Chapter Text
Sanji couldn’t keep failing to protect his nakama, he couldn’t, and in his raging despair, he rose up and ran towards the monster who took them away one by one in front of his eyes. He cried low, the sound becoming more and more powerful as he got closer to Kuma, his eyes never losing sight of their enemy. He vaguely heard Luffy calling his name but ignored it. When he was about to kick this bastard, a palm descended on him and he blacked out.
The first thing he noticed when he woke up was how hard the ground was on his back. The sun was up, warm and pleasant, but it didn’t bring him any comfort.
Well, at least, he wasn’t dead.
The shadow of someone appeared in front of him and hid the light. He frowned, his mind not clear enough to really see anything else than a vague shape, but then he froze. He was hallucinating. He knew he was because what he was seeing right now was impossible. The face of the silhouette looked exactly like his mother. But it wasn’t possible because she was dead. Unless he was dead too.
With how much his body hurt, he discarded rapidly the idea.
Then he noticed the differences. For starters, the hair wasn’t blond. It was too short. And her mother had always a smile on her face. This person had none. And now that he focused more, he recognized her.
“Reiju…?”
“Sanji.” She replied with a cold tone.
It was really her. He wanted to get up, ask why she was here, what she wanted from him, but he didn’t have any strength left and his head pounded too much to concentrate.
His vision blurred suddenly and before he could even think about staying awake, he fell unconscious.
He woke up bare feet, in chains, in a dungeon he knew too much, cold water violently thrown to his head. He gasped, the freezing water seeping through his shirt, and he shivered. He glared at his captors.
His brothers laughed at him, as usual. Judge looked at him as if he was an insect, as always. Nothing had changed. All these years, Sanji thought he would never have to be trapped again like this, but it seemed that fate enjoyed seeing him suffer.
He still didn’t know how or why he was here. All he remembered was Kuma and his powers that made his nakama disappeared in front of his eyes, one by one, as if they were nothing. He vaguely remembered a paw touching him and then… nothing.
“Sanji.” Judge called him and his severe tone would have made his younger self tremble, but he wasn’t him anymore. He wasn’t afraid of his not-father anymore.
“I don’t know how you managed to come here but this is a great opportunity, for everyone. For once in your life, you’ll be useful.”
Sanji gritted his teeth, stubbornly silent. The last thing he wanted was to be useful to him. Nothing good would come of it. And anyway, he needed to go back. His nakama were waiting for him, he knew it.
Because, if Kuma hadn’t killed him, there was a great chance he never killed anyone. And if everyone was alive, they had to follow Luffy’s last order. They had to meet in Sabaody in three days. Or in the time that he had left anyway.
He didn’t know where he was, and he was chained to a wall inside an underground cell of a dungeon, but he escaped once. He could do it again.
He had to.
“Now, let’s get going. And don’t try anything. We know you’ve been playing pirates, and the marines are scaredy cats who think you’re something of a threat, but in here, you’re still nothing more than a failure, too weak to do anything else than obey. Are we clear?”
“You say this but you still put chains on me to restrain me. Who’s the scaredy cat now?”
Sanji didn’t want to fall to Judge’s taunt but he got on his nerves, alright?
He anticipated the slap but not how strong it would be. He felt blood on his lips yet refused to make any noise to satisfy him. He threw back the glare Judge was giving him. The man turned around and his brothers stepped forward. He fought them as hard as he could, but they were too strong and no matter what he tried to convince himself, he was still afraid. Afraid of them, afraid of Judge, afraid of this place. He struggled against their hard and cold grip on his body, he insulted them when they hit him harder than necessary, and yet, he couldn’t escape them.
He still put a hell of a fight, as dirty as he could since he was too restrained to do much than that. He was led upstairs, the lack of windows not really a good sign. They entered a big room and he almost stopped his struggles. He saw tanks and tanks with people inside and numbers drawn on them. The people looked eerily almost the same and he had this ominous feeling that it shouldn’t be allowed.
Judge was there, talking with some scientists, and Sanji couldn’t help but feeling scared. He had hoped that he would be able to find an escape, but if not right away, he had thought he would have more time to find one, except this room was totally creeping him out. He never had good memories when scientists were involved either. He was a failure and they repeated it again and again, but they never actually stopped their tests until Judge had enough and faked his death.
Reiju entered the room and she didn’t show any emotion, exactly like their brothers. She didn’t change much since he last saw her, when she had gone out of her way to help him escape this hell, but the cold stare was still upsetting. Of all the Vinsmoke, she was the only one for whom he had hoped a change. But she was still the same, putting herself first as always while ignoring his need of help and his whole existence in front of the others.
She had grown into a beautiful woman even if she lacked a warmth that he couldn’t help but look for. She had their mother’s face, but the hardness of her eyes contrasted with the gentleness of their mother. Still, the resemblance was uncanny, despite her short pink hair and the suit who revealed too much skin.
Niji pushed him forward and he almost stumbled but he wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. They stopped in front of an empty tank, far away from the others, with the number three on it.
Sanji paled at the implication.
He needed to flee this place, right now. He didn’t know what Judge had planned but he didn’t want to stay here to find out.
“You’re probably wondering why I brought you here.”
Judge turned around, finally acknowledging him.
“This is the biggest secret of Germa.” He said with pride as if to impress Sanji.
He stayed silent, observing this man while he talked about his army of clones, obedient and quick to produce. It made him sick. He thought Judge couldn’t be worse but he was so wrong.
