FicWad

"Where is she?" Scarlet asked lowly, peering into Reid's eyes. She stood to the side, her arms crossed and an expression of impatience on her face. He defiantly stared back into her chocolate eyes, challenging her with the last bit of courage he possessed.

Her eyes narrowed and she nodded to Lupis who stood in front of him. The brute smirked before backhanding him, whipping his head to the side with a loud smack. He grunted, struggling to keep his shout of pain in. It would be fatal to show weakness at this point, so he bit his lip stubbornly.

"I'll ask one more time." The woman leaned down farther, her faces only inches from his own. "Where is she?" Reid's eyes flicked over to Liam who was still shadowed by Raz. Liam gave him the tiniest of smiles. The smallest of gestures, but it held the greatest of comforts. Finding encouragement in his friend, he locked gazes with the woman once again.

He remained silent, even going so far as to smirk a little. The woman's nose wrinkled in either disgust or disapproval and she nodded harshly to Lupis. However, Reid found it hard to retain his indifferent attitude when the man took hold of one of his fingers and pushed back suddenly. A loud snap echoed through the room, causing Liam to wince at his friend's pain.

"Ah!" Reid yelled, straining against the chair and ropes holding him down.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Liam yelled, trying once again to yank his limbs out of the rope bonds. Raz stepped between the two men and roughly slapped the medic.

"Urgh…" The blow left him dazed, but he still heard the sickening snap of another of his nakama's fingers as well as the painful scream it produced.

"AH!" The mechanic gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut against the tears threatening to fall, willing them back with every fiber of his being. He would not cry in front of these people. Lupis followed up with a punch straight to the mouth. He bit his tongue and the muscle began to bleed filling his mouth with the red liquid. He panted hard against the pain.

"Darling, the pain will stop if you only tell me what I want to know." Scarlet cooed, gently stroking Reid jaw with her long, painted fingers. His head recoiled from her touch, knocking back into the chair.

Reid's eyes flared to life in an instant, locking onto the woman before him. On a furious impulse, an impromptu act of bravery, or just sheer stupidity, Reid spat blood onto Scarlet's face, watching with pleasure as she reeled backwards in disgust.

"I'm not your darling…" He muttered, not bothered in the least that his blood was now dripping down his neck and staining his uniform.

"Reid…" Liam whispered, on the verge of tears for his friend. He watched in furious uselessness as Raz took a metal pipe from the ground and swung it at Reid's head. There was a sickening crunch and the mechanic slumped forward in his chair, blood flowing out of the wound on his temple.

"REID!" Liam screamed, hyperventilation causing the adrenaline to pump faster in his body. He clenched and unclenched his fists, itching to get his hands on his captors so he could kill them himself. He bared his teeth as Scarlet turned to him and walked closer. She had cleaned her face of as much blood as she could with her furry scarf.

"Now, darling, I hope you will be a little more.../cooperative/ than your friend here. It doesn't have to be this way. This whole nightmare can be over. Just tell me where Katrina and your crew is."

"Go to hell!" He yelled, snapping the woman's already thin patience.

"There's no use in resisting! Can't you see that your crew will never find you? You won't be rescued, there's no one that's going to bust in the door and come to save you! YOU ARE DEAD! SO TELL ME WHERE SHE IS! SHE'S ALL I HAVE LEFT!" A few seconds of silence followed her frantic outburst.

"You're wrong...you're wrong." Liam muttered, forcing his breathing back to normal. With bowed head, he chuckled darkly and shook his head. "You think you've won, that we'll just give in to your demands now that you've roughed us up a bit." His laughter became a little more crazed, going so far as to cause Scarlet to take a step back.

Raising his head, he locked eyes with the redhead. "You've got no idea, do you?" He took her confused expression as his answer. "Our nakama wouldn't just abandon us. They-" He broke into a coughing fit before being able to speak again. "They aren't like that. Nakama mean more than anything onboard that little yellow submarine, and I'll be damned if I don't uphold that reputation myself."

Scarlet looked at him like he had grown a second head, her chest rising and falling unsteadily. A few strands of hair had fallen out of her bun, and she looked just as crazy as Liam thought he must look. Nonetheless he continued.

"Nakamaship is everything to us. If you think that we're just gonna break down at the first sign of pain, you're fucking out of your mind! I don't expect someone of your social standing to understand something like that, seeing as your own daughter ran away from you. I guess I should feel pity for you, since she's all you've got. But to be honest, I can't find it in me to care." His voice was low with anger.

"So you can threaten us all you like, lady. You can tell your big strong muscle men to pound the everliving shit out of us all you want. But we will never sell out our nakama. /Never. /And you will /never /convince me otherwise."

Everything was silent, save for Liam's staggered breathing and the small drips of water coming from the ceiling. Scarlet continued to stare at him, but he couldn't tell what he was thinking. It took several seconds, maybe closer to a minute before anyone moved. It was Lupis that did, scowling down at the medic with hatred.

