AN: This is the continuation of Evaporation of the Heart. For those of you coming from EotH there are a few repeated scenes, but they are few are far between. For any new readers, you don't need to read EotH first in order to understand the story. Enjoy!
Also, I do not own One Piece
Chapter 1: A Common Goal
Sadie sat at the head of her submarine waiting to confirm her information. She had been down in the depths of the ocean for three days watching and gathering information on the outer defenses of the Great Underwater Prison. Leaning back in the plush chair she checked the time again. "Another 10 minutes." she told herself.
Sighing and using her hands to pull her long raven-blue hair in a temporary pony-tail, she closed her blue-grey eyes remembering when she had been given this mission.
Sadie bowed in greeting, "You called for me Oyaji."
"Sadie-chan. I have an idea that I would like to discuss with you."
She looked up to Whitebeard as he patted the arm rest to his right. Sadie moved in a flash to that location, appearing for a moment as nothing but a blur. Being able to see him a little better now that she was closer to the towering figure of her father, she nodded for him to continue.
Whitebeard looked at her for what felt like a long time, but Sadie was patient. She wasn't the best stealth operative on the crew for nothing. "I am thinking of how best to save Ace." Sadie's eyes became sharper at the mention of the 2nd division commander. Everyone on the crew knew that he had been captured and Oyaji was never one to abandon a member of the family. "The commanders and I are going to wage war at Marine Ford along with our allies." Again, this was all common knowledge, but Sadie waited knowing that he was not a man to waste words. "However, it troubles me." Whitebeard's face was grim.
The first glimmer of emotion passed on Sadie's face. It hurt her to see her father troubled. "What can I do to help?" the words came easily.
Whitebeard's eyes held sadness in their depths as he admitted to his daughter what had been plaguing his mind. "Even in the best-case scenario, we will take casualties. A war always has casualties." Leaning back and lifting his face to the sky. "I cannot abandon Ace, but I also want to avoid losing more of my family…Then, I thought of a way we might prevent this loss." He moved again to meet Sadie's steadfast gaze. "What if someone snuck into Impel Down and liberated Ace before the execution?"
A playful smile tilted the corners of Sadie's mouth upward. She paced a little on the arm rest thinking aloud. "Well, that person would need to be an expert in strategy as well as stealth. Said person would also need to have the mobility to traverse the calm belt and the strength to fend off sea kings." She stopped pacing to face Whitebeard shifting her weight to rest unevenly on her left leg, and looked her father in the eye with a confident smirk, "I can do it."
Whitebeard's eyes lightened and a smile broke his grim expression, "GuRaRaRa!" he laughed, "Yes my daughter, I believe you can."
Shaking her hair out as she removed her hands from her hair, she stood to walk around the small space. It wasn't that she needed to stand, more like she needed not to be sitting. She paused in front of one of the many reflective surfaces in the vessel. Turning so that she could see her back reflected, she smiled at the tattoo of Whitebeard's Jolly Roger on her exposed left shoulder. "Don't worry Oyaji. I will bring him home."
Glancing at the clock again, she saw that it was almost time. Scanning the prison for any sign of movement she grinned when she saw the strange round blue creatures come out of an underwater dock. She had spent her time observing what appeared to be a hunting schedule. Every twelve hours these creatures would emerge from the prison to collect sea king meat and then quickly retreat into the fortress.
That was her way in. The dock remained open to the sea and was definitely the weakest entry point. There was just under two days remaining before Ace's execution. Part of her was frustrated at the time she wasted gathering intel on the upper entrances. All the openings at sea level were heavily fortified, making them less tempting targets. However, she was experienced enough to know that solid intel was rarely worthless. Shrugging off her agitation, she went about her final preparations. The real mission started now.
She began changing into her work clothes. First, pulling on form fitting black pants and then a long-sleeved turtle neck stretch shirt. She collected her hair up into a braid that ran down her back. Her shoes were made of a flexible material and treaded soles. She slung a weapon harness around her waist with two short curved blades tucked into either side of her hips. A pouch was attached on her lower back and held basic medicinal supplies as well as a little food. Looking herself over to make sure everything was in place, she returned to the driver's chair and took off toward the underwater dock.
The small craft easily fit into the entrance, but Sadie didn't break surface yet. She took a hallow clear orb, about the size of two fists, out of a drawer to her right. Twisting the orb, she was able to open the vessel and then used her water abilities to fill it. The now water laden orb was inserted into a tube and jettisoned out into sea.
