Work Text:
“Please lady!! Save us!!! I just want to go home!! Please help us!!”
The lady hesitates just long enough for Mocha to think maybe she’s convinced her, but then she apologizes, and while that might be nice any other time she’s still leaving them all here and Mocha’s heart sinks. But Mocha knows she saw the hurt in her eyes, how much it pained her to tell them no. There’s still hope, and that’s why when the lady turns to start running again Mocha desperately calls out to her once more, unable to stop her tears. All any of them want is to go back home to their parents. Surely they aren’t ill anymore, the Master has been taking such good care of them!
They just miss their families.
It must have worked somehow because before she knows it the nice lady (Nami, she learns) and the funny raccoon are taking them away from the Biscuits room, and then they’re all running away from the marines and the scary man outside, and then they’re in a cave! Things get a little hazy after that but Mocha comes back to herself and she’s back inside the compound and everyone has weird animals for heads and it’s all so much. She’s alone and afraid and it’s just too much .
The funny raccoon, Chopper, helps her though and he tells her the truth. He tells her about their sickness, the candies, the Master, his experiments, everything . All of the lies they’ve been told are suddenly out in the open and Mocha doesn’t know what to do.
Honestly, she almost gives up then.
But they promised. Everyone promised they’d get better together, that they’d all leave and go home to their families. Maybe they were never sick to begin with, but Mocha is thankful at least that everyone could be there to support one another.
Which is why Mocha eats all the candies. Everyone else might think she’s being selfish, but somewhere along the way her friends had become her family too. Everyone else is confused right now, but it’s okay because she’ll protect them. She’ll take this pain so no one else has to.
Mocha may have started off wanting to leave for her parents, but right now her friends take priority. She won’t die. She’ll fight through the pain, she’ll get better, and then they can fulfill their promise.
