Chapter 16: Anne "Captured!" A Mission in Action!

It us took about a week to get to the designated island where our mission was going to be taking place. We would soon be docking, and I had made myself quite presentable. I had on a sleek, flowing dress, a very light layer of makeup, and a few curls in my hair. After all, if I'm to get picked, I needed to catch their eye. Felix couldn't help but give me hell at first, but I simply blew him overboard. But even after fishing him back on board, he still laughed his head off.

As our small boat approached the island, River came up to me nervously and asked, "Are you sure about this? I mean, Felix and I won't be there with you once you are taken."

I placed a reassuring hand on River's shoulder as I confidently told him, "I'm 100% sure this is what I want to do. I know you've always been the worrywart of the group, but I promise everything will be fine. After all, Felix will be skulking the edge of the main building in case anything happens, and you guys and the Revolutionary Army will be ready to storm the place as soon as I blast open the main gate."

"It's a rather simple plan on our part," Felix butted in as he walked over. "Get in, get the captives to the gate, blast it open, and get out while leading them to the Revolutionary Army's ship. It's the Army's responsibility to deal with the aftermath and take control of the wealth and power."

"Well, I guess our part IS a little simpler," River agreed, sounding a bit more confident. "Don't worry, as soon as I get Felix's signal, I'll make sure to inform the Army. Just remember, it'll take us about half of a day to get everything ready for the siege, so we'll definitely be ready by sundown."

I gave nod in acknowledgement as we docked the boat. Our new chef and River bade Felix and I good luck as we got off the boat and headed towards the targeted village. After about an hour or two of walking, Felix and I arrived to the impoverished village. If the rumors were true, it shouldn't be much longer until the village gets visited by the nobles for the "picking", as it's referred to here.

Felix and I began by going around to the villagers and asked them about what was transpiring here. The malnourished villagers were hesitant to tell outsiders about what was happening, but they explained that when they can't pay the nobles, like this month, everyone had to line up in the main square, and the nobles get to pick whomever they want to take in sight, for whatever they want them for. Those who resist are killed on the spot by the soldiers the nobles bring along.

Different villagers told Felix and I their own personal stories regarding the "pickings". A lot of them told how their wives, husbands, sons and daughters were taken and they have not heard from them since.

One woman wept as she told us the story of how her 18 year old daughter was picked, and as they were taking her away, the woman's wife tried to resist to save their daughter. However, she was swiftly made an example of with a public execution. That was the 20 years ago, and it was the last day she ever saw her wife and child.

A man recalled how his ten year-old boy was taken during a picking. He told us he remembers the day all too well, as his son was the youngest ever taken from the village. Although, he wasn't surprised it happened, as the boy was always quite the charmer for his age, with unique snow white hair with ruby red eyes. It also didn't help that he was basically begging to be taken when he would swear at all of the officials he saw.

As another woman was telling us her tale, a trumpet sounded as a soldier announces the next Picking will be starting shortly, since the payment could not be made again. He bellowed that all villagers need to be lined up in the square at this moment before the nobles arrived, or they will be executed on the spot. Felix and I were informed that, since we were not residents of the island, we did not have to partake in the line-up and needed to stay back with the other island visitors, young, and elderly. Felix and I exchanged nods and followed the direction that everyone was going.

In the middle of the village was a large dirt area with street vendor stalls littering the outskirts. On one side, all of the men stood together, and to the other side were the women. All of the people wore tattered and ragged clothes, and there was not one person who wasn't mostly skin and bones. Felix and I leaned against some in-town tress and we noticed that we were not the only outsiders observing this scene. There were a few other island visitors that were intrigued by this ritual, mostly hiding out of sight to observe.

Not much longer after all of the villagers had formed their lines, a pair of trumpets blared as a small uniformed man with a puffy collar announced, "Make yourselves presentable, peasants! For King Pom and Young Lord Pous are gracing us with their presence!"

As the small man moved aside, a large father-son duo came riding in on poor, wobbly horses. Both of their round faces were free of any dirty and grime unlike the villagers, and they carried rather shiny and large crowns atop of their heads. All across their fancy silks were lined priceless gems and jewels. It was obvious where the wealth of the island was unfairly placed. Just a couple of those jewels could feed the village for months.

The pompous oafs dragged themselves off of the poor horses they were riding, and, I swear, I saw the relief the animals got once the weight was lifted off them. The father cleared his throat as if he had something important to say, and declared, "We are here YET AGAIN, all because you simpletons still refuse to pay the taxes. When will you get it through your thick skulls that if you would just pay the taxes, we wouldn't have to come all the way down here to take our pickings?"

"But, sir," one man tried to protest. "Our crops have continued to fail and we can't afford the taxes!"

"It's not OUR fault you chose to be poor," the son mocked with his nose in the air. "Geez, all you need to do is just make more money and pay the taxes."

