worry about me, you guys, I'll be fine. Get out of here."
This was a blatant lie, of course. The stock holding him provided no escape, as it hadn't in Loguetown all those years ago. There was no way out of this. Monkey D. Luffy wouldn't be fine; he was going to die and Roronoa Zoro was going to die right alongside him. All of the Strawhats would, didn't he know that? He was their captain, they needed him.
Zoro gripped the Wado Ichimonji, more than ready to throw himself in front of the Marines. To protect his captain as he had always done. But a strong hand on his shoulder stopped him.
Sanji.
Zoro was about ready to clock the shitty cook in the face. How dare he try to intervene, how dare he even suggest that Zoro stand by and allow his captain- their captain- to die in front of his face. "Let go of me, Sanji," he said lowly, as calmly as he possibly could.
Sanji refused. "Our captain gave us an order," he reminded him sharply. "There's too many of them and you know it."
"I don't care," hissed Zoro. He would fight every Marine surrounding them, he would fight Sanji if he had to. He wasn't letting Luffy die, he couldn't. Zoro had sworn his life to keeping his captain safe. How could he abandon him now? Ever?
"Well you should," the blond snapped back. His eyes were harsh, but Zoro thought he saw the blond's chin tremble. "He's risking his life to give us a chance to escape. You're going to let him die in vain?"
The rational part of his brain knew that Sanji had a point. They were outnumbered, their weaker members wouldn't stand a chance, and there was an extremely high probability that Luffy would die anyway. That was why their captain was giving himself up. If there was something Luffy cherished more than his dream of becoming Pirate King, it was his nakama.
But the bigger part of Zoro- the part of him that had devoted himself, wholly, to his captain a long time ago- refused. He couldn't leave Luffy, he just couldn't.
He was surprised the cook could. Despite how Luffy could work his last nerve, Sanji was almost as loyal to him as Zoro was. It made him furious that Sanji was going to allow their captain to die. If it was any of them up there, Luffy wouldn't have thought twice no matter what they said.
"Let go of me," he repeated, venomous this time. If Sanji didn't take his hand off of him, Zoro was going to break it. "You can run away like a coward if you want, but I'm going to stand with the captain."
Sanji wavered, if only for a minute. Then he sighed, gripping his cloak as his expression changed. "Figured you say that, Mosshead." He ripped off his cloak, immediately drawing the attention of the Marines. "Let's go save that idiot."
Zoro almost smiled, almost. Instead he immediately followed suit and charged forward.
Unfortunately, as Sanji had predicted, they were too late.
~~~
Zoro woke up in a bed. A soft one at that.
He lurched up as memories began to flood his mind; Luffy. Where was Luffy? He had to find- a pounding headache. Nausea. Zoro swallowed the bile threatening to force its way up his throat and forced himself to breathe and focus. He looked around the room, attempting to piece together where exactly he was.
It was... an ordinary bedroom and that was all there was to say about it. It was somewhat of a mess, but other than that nothing stood out. How had he gotten here? Had they won? Had they rescued Luffy and they'd gotten a chance to lay low somewhere?
"Zoro!" an annoying, familiar voice snapped through the door. "Get the hell up! I'm not taking the fall when Dad gets on your ass for being late again!"
...What?
It took him a while, but who the voice belonged to hit him like a ton of bricks. "Perona?" he demanded.
"Who else, idiot?" A bang on the door sounded, making him jump a little. "God I don't know how Lucy does it."
Who the hell was Lucy? Where the hell was he? What the fuck was going on?!