A/N: So, here's lucky #13! Hopefully I put this one out in less than 3 months, eh? One reviewer note I'd like to address here if I may, (though I said I would only do such things on my LiveJournal page anymore): Tashigi's sense of direction. It was put forth that Tashigi also has a tendency to get lost, having to be led by Smoker to wherever she needs to be…. I've never seen this. Tashigi is blind, but she always gets where she's going. She trips over stuff and ends up in unfortunate places/circumstances, she has a tendency to not be able to identify people (mistaking a random officer for Smoker, etc.), but she got a around Lougetown well enough to cut off Luffy & Co. before they reached their ship. She managed to outmaneuver Crocodile and Nico Robin in Alabastia, ending up in their path (much good that it did her), she's shown leading men on many occasions, which she probably wouldn't be capable of if she was as directionless as Zoro. P.S. I read the manga first. I occasionally watch the anime, but I consider the manga more cannon than the animated version.

A/N from later: Yay, new writin's. Written while watching Kill Bill (both parts) in a very late night marathon. Mmmm... swords & fightin' all over the place.

Chapter 13:

The first hint Zoro had that something might be awry – more than usual, at least – came when he was trying to reorient himself for about the tenth time in that short morning. He'd already visited two weapons shops, and had been confronted with a frustratingly familiar scenario. Namely, he was too poor to afford even the cheapest swords available.

He continued his quest in hopes of finding some secondhand dealer that would be more reasonable, and to that end he had sought out high ground. The best way to scout for things was to look from high places, never mind that no one would be able to identify a weapons merchant based on the appearance of the building's roof.

A plume of black smoke rose from an area below, the scent of char faintly coming through on the wind as well. Zoro's eyes traced the dark smear against the pale sky back down towards the ground; the natural morbid curiosity that all humans possess drawing him to discover what exactly was burning.

The green haired swordsman's eyes were quite sharp, which was why the whole 'search for weapons from the sky' idea had seemed logical at the time. Right now however, what he saw was a two story building – or what remained of it – in a rather spectacular inferno.

The rising smoke and the familiar outline of the building ablaze created a growing sense of dread in the back of Zoro's mind. "Isn't that... the inn that we stayed at last night?"

Even as he gave voice to his own fear, he was turning to bolt back down to the ground, hoping his own terrible directional sense would leave him just this once – he had to get back there, right now!

"Wait." A male voice caused Zoro to whip his head around. Who was it that was daring to delay him here, like this? Well, if he kept getting in his way he could always beat the crap out of this guy and make him lead the swordsman back to the inn. The speaker turned out to be a man, probably slightly older than Zoro, dressed in some scruffy looking gray clothing. His pants were rather torn... and actually, it kind of looked like the rips were exposing some dog bites around his calves. Well, this wasn't the time to get distracted by this weirdo!

Zoro turned his back to the stranger and prepared to make tracks, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He froze, tensed, shocked by the apparent death wish the guy had, since he was obviously about to lose some important parts of his anatomy. Namely, that hand of his was definitely going to be the first thing to go.

"I said to wait!"

Zoro's hand found the hilt of his disguised sword instinctively through the cloth bound around the weapon. Spinning around, he jerked the blade from its sheath and brought it to bear on the soon to be dead retard who kept getting in his way. There was no need for words, the sword and Zoro's glare were much more eloquent.

"Whoa!" The man put his hands up in front of his chest in a placating gesture and backed away, perhaps just then realizing his complete mistake in coming within half a mile of Zoro in the first place. "W-wait just a minute!"

"You..." Zoro narrowed his eyes, "You were following us when we got here."

"Yes.. that's true. I've been tracking you for days... I'm surprised you noticed..."

Zoro snorted. "You're not all that great at it. I just figured it would be a waste of energy to kill you right away. Not until I figured out who had you tailing us, anyway."

The man's face brightened a bit, rather preemptively in Zoro's opinion. "Well, I'm not one of your enemies, so can we talk like reasonable people?"

"Get out of my way. I need to go back." Zoro moved forward to circle around the minor obstacle in his path, sword remaining at the ready just in case.

"Don't!" The man took a deep breath as the sword shot forward, millimeters from his neck, "Don't bother going back – everyone there is either captured or dead. It's them, don't you get it? The government here doesn't care who they kill to get to you, but they sure as hell want you dead!"

"My partner is back there." How strange it felt to call her that, but how else was he supposed to define their current relationship?

