Chapter Text
“Kehihihihi~” Usopp’s head whipped around, eyes locking on the greasy figure he missed, hanging in the corner. Caribou, the creep, was in the same clothes he had on the last time Usopp saw him, save for the fact that his oversized sleeves had been jaggedly cut so the seastone handcuffs that held his hands over his head touched the skin of his wrists. “Did your archaeologist tell you what the mermaid princess represents? What lies under the ruins of Wano?”
“Wano’s not in ruins” Came out automatically, jumping to defend the friends he just had to leave a few short days ago. “And what do you mean? Shirahoshi? She’s just a big girl, she’s not special”
Caribou arched an oily eyebrow, “So you’ve never heard of the Ancient Weapons? Uranus? Poseidon? …Pluton?”
He was never good at schooling his expression, at least not when it counted. Confusion dropped off his face at the mention of the weapons, then at the mention of Pluton, his eyebrows fell into a defensive scowl. “I-I’ve heard of them s-sure, Robin mentioned them once or twice” He swallowed awkwardly, shifting his feet under him, suddenly strongly aware that he was not restrained in any way. They don’t even think I’m enough of a threat to bother. “But what does that have to do with Shirahoshi? Or Wano?” His skin burned. He knew that Shirahoshi was Poseidon, knew that Pluton was hiding under Wano, but he couldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. It would put millions of people in danger.
“Kehihihihihi~ So you don’t know that Pluton was constructed at Water 7? That your cyborg held the plans before destroying them? He never, I don’t know, showed them to you?”
“No” for once, Usopp’s voice was steely. It was true, Franky didn’t trust him enough while he had the paper copy of the plans to show him. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t briefly drawn it again from memory, showing Usopp the ancient mechanisms that made the warship so dangerous. He made Usopp swear on his life to never recreate it, staring him down as he repeated that its possible use for good didn’t outweigh the impossible risks. Usopp understood.
Caribou tilted his head, seemingly seeing right through his non-lie “Are you sure, Kehihihihi?”
A giant hand landed on the back of Usopp’s neck, grabbing his scruff like a misbehaving puppy. His eyes snapped to Blackbeard’s face, as he leered dangerously down at him “Remember what you stand to lose if you lie, long-nose. I destroyed your crew once, I can decimate it if I want”
The knot forming in Usopp’s stomach started making pressure build behind his eyes. It felt like needles pricked every single piece of his skin. The familiar weight of conquerors' haki pressed down on him heavily. He wavered, swaying on his feet, as much as the hand on his neck would allow, but it didn’t change his answer “N-no, we barely knew each other before he destroyed it, I promise! I don’t know anything about it! Or the other two! I swear! I think you misunderstood, Franky is the one-”
“I know who your Cyborg is,” Blackbeard cooly cut in “He’s 1 ton of active missiles, lasers and kick-ass. Plus from what I hear he’s an old stubborn bastard who doesn’t move for nothing. You are just a smart little coward who can build bombs he doesn’t know what to do with” The burning of Usopp’s skin returned like a wave crashing into him. “So what you’re gonna do is build us the best weapons this world has laid eyes on in 100 years, or I’ll sink that clown tent of a boat and everyone on it.” Blackbeard leaned closer, the hot stench of tobacco and booze rolling over Usopp in a nauseating puff “I could have killed your swordsman, you know. Could have killed all of them, let Strawhat come back to an empty boat and an ocean of corpses. At least if you do what I say, Strawhat gets to finish his little fantasy of being the Pirate King, while I become King of the World”
Usopp stared up at him through his eyelashes, unable to tilt his head back because of the grip on his neck. Panic squeezed his chest like a python, making him sweat and shake in fear. He had been in some unfortunate situations before, but none of them prepared him for a hopeless fall like this. He’d failed. Failed Luffy, failed Nami, failed Franky, failed Zoro, everyone.
Before he could formulate a response, the barred door next to where Caribou hung was pried open by one of the blackbeard pirates, and Teach heaved himself upright before tossing him in like he weighed nothing. The door loudly slammed shut and locked behind him. “Sleep on it. And when you come to the right decision, get familiar with your tools and start working” Usopp rolled over onto his back, pushing himself up on his hands in time to see Blackbeard’s leering face in the barred window turn towards the hanging man. He appraised him for a second, before turning away and speaking to the room “Put him in the hall closet you got the runt out of”.
“What?!?!?! Teach- you swore you’d release me if-”
“He’s never even seen the plans yah greedy bastard, you’re lucky I ain’t killed yah yet” The oversize forearms Usopp recognized as elbowpad guy appeared on the other side of the bars to lift Caribou off his hook and drag him away. Usopp pushed himself to his feet, pressing himself against the door to watch their forms retreat into the hallway. The other blackbeard pirates filed out after them, branching off into different rooms until the hall was silent.
Usopp sighed heavily, and turned around to face the room he was now imprisoned to. It was simple, the walls made of wood, the sound of waves crashing audible from up above the low ceiling. Beams came out from each side of the door, the bottom of which were almost at eye level for Usopp. Can’t imagine how any of them fit in here. In one corner there was a stack of crates of varying sizes and materials, labeled things like ‘Gunpowder’ and “Solid East Blue Steel”. In the other corner was a leather mat and a pile of fur, next to a bucket and a rag. Usopp could only assume what they were for.