Chapter Text
Egghead is in shambles; there’s fire, smoke and explosions going off all around the island. The civilians are all evacuating in a hurry. Two of the scientists working in Vegapunk’s labs are making their escape as well until one of them notices a small figure sticking out from underneath the rubble.
“Why the hell are you stopping? Man, we have to move!”
The scientist ignores the other staff member rushing him as he approaches the ruins and pushes off the rubble of what he finds to be an unconscious young boy with short white hair, black wings and brown skin littered with bruises and deep cuts with blood still actively gushing out of him. The scientist figures that an explosion must’ve crashed the wall onto the containment pod with the boy inside.
“Shit- look! It’s the seraphim that was flagged for disposal, what should we do with him?”
Scientist two pauses and thinks for a bit “Hmm.. I mean.. We were already going to discard him so let’s just leave-”
“Discard, meaning deactivate him, not leave him to die painfully!” The first scientist cuts him off. “They’re not robots like Pacifista, they’re made of flesh and they feel pain, you know?” He turns to check the boy’s heartbeat. “He’s still alive..”
“Alright then, let’s take him with us.”
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The nameless seraphim slowly opened his eyes. The pain came first. Then light. Too bright. Fabric rustled when he moved his hand- bandages? He wasn’t inside some lab anymore. It looked like some kind of tent. He doesn’t remember getting injured, but he’s not surprised, he probably failed some test fight or something along those lines. He was a failure, not good enough, not like the others.
He looked around to see other people around the tent, a lot of them also laying down and covered in bandages. There were three people standing next to him, although none of them had realised he was awake. He closed his eyes hoping he’d stay unnoticed. He then became aware of the fact that one of them is speaking.
“We stitched the cuts, and the bruising should fade away over time. I have no idea how much different a seraphim is from a human, but it seems to me he’ll be just fine.” The boy assumed the woman speaking was a nurse.
“Thank you for your help” a man said.
He heard the sound of heels walking away.
“I heard that Lilith managed to escape with the strawhats and that they’re making their way here. We could hand him over to her, she'll probably be able to deactivate him.”
Escape? What was vegapunk 02 running from? What was going on, why was she discarding him? Not that he’s surprised, probably should’ve seen it coming but why her?
“Oh good,” another man sighed. “I had no idea what we were going to do with him.”
He’s such a burden. Why was he made if he wasn’t going to work properly and just burden the scientists?
“Anyway, I’m curious who is he cloned after?”
“It's Roronoa Zoro, the strawhat pirate’s swordsman, that’s actually part of the reason why he’s being discarded. Since Roronoa isn’t a devil fruit user, it’s harder for his clone to manifest devil fruit compatibility. We did test multiple green blood types on him but his body rejected it.”
The boy didn’t want to listen anymore. He let sleep take over him.
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When he wakes up again, he’s still inside the tent, with the pain still white and sharp.
He opens his eyes to see the same two men beside him but now there’s another person with them, one of Vegapunk 2.0. Is she going to dispose of him now? Already? He began feeling nervous.
“I can’t believe the world government left a seraphim behind. That’s so careless of them!” her voice was laced with anger.
So he was forgotten. Where were the others being taken? Was he left behind on purpose? Probably, given the fact he wasn’t useful enough, not like them.
“Oh err, well, that’s because he was supposed to be discarded.” One of the men answered.
“Discarded?” she paused with an uncomfortable expression settling on her face “Explain.”
“It’s because he is unsuitable for devil fruit integration. He had multiple green blood fails. He’s also growing way slower compared to the other seraphims and has a lower combat output than them.” The man rushed to explain, seeming a bit scared of her.
She pinched her nose in frustration and took a deep breath in. “Does he respond to commands?”
“I don’t have an answer for that, unfortunately.” The man responded nervously.
Lilith sighed, and turned her head to the boy and noticed he was awake and looking back at her.
“You, you’re coming with me. I know you're injured, can you walk though?”
He really didn’t want to, he knew it was going to hurt but he didn’t want to disobey her. He didn’t want to seem even more useless. Thankfully, the nurse nearby overheard and passed him crutches to help him. Why was she helping him?
He follows Vegapunk 2.0 out of the tent and they make their way towards a giant ship with what seems to be a lion as a figurehead.
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