I must have not been able to hide the disgusted look on my face, as I seemed to have attracted the attention of the sleazy-looking noble son without even trying. "Father! I know which one I want! I want that one," the boy said as he pointed to me.

"Um, how about no," I hissed with a glare as I crossed my arms. Sure, my main goal was to get picked, but I couldn't make it too obvious.

"Oh my, she's spunky," the boy said as he rubbed his hands together greedily. "Father, you know how I LOVE them spicy."

His comment gave me cold chills. "Alright men, you heard my boy. Go ahead and fetch her," the father instructed his guards, then looked towards a beautiful blonde who was also simply observing the picking as an outsider. "And while you're at it, fetch that beauty over there, as well. That should be enough for today. You poor buggers got off easy this time, thanks to these young, foreign ladies."

A pair of officers began marching over to the blonde and another pair over to me. I gave a slight wink towards Felix, and he gave one back in response as a form of saying good luck. Each of the men grabbed hold of my biceps and lifted me up off of the ground. I pretended to kick and scream at the top of my lungs, demanding they let me go as if I were terrified. The blonde and I were carried over to a covered wagon and thrown into it after having a pair of normal handcuffs slapped on our wrists. Shortly after, the wagon began to move and rock.

I gave a sigh of relief at how well this plan was already going. Phase 1 was officially complete.

As the cart the blonde and I were thrown into moved along, I went over the plan again in my head. Phase 1 was to simply get taken captive to the royal's palace. Phase 2 begins as soon as we reach the place. I'm going to need to find and locate a good amount of the captives and get them to spread word of the plan to meet at the gates right before sunset.

"Well, this was unexpected," a high-pitched feminine voice suddenly spoke, bringing my attention back out of my mind. The blonde with me gave a sigh before turning to me and saying, "Something tells me that perhaps we should have skipped stopping at this island. Anyway, my name's Lyric."

I gave a gave a nod, before getting a good look at the younger girl. She looked no older than River and Luffy, as her long and wavy platinum blonde hair framed her slender face. Her skin was very fair and she had a small eighth note tattoo that sat under the corner of one of her bright, icy blue eyes. Her clothes were somewhat plain in design, but they were skin tight to show off her toned yet lean body. On her back rested a light wooden lute that definitely showed signs of use and love.

"Anne," I introduced myself with a nod. "Seems like you have as bad of luck as I do."

"I guess you could say that," the girl, Lyric, laughed awkwardly. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, what brought you to this island? Surely you must have heard about the rumors here."

"I could ask the same of you," I retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, pardon my manners," Lyric said with another awkward laugh. "Well, I guess you could say I'm looking for a new start. I'm actually looking for work as a musician, but not many places would hire me back home since I'm the daughter of ex-pirates..."

"Actually, my crew could use a musician," I stated with beaming eyes, without hesitation to recruit a new member. "How would you like to join us and play to your hearts content?"

"Um, I don't know how to tell you this, but I think that's easier said than done at this moment," Lyric said as she lifted her hands up, referring to the cuffs on our wrists.

"Don't worry, there's a plan. All I need you to do is tell as many people that look like captives to gather at the main gate this evening and have them pass along the word to others as well," I instructed.

"Wait, shouldn't we at least wait until nightfall? You know, use the darkness," Lyric suggested. "And what do you plan to do? Is there a reason to rush things?"

"Just trust me," I told her a confident grin. "Let's just say my group has to keep moving, before the Marines figure out we're here."

"Surely, they wouldn't catch on to what you are up to so quickly, right?" Lyric asked in slight confusion. "I mean, you just got here, right?"

"I wouldn't put it past them," I started to say, but wondered how long Lyric has been on the island if she knew I had just arrived. "Anyway, if you still want to help, or even join at this point, it'd be much appreciated if you could help spread the rumor. Remember: at the main entrance at sunset!"

She gave a weary nod and we both turned toward the back of the carriage and watched the scenery pass behind us.

Not much time passed before we arrived at our destination. Lyric and I heard the creaking of an old iron gate opening up, so we both peeked through front flaps of the covered wagon to get a look at where we were. In front of us was a pair of giant, tacky bronze gates that were just opened, revealing a massive, ivory mansion-like building with what looked like gold pillars decorating the path to the building. "How distasteful," I spat in disgust.

"I know," Lyric said, just as uninterested in the waste of gold as I was. "The weather has definitely started to tarnish the gold!"

"Forget that," I protested. "Like this, it's only a decoration! Can you imagine how much money you could sell those for? And what you could DO with that money, just from those pillars alone?! The villagers, not even 10 minutes away, are struggling to survive and these guys are worried about taxes from a poor harvest?"

The carriage came to a stop shortly, and one of the guards threw back the flap of the wagon. "Alright, ladies, here we are. Get on out."

Lyric and I scooted our way out of wagon and stood in front of it, waiting to see what happened next. "Welcome, fair maidens, to the manor," the father announced to the two of us.

