Yay~! I've finally updated lol sorry about the wait. My original story has taken priority this past month. Anywho, here's the long awaited chapter nine :)

~Chapter 9~

I forced myself to knock on his door before I chickened out. I used the heel of my hand, reluctant to form a fist after hearing about my bloody incident with the Marines. I was still hesitant to believe that it actually happened, but after all of the fear and tension that the guys have been giving off in waves led me to believe that something happened that revolved around me.

The metal was cold on my hand and sent a chill rippling through my body…much like the man I was about to question.

Law's cool voice spoke from the depths of his room and office, "Come in."

I took a quick breath and pushed open the door.

I could hear the tired smirk in his voice as he spoke before I could start bombarding him with questions, "That didn't take long." I was quiet, waiting for him to continue and moments later he did, "I was sure they'd be able to keep quiet for at least another hour or so."

"I got Broth to tell me," I cut in, "Is it true? I mean…did I really do that with just my hands? Maybe Penguin was just exaggerating…"

Law sighed and set his elbows on his desk, resting his chin in his interlocked fingers. "Well, I can tell you Penguin wasn't making it up – others saw you're little…display as well," he said slowly in thought, "It seems you have an unusual ability that no one knew about…"

I ran my fingers through my short hair and used the doorframe to keep me balanced, "I don't…I don't know how I could have done that. I don't even remember it…you'd think I'd remember killing three people, let alone vaporizing them. That's not something you should be able to forget."

The last thing I remembered was the pain in my side and the feel of warmth seeping from my hip. After that, there was nothing until the infirmary and waking up in the room with Law.

Law hummed in thought, bringing me out of mine, "Do the words 'cold voices' mean anything to you?"

A heavy feeling settled in my stomach.

Cold voices…they didn't sound familiar…

And yet…

I shook my head, "Vaguely…I don't really know."

Law hummed again and then pushed himself up from his seat, "Let's take a walk to the infirmary."

I groaned involuntarily at the mention of the sick bay, but followed my Captain's suggestions. I followed his soft footsteps up the stairs, listening to the background sounds that rang through the sub's metal walls – clangs and grrr's echoing from the boiler and engine rooms, the voices of the guys talking and laughing with each other, ringing footsteps on the other levels, and as we passed by the entrance to the mid-deck, the sounds of Broth banging around in the galley.

We eventually made it up onto the upper level and into the sliding doors of the infirmary. I had been hoping Bepo would be there as well to keep it from being just Law and myself, but I had no such luck. The bear's large outline was on the outer deck while the sub had come to the surface for air.

Law pushed me pointedly towards the operating table and told me to sit.

I did so, edging myself up onto the cold surface of the metallic table. I thought back to waking up on the same table only a day or so ago and suppressed a cringe.

I really disliked hospitals and infirmaries or sickbays were just as bad.

Law's outline leaned against the far wall as he mumbled something.

I was about to ask him what he said when a strange prickling encased my entire body, making the hair on my arms and back of my neck stand up straight. It felt like I was being cocooned in static. My hands instinctively started rubbing my arms to try to get rid of the feeling but found that nothing I did had any affect. With my shadowy vision I tried to find Law, but found a small barrier that surrounded me like a shadowy dome. The dome cut me off from the rest of the world, and all I could sense, feel or see with my Haki-sight was myself, and the cold operating table that I sat on. Even the floors beneath me were somehow blocked from my view, even though the dome didn't go through or beneath the floor.

In a rising panic I hopped down from the table and placed a hand on the barrier that trapped me - transferring more static into my small cocoon that buzzed around my body. "What is this? What's going on?"

"Relax," Law's voice spoke to me, seemingly from nowhere. His cold and smirking voice seemed to almost appear in my head, "This is part of my Devil-Fruit power."

I tried to take a few calming breaths, but the static felt as if it were tightening around me, constricting me like Prim did when she was scared.

"Why though? What's this for?"

Law's smirk didn't disappear in his voice, "A test. Put your hands out, palms up."

I shakily did as he said, starting to understand what he was thinking.

"Now quickly clench them."

I hesitated, "Are you sure?" What if this barrier wasn't enough to constrict the strange ability I had…if I even had the ability in the first place.

"Do it," He said a little more seriously, "The Dome can't be pierced by anything until I let it go, so just clench your fists."

I nodded and held my breath.

I quickly pulled my outstretched palms into tights fists.

But nothing happened.

I tried it again, but still no reaction. There was no change in my hands – no feeling of power or ball of energy had shot from them, nothing that could have pulverized three grown men seemed to manifest.

I thought for a moment. "It might only work if there's something alive for it to work on," I suggested.

