The Calm Before the Storm, 1

Baratie toddled into the kitchen holding a battered lemon plushie in one paw.

"Sanji?"

The island zafara jumped slightly and whirled around.

"Hey, kiddo, you're not supposed to be up this late."

"I hadda bad dream that I went back to the Lab Ray and then I tried to see where Mommeh was and she's not there!" The little  aisha blurted this out tearily while Loot whined. Even Plunder seemed subdued and didn't try to bite Sanji when he knelt down  to pet Baratie's head.

"It's all right - she probably just went to the bathroom or something, you know?"

"I tried there," he whimpered.

Sanji frowned briefly, blowing a small cloud of thoughtful smoke at the ceiling. The fan sucked this up greedily, wafting the  cigarette smoke away from the little aisha.

"You probably just missed her. Really, Barrie, it's all right." He patted him again. "Go get into bed and I'll be right there to tuck  you in."

"I want..."

"I know. It's okay, I'll send her as soon as she gets back to bed." He watched the kid climb the stairs to the living quarters again,  his frown deepening. Where the hell could she have gone? Sanji wasn't worried yet, but she had been really tired this  night, worn out and wracked with pain from one of the headaches she sometimes got. His mate was predictable: one of those  put her in that room all night. She could barely move, let alone wander off. He took the cup of thornberry tea he'd prepared in  one paw and slowly climbed the stairs. Halfway up he heard a small noise outside the kitchen's back door and froze.

"Zoro..."

Sanji didn't freeze this time, he bolted. The tea sloshed and hit his impeccably neat suitjacket, but he didn't even notice as  he kicked the back door open with one foot.

Zoronoa the lupe was standing there with a vague dark shape in his arms. Then the shape shifted and Sanji saw an antennae flip  limply down. The cigarette he'd been smoking dangled limply from his open mouth. Angel was laying there in Zoro's arms, her  shell pale and dull. The faint moonlight should have shined on the dark blue brilliantly, but it fell flat somehow.

"Angel"?

"He came for me," she choked.

The cigarette fell, unnoticed, to the sand.

One moment Sanji was standing there gaping in shock, the next he was whipping a leg up at a 180 degree angle. He snarled,  fangs showing and ears laid back.

"I didn't hurt her, you ass!" Zoro growled loudly. He seemed agitated, and Sanji noticed he was wheezing a  little. It wasn't noticable at first, but...

"Daijoubou desu ka?" Sanji panted hoarsely, his face pale as hers as he bent to whisper to his mate. If she was just scared  maybe this would be all right.

"No," she whispered. "Ne, Sanji, I hurt."

"Be still," Zoro muttered. He stepped across the threshhold into the kitchen. "I need to sit," he muttered almost absently. Sanji  was about to say something when he saw the lupe was leaving a thin blood trail behind him. It also appeared that parts of his fur  had been charred black. Zoro set Angel down carefully in a chair then turned to look at Sanji.

"Get the doctor for her," he grunted.

"Couldn't you have tried to protect her a little better, you idiot?" Sanji started to walk over, but blinked in shock when the big  lupe simply fell over. He started to snore almost immediately, asleep despite the blood still running from wounds in his side.

"Shit!" Sanji leaped across the kitchen to the phonebug and spoke quickly into it for several moments. "Doskoi...yeah she's hurt  you ass! Just get over here quick, Chibi!" He hung up and rushed to her side.

________________________________________

Doskoi was a red and pink ixi with matching top hat and apron. He struggled along with his bag of medicines and vials, grunting  as he clip-clopped into the kitchen.

"Sanji!" He gasped when he saw Angel and Zoro's condition.

"I don't know what happened," the zafara said quickly. He took Dosk's bag and set it on the table near Angel. "The big lupe's  just had the blood let out of him - that happens all the time. But Angel..." Doskoi was already checking her for vitals and lifting  her claws slowly. He blinked.

"Owaaaooo," he mumbled. "She was shocked several times." He pointed to several charred-like marks on her shell.

"Electrocuted?" Sanji's single visible eye widened. His fingers drummed the table nervously. "Someone shocked her? But  she's a... "

"That's why she was hurt more than Zoro," Doskoi called out. He had changed patients and was trying to roll the heavily- muscled lupe to check his side, but couldn't. Sanji groaned and placed a foot under one side, pushing him over.

