"Good morning Sir! I have the reports you wanted me to collect! Oh and here is the 'special file' you wanted to take a look at."

Smoker lit himself another cigar while the two of them walked along the hallway that lead to their office.

Smoker took the 'special file' with the name tag 'DOFLAMINGO' from his subordinate's hands.

"I couldn't find anything else on the suspect than the information Agent Law has already collected."

Tashigi readjusted her glasses and glanced at Smoker with worried eyes.

"I agree that we need to find out more about this man but shouldn't we discuss this with Agent Law directly?", she asked carefully.

Smoker continued to walk ahead without answering Tashigi's question.

He flicked through the pages of Doflamingo's file until a certain witness statement caught his attention.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Sir?"

Tashigi noticed the serious look in his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Smoker removed the witness report from the file and compared it to the others.

The statement was from a man called Sei Myosgard and included a detailed description of Doflamingo's appearance. Myosgard claimed to have seen how Doflamingo kidnapped a man right of the streets who later turned out to be one of the missing informants.

"Sei Myosgard... isn't that man a member of the parliament?"

Tashigi looked surprised.

"Uh... yes, I think he belongs to the conservative noble party that currently heads the government.", she mused.

Smoker's eyes narrowed.

"What are the chances that a high-ranking politician like him just happens to take a walk around that kind of neighborhood in the middle of the night?"

Commissioner Hina stared at the huge map that hung from the wall of her office. Several files and reports piled up her desk next to an assortment of full ashtrays. She took a marker and added another square to a large, edged in red area on the map.

A cloud of smoke escaped her lips and she frowned deeply.

"You see that?", Hina asked while she turned around.

Smoker was leaning against her door frame.

"'SMILE' has spread across yet another quarter of the city and we still have no clue on where it is manufactured or who created it. All we managed was to arrest a couple of drug dealers and addicts who are too scared to tell us anything about the masterminds behind this mess. To make things even better, the ones who actually did talk to us are all dead now."

Hina dropped the marker on her desk and opened a new box of cigarettes.

Smoker handed her a piece of paper.

"Why did Sei Myosgard claim that he saw Doflamingo in one of the 'SMILE' districts?"

The question earned him a confused look.

"He's a politician involved with the government and you tell me he just goes out to take a walk along the ultimate drug district?", Smoker huffed.

"Do you think that he might be a 'SMILE' addict?", the commissioner asked after she finished reading the paper.

"Either that or he deliberately lied to us."

"Then why would he know about Doflamingo's appearance and the abduction of the victim?"

"I don't know but something about the way he described the kidnapping just seems... rehearsed."

Hina's gaze switched from Smoker's face back to the paper in her hand.

"Have you spoken with Law about this?"

Smoker shook his head.

"Not yet. He's still questioning the boa bastard."

Hina kept quiet for a moment.

She slowly returned the paper to Smoker.

"We will talk about this later. If you catch Law, tell him that the first division will have a meeting in my office."

Smoker nodded and returned to Tashigi who was waiting behind the door.

The two security guards outside the private room flinched simultaneously when Law burst through the door.

They stared at him with wide eyes.

"Is everything okay Mister?"

"We heard you yell in there."

"Do you need assist?"

Law glanced at the two men and quickly shook his head.

"No. No just... just get him back to his cell.", he coughed and moved away from the door.

Law was still breathing heavily while he hurried to get as far away from that psychopath as possible.

He rushed towards an elevator when he noticed someone at the other end of the hallway.

"Not so fast.", Smoker said as he stepped in front of Law.

They almost bumped together and Law glared the man who was blocking his way.

"Get lost. I'm heading home.", he growled.

Smoker eyed his partner's disheveled appearance and frowned at him.

"What happened to you?"

Law averted his eyes.

"Nothing. Now what's so damn important?", he snarled.

Smoker didn't like the way Law talked back to him but decided to ignore his random hissy fit for the time being.

"Commissioner Hina and I have something to talk to you about."

"I also have things to discuss with you but I'm heading home for now. Get lost."

Law was trying to walk past the white-haired man when a gloved hand gripped his shoulder tightly.

"This isn't an offer, Agent Law. It's an order."