Closing her blue-grey eyes in concentration, she waited while the orb, floated to the surface. When it did, she was able to see from the small pool of fresh water within the orb. The dock was mostly empty. There was only one guard who seemed to be checking a panel on the far side of the room. She waited.
Soon the man left, leaving the dock empty. Always cautious, Sadie focused again on the orb forcing it up and out of the ocean. The guard was gone and there was no one in sight of the entryway. Now was her chance to break through the surface.
Letting the orb fall down to float on top of the water, the submarine rose to the surface creating choppy waves. Lifting the elongated neck of her shirt up and over her nose, Sadie quickly exited out onto the dock. She was a little upset to see that some sea water had splashed over the dock, but there was nothing she could do about salt water. She just had to hope no one noticed.
Returning her attention to the submarine itself, she raised her arms, "Mist's Mirage." She intoned. Her fingertips dissolved into water vapor that rushed forward to surrounded the sub. After a moment, the image of the sub shimmered out leaving the dock to look like it had before she arrived. However, now the clock was ticking. Her illusion would only hold up so long as she was awake.
Sadie silently left the dock and entered the maze of hallways. It wasn't long before she came across her first transponder snail. Smiling a little sadistically, "Fortune's tears." The poor little snail didn't know what had come over it. Suddenly it was crying uncontrollably. It closed its eyes and sobbed and sobbed.
Sadie dissolved into mist and wafted up to the ceiling. Before long, someone came to investigate. Still in her mist form she watched the guard who came to inspect the transponder snail. The guard spoke into his own mini transponder snail. "I'm not sure what is wrong sir. The thing is crying as if someone just shot its puppy."
Enjoying her ploy, Sadie caused the mini transponder snail in the Guard's hand to also cry. "What the!?" exclaimed the guard almost dropping his mini snail in shock. "Hey now, calm down, why are you crying little guy?" Completely baffled as to why the snails were upset, he grabbed the video snail and took off down the hall with both wailing transponders. The guard did not notice the mist that followed behind him along the celling.
Following the guard was simple and soon she found herself in a surveillance room. "Look at them sir! They just won't stop." observed the slightly exasperated guard. Another guard, the one apparently in charge, with a more elaborate hat on his head approached the two snails now crying on the counter. He leaned forward and carefully poked the larger of the two. The snail sniffled at the man, his recording flickering for a moment, before crying in earnest once again.
Mist can't grin, but Sadie was definitely grinning. Fortune's Tears always worked best on snails because so much of their bodies were made up of water. Once she started them out, they could go on crying for hours. Noticing that there were a few more snails in the room, she released the water works. "Sir!" one of the guards exclaimed. "It's spreading!"
"What is this? Some sort of snail sickness?" pondered the lead guard in the room.
They were all quiet for a moment, the only sound coming from the mounting cries of the snails. "As if we don't have enough problems." the lead guard pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. "Casey!"
One guard stood up at attention, "Sir!"
"Go find Hannyabal and inform him of this transponder snail issue." The lead guard waved his hand at all the crying snails.
"Right away sir!" and the man named Casey hurried out of the room.
The guard that Sadie had followed stepped forward, "What should we do with these…malfunctioning ones." The remaining three guards looked at the wailing snails.
"Find a box we can put them in. Get a good thick one so we don't have to listen to them crying. It's getting on my nerves." The lead guard ordered.
He left, leaving only two men in the room. Sadie turned her attention to the screens. At the top of the grid of monitors was a sign reading Level 1 and at the bottom was a map of the floor. She knew the prison was large having seen it from underwater, but this was a good place to start. She studied the map of level 1 and memorized it to the best of her ability noting the two staircases, elevator and shaft that lead down to level 2.
The guard returned with a wooden box and a thick blanket. "Good, you're back. Help me get these broken things put up." The lead guard ordered the other two. Sadie paid the men no attention and instead looked at each monitor for any other useful information. She noticed there was an entourage entering from the main entrance, and considered that the distraction could certainly play in her favor. However, it was what she saw on the bottom right monitor that gave her pause. A man in a colorful leotard, clearly not staff or convict, had just walked from what appeared to be a storage room and then disappeared into the wall. He didn't melt, dissolve, fade or anything else that a logia user might do, he just disappeared. This was worth investigating.