“I always told you that you and your siblings were the peak of the scientific achievements in term of genetics, and I meant it. That’s why you, Sanji, have always been my biggest disappointment.”
“I don’t care.”
Judge smiled archly.
“Of course you care. That’s the problem, isn’t it? You always cared and you suffered because of it, because you knew how weak you were, and it hurt you more than any hit could ever do.”
Sanji’s eyes opened wide. It was true, sure, but it didn’t mean that Judge had a point. It wasn’t his feelings that were a hindrance, it was Judge’s teachings that were wrong. Now adult, he knew that children shouldn’t be trained with weapons in the first years of their lives, they shouldn’t be forced to go through tests after tests, they shouldn’t swim for miles and miles, more than even an adult could, they shouldn’t be fighting among siblings and fear death every day, they shouldn’t witness the indifferent glare of their father when they buried their mother.
They shouldn’t be taught how to kill a man or bring a country to their knees by brute force.
“But it seems this is something that even Vegapunk hadn’t be able to really do. Erasing feelings, I mean. I’m the first.”
Sanji eyed Ichiji, Niji and Yonji from the corner of his eyes. He wasn’t lying. His brothers were not capable of empathy whatsoever. They didn’t even care what their own father had done to them, they just laughed it out.
As for Reiju, she always was good to follow Judge’s orders and never betray her thoughts. Maybe, with time, she became like them. This was her way to survive after all. Maybe she buried her own feelings so deep that she succeeded to get rid of them so she wouldn’t suffer anymore. Sanji didn’t know. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know.
“Now, even as a failure, you can be of use. Years ago, I was too rash to fake your death, but you are a shame to my name and I couldn’t stand it. However, if I manage to determine exactly what went wrong… well, I won’t do the same error twice.”
Sanji felt his anger rise up instantly.
“You sick shitty bast-“
A kick from Ichiji cut the rest of his insult along with his breath. He still rose his head and if look could kill, he was sure Judge would be dead already. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t happen, and he was still in the clutch of the mad man.
“If you’re lucky, I’ll find a way to fix you and I’ll let you stand next to me, right where you were supposed to.”
“NEVER!”
Judge ignored his outburst and gave a nod to his brothers. He fought against them, ignoring the pain of the hits, appreciating the few he gave to them as if it really mattered, but the chains around his wrists and ankles restrained him too much to do real damages. He saw Yonji’s skin take the form of one particularly strong kick before it went back to place as if nothing happened. It was very disturbing and he was only now beginning to understand what kind of scientific achievements they were the results of. They looked like humans but mentally and physically, they weren’t. They were closer to monsters with human faces.
He really didn’t want to become like them, not anymore, not like he had hoped for when he was still a child who only wanted his father’s approval. There was no way he could let this happen!
He took a few punches who put him on his knees but then he heard a click. And he saw one of the cuffs unlocked. Behind him, the tank had been opened. He was probably going to be cuffed to the chains that were inside and it would be all over for him.
It was now or never.
He waited for the second click and when Yonji tried to lift him up, he quickly kicked his way again. He dodged Ichiji’s attacks and swiftly passed behind Niji and kicked his side. He wasn’t free, and he wasn’t at his best, but they weren’t holding him down anymore.
It was his chance to escape!
“Idiots! Stop destroying my restaurant!”
Sanji’s feet stopped on their own and he looked behind him. Judge was holding a mini-snailphone in the palm of his hand where Zeff’s voice was coming from, while at the same time showing him a photo of the old man with his other hand.
“Waiting for instructions.” Another voice said and even if Sanji didn’t recognize it, he knew what it meant.
“Hold your position.” Judge answered casually.
“What…? What’s that?” Sanji turned completely around.
It was a trap, obviously, he knew it, he felt it in his bones, but he couldn’t do anything rashly. The risk was too great for that.
“What do you think this is? Flee or try anything, and all the cooks on the Baratie are as good as dead.”
Despair filled his mind and he couldn’t think.
“How…?”
“You really think I was just going to let you live your life without monitoring you? You’re a failure but you’re still mine.” Judge’s face became red from anger. “Don’t take me for a fool!”
Sanji pursed his lips, unable to say anything.
“So I have to thank you for falling from the sky like that. I was going to fetch you among your filthy pirates’ crew but you being delivered on a silver platter on my doorstep made my work easier. I don’t believe in signs, but at least it has the merit of saving me time.”
Sanji clenched his fists while Carne and Patty were bickering in the background and he forced himself to stay silent.
He couldn’t risk their lives. It was all his fault after all. He looked at the tank behind Judge and refrained a shiver. He hesitated one second, thinking about Luffy and his nakama, but it looked like he would never see them again. And if he did… he internally sighed. If he did, they wouldn’t want him anyway. There was a great chance that he wouldn’t be the Sanji they knew anymore after going inside this tank.
He took a step forward, resigned. He basked in the angry voice of Zeff, the man who sacrificed everything for him, who went out of his way to take care of him, who taught him everything he knew, who raised him into the man he was today. He was the only man he gladly considered as his true father.
He glared at Judge and his siblings and stepped inside the tank. He let them chain him and a mask was put on his face. They closed then locked the door and he tried to not panic. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen to him but he didn’t want to give them the pleasure to see his fear.
A liquid touched his bare feet and he jumped at the cold. The level rose rapidly to his ankles then his knees and he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to drown, thanks to the mask, he knew it, but natural fear of drowning couldn’t be that easily dismissed. When the cold liquid reached his neck, he smelled something different in the mask and before he was able to recognize the scent, he was already under.