Law pushed Smoker's hand away and gritted his teeth.

"Fine."

Minutes later, Law leaned against the wall in Hina's office with his arms crossed.

He scowled at Smoker who was standing next to him and taking a long drag from his cigar.

"What's your opinion on Smoker's suspicions?", Hina asked.

She had explained Smoker's theory that Sei Myosgard might be somehow involved with the underground network.

The fact that a politician of the conservative noble party happened to cross a street in a 'SMILE' district was indeed suspicious.

Only higher class citizens were allowed to join the noble party. The majority of them lived in the most expansive neighborhoods of the city and were never seen around any of the poorer districts.

But what bugged Law the most was that all of this seemed terribly familiar.

"The government involved with a murder case...", Hina mused.

She looked at Law and chose her next words carefully.

"I don't wanna draw any hasty conclusions... but this reminds me of a series of political murders that we dealt with thirteen years ago..."

Law's face fell and Tashigi who stood next to Smoker stared at them in shock.

"Political murder?!", she shrieked.

"Thirteen years ago, a total of ten people were killed within the same day. It's a cold case by now because the SCPD was never able to find the culprit.", Smoker murmured.

"The victims were downright executed. Shot to the head, right between the eyes every single time.", Hina explained.

"How terrible.", they heard Tashigi whisper. Her eyes sank to the floor.

Smoker side-glanced at Law whose body was getting more tense by the minute.

"A former SCPD commissioner suspected a contract killing behind the murders. He also believed that a member of the government ordered the killings.", he said with a low voice.

Tashigi gasped in shock.

"What? Why would the government order someone to kill innocent citizens?!"

Hina closed her eyes and sighed.

"The former commissioner discovered that the victims were secret dissidents. They were part of an illegal resistance movement against the government."

Tashigi gaped at her.

"You... you're saying that they were killed because they opposed the system?"

Silence followed Tashigi's question.

Hina's eyes opened again and moved to Law.

"Of course none of this could ever be proven.", she remarked.

The black-haired man suddenly laughed bitterly.

He raised his head and returned his commissioner's gaze.

With no idea on what was going on, Tashigi's eyes switched between her colleagues in confusion.

The meeting ended with Law telling them about the deal Doflamingo proposed. To no surprise, Smoker immediately opposed the idea while Hina decided to give it a chance. She ordered Smoker and Tashigi to gather information about the Zoan's whereabouts and dismissed Law for the day.

Law left the room without saying another word to any of them.

After hours of research, Tashigi gathered enough courage to ask Smoker the question that had been burning on her tongue.

"Sir... I was wondering... about Agent Law... he seemed to know more about this case from thirteen years ago..."

"His parents were two of the victims.", Smoker whispered.

"What?!"

Smoker raised a finger to his lips.

His subordinate covered her mouth with her hands and looked around the office which was empty except for the two of them.

Smoker sighed.

"What I just told you isn't exactly common knowledge. Law even changed his name before he joined the SCPD.", he continued.

"Oh my...", Tashigi whispered, "...losing his parents at such a young age..."

"Don't talk to him about this. I just told you so you wouldn't ask any stupid questions."

Tashigi nodded with a pained look on her face and Smoker's eyes returned to the monitor of his computer.

They sat in silence for the rest of the night.

He was back at the stairs but she was already standing there and looking past him.

Her eyes were already staring at the kitchen floor.

"D-don't look! Don't look Lamie!", Law heard himself beg.

He saw how her eyes became empty and he knew that they would stay this way for a very long time.

Suddenly, the scene changed and he was back at the hospital.

"Please Lamie... please talk to me..."

He held his sister's hand while she was staring in the distance.

Law was kneeling in front of her armchair that stood next to the window.

As usual, she didn't speak a single word.

"Lamie... don't... don't leave... please don't leave..."

The room around him changed once more.

This time, he was back at the porch of his old house and stood in front of the door.

A strange dome around his house was separating it from the rest of the world.

The dome looked like a blue sphere with nothing but darkness on the outside.

Law stared at the broken door and slowly moved away from the porch.

He wanted to run back to school but the sphere around him was suddenly closing in.

