Iso surfaced in the middle of the harbor. She took a deep breath and shook the water from her scales. She could already feel the bruises forming from where the green dragon had tried to dislodge her larger form and she felt like she might be bleeding slightly from her stomach where the scales were softer, but that didn't matter it would heal soon enough.

She could see Law glaring at her from the shoreline. Iso swam toward him wanting to get whatever fit he was about to throw out of the way so that she could move onto more important matters.

"Iso-ya what were you thinking when you fought so close to my ship," he snarled at her.

Iso looked at him so that is what this was about. She snaked her head around and nudged the submarine with her nose. It seemed fine to her.

"I didn't damage your ship so you have nothing to be angry about," when she spoke her voice rumbled with the size of her body but was still distinctly feminine. Law scowled that wasn't what he was angry at but he couldn't say that if he wanted her to join his crew she couldn't be so reckless now could he.

Before they could say anything more they were interrupted by his some of his crew escorting several people toward them. Law suspected they were the captive dragons just from their distinct coloring. There were four of them in total a white haired older male who was being supported by a black hair female and two children a red haired one and a blue haired one.

"Praise be too She of All Colors," the white haired male whispered as he came toward Iso, "Never in my wildest prayers did I imagine we would be rescued by one such as you Lord Iso."

"It was nothing elder. I was merely doing what is honorable," Iso said as she was surrounded by a blue light and reemerged in her human form. She went forward and helped him to sit on a nearby rock. The woman stood next to the old man and the two children hid behind her skirts.

"We are still truly thankful my lord. If it wasn't for you and your allies," she shook her head, "I shudder at the thought of what our fates might have been."

"I can only imagine," Iso said, "if you don't mind my asking, what are you doing here in the grand line?"

"That is a sore and long tale you ask Lord Iso, but if you must know we were fleeing the destruction of the Cloudy City," the old man said.

"The Cloudy City's been destroyed," Iso stated more then asked.

"Aye it very nearly consumed myself as well. That is why I'm in such a sorry state your lordship," the old man said.

"My uncle set me away before he went to join the fighting that is when I found the hatchlings here," the woman said gesturing and the boy and girl behind her, "We were captured soon after and brought here."

"This is not good I will have to look into it," Iso said more to herself then to anyone around her deep in thought about what she had learned. She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the dragons in front of her, "if you would like you may go to the Shining Cities you will be safe there and you can heal and rest before finding work."

"Oh thank you Lord Iso, we are honored by your offer," the other dragons nodded along with the old man's words.

"Very well then, I will start the preparations," Iso turned around and almost ran into Law. He had listened to the entire conversation.

"We need to talk," he told her.

"When I'm done sending them off we will talk," Iso said. She had a feeling she might know what he wished to discuss with her but it would have to wait.

XXX

Law was mildly impressed, Iso turned away from him with a knowing smirk. She was walking into the central building of the now subdued smugglers den and he rushed after her not wanting the dragon to be out of her sight for a second.

"What are you doing now," he asked her.

"I'm looking for something," Iso said she was moving upwards looking for the offices.

"Don't forget that everything here belongs to me, per our agreement," he reminded her.

"I think you can spare some parchment and sealing wax," she gave him that smirk again that said she knew everything there was to know.

"I suppose it's would not be too difficult," Law agreed as he followed her into what used to be the base commander's office but now formerly belonged to the green dragon. "Well if this isn't ostentatious," Law commented dryly.

Saying the office was lavishly decorated would have been an understatement. It looked like the dragon had taken anything that had caught his eye he had kept. Gold and jewels were placed on display and sat in chests throughout the entire room tapestries and exotic cloth hung from the ceiling and walls.

"I present the dragon's horde," Iso swept out her arms presenting the room the pirate with her. Law slowly turned trying to take in the treasure that was now his while Iso made her way to the solid oak desk that sat prominently in the center of the room.

"This is amazing. There has to be millions of belli worth of stuff in this room," Law went straight to a book case that took a good portion of one wall. He ran his fingers over the spines not recognizing the language on many of them. Law glanced over at Iso who was writing on a piece of paper she had found in the desk before turning back and pulling out a green leather bound book. He flipped it open and found pictures of plants with the strange language in it.

"What is this language," he turned to Iso who was finishing up her letter.

"Is that a question," Iso asked not looking up from her task.

"Yes," he held the book out for her to see.

"That is Draconian, my native language," she said.

"What is this book about," he asked.

She pulled the book out of his hands and snapped it shut and only took a quick look. "Green usually means that it's medicinal in nature." She went back to sealing her letter. Law looked back at the book case several of the books had green covers but others had different colors. He would have find out their subjects latter. Instead he turned to continue his exploration when a door towards the back of the room caught his attention. He moved toward it. The door opened to an empty room the only decoration was the same strange language from the book written on the walls. He was about to step into the room to get a better look at the odd room when he was suddenly pulled back by the hood on his shirt.

Iso ignored the glare Law sent her, "be careful its booby trapped."