"So, what, are we basically your slaves," I asked in disgust, remembering how the Celestial Dragon wanted to do the same. "Besides, by the sound of it, shouldn't you have enough people 'helping out' around here, if you've taken so many people already?"

"Oh, you can never have enough help," the son sleazily said with a wink. "Especially of the female variety."

"Fuck off," I growled, grossed out and trying to keep my anger in check. It was too soon to risk the operation. All I have to do right now is continue playing the damsel in distress.

The comment caused a white-haired, tanned young adult butler snicker. "Shut it, Whitehead," the son growled, before turning back to me with excitement. "Oh, Father, I am going to thoroughly enjoy breaking this one."

"Um, so what exactly are you expecting us to do," Lyric asked while she and I were looking around, mapping out the environment mentally.

"Oh, nothing much," the father said casually. "You, beautiful, seem to have an instrument, so you'll play me a sweet melody whenever I call upon you. Until then, just act as a maid or something and do some cleaning, or whatever it is that you peasants do. As for the dark-haired one, she'll basically be doing whatever my boy tells her to. I'm sure he's just going to keep her anger issues in check one way or another."

"Huh, I never realized I had anger issues until now," I said with a roll of my eyes and a flip of my middle finger. I pretended to just notice my middle finger and acted shocked. "Oh no, where did that come from? Oh dear me, I wonder how that happened. My, this finger does tend to have a mind of its own."

The white-haired young butler from earlier gave another laugh, not bothering to hide it this time. The guy's mocking laughter aggravated the son, causing him to take a wrapped up whip off of his hip and unravel it. He swiftly flicked towards the butler, and with a sharp *crack*, a mark was left across the guy's left eye.

"Seems like I STILL haven't broken you yet, after all these years. Huh, hoary-head," the son barked with a disgusting grin at the satisfaction of leaving a mark.

The butler stopped laughing. After a momentary wince, he gave a slightly menacing smirk of pleasure. The son gave a face-palm before sighing, "That's right, I forgot that you were the unusual one. I think I might have broken you TOO much... Whatever. Just take the dark-haired beauty to the main chamber, where we'll go over her *training* later."

Lyric gave me a slightly worried look, but I her a reassuring glance, reminding her of what I asked of her earlier. The butler gave a lazy nod of the head, half-heartedly saying "Aye, Mister Master."

As the butler began to lead the way, we heard the son say to his father, "I know I enjoy breaking peasants, but he's a whole different type of broken..."

The butler led me inside through the large wooden doors of the manor, and as we were walking, I asked, "Can I ask you a question?" The guy looked at me inquisitively with his sapphire eyes. A few of the longer strands of his styled undercut snowy hair laid on his forehead. "You're one of the village captives, right?"

"Huh, I wonder what gave you that idea," the man mocked with an eye roll as he gestured to the fresh, bleeding mark across his eye. "Don't know why anyone else would be here willingly."

"Well, are you interested in joining a massive breakout," I asked with a raised eyebrow. "My name is Anne, and my crew and the Revolutionary Army will be assisting from the outside, if you're interested."

"What, no interrogation to see if you can trust me before telling me your plan? For all you know, I could be terrified of the *masters* and might go squeal on you. You're quite the naïve one, aren't cha," the young man said in disbelief at my openness. "But heh, good luck with that. Many, including myself, have attempted to escape from here before, and each one ended with a bullet in the shoulder or leg, if you were lucky. I was shot in the back and it barely missed my spine and any of my organs. A little thing like you? Breaking out? Bah!"

I stared him straight in the eyes as I lifted my wrists up in front of me and turned them intangible, causing the shackles to fall to the ground. "I don't think I'll need much luck, with skill and all," I told him with a grin. I then reached into my bag, which had originally been searched for weapons, and I pulled out some antiseptic. "Let me help you real quick... er, whatever your name is."

"This? This is nothing! It just got my eyelid," the guy said while gesturing to the whip wound. "And name's Wynter, but most call me Wyn."

I proceeded to rip a piece of cloth off from my long dress and started to apply antiseptic to it as I asked, "So, you never gave a straight answer. Did you want to get out of this place? If so, I'll need your help."

I lifted the cloth up to Wyn's face, which I had to stand on my tiptoes to reach, and began applying the antiseptic to the wound. Wyn winced for a moment, before seductively saying, "Anything for you, Mamacita."

I pressed the sanitized cloth harder against his whip wound in irritation. He nearly buckled over while biting his bottom lip from the burning pain, but continued to smile. I let out a sigh and explained what was going to happen and how I needed him to pass the word on to everyone else. With his wounded eyelid still shut, he attempted to give a wink with his open eye as he slyly said, "Whatever you say, Mami. See ya at sunset~."

A chill went down my spine, but I shook it off as the two of us separated to go and inform everyone what was going on. Hopefully, everything would go according to plan, just this once...