The other man was not impressed by his loyalty, however. "I understand where you're coming from, really I do, but like I said, it'll be too late..."

Zoro didn't bother to even take a moment to contemplate this pathetic reasoning though, instead he started making demands since that was what the swordsman was good at. "You're leading me back."

He gaped in disbelief, "What? Weren't you listen-"

"Now!" Zoro's blade drew a line of bright red blood from the skin of the other's neck. It was enough to finally force a decision at least.

"Shit! Psychotic retard!" He spat out, furious for some reason that Zoro didn't really care to fathom. He'd been called worse in his days anyway. "I don't care anymore, go and get killed, but don't expect me to stay and watch!"

They ended up making good time, actually. Of course, both of them were quite sufficiently motived, though in different ways, even though they were drawing a bit of attention since Zoro had neglected to hide his weapon again as he ran. There didn't seem to be much point, after all, when he had a strong suspicion that he'd be needing it again right away.

As the approached their final destination, they blended in among the crowds running toward the burning building, which was a convenient cover for their approach. As they got closer, Zoro's heart sank farther and farther, the inferno was complete, and was now even spreading to nearby buildings as well. There were no efforts to save the inn by the volunteer firefighters that had appeared out of the crowd, they were focused on saving what they could of the rest of the block.

The two men came to a stop in front of the inn, simply shocked at the state of the obviusly unnatural blaze for a moment. Zoro recovered quickly though, turning to sear h through the crowds for the people he knew would have been n that building previously. There was no one out front, so he began circling around toward the back as quickly as possible, vaguely aware of the other man following after him for some obscure reason.

Heavy, choking smoke billowed and flowed through the air, forcing Zoro to squint painfully and causing the swordsman's breath to burn in his lungs. Still, there was no sign of any of those caught in the fire, alive or dead. The final corner of the building was just ahead, the small yard and alleyway Zoro recalled being behind the inn were near, and they remained the only possible remaining route of escape.

Turning that corner, Zoro found that this was indeed exactly where the people within had ended up, though they certainly were not alone. The owner and her son were in the middle of a circle of well armed guardsmen, easily recognizable in their bland uniforms, not to mention the fact that they were armed at all.

As for Tashigi... her location wasn't immediately apparent upon simply turning the corner, but a closer inspection following a few moments of staring quickly revealed her fate. The young Marine was thoroughly coated in ash and soot, obviously having been pretty much the last one to escape from the building. Knowing her personality, she may have ricked her own hide to ensure that everyone else escaped first. And look where it had landed her – right in the hands of the enemy.

Once again, Zoro had that exasperating feeling of 'it serves her right' combined with a strong overlay of a need to rescue her as quickly as possible. She wasn't nearly a damsel in distress at any rate, since the men surrounding her still hadn't managed to relieve her of her own weapon. It was just proof that having a lack of arms among civilians made these guys' training and experience just that much more sub par than a person used to dealing with dangerous people in the real world. Even so, she didn't look like her winning streak was going to last much longer.

Among the chaos of the scene, somehow Zoro and his guide hadn't been spotted right away. The swordsman decided to take full advantage of that luck, electing to make his first priority saving Tashigi. Once she was free, they could both work on anyone else who needed rescuing from these unfortunate circumstances.

The guardsman didn't see him coming until he was already in full charge, by then also having pulled his second weapon from its sheath across his back. Tashigi instantly took advantage of the surprise among her opponents, and to good effect too. Two of the men dropped beneath her blade before Zoro was in range to attack. As the pirate leapt into the fray, Tashigi backed away, moving closer to the side of the building she had been cornered against. This threw him off slightly, having expected her to immediately move forward to join him in putting these losers in their place, but he shrugged it off as her simply giving him some room to move in the crowded area.

Taking advantage of the freedom of movement, Zoro cut down another pair of enemies, slashing the forearm of one and the chest of another, effectively removing any fighting capability they had for the rest of the match.

"Tch. Not even a challenge." He smirked as he moved his swords back to an en garde position and waited for the next batch to attack. Remaining aware of the overall situation, he noted that their opponents had underestimated quite a few factors here as well, which appeared to be a trend with them. The fire was obviously completely out of control, so some efforts were being forced upon them to do something about the blaze they themselves had likely started purposely. In addition, they had way too few people for dealing with the two swordsmen, despite plenty of previous experience in getting their asses beat by the pair. No reinforcements appeared to be immediately forthcoming either, so Zoro was confident in their overall win. It was also rather fortunate, but none of the men present appeared to be equipped with firearms, since dodging would be difficult in this sort of situation.

