Rebel Waters

Fighting a demon from hell. All in a day's work!

I walk back to where Zoro's crew is, dizzy from his weight. I can feel blood from his wounds and my own soaking my clothes, but I don't care. All that matters is that I get him back to the Strawhats. Slowly, he  stirrs, groaning at the pain. 

"You can put me down now."

Jerk. I did all this to get his ass back to his crew and this is my thanks? Oh, whatever.

"You're welcome." I muttter, putting him down.

I know he can't stand yet, so when he tries, and fails, I'm there to catch him. I can't stop an 'I told you so' smile from briefly crossing my face.  I pick him back up, the mucles in my arms screaming from his weight. At least I got my workout in I suppose. I faint smile crosses my face at the thought.  

"Who was that guy?" I ask Zoro, trying to distract myself from the searing pain in my arms that now spreads slowly to my legs, and I feel like I might collapse. But I can't. I need to get Zoro to his crew, at all costs, even my own life.

"I have no idea. That damn asshole just attacked me out of nowhere when I was ...umm..." he says, trailing off at the end.

"Lost? When you got lost?" I tease. "It's okay, Athens is really confusing to newcomers. I've lived here for years and I still get lost sometimes."

He huffs. Apparently, I'm really good at pissing him off. He deserves it. I feel  a twinge of guilt at the thought. Okay, maybe he doesn't deserve it, but still, I can't help but feel a little pissed off at him. Finally, finally! We're back to the ship. Luffy was watching out for us, and the minute he sees us, he's jumping off the ship in delight. 

"Zoro! Chase! You're hurt... what happened?" 

What? He's conserned about me? Why? 

"I'm fine. Zoro took some bad hits though." I reply cautiously, setting Zoro down gently. 

"Who are you to say that?" he mutters grumpily.

"I don't need a medical degree to know that a knife to the back isn't what I would call fine. But maybe I don't know." I say, more than a touch of sarcasm in the last part.  He sighs and tries to get up. He suceeds this time, but he's a little wobbly on his feet. Now that I'm not carrying him, my wounds are letting themselves be known, they were overshadowed by the pain in my arms and legs from carrying Zoro. I wince a little as I move my shoulder, the wounds sending sharp pains throughout my body.  

"Chase?" Luffy says. 

Oh, shit. I must've stopped paying attention.

"Y-yeah?" I reply, still a little nervous. I may have helped him, but he's still a wild card, and I know from experince that wild cards don't really turn out well. After all, I'm a bit of a wild card myself.

"Thank you for helping us." he says, catching me off guard.

"No problem. I'm just glad you guys are okay." I say, but I can't help but smile. Zoro goes downstairs, probally to see Chopper. Sanji comes up onto the deck, exchanging a glare with Zoro as they walk past each other. I get the feeling that those two fight a lot. 

Sanji smiles. "Thought I heard a beautiful voice."

I return his smile, a little shy. What the hell? When am I ever shy? 

"Thank you." I reply.

He's about to say something when my transponder snail goes off. Again. I swear if it's my fucking boss again I will feed him to the sharks. After cutting him into bite-sized chunks. 

I answer the call. "Hello?"

It's Percy. "Chase! Oh thank god! There's a problem it's-" the connection cuts out, and as the connections comes on again, it's shitty and I can only hear snatches of what he's saying. "Need some backup-too many-" There's a scream and the line goes dead. My head's spinning, and I'm shaking, I'm scared. Percy's never sounded so desperate before... and that scream, that can't be good. It was on speaker, again, I really have to stop leaving it on speaker, so Sanji heard it all. He puts a hand on my shoulder.