~~~

We'll never get free

Lamb to the slaughter

What you gon' do

When there is

...

B l O o D I N T h E W aT E R ?

~~~

~~~

The bluenette looked down to the messily-written text, her hum being lost in the ruckus of the moving vehicle. She took the main lead as she was responsible for the navigation, while the older male drove the van accordingly to her directions. The five other passengers in the car vigorously glanced through the shielded windows, pointing at the possible stops or clues where to go further.

"Where exactly is that place?" The orange-head girl acquired, crossing her arms from the middle seat as she directly looked at the rear-view mirror. Both her and the bluenette's eyes met. "And can we take a break to stretch out? Just for a minute?"

"You are complaining too much." The male beside her grunted. His eyes remained shut, but the wrinkles around his forehead area deepened in annoyance.

"I am not- "

The navigator tore her gaze from the illuminated screen and slightly shifted in the uncomfortable seat. The strange vibe she purposely released, inevitably quietened down the teenagers. "Please everyone, no arguing. We came for a good reason. Remember?"

"Yes, you are right." The orange-head's voice trailed off.

"Straight? Or left?" The driver asked, the sunglasses leniently falling down to the tip of his nose. All of the extra bottles of cola were casually piled beside his legs, obviously being the male's only source of energy for the past hours. They were hectic to immediately elope from their frivolous town and meanwhile forgot that they had to solve the lack of nutrition with quick substitutes on petrol stations.

"It says here that we should continue straight. But if we go along this street..." The van slowly stopped. "There is a dead end."

"Are you sure we got the right address? Perhaps it was a mistake?" The long-nosed guy asked, scarcely even moving due to the fact that a little ball of fur slept on his lap.

The giant wall, that was palpably chipping off, was their first obstacle. There was nothing else to do but to stare at it and surrounding, similar structured buildings. The second problem was weather, which indeed didn't help them with their situation. Going far from the warm centre of their hometown to a smaller village with a colder climate, where drizzle and low temperatures prevailed most of the time, forced them to wander through the emptied streets.

"Yes...No...I'm not so sure." The woman murmured.

"Should we then ask someone?" The bluenette thought about it for a minute before brusquely nodding to the other girl. "That would be the wisest decision."

"Ok, then it is up to me to find a parking lot in this ghost town."

While the duo on the main seats conversed, the orange-head pointed at the greenette, black bangs under her eyes visible ever since Luffy messaged them, exactly twelve hours ago. "Don't you dare move away from us when we leave this vehicle! Understood?!"

"God damn, woman. I'm not a fucking kid!" Zoro spat, already irritable by the suffocating atmosphere and the thrifty girl that obviously couldn't mind her own business.

"But you are behaving like one when you get lost!"

"Guys, please keep it quiet, Chopper is still asleep." Vivi pleaded then glanced back at the exhausted animal, as her hand gently stroke the fuzzy fur. He twitched a couple of times, clearly on the edge of waking up, but right before he could fully regain the consciousness, Chopper again fell into deep slumber. "We have been driving for quite some time without any large breaks in between. Be considerate."

"Ok."

"Tch."

"Guys, we are here." Robin announced as he unbuckled her seatbelt. "Don't attract to much attention. Like we discussed, ok?"

"Is this really necessary though, Robin-san? The message was quite carefree, maybe we are over-exaggerating? Perhaps?" Brook spoke up, restricting the urge to pop another skull joke. The situation seemed unpleasantly heavy and any attempts to lighten up the mood would probably just worsen the state.

"If it was just Luffy's message, then I would have agreed with you. However, Sabo also sent us one."

"Yes... That one was indeed unpleasant."

F l a s h b a c k

It was another dull day in school. Glancing over to the empty seat where Y/n used to sit was pointless as well as the mourning after the group received officially graduation certificates.

They have all ordered a cold drink at one of the local pubs, meaningless chit-chat filling the room. Robin dozed off but a sudden vibration in her pocket woke her from the reverie. She reached to the device.

@ ONE UNREAD MESSAGE

Thinking it was nothing special, she opened it and quickly went through it, hoping it was just an unimportant notification.

A clang from the impact rose the attention from the close spectators.

She was white as chalk. Her eyes and her mouth were frozen wide open.

"Robin, are you ok?"

A small hand around her biceps tugged her and a worried whisper invaded into the foreground. "Are you ok?"

Instead soothing into the warmth, the bluenette flinched. She shook her head and pointed at the object that was lifelessly laying at the bottom of her chair. "It's..."

"What?"

"Robin, please breath!"

The shocked girl couldn't comply with the request. "It's Y/n... Luffy...He...He knows where she is..."

A silence fell upon the group.

"You don't mean...Y/n?"

"Impossible."

-------

When the he first initial shock loosened down a bit, another one appeared not short after the first one.

This time it was Sabo.

Robin was for the second announcement mentally better prepared. At least, that was what she thought.

What they didn't speculate was the possibility of things going from bad to... utterly worse.

SABO: I'm going to make this quick, because I assume you have all read Luffy's message. There are no words that will reconsider your minds, so I'm warning you. Be careful. I underestimated the whole thing.

We are in big shit.

Y/n is safe. Tell the others too.

Whatever you do, don't attract too much attention.

Stay together.

E n d o f f l a s h b a c k

Nami sighed and rested her head on the warm seat, crunching her face in nausea. Her mind was starting to fail, never kicking into action. The orange-head couldn't formulate a thought.

Actually, no... She was lying.

One thought was constantly running through her mind.

What if Y/n isn't here?

~~~

[ Trafalgar's Private Residence ]

"Four conditions." He sternly looked at them. "That's my offer. First condition: to obey the rules. If I see you disregarding my orders and ditch your safety during the mission, I'll immediately send you away. Second condition." Marco took the pictures and neatly folded them in his briefcase. "The subject must be kept hidden and under no circumstances can you speak of it. Third condition. You will be undergoing a special training. And the final one, pops can't find out what you are doing, and you must...At all times...Stay safe. One scratch, and you are dismissed. One bruise and you leave. Any open wounds will give me the right to break our arrangement. If I even detect an ounce of trouble or something that reeks of hazard in the mid-process, the deal is off. And then you three, Y/n included, will be sent to Dadan. Your IDs will seize to exist. You will be then living under pretense and false names.

Are you still prepared to throw everything away for a fight against the unknown?"

The air was released from their chests. There was relief, tangible but attended in the action. "Yes." The straw-hat male simply nodded.

"Hell yes!" Ace roared.

Awfully quiet witnessing their eagerness, he sternly looked at each one of them whilst still giving off the distant feeling of drifting past them into space beyond their presence . "Good. You three morons...and the other gang that will join us soon... From this point on, you are under the mafia's protection.

And when all of this ends,

Edward Newgate will execute your retarded-asses. And I'll be watching it from the first row.

Laughing my arse off. "

~~~

To be continued ...