The men were still trying to find a way to block the sound of crying by covering up the transponder snails with only little success. Sadie quickly, found the monitor's location on the map and determined the quickest route.
Slipping out through a crack in the door, Sadie floated down the hallway until she was in an area with wooden rafters. Rematerializing, she expertly balanced her weight on the steady wooden beams. She shook her arms and legs a little. She could maintain her mist form for a lot longer, but she also needed to conserve energy. In her corporeal form, she had to be more careful, but it was not hard to get around the guards and snails. She was only one turn away from her destination when she heard footsteps approaching.
From her safe place in the rafters, she considered continuing on her way. However, her instincts was telling her it was important to stay. Deciding to listen to her intuition, she lingered. The entourage she had spotted earlier came into view. She was shocked to see none other than the warlord, Boa Hancock, being escorted into the prison. What was someone like her doing here? Furthermore, was that a knee poking out of her shirt?
It didn't matter. The warlord and her stowaway weren't her concern. She needed to keep moving if she wanted to take advantage of the distraction the woman provided. However, just because it might be beneficial if they weren't discovered immediately, Sadie caused all three of the snails in range to start crying. "Too easy." She giggled to herself. Anyway, it helped to keep up the illusion that there was some sort of illness causing the malfunction.
Hannyabal, a strange flabby man that emitted a serious Egyptian vibe, looked down at his own crying transponder snail in shock and embarrassment. "Ehhh-ya!," he screeched, "S-s-sorry, there seems to be a crying sickness passing between the transponder snails and we haven't been able to locate the cause. Please ignore the tears."
Everyone in the group looked dumbfounded that he would just pass it off so lightheartedly. Did he really expect them to ignore the wailing coming from his pocket?
"Anyway," Hannyabal cleared his throat and a blush rose onto his cheeks, "Domino please proceed with the body check."
As curious as Sadie was to see how badly this was going to go, she left the two pirates to their fate. One more turn and Fortune's Tears later, found Sadie standing in front of the wall where she had seen the flashily clothed man disappear. She investigated the wall and observed an odd sort of coloring in the grout, the difference was subtle, but present to the keen eye. Simply by applying some light pressure she discovered that it gave way into a narrow passageway. She entered it and the wall closed easily behind her.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the semi darkness. Small cracks lined the walls allowing in light from the prison. However, the walkway she currently stood within had not been on the map and appeared to be abandoned. Of course, not completely abandoned, because she had seen at least one person use it, but if this tunnel ran the breadth of the prison, then it may be useful later in her mission.
She followed the walkway before her and could see that, at least for a while, it followed the same path as the main hall on the first floor. The path deviated from the hallway for a while before returning to a different hallway still on level 1. When she found another opening she decided that it was time to leave the tunnel and go to level 2, because there was no telling where the tunnel lead. Upon exiting she noticed the same slight discoloration and smiled at the obvious marker.
"We found Buggy the Clown who escaped from community cell #4 and is now in front of solitary cell #22. Get him now!" yelled a voice over an intercom. Sadie cringed at the alarm. Apparently, they had replaced at least some of the crying snails.
Sadie's eyes narrowed watching the guards rush through the hallway down below where she stood. A good distraction was one thing, but this was too close to where she was. She misted on down the hallway toward level 2, but stopped when she saw a boy in a straw hat. It couldn't be. Of all the people she might meet while she was here it had to be Straw Hat Luffy, Ace's little brother.
Growling in irritation, this was going to seriously complicate things. However, she could stew about it later because the commotion caused by Buggy was getting closer and she couldn't let Ace's brother get caught. Knowing Ace, he would just come back to save Luffy right after he himself had been saved.
Drifting down to Luffy, she covered his mouth as she appeared behind him. He fought, but when he looked behind him to see her she put a finger to her lips and stared at him silently. He nodded and she removed her hand before gesturing for him to follow her. She leapt up into the rafters and Luffy stretched his arms to pull himself up. Luffy fixed her with a questioning look, but Sadie just shook her head and pointed down. Buggy the Clown came barreling through, chased by the blue creatures she had observed hunting in the sea.
When the commotion had passed, Luffy leaned back propping himself up on his arms against the wooden rafters, "Thanks Nee-chan! You really saved me!" He gave her the stupidest grin she had ever seen. How could any self-respecting person grin like that to a person they didn't even know. "Alright! Well I'm off."