"I don't think it's necessary to test that," his voice said with an amused smirk as it appeared in my head.

Suddenly, the barrier fell away and the hand of static that had wrapped around me disappeared into nothingness. I slouched against the metal table, and let out a breath. I was relieved at least that nothing happened – but I still couldn't deny that I had done something that had caused three men to implode upon themselves.

Now we just had to figure out why, and how.

"Captain…do you have any idea what's going on with me?" I asked slowly. I feared for the lives of the crew…maybe even my own – I had no idea if this strange ability of mine could accidentally inflict pain upon myself. I didn't want to be a danger to anyone – especially to the people who'd finally treated me with some sort of decency, despite their occupation as pirates.

The guys on the crew – and even Law to an extent – had accepted me after only a week, whereas the women of Amazon Lily still didn't care for me. I didn't want to do anything to hurt them, or bring them excess trouble.

Law hummed and spoke, "A few theories…"

"Any you care to share?" I asked nervously.

Law came to my side and stopped just inches away from me. He was so close to me, that I could feel the heat that his body was radiating versus the cold air that habitually infected the sick bay. "Not particularly. I deem you relatively harmless – so go back to the galley, and tell anyone that skirts you to calm their asses down and quit acting like scared dicks."

I couldn't help letting out a small laugh, "Is that a Captain's order?"

I saw his head nod and felt his smirk settle in the small space between us, "Of course. If you damage their pride a little, they'll cut it out."

"Smart – I guess that's why you're the Captain."

Suddenly his hand reached behind me and settled on the small of my back.

I froze, completely unprepared for the strange contact. My mouth hung open in shock for a second and I debated within my mind over whether I should pull out of his touch or just wait for him to let me go. I felt like a deer being spotted through a hunter's scope, but frozen in place – giving the hunter the decision to either kill me or let me go.

He seemed to enjoy making me uncomfortable. After a few long seconds of torture that seemed to drag out for minutes he pushed me quickly towards the door, "I'm sure Broth is waiting for you to return."

I shook my head in frustration and stuttered, "Y-yeah – I should probably leave now."

I could feel his smirky, chilling eyes watch me as I hurried out of the sick bay as quickly as possible, and found that the galley seemed to have moved farther away in the small time that I'd been in the infirmary with the Captain.

I scowled as the oddly cold feeling of his hand still flickered across my lower back. I fidgeted with the braid that hung down the left side of my face and finally entered into the galley.

As Law had said, Broth was pacing between the tables acting as if he didn't know what to do with himself.

"Oi –yeh're back," he stated presumably once he saw me. He took a step towards me, but then stopped.

I shook my head at the burly cook, "What?"

He scratched at the back of his neck, "So what'd Captain say?"

"That I was more or less harmless," I held out my hands so that he could easily see them, "Watch."

Before he could protest, I clenched my hands into fists – and just as with the protective dome, nothing happened. Broth was still standing on the balls of his feet, watching me as I clenched and unclenched my hands a few times for emphasis.

After a few more demonstrations, he let out a sigh of relief, "Well that's good. Stupid Pen got me all worked up about nothin'."

I shook my head at the burly cook, "So should we get back to work?"

I gave the guys a good scolding as they came into the galley for dinner. They had all lined up quietly and completely out-of-character, their usual demeanor of rowdiness and insults quelled by an icy nervousness.

I put my hands on my hips and gave them the most convincing glare I could pull together with my scarred eyes, "God! How long is this going to last? You are the fearsome and fearless Heart Pirates, who've become one of the terrors of the Grand Line, and you're all scared of a blind girl…that's pretty ridiculous."

Aware that I had all of their attention I threw my hands up in the air so that everyone could see them. As I had done earlier with Broth, I drew my hands into fists a few times, "Oooo, how scary! Tch." I let my hands drop down to my hips, "So are you guys gonna stop acting like I'm some sort of diseased person now?"

I don't know who it was exactly, but I was almost completely sure that Shachi was the one to start laughing.

Eventually the whole crew was laughing like the maniacs that they were, and I joined in with them. I was aware of Bepo and Law's outlines standing in the galley doorway, Bepo seeming to watch the scene with interest, while Law watched with a cool smirk readable in his very demeanor.

Jackal was the first to approach me. He slung an arm over my shoulders and flicked my braid with his fingers. His flirty, honey-toned voice said sweetly to me, "I apologize on the behalf of all these retards. Will you ever forgive me?"

"Oi! Who're you calling a retard?" A crewmate by the name of Julian asked offendedly before I could reply. He wore a tight beanie over his head, causing a lot of his thick hair to stick out of the edges in spiky tufts, almost giving him the appearance of wearing a shadowy crown of thorns on the outline of his head.