"How can you tell," he asked.

She pointed to a line of script and the threshold of the door, "That right there. This must have been his casting room."

"Casting room," he looked at her to elaborate.

"For his spell work," Iso said.

"As in magic," Law scoffed, "magic does not exist."

"Trafalgar, you are essentially speaking to a ten ton lizard stuffed into a human size meat suit. If that isn't proof that magic exists I don't know what is," Iso squatted down by the trap spell to get a closer look.

"I still remain skeptical," Law said.

"You do that," Iso pulled a piece of chalk out of her shirt and carefully reached toward the spell and changed several of the symbols on the floor. She moved slowly into the room searching anymore traps but upon not finding any relaxed. "It's safe now."

"You could have just left the door locked," Law said.

"Hmm, I could but I can use this room to send the other dragons closer to where I wish them to go," Iso explained, "this way I don't have to draw the whole thing out and that could take hours."

XXX

It was several hours later but Law and Iso could still be found in the bases main office. Iso had long since sent the newly freed dragons on their way.

"You know I still find it odd that you can tell if something is valuable just by sniffing it," Law handed Iso another object from the many shelves in the office.

"Just another perk of being me," Iso placed the small statue in its appropriate box. Law's crew was busy raiding the rest of the base while he packed up the treasure that was in the room that they were in and Iso had been roped into helping him. He had been debating the best way to broach the topic he wanted to discuss.

"You could just say it you know," Iso said from where she leaned against the desk. Though Law was good at concealing what he was thinking there were still subtle hints in his scent that told Iso he was concerned about something other than the treasure.

Law glared at Iso. He wasn't really angry but her comment had sounded a little too much like an order. "Very well, I want you to join my crew." Being blunt seemed to work best with the dragon.

Iso leaned back on her hands, "Hm no I think not."

"I think you misunderstood Iso-ya. You don't have room to reject my request," Law said stopping what he was doing to put his whole focus on Iso.

"No its you who misunderstood. I'm not rejecting your offer to join you just your terms of the agreement," Iso gave him that smile again the one that said she knew everything in the world and there wasn't anything he could do to stop her.

"Then what do you propose," Law ground out he did not like felling like he was being played with.

"Exactly what you want, well sort of. I travel on your ship but not as part of the crew but as your equal. I will lend you my strength and knowledge and in exchange you get me closer to my goal."

"Which is," he asked.

"I'm going to kill a man, but he's tricky so I have to be just as tricky as well, traveling with you will get me a lot closer to him then if I'm flying on my own," Iso explained.

"And what happens when you kill the man you're after," Law asked. He wanted as much information as he could get before he agreed to this.

"I do whatever I want, but you needn't worry he is deep in the second half of the grand line and we are hardly in the beginning of the first half."

"let's get a few things straight first before this is all settled, I'm still captain of my ship whatever I say concerning my ship goes," he waited for Iso to nod still with that annoying smirk of hers, "and second don't think you get to freeload everyone on my ship has a job. We may be equals but you still need to earn your keep."

"Of course, so we have an agreement," Iso prompted.

"It seems we do," Law held his hand out for Iso to shake.

XXX

Law was glaring at Iso as she lounged on the couch in his office. She had refused to help load the sub of everything Law had taken into his possession just because Law himself wasn't helping. She had then reminded him that she was his equal and not his subordinate.

"So tell me Iso do you have any skills I can make use of," Law asked as he attempted to sort through all the papers on his desk.

"Hm, I'm really good at killing things," Iso said.

"Anything other than that," Law gave her a dry look.

Iso hung her mouth open and looked like she actually had to think about what Law had asked.

"Ah I can navigate naturally through the grand line," she offered up.

"Like without a log pose," he asked wanting elaboration. A skill such as that could be immensely valuable.

"Yeah most dragons can it's like a natural instinct or something along those lines," she explained.

"So you know which way the next island is," Law asked. According to Bepo their log pose had yet to lock onto the next island it would still be a day or two before it was set.

"Yup it's that way," Iso pointed to the left of Law's head, "about two days flight not sure how that translates into submarine speed, but we should angle to the south half a day before heading straight on. I can sense a storm in that direction that's going to cause some large currents."

Law leaned back impressed if he had followed the log pose then he would have sailed right through the storm but with Iso's help not only could he avoid the storm but he didn't have to wait for the log pose to set.

"Where's your log pose I think I can probably set it to the next island, that way I don't have to monitor the sub's progress?" Iso asked.

"Bepo has it. He should be in the navigation room preparing for our departure," Law stood ready to go find his bear.

"Right," Iso talked through her yawn.

Law glanced at her. He had noticed since they had boarded the sub that Iso had progressively acted more and more tired. "When was the last time you slept Iso-ya?"

"Before I left the last island I was on. Hm probably four days ago," she answered.

"That is not good," Law told her, "While you are on this ship you will take better care of yourself."

"That's fine with me. Just can't sleep while flying,"

"Once we are done with this task you may sleep in my office until your room is prepared," Law told her.