Trafalgar Law was aware that he was dead.
He knew it because he was in the midst of a fog, and someone who looked a hell of a lot like his dead brother was standing in front of him, so he was pretty damn sure he'd kicked it. Except...shouldn't he be upset or something? Shouldn't he be worried about Sumiko, and his crew? Shouldn't he be thilled about being reunited with his little brother?
"Silas?" he asked, because he wanted to be sure he knew what he was looking at. "Is that you?"
"Kinda." the image of his brother shrugged, his shoulder length black curls moving with his shoulders. "I'm really more of a messenger than anything."
"Well, you look like him."
"Of course I do. What you see now is what's in your mind when you think of him."
Okay, this was getting a little bit freaky, and that was saying something considering the shit he'd experienced over the past years. "Am I dreaming?" Because that would be fan-fucking-tastic news, considering what he thought had just happened.
"No, you've passed on. You're just in the middle right now."
"Middle of where, exactly?"
"You're in between, neither here nor there."
Law was getting flustered. "Can you be a little more specific?"
"Not really." The Silas-vision smiled, and Law felt a twinge of sorrow for his sibling. Despite his aloof, sometimes cold outward appearance, he did love his family, and he missed his little brother very much.
"But here's my message," he said, interrupting Law's thoughts. "You're going to have to let go of her, Law. If you want to find peace, you have to let her go."
If the her, was Sumiko, that just wasn't happening. "I can't do that."
"You have to, or you'll be lost here for eternity. You only have so much time before you're lost forever, big brother."
"And then what happens?"
"You cease to exist, you just blip out." the Silas-vision grew serious, a scowl appearing on his face that made him look so much like Law it was frightening. "Let go."
"How?"
"You know how, and if you do, you can see the real me on the Other Side. Let. Her. Go." Then, the messenger or whatever it was evapotaed into nothingness, leaving Law all alone in the swirling mist.
Law looked around. The fog was as dense as a storm cloud, and as infinite as the horizon. A trickle of fear crawled through him. This was not right. He didn't want to be here.
Abruptly a sense of urgency grew, as if time was running out, though he didn't know how he knew that. Except then he thought of Sumiko. If letting go meaning giving up his love for her, that so wasn't happening.
...
Sumiko made the decision the second that Law's heart stopped beating. She pulled him close and willed herself to clam so she could dematerialize. Her heart was pounding and tears fell down her cheeks, but she took a few deep breaths and focused her mind as best she could. Vyce and Freyr were babbling to Ian and Madeline, both of whom were overcome with grief, and selfish though it was, Sumiko didn't care. She only cared about the lifeless form in her arms.
She vanished.
Wet earth and pine were the first things she registered, and then the chill of the snow falling around her got her attention. She had taken them to Romania, her last resort, and even that was a thin hope. She knew that the odds of saving her love were astronomical, but fuck it all, she had to try.
She stomped through the forest, situating Law on her back like a child and carrying him off to her destination. She became wetter and wetter from the snow, until she became like the trees, just something else for water to fall off of. He took a roundabout way, until her biceps and back muscles ached from carrying him. Finally, after a quarter of an hour of walking, she appeared at the entrance of a cave.
Inside, it was pitch black, the air denser than water shoving into her lungs. She walked though the halls, feet slapping against the black marble floors. Black candles lined the walls after a certain point, and led the way to the alter room. The high vault ceiling was lit from a thin stream of moonlight that fell onto a marble slab on a table in the center of the room.
With a groan, she managed to lay her beloved on the slab, and prayers fell from her lips as she pulled a ceremonial black dagger from its silver sheath on the wall. She stepped up to Law's corpse, and with tears burning her eyes, ungloved her hand, illuminating the cavern like high noon with her unholy glow.
As she lowered her hand to his chest, she prayed with all her might that this worked.
"No!"
Sumiko swiveled around and blinked at the small figure standing before her.
The Scribe Virgin spoke softly, her tone gentle was serious at the same time. "I understand your sorrow, child, but you must not do this. He will not be as you know him, he will be tainted. Evil. Your enemy."
Sumiko shook her off, "I can take care of him."
"You cannot! There is no balance in this sacrifice!"
Sumiko's mismatched eyes blazed with rage. "Then who do I see about that and how much do I fucking owe?!"
"There is no reason for it, it is too late! Your mate has passed on already to the Fade."
Sumiko trembled at the words, and it took evey ounce of her power to shot collapse to the floor and sob like a baby. Tears fell, and she covered her mouth with her hand, taking a few steps back, the dagger clutched tight.
"You want payment?" she set her hand down on the platform and slammed the dagger down, slicing through skin and bone and the Scribe Virgin screamed.
...
Law was out of time and he knew it in the same way he knew when a patient was taking a turn for the worse. His internal clock went off, a shrill beep in his head.
"I don't want to let go." he said to no on in particular.
His voice didn't travel far, and he noticed that the fog was getting thicker, darker. With a cold dread he realized his body was dissolving, his feet, now his ankles. His calves were next, and then his knees started to fade. When the fog reached his thighs, he panicked. He didn't know what he had to do! Suddenly, the answer, painful and simple, hit him like a brick.
Oh God...
Letting go meant you accepted what couldn't be changed. You didn't try to hold onto some dim hope of being saved, to coerce a shift in fortune. Letting go meant you stared at what was before you with clear eyes, recognizing that choice was exception, and destiny the rule. No bargaining, no trying to control what couldn't be. You gave up and saw that the ones you loved were in fact not your future, and there was nothing you could do about it.
As the thoughts hit him, a miracle happened. A light, soft and golden, fell on him, warming him in the dreary chill of wherever the fuck he was, and blanketed him in a calm that made him close his eyes and sigh. He could love Sumiko on the Other Side, and he would wait for her, for all of them. Because love, after all, was eternal, and not subject to the whims of death.
Law was free...and upward he flew.