"What!? No!" Sadie hissed grabbing his rubbery arm just below a leather arm band.
Luffy looked back at the black clad woman a frown on his face. "Hmm? Sorry I don't have time to play, I have to go save my brother."
He didn't have time to play? Her anger was starting to simmer, but she didn't let it show. "That is why I am here too." She looked Luffy directly in the eye to make sure he understood her. "I am here to save Fire Fist Ace."
"That's great!" Luffy said a little too loudly and Sadie was once again covering his mouth with her hand. "Shehehe!" the boy grinned ruthlessly.
It had only been a little over a minute and Ace's little brother was already wearing her out. A family trait it seemed. "We don't want to start a ruckus, like that clown did ok." Slowly she lowered her hand.
Luffy's grin didn't shrink a millimeter. "Unn." he nodded, "I promised Hancock I wouldn't, so it won't be a problem."
So he was the one hiding under the Snake Princess's clothes. "Anyway," she hedged, "I'm going to leave you in a safe place while I go get your brother. I don't want to have to worry about you as well as Ace."
The young man frowned and crossed his arms, "Nope, I gotta save Ace. If you don't want me to come with you, I will just go on my own."
When she sighed a small puff of steam came out. She needed to get control of her emotions and this boy. "Ok if I let you come with me, you have to promise to do as I say."
"Hmmmm," Luffy titled his head to the side and stretched his neck to look at her upside-down, "Don't wanna." he whined.
Sadie was really glad that her shirt covered her face, because that stunt with his neck had freaked her out. Now, running out of options, she tried turning the tables on him, "Look I just want to save Ace. Do you have a plan on how to do that?"
Luffy's head snapped back into place above his shoulders and his foolish grin returned, "Find Ace, free Ace and leave with Ace. Oh! and beat up anyone who gets in my way."
Basically, he was just going to plow in head first and ask questions later. Did that really work for him? "Riiiight." came her drawn out reply, "but how were you going to find him in the first place. This prison is massive."
"Oh! With this." Luffy pulled a small piece of smoldering paper from the red band around his hat.
Sadie's heart stopped. Was that Ace's Card of Life? It was too small, almost gone. "Is that Ace's vivre card?"
Luffy nodded his assent. "Unn."
And with that one syllable, Sadie's heart took off like a rocket. They may not even have until the execution. She gave the vivre card another critical look. With how small the card was Ace could be dying of his injuries right now. She shook herself, it was time to get over these distractions and focus on the mission. "Luffy how about an alliance. I think together we have a better chance of saving Ace!"
Luffy's grin widened even more which Sadie hadn't thought was possible. "Great my name's Luffy! Let's be friends Nee-chan. Shehehehe!"
"You can call me Sadie." She responded a little stunned. Did he just call her friend? She was having a difficult time keeping up with this kid. It was like he had a direct line to her energy reserves, sucking away her own energy to power that cheesy grin of his.
She turned her attention back to the prison below. "Ok the coast is clear. The staircase to level two isn't that far. Are you ready to run?"
With a genuine, but significantly smaller smile, Luffy nodded his head. The two dashed down the hallway keeping an eye out for any guards. If the announcements were correct, the guards seemed to have recaptured the clown from earlier and still seemed to be focused on cleaning up the ruckus he had caused. Luffy followed Sadie to the right as they started going down the stairs to level 2.
They were completely alone, not even a crying snail to bother them when Luffy asked, "Nee-chan, can I see your face?"
Sadie looked at him with stormy eyes. "Now is not the time. And I told you to call me Sadie."
"Hmmm, nope you are definitely Nee-chan."
"What?" he made no sense what-so-ever. She knew that Ace's brother was known for his somewhat insane behavior, but this was like he lived in his own world with his own rules. Granted that was probably the definition of insanity, but still. "I am not your sister ok, so if you can't call me Sadie, then use an honorific."
"Hey, Hey!" he continued seemingly not to have heard a word she said, "Can I see your face now Nee-chan?"
"No!" she hissed.
Luffy pouted in splendid fashion. Was it his gum-gum powers that let him stick his lip out so far? Sadie actually found herself smiling until she realized what she was doing and turned away from the rubber boy.
"May-be after we save Ace. Ok." She continued in a kinder tone. The blush on her face was thankfully hidden beneath black fabric.