"Come on, let's deal with these guys and get out of here." He called confidently to the female Marine behind him, expecting her to be at his side in the next moment.

"Y-yeah." Her response was delayed and breathless, though she did immediately appear on his right with her blade at the ready. Up close, she really did look like she'd been through the wringer – most of her clothing was essentially black, and the scent of the fire clung heavily to the air surrounding her.

The first of the attackers charged in, armed with a heavy blade. Zoro's blade knocked aside the charging man's weapon, his other weapon flashing forward to slice diagonally across the guardsman's torso. Gagging on his own blood, one opponent dropped, writhing, into the dirt and ash at Zoro's feet. The sight of one of their companions being reduced to blood and gore so abruptly caused the others gearing up for a spar with him to hesitate for a moment, so Zoro gave in to a flicker of concern that had taken root in his mind since arriving at the scene. He glanced over at Tashigi, reassuring himself with her presence.

What he saw only reaffirmed his fears. She was still holding off the two men who had elected to attack her rather than Zoro, but...

Her movements were slow and unsure. They were still far above par for the average fighter, but for her it was an obvious decrease in ability. She was breathing hard, to an extent which was something Zoro had yet to see happen in any of the fights they'd been in previously. Sure, he had seen her worn out and even working up a sweat, particularly when they had been escaping from the fortress, but she honestly appeared to not be able to get enough oxygen. Her face was pale, and she was starting to stagger.

Damn it... I need to get her out of here... But there was another problem. She wasn't the only one that needed rescuing from this situation. There were those inn people too, and he had actually been counting on her to help him out with that. Now, though -

He shifted his gaze quickly toward the other hapless victims in question. He needed to prioritize and get everyone out safely – even if that meant leaving Tashigi to defend herself for a few more minutes. If she wasn't capable of that, she was his first concern, so he needed to make the decision before she became completely incapable of battle.

He blinked in surprise as the nature of the situation revealed itself to him. It actually appeared that he wasn't going to be needed for the rescue of others. The strange guy who had accosted him, and then followed him here unwillingly, had taken matters into his own hands and was actually making more progress than the two swordsmen. The young man was displaying a rather adept sort of hand to hand style, augmented by the use of a small dagger in his right hand. He had already loosened the mother and son pair from their circle of captors, and was making steady movements toward a small, fire darkened alley. Once they made it in there, the odds would be good for them to slip away under the cover of smoke and crowds of onlookers, if Zoro recalled correctly. Of course, that would likely be the case if they managed to mingle into any such place in this area.

Zoro and Tashigi naturally stood out a lot more, seeing as they were obviously non-native to this island, so they'd have a harder time. At least he didn't have to worry about others now. Swiveling around, he absently swatted down another weapon wielding man that got within his range, using the momentum of the motion to bring himself over to the female swordsman's side.

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

"But - " Apparently she was going to argue the point for some reason, perhaps intending to teach a lesson to people unscrupulous enough to torch the home and business of people who were apparently quite altruistic. Zoro could see her point of view, annoyingly enough – perhaps she was a bad influence on his way of thinking – but right now even he could tell she was in no shape to be handing down Justice on wrongdoers.

"Tch." Zoro snarled silently as a few more enemies tried to take advantage of the two slightly distracted fighters that were now in a confined space. These were dealt with on his end with a series of quick strikes, though the one that got past him met much less resistance from Tashigi.

Indeed, it was obvious that whatever stamina had sustained her to that point was failing, as she barely managed to block the man's swing. Zoro spun around, ignoring the last few people surrounding the pair, to thoroughly slaughter Tashigi's opponent where he stood. Before the body managed to hit the ground, he had already darted over to her side and grabbed the young Marine by the arm.

"We're going. Come on!" She didn't argue this time, actually allowing herself to be dragged off toward a low wall nearby that Zoro knew would be only a minor barrier to himself. As for Tashigi... well, when they reached the wall, he simply scooped her up in his arms and threw himself over, using a convenient crate as a launching pad.

"What the hell are you doing?" Apparently the Marine still had enough breath to yell at him, but Zoro wasn't going to waste time arguing or explaining. He landed lightly – as much as possible while carrying another person, anyway – on the cobblestones on the other side of the wall and quickly set out in whichever direction looked the most passable.

