When Luffy woke up, he wasn't exactly comfortable. He blinked open his eyes, ignoring the throbbing pain coming from his head and looked around. He was bound by his hands an feet, rather tightly, but wasn't bound to anything, which was a relief. He could escape easier that way. Men that were laughing and drinking surrounded him, not one of them the boy recognized. None of them seemed to notice him yet, which was a small comfort to the boy. Luffy risked moving his head to the side, trying to get a better feel for his surroundings when he felt something around his neck, making it hard to move.

Instinctively, his hands reached up to pull on the object, but only succeeded on tightening the ropes around his wrists. Luffy wiggled a bit, trying to figure out what the hell they had done to him when he finally realized exactly what was happening.

They had collared him.

Hey, we want him alive, right? The boss wants to sell 'em to the Celestial Dragon. We can't do that is he's dead.

No nonononnono— He hadn't even set out to become Pirate King yet! There was no way that he'd just sit around and let someone take away his freedom. He'd rather die than become someone's toy.

"Well, well, well." A dark, yet familiar voice spoke up. "Seems you finally woke up, brat. Thought we'd killed you for a while."

Luffy swiveled his head to get a better look at the man. He'd definitely seen him before, but couldn't quite remember where. Was it when he was kidnapped by Bluejam or something else. . . ? "Oh!" The seven year old came to a sudden realization. "You're the man that Ace 'n Sabo beat up!"

A foot suddenly lashed out, giving the boy no time to react. His back slammed into the back of something (A crate maybe?) and although it didn't hurt, it wasn't like he couldn't feel it either. "Shut it!" The man took a deep, calming breath and gave the boy a cocky smirk. "You're going to lead your little devil shits back to us and then we'll ship you off to the auction hose. Nobody will miss you anyway!" Some of the goons paused in their drinking, glancing over at the pair. The ones that were listening before cackled, just like a group of ravens.

That got the boy mad; he struggled with all his might, ignoring the pain of the collar digging into his neck. "We're not just some objects that you can auction off!" When the roped didn't budge, the boy growled, thrashing even more, like a caterpillar trying to escape from it's cocoon. "Get me out of these ropes so I can kick you ass!"

"Watch your language!" The man hissed and another kick was delivered to his ribs, sending his sprawling. Several other goons had gathered, cheering and whistling as they watched the beat down. "We're your masters for now."

Luffy hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of him and sent his hat flying off. At the moment that was his least concern, expecting another hit as soon as he touched the ground, but soon realized his mistake when one of the goons whistled, picking something that was lying next to his hat.

I want you to protect it because I know that you'll be able to better than I ever will.

Luffy's eyes widened when he spotted the familiar gold watch dangling from the man's hands. "Hey!" He shouted, wiggling even more. "That's Ace's! Give it back!"

I think that's how older-you's going to be able to get home.

"What's a little kid like you got gold like this for? Eh? To keep track of time?" The men around him laughed at the stupid joke and a hand reached behind him, yanking him up by the back of his collar.

"Give it back!" He flailed in the man's arms for a few seconds, glaring at anyone who got to close. A hand passed his face and the little seven year old took the chance, biting down hard on the offending limb. The boy tasted copper in his mouth, but didn't once let go. The man yelped in surprise, jerking his arm away and flinging the boy to the ground.

"You bastard." He muttered, lifting his other hand and prepared to strike. He flung the arm down with great force, but stopped half-way as through as if an important thought popped into his head. He picked the boy up by the roped that restrained him and tossed him into the pile of goonies. "Put him in that back until he calms down. He's the Celestial Dragon's gift. They don't like injured slaves."

"Bastard." Luffy snarled as yet another man picked him up. He was swiftly carried away from all the drinking, shouting, and the exits. How was he going to escape now?

The man that was carrying him lead him down a dark hallway, then swiftly opened a door on the side of the dark wall. Luffy was thrown in, landing on his chest with an 'ouff!'. The man didn't even spare him a glance, slamming the door shut in his face with only the the sound echoing in the dark cellar to comfort him.

Luffy stared at the door numbly, trying to take in as much as possible. He reached for the comfort of his hat, only to find it missing, no doubt in the exact place it fell off. The boy's hands curled into fists, his boy starting to shake from all the pent up stress.

It was then that the tears began to fall.

Ace? Sabo? Where are you?

"Ace, where's Luffy?!" Was the first thing out of Sabo's mouth when he came tumbling into the tree house later that afternoon, making Mugiwara jerk awake from his nap, yawning, then falling back asleep. Ace slwoly peeled open an eye, curled on his side, facing toward the blonde boy.

"What . . .?" Ace muttered groggily. Seems he decided to take a nap as well and Sabo was not about to put up with this. Not when his little brother could be in danger. Grabbing his pipe, he swung hard, hitting the freckled youth straight on his head. It got his attention, at least. "Ow! What the hell, Sabo?!"