"Ok Nee-chan! Shehehe" He laughed quietly and put his hands behind his head, apparently completely at ease in the depths of a maximum-security prison.
They slowed down as they reached the last few steps and Sadie brought them to a halt. Luffy looked at her as if he had no idea why they might need to stop.
"Luffy, can I see Ace's card?"
With a more serious look on his face, he brought out the little connection to his brother. Luffy opened his hand with the smoldering corner of paper and it was still trying to go down. As she thought, they were going to need to go much deeper. She nodded to Luffy that she was done and he stored it back inside his teal vest.
He watched with interest as she held her hand out in front of her and made a delicate lotus twist with her hand. His eyes bugged out as her fingers liquefied and a sphere of water grew with the turning of her wrist. "Eehhh! Your hand!"
"Shhhh!" she harshly admonished him. His hands went up to his mouth, but his eyes were comically wide and staring at her hand. She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment to draw strength. "I ate the Aqua-Aqua fruit so now I am a water woman."
He lowered his hands and poked a single finger into her water sphere. "Hohoho! Interesting!" The boy had only one pace, which was blindingly fast. She chuckled a little at his swift change in attitude. "Hey, Nee-chan?"
"Hmh?" she acknowledged.
"Have you ever made it look like someone peed themselves?"
"Wha-." she couldn't even fully form the word. How could he even think to ask such a thing? Her face turned so red from both anger and embarrassment that even the little skin visible on her face turned pink. Her focus was lost, and the water she had been holding splattered to the floor. "Of course I haven't ever done anything like that!" she whisper yelled. "No one would do such a thing!"
Luffy looked up in thought scratching his head, "Really? I thought it was a good idea."
She slowed her breathing down. It had accelerated in agitation from the brat's inappropriate question. Once again, she rotated her wrist and fingers gathering water so that it floated just above her palm.
"If you aren't going to play a joke, then what are you going to do what that water?" Luffy asked with his lips puckered and arms crossed clearly disappointed they would not be pulling a prank.
Her smile was concealed as she replied, "Reconnaissance."
Luffy's face scrunched up, and Sadie could tell that he was totally lost. At least this time she could understand why he was confused.
"I can see through pools of fresh water within a certain range. If I send this water out," she lifted her hand that held the water, "then I may be able to find the stairs that will continue to take us down." Luffy's expressions were starting to grow on her. His innocent grin and eyes alight with wonder watched in anticipation of her water technique.
She drew her arm back across her chest and then flung the water outward. Closing her eyes to focus on the information the water sent her, she felt as her sphere broke into several pieces. Each small piece sent information back to its owner until it fell to the ground out of range. Sadie leaned back against the wall of the stairwell thinking about what she had seen.
"What's the matter Nee-chan?" Luffy's worried face floated above her.
"Nothing, I'm just thinking about how best to get to the stairs from here."
"You know where they are!" Luffy's voice rose in excitement.
Sadie had her eyes down cast thinking about the most efficient method to get past all of those strange beasts and answered him without too much thought, "Yeah, we just need to stick to the southernmost hallway. Then we take the fork to the left. The stairs are just beyond…"
She never got to finish her directions because suddenly there was an arm wrapped around her waist in three loops and she was being carried at bullet speeds down the hallway. She realized what he was doing in the second it took her brain to catch up with her body. She was going to kill him, Ace's brother or not!
Luffy stopped when the hallway split in two different directions. "Luffy if you don't put me down right this second, I swear I will boil you alive!" threatened Sadie.
"Oh, sorry about that Nee-chan. Hehehe!" His wide toothy smile was plastered across his face and one hand was putting his straw-hat back on top of his head. As soon as he let her go she smashed a fist on top of his head.
Sadie got to her feet and analyzed their surroundings. There were two transponder snails that she immediately took out with unending tears. Sighing in exasperation, "Luffy, I thought I told you not to make a scene."
"Huh?" he said turning to her from his place on the ground. "That wasn't a scene, no one is here."
Still trying to keep her fury in check, Sadie's kept her face down cast with her eyes were scrunched up in effort. Luffy leapt to his feet and walked over to her. Sadie finally calmed down enough to deal with his recklessness and looked up to see his guileless features.
Really seeing him now, she concluded that he was the type of person who couldn't sneak his way into an abandoned forest let alone a prison. His personality was just too big to contain. It was just one more obstacle that she would have to anticipate if they were all going to get out of here alive.