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Usopp thought they still had a chance. He at least thought they'd make it to the next day and continue their information gathering. Unfortunately, his luck had turned bad that afternoon, and didn't seem to be getting better as the day went on.

They'd started their day with staking out the fortress where they'd – somehow – determined that the rest of their friends were being held. This had become routine, though even Usopp was starting to wonder exactly what he thought they were going to get out of this. There was nothing else he could think of to do to facilitate any sort of escape though, so he just watched and waited.

On the up side, he had managed to discover the routine of the guards and other staff associated with the stronghold to a truly incredible detail. That was serving him well now, but not in the way he had ever desired it to.

During their vigilant watch in late morning, fading into afternoon, they had finally made note of an interesting happening. Rather, it was something of a disaster. There was more activity than normal around one of the side gates, with quite a bit of troop buildup. Usopp and Chopper watched with interest but no concern until the first prisoner was brought out.

They couldn't tell who it was, not from that distance, and the guards were taking some pains to keep the person well surrounded, but it was obviously not one of the staff of the place. On top of that, it seemed that a cloth hood or something like it had been placed over the person's head to black their vision. Well, that was fine. If they were moved to a new place, perhaps there would be more opportunities to conduct a rescue from there.

More people were brought out, far too many to be merely Straw Hat crew members, and loaded into more than one truck for removal. This was where some panic started to set in. Until now it had been okay since they were fairly certain that everyone was together in the same place, and were no doubt taking care of each other to an extent. If they were separated to many far corners of this island...

No chance. None at all.

Here came Usopp's specialty. When given an opportunity to remain in safety with little to no concern about his friends, he would always choose to do so. But if his friends were actively in danger, and there was even the slightest chance he could do something about it...

Even a coward can become dangerous when cornered, to modify the old idiom. Guilt had been building in him for days anyway, since he was free and all his companions besides Chopper, so far as he knew, were not.

"Chopper! Quick, they've go them outside!"

"Huh? Yeah!" The reindeer picked up on his thoughts immediately, and both of them made tracks for their route back to the ground. With their speed, it took less than ten minutes of them to reach the vicinity of the fortress, which found them staring at the prisoner movement from only about a hundred yards away.

"We have to do something now! R-right?" Chopper peeked at the scene in his usual backwards manner, forcing Usopp to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him back behind cover.

"Y-yeah! We need to save them! It's all up to us, after all!" Dropping the reindeer, Usopp tensed and prepared himself, pulling out his slingshot and digging in his pouch for the most appropriate type of ammo. He decided that one of his Smoke Stars would best do the trick – providing distraction and cover all at once. Taking a deep, shaky breath, he stepped out from his chosen cover, slingshot at the ready.

"Eat this! Smoke Star!" He launched a set of his ammunition at the guards surrounding the prisoners, the pellets striking with his traditional accuracy. Three men were knocked back by direct hits, while the others set about coughing and such due to the explosion of smoke.

Since there was no longer any backing out, Usopp bolted forward, reloading and firing as quickly as he was able. Pandemonium erupted due to the surprise attack, the few men that had so far escaped the assault retreating either towards the prisoners or back toward the fortress to recruit backup. There was no way Usopp had the courage to go up against the whole of the forces stationed there, so he knew that running would be his best and only option. He just had to makes sure that he wasn't the only one fleeing the scene...

He made it in range faster than he expected, his own adrenaline making time seem to slow. Flinging himself into the midst of the group of guards and prisoners, he grabbed the closest bound and hooded person by the arm and dragged him aside.

Weird, I didn't think there was anyone this heavy in our crew... these clothes too, I didn't notice them from back there, but... Usopp couldn't bother spending too much time contemplating this, since the cloud of smoke he had created was quickly dissipating. He pulled out one of the shuriken he kept in his bag and put it to use shredding the bonds of the person he had rescued. He found them heavily bound by rope, but an additional security was in place in the form of some really strange, heavy looking handcuffs.

There's no way I can deal wit those right now, I'd better just make them ready to run. With that thought in mind, and hearing the sounds of Chopper bringing a well timed distraction in his Arm Point form, Usopp switched tactics to simply removing the person's hood so that they would be able to see to flee.

As the covering was removed, Usopp realized his fundamental, inescapable mistake. "You – you're..."

An infuriated white haired Marine Captain glared up at the young pirate. "What the hell are you waiting for? Are you going to let these assholes catch you too, pirate?"

End Ch. 13

Ending Note: I determined to get something done, and I did. Yay.