Law stared at the blue, transparent wall that rushed towards him and braised himself against the impact.

But the next moment, he was somehow back inside the kitchen.

A tall man was standing in front of his dead parents.

Scratching and snarling sounds reached his ears.

The man stepped away and Law wanted to scream at the scene before his eyes.

The corpses of two giant wolves lay on the kitchen floor and were devoured by a pack of dogs that gathered around them.

Blood splattered everywhere as the dogs ripped the wolves' flesh and bones apart with a horrible noise.

Law couldn't stop a terrified scream from escaping his mouth.

The dogs suddenly let go of the corpses.

They slowly turned around and stared at Law.

"No... no please..."

Law moved backwards as the dogs creeped into his direction.

They jumped at him and Law felt their jaws closing around his limbs but then the scene changed yet again.

To his relief, he found himself standing in the bathroom of his apartment.

His arms grabbed the sink and water was running down the drain.

Law raised his head and looked into the mirror.

Somehow, he wasn't surprised that Doflamingo's face stared right back at him.

The man was smiling as usual and slowly raised his hands.

His fingers moved through the mirror until they reached Law's face.

The blond man grabbed his head and pulled Law towards himself.

Law's body went through the mirror and was now floating next to Doflamingo within a dark space.

His eyes watched in horror how the skin on Doflamingo's arms started to bleed with what looked like a million tiny stitches.

The man seemed to relish with the pain when blood-soaked feathers grew from the stitches in his arms and extended into a pair of wings.

Suddenly, Law's body became very heavy and he felt gravity dragging him down into the dark abyss.

His hand reached out for Doflamingo who was watching him fall.

A sad smile graced his lips.

Law's eyes snapped open.

He sat up on his bed and felt cold sweat dripping down his face.

He subconsciously extended his hand to the other side of his bed but the space beside him was empty.

He also noticed that he was still wearing his suit.

His eyes focused on the alarm clock on the nightstand.

Right... it had only been an hour since he had arrived back home.

He hadn't called Margaret yet either.

The images of his nightmare were still present in his mind and Law felt a wave of panic rise in his chest. His hands were shaking as he reached for his cell phone on the nightstand.

Minutes later, Margaret was knocking on his door.

She gasped in surprise when the door snapped open. Law pulled her inside.

"Trafalgar? What happened? You look really pale! Did something-"

Law silenced her with a rough kiss.

He hastily pulled the coat off her shoulders and pushed her against the door.

He didn't give Margaret any time for further questions as he kissed her neck and pressed himself against her body.

She moaned softly when his lips moved to her cleavage.

"Trafalgar... you seem... different to-"

His lips covered hers again.

Law pushed up her skirt and hurried to unzip his pants.

Margaret moaned into the kiss when she felt his hand between her legs.

She ran her shaking fingers through the dark strands of his hair while his tongue danced against her own.

Her underwear fell to the floor next to Law's pants and shorts.

He pushed inside her and Margaret broke the kiss to moan loudly.

Law guided her legs to wrap around his waist and moved deeper.

He tried to focus on the warmth that was now encircling him and the pleasure building in his lower body.

Margaret was nearly screaming every time he thrust into her but her voice was a mere background noise to his ears.

In his mind, Law was still trapped in the darkness of his dream's memory, no matter how much he forced his body to experience the present.

The images refused to fade away.

Doflamingo's wings appeared in the darkness.

They were glowing with a red light as he landed on his bare feet and to stand next to Law.

Doflamingo looked at him and smiled.

"I should have brought a flashlight.", the winged man chuckled.

Law noticed Margaret's orgasm when she screamed his name right next to his ear.

It took him a couple of seconds to realize that he had come inside her as well.

The blond woman in his arms gasped for air and rested her head on his shoulder. Apparently, she was too exhausted to speak.

Law carried her to his bedroom where she rested on his mattress, still panting and covered in sweat.

After that, he locked himself inside the bathroom.

As he stepped into the shower and leaned his head against the wall, the hot water slowly began to run down his skin.

AN:

Hi.

I guess I should warn you that I might not be able to update as soon as before.

Blame the government.

*HA*

No.

Blame the university for making me study... x)

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.