"You, Jules! You were completely terrified of her," Jackal argued back.

"Blame Penguin! He was the one who scared the shit outta me with his story!" Julian pointed the accusatory finger at Pen's large and overstuffed hat that had slunk over to the corner, probably predicting that the spotlight would soon come to him.

As everyone turned to start bashing on Pen he made a break for it and darted into the kitchen for a temporary escape.

All I could do was laugh at all of them and watch the scene.

But before the accusations got any further, Law spoke up, "Now you've all stopped being pussies, can we get on with dinner?" His cool voice cut through the chaos like a keen blade. He pushed himself off of the doorway which he had been leaning against and walked calmly towards the kitchen to get his food.

The rest of the crew fell into line after him, this time back to their loud and jostling manner. I shook my head at them all and fell into line between Shachi and Penguin. I threw an arm around each of their necks and hung off of them, "Well, that was eventful."

Pen laughed nervously, "Yeah…sorry 'bout that. You were a real creeper though."

I kicked his leg with my bare foot. "Sorry, what was that?" I asked sweetly.

He grumbled nondescriptly under his breath in response as Shachi and I laughed.

I released their necks, and soon we had gotten our food and sat down. Once again, loud conversations infused with bad table manners and crude jokes echoed down all the tables, and my usual group seemed back to normal.

Inwardly, I shook my head at the strange crew I had landed in the middle of – one moment they were awkward and eerily silent, and the next they acted as if nothing strange had ever happened. It was completely amazing how quickly they could move on.

This crew was definitely something else – and I wouldn't change any of it.

We laughed and ate all through dinner, poking jabs particularly at Rice and Penguin for their obvious fear of me. Rice tried to shrug it off and claimed that he had no idea what I was talking about, whereas Penguin responded quickly by telling me how weird I was.

"You would have been scared too if you'd seen yourself!" He said as we took our empty plates into the kitchen.

I mentally rolled my eyes at him and teased, "If I could see anything, it would see how lame you are."

"Seriously though," he continued, ignoring my jab, "Your voice sounded like a stranger's and your eyes got all narrow and stuff. Completely freaky."

"Whatever," I countered, "It must have been some weird dream-state type of thing, because I have no memory of any of it."

Penguin shook his head, "So you don't have any secret powers of pulverization that you aren't telling us about?"

"Nope," I answered bluntly, "No idea how that happened either."

"Hmm…maybe you were possessed by a demon," he thought out loud.

I punched him in the arm, "That's completely ridiculous. You seriously thought that?"

Pen shrugged, "You never know…evil spirits have that kind of power."

I thought for a moment and then smirked, "Maybe aliens hijacked my body and gave me some sort of temporary power to evaporate my enemies."

Penguin scoffed at me, "No one believes in aliens. That's stupid."

"About as believable as your evil spirit theory. Seriously," I shook my head at him and dumped by plate in the sink. I grabbed a damp towel that was draped over the sink faucet and whipped it at him, "I've gotta clean up the tables so get outta my way."

The towel snapped against his side, and caused him to jump sideways, "Fine fine – I'm leaving now…weirdo." He as well as the last few stragglers left the galley, leaving Broth and I with a mountain of dishes to do.

I walked out with my damp rag to wipe down the tables before any of the food became dried to the metallic surface, when I saw a familiar outline hovering in the doorway.

"Hey, Seko – what's up?" I asked as I came to the table nearest him to start cleaning.

His outline with a simple baseball cap pulled over the crown of his head came to the end of the table I was working on. "Need any help?" he asked with a strange pang to his usually smooth and calm voice.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "If this is because you feel bad for avoiding me, don't worry about it. I'd have done the same thing if you were in my shoes."

"I somehow doubt that," he said with a small laugh, "But I'm still offering to help."

I gave him a smile and tossed him my damp rag, "Weeeell, if you insist."

"How much longer, Teamer?" Law asked his navigator as she stood stoically behind the man with the pom-pom atop his head.

Teamer gave a quick look at all his screens and dials and then sent a look over his shoulder at his captain, "Well get there by noon tomorrow, if not sooner…but Captain, Why are we returning to Sabaody? Shouldn't we just skip it and go to Fishman Island? The sub'll be able to handle the depth."

"It will only be a short stop – but it's quite necessary. There should be someone there who can help us with Sarin's memory problem." Law narrowed his eyes at the radar screens, as if they could somehow give him the answers to his questions. The most prominent of which was What in the hell was Sarin?

Sorry, i know that was short and slightly uneventful, but next chapter I've got some good plans for action and maybe a few answers ;)