"Luffy's missing, you idiot! Get up!" He threw his pipe at the other occupant in the room, hitting him right in the stomach. The man mumbled something, but didn't open his eyes. "You too! We have to go look for him!"

Ace yawned, rubbing his eyes. "'S still morning Sabo. He went out, like, an hour ago. Stop worrying . . . so . . . much." By the end of his sentence, he was already half asleep, his speech starting to slur.

"It's afternoon, idiot!" Sabo snapped, kicking Ace since his pipe was out of reach at the moment. "Luffy's been gone almost eight hours! I've been looking everywhere, but I can't find him!" When Ace didn't move, Sabo bent down and started to shake him. "Ace, this is not a goddamn joke, get up! Luffy could be in danger!"

"Okay! Okay." Ace mumbled, pushing himself off the ground. "I'm up, Sabo. Stop—" He paused to yawn. "Stop hitting me, I'm good."

"You're not going to fall asleep again, are you?" Sabo was still suspicious.

Ace rolled his eyes. "I'm not, honest. Now let's go find that idiot brother of ours, huh?"

"This isn't good." Mugiwara muttered, bending down and examining the trees. There was blood on it—Luffy's blood. The idea that their brother was out there somewhere, alone and hurt was enough to drive Ace and Sabo to the point of insanity.

"We need to go find him!" Ace declared loudly, fully preparing to sprint in a random direction but before he could, a hand shot out and grabbed the collar of his shirt, holding him firm.

"Wait!" Mugiwara hissed, clearing not in the mood to deal with Ace's reckless attitude (funny because he probably would've done the same in another situation). "You can't just run off like that! You don't even know what happened to him! He could be kidnapped for all we know."

"Probably was." Ace muttered, but was ignored.

"Who've you beat up recently?" Mugiwara asked, bending down so he was eye level with Ace and Sabo. "Maybe we can figure out who'd want to kidnap little-me."

Sabo eyed him for a moment. "Why do you assume he's kidnapped? What if he was attacked by an animal?"

"Because," Mugiwara stood up, placing a hand on a tree. "Little-me can fend most of the animals in this forest off, with an exception of the Tiger Lord or bear. If either of those attacked him, we would know. Animals that big leave evidence, like claw marks or fur when they attack." When he noticed Ace and Sabo staring at him, mouth's gaping, he raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You're being smart!" Both boys yipped together.

"Quit that!" Mugiwara responded immediately. "Jeeze, now answer my question."

"Well, we've beaten up some random idiots, but it can't be them because even Luffy could beat 'em up." Sabo responded. "We had a run in with Bluejam, but the nobles basically kicked him off the island, so he's gone now. Then there was that group that attacked us when we were about the eat—"

Ace's head immediately snapped up, his eyes wide with realization. "It's them."

Mugiwara gave him a weird look, clearly not following his train of thought. "Who?"

"Those guys in the alley. The ones we beat up. It's them." Ace responded, arms crossed. He started walking in the direction of Grey Terminal, not noticing the look that Mugiwara and Sabo shared before running after him. "How do you know that, Ace?" Sabo questioned.

"Because of what they said." When he noticed the confused looks, Ace elaborated. "They said a Celestial Dragon was coming here, right? They said they were going to gift us to the Celestial Dragons. I bet the caught Luffy as bait so when we try and rescue him, we'll be ambushed."

"Hey Ace . . ." Sabo piqued. "Doesn't Luffy have that watch that you gave him? Y'know, the gold one?"

Mugiwara's head snapped towards Ace's direction, his eyes narrowed. "What watch?"

Ace shrugged nonchalantly, but inside he was worried. "An old man gave me a watch in a dream before you came. I don't know much about it."

"Great." Mugiwara sighed, running his hand through his messy black hair, kicking a pebble that was in the way. "That's how I'm suppose to get home, Ace. If those bastards give it to the Celestial Dragons . . . well, let's just say it'll be really hard to get back."

There was a moment of silence as the boys digested the words. Then Sabo grinned, shaking his head and said, "Well, we better go get it back them, right?"

haha, actually this was suppose to be updated on august 6th- my birthday, but since I got it done almost two weeks early and couldn't wait to post it, I'm posting it now. For the past two months or so, I've been busy writing chapters for so many stories and my hands hurt. This is the second chapter I got done, Sanity being the first.

Looking for a beta for this story ! If you're interested, leave a review or pm me. I'd really help my writing.

Okay, so this is the chapter that officially starts my plot ! I don't know if any of you can see the plot yet, but it's there and I'm very exited to write it.

I don't have much to say for this chapter? Until next chapter ! If you have any questions or concerns, fell free to pm me or leave a review !