"There. Now is she going to be okay?"

"She'll be fine," Doskoi answered. "Electric shocks, if done properly, can actually energize the person who gets hit." He paused  in the middle of wrapping a bandage around Zoronoa's middle.

"Was she hit properly?" Sanji asked, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Actually, it looks like she got the aftershocks of what Zoro took." The litle ixi's hat slid down a bit over his face and he pushed  back the rim. "Like he shielded her." He stared up at Sanji meaningfully.

"We'll put the idiot on the couch upstairs," Sanji muttered. His tailtip was snapping back and forth angrily but he seemed  otherwise composed now. Doskoi stepped back, almost tripping over his medicine bag as the zafara leaned over and lifted  Zoro.

"He weighs a ton," he complained.

"Muscle is heavy." The ixi said absently. He was peering at Angel's claws again.

"Hmmf." Sanji snorted and started to carry the bushido up the stairs. "I'll be back for her."

Doskoi made certain both of them were free from immediate danger and then went back home to Roo Island. Zoro and Angel  rested until the next day. All throughout the night Sanji had stayed mostly awake, jumping when he heard her whimper and  stroking her side to calm her. Once, she'd woken up and clung to him, eyes wide and trembling, for a good fifteen minutes until  she dropped off to sleep again.

The lupe snored loudly out in the living room, sprawled on the orange jelly couch where he'd been tossed. Surprisingly, he was  gone when Sanji wandered out to make breakfast. The zafara frowned a little. Well, as long as he wasn't bleeding on anything or  ransacking his kitchen he didn't care.

"Probably fell asleep in the bathroom," he grunted as he walked downstairs. A pair of gold eyes glowed in the false light of the  predawn, watching him leave the room. Zoro stepped quietly out from Barrie and Oddy's doorway, hand placed on the  bandages wrapped about his ribs.

"Sanji? Sanjis-" Angel poked her head out of the bedroom door. Her antennae were flicking back and forth in agitation. Zoro  jumped and turned swiftly towards her.

"Angel..."

"Zoro, I can't sleep ...well, I can't sleep good." She shook her head. "I keep thinking about him..."

"Well, I can't help," he huffed. He turned as if to walk away and she called out.

"What? You saved me! I..."

"I'm useless." He turned from her. "Leave me." The gruff snarl wasn't anything she'd heard before. He sounded furious,  and it couldn't be at her.

"Zoro, don't do this..."

"The damned lovecook was right! I can't protect anything." Zoro's fist crashed down on his leg. Angel walked over and curled  her arms around him, wincing when he shuddered.

"Cut it out! You had metal swords. It wasn't a fair fight." She held him tighter when she felt his shivering increase.

"I should have been stronger." The earrings he always wore jangled discordantly and she held up a claw to silence them. The  bushido lupe struggled almost painfully in her grasp, making sure to avoid eye contact at all costs. Finally she leaned forward  over his back and spoke directly into his ear.

"He had the advantage and you didn't know it."

"But you got hurt." He swallowed and touched her arm. "Badly."

"It feels better already." Not quite a lie. It didn't hurt as much as it did originally. She actually felt kind of...good. But the original pain and emotional scarring, that's what hurt the most.

"I'm fine," he snarled, cutting into her thoughts. "If you think I need comforting you're wrong."

"You did save me, fool," she whispered.

"I know that," Zoro snapped. His voice sounded strained. "Now go back to bed and leave me!"

Angel closed her eyes and sighed.

"Why did this happen? Who is that man?"

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Far above the Restaurant where all of this was taking place, resting atop grey-scudded clouds like they were waves of the  ocean hovered a ship. It was massive and decorated in gold, bronze and dark, rare woods. Strange whirring noises emanated  from it and crackles of electricity sparked off the sides.

"They dare defy Me...their Kami, their God." A pale yellow yurble sat on a gold throne on the deck. His ears were unfurled  and laid down almost to his waist, decorated with gold earrings at the ends. He wore only a pair of baggy pants with blue and  gold patterns on them, and his bare chest rippled with well-defined muscles.

"They won't for long," he commented mildly. The wind ruffled the ends of the white, snug-fitting cloth he wore over his head.  "There will be a storm of mighty proportions over the Island. For God is displeased." He reached over his shoulder  where a series of odd-patterned drums hung over his back.