"No one talks to the Mrs. like that!" He raised a fist to assumably knock him out as Reid had, but Scarlet raised a hand to stop him.

"Enough." She muttered, never taking her eyes off the man. Liam was happy to return the gesture, staring back with as much fury and conviction as he could muster. Her two brutes looked at her in confusion.

"But, Mrs. Winslow, speaking to you in such a manner warrants nothing short of death." Raz said, gesturing down at the pirate and speaking as though he wasn't even there.

"We can't leave him unpunished." Finished Lupis. It seemed Scarlet had recovered from Liam's outburst, and she gave a very small, very wolfish grin.

"And he will be." She purred, inclining her head just slightly. Breaking eye contact for the first time, she glanced evenly at the two muscle men.

"Fetch my riding crop. It should be in the stables." The two smirked and started towards the door. "Oh, and one more thing." She said, stopping them before they were out the door.

Her smirk grew and she returned her sadistic gaze to Liam. The look alone sent a chill up his spine, but when she spoke, he began to panic internally.

"Get the branding iron."

"Bepo, have you caught their scent?" The bear shook his head, dropping his head in depression.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, and Summer sighed. She patted his head fondly.

"It's alright, just keeping trying, alright? We've gotta find them." He nodded and brought his nose to the ground again.

Glancing around, Summer noticed Law frowning intensely at an alley wall ahead of them. She jogged up beside him, feeling surprise when he jumped slightly from her sudden appearance. Usually, she could never startle him, but it was apparent he was in deep thought, too distracted to notice her beside him.

"We've searched the whole area they were assigned and there's not a trace of them." He growled, grip tightening on his nodachi. Summer wasn't sure what to do. It was obvious that the captain was suffering from the loss of his two crewmates, in his own way. However, Summer had never been very good at cheering a person up when they were sad.

Law was a different matter altogether. How does one comfort the Surgeon of Death, exactly? As far as she knew, he wasn't one for touching. But she still felt like she needed to do something. Hesitantly bringing up her hand, she placed it on his shoulder.

"We'll find them." She said lowly, before walking off to search the new area. She felt his hard stare drilling a hole in her back, but she didn't say anything about it.

They had searched an adjacent area to the one before, but still no sign of the two missing crewmembers. At one point, they had crossed paths with another search party. From the depressed expressions and slumped shoulders, they hadn't been having any better luck. Turning down an alley to take them to the next area, Bepo started sniffing the air with greater intensity. Law noticed immediately.

"What is it?" He asked, and Bepo started to jog forward.

"I smell Reid." He said. Summer and Law exchanged a glance and ran after the running bear. Bepo disappeared down an alley on the left. Rounding the corner, the two stopped short when they saw Bepo leaning down to pick something up. Law came up beside him to examine what it was.

"What did you find?" Summer asked, and Law held up something.

"Reid-ya's goggles."

Summer put her hand on her mouth in sadness, hoping that finding it meant the worst, but she had to keep her hopes up. Giving up now would do them nothing. Squaring her shoulders, she turned to the polar bear.

"Can you pick up their scent from here, Bepo?" At this point, she couldn't take the pleading tone out of her voice but she couldn't find it in her to care. Two of her nakama were missing. Her pride didn't matter at this point.

Bepo sniffed the ground a few times, lingering around the dirt where the goggled had been. His nose brought him towards the opening of the alley, out into the main street where the mobs of people had thinned somewhat in the early morning.

He lifted his head and stared into the street. "The scent is extremely faint, but it's there. It will be difficult to keep it when there are so many people around, but I can try."

"Lead the way, Bepo." Law said, gesturing for him to go first. Nodding resolutely, Bepo began to follow the trail.

Summer glanced anxiously around the oblivious people, clasping her hands in front of her chest out of nervous habit.

'Please...Be alive when we get there. Don't die on us now…'

Pururururur...pururururu...puru...gatcha.

"Captain? This is Penguin. We found that lady's mansion. Where are you?" Law gripped the snail phone a little tighter, gritting his teeth.

"Just west of the central sector of the city." Law looked up at a street sign. "We're Radmon Square right now." A relieved sigh came from the engineer on the other end.

"You're just a few blocks from the mansion, then. If you head south southwest you'll get to it. It's a giant white marble building, you can't miss it." Shachi must have grabbed the snail from his friend.

"Good work." Law stated. He was about to hang up, but Shachi interrupted him.

"Captain," He sounded worried, a far cry from his previously relieved tone. "Bring 'em back for us, alright?" Law smirked.

"That's exactly what I intend to do." He hung up the receiver and looked to Summer and Bepo. They were watching him expectantly.

"Let's introduce ourselves, shall we?" With two nods in response, they trotted off towards the Winslow mansion.