So, I really hope this chapter makes sense. It makes perfect sense to me because I know what's on, but if it is at all confusing then please let me know so I can try and clarify things.

Enjoy~

Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece and all of its wonderful characters.

Fluctuation

"I'm sorry, Nami-ya," Trafalgar Law apologised, frowning deeply as he watched the Strawhat's navigator vanish before his eyes. One moment she was there, fully tangible and capable of being protected by his ability, and then her body quickly turned opaque and disappeared, like a ghost being exorcized from this world.

He knew he had to let this happen, but that didn't stop the guilt he felt from letting itself be acutely known. It settled in his chest like a shard of kairoseki, causing him to momentarily loose focus and collapse his Room.

Law looked on as the Strawhat's captain reached out for his navigator, and was unable to grasp her hand. At first, Law could see that he was filled with concern and confusion, but the quickly twisted into rage. As Law expected of him, Mugiwara-ya balled his fist and got to his feet, then the fishman went flying into the kitchen, propelled by his powerful fist.

'Careful, Mugiwara-ya,' his mind cautioned over the loud clatter of metallic pots and pans crashing to the floor. He watched the man flex his ability again, stretching his arms to pull the fishman back towards himself for another assault.

Law's gaze was glued to the damaged equipment in the kitchen now that his ally had their enemy pinned beneath himself, and against the breakfast bar. There was a substantial dent in the cooker and the extractor fan above it, evidence of where the fishman's head had struck against it left another clue in the spray of blood upon the metal, reminding Law of the grim sight of surgical table, post operation.

"Narnia, you bastard! What the hell have you done to my nakama?" the other captain growled with fury as he loomed over the fishman, ready to strike again at a moments notice.

'They're safe, Mugiwara-ya.' Law silently assured him, grimacing as the fishman began to cough up blood and explain how he had sent Nami-ya to a cardinal point in her past.

The Surgeon of Death was not at all worried about the blood in the fishman's mouth. He was a doctor afterall, and knew that Nornir had most likely bitten his tongue in the collision. However, Law was overly concerned with the crimson fluid that was pooling on the breakfast bar beneath their enemy. Head wounds do bleed a lot due to the amount of blood vessels below the scalp, but judging from the damage done in the kitchen, Law feared he may have suffered a cerebral injury.

"I've seen her memories," Nornir said excitedly, and an imagine of his ally's navigator was conjured up in Law's mind. He knew little of her memories, save for the fact that they haunted her. He remembered the pain and torment in her eyes as she had once told him that her mother was murdered, and that it was all her fault. Law thought he could feel her trembling in his arms right then, but it was his own anger that was coursing through his veins, adrenaline shaking his limbs. He almost hated himself for allowing her to go through all of that again. He knew how it had almost destroyed her, 'but it didn't,' he consoled himself. She was stronger than that.

'That must be the pivotal point that the fishman just spoke of.' Law decided, realising then that their time together when he was twenty one was not the first time he had met her, and perhaps his suspicion of their brief encounter ten years ago was correct.

"Without her," the fishman began, coughing intermittently as he continued to speak, "it would have just been the Pirate Hunter and yourself, and you would have both died long ago, having never left the East Blue if it wasn't for her extraordinary navigational and meteorological skills."

Over the last few months, Trafalgar Law had come to witness those skills first hand. It was a wonder to him now how she had ever managed to suppress her barometrical instincts, or omit her oceanographic knowledge from their conversations. He supposed, in retrospect, there were clues to her expertise, but he had disregarded them at the time as something as simple as a lucky guess. If she had been more open with him, used her knowledge to aid his crew, then perhaps he would have been a greater pirate, Law believed. 'That was the whole point for their concealment,' he knew. He understood now that she was trying to ensure that they would meet again in his future. She had tried her utmost to not influence a single thing that he did. Little did Nami know how utterly she had failed in that regard over time.

"All she has to do is intervene, and all of this will be undone," the fishman said as he motioned to the ship around them. "She may be the most integral member of your crew, but she is also the weakest. It will be very satisfying to know that someone as weak as her will change the past and instantly destroy your future."

That statement caused Mugiwara-ya's temper to erupt once again. He balled his fists into the fishman's life belt and dragged Nornir up, towards himself, then forced him against the breakfast bar.

Something in the the Strawhat's captain seemed to have snapped then, and he appeared more serious and furious than Law had ever previously seen him. "Bastard!-"

"Stop, Mugiwara-ya!" Law insisted as he burst through the door to the galley, just before his ally could do the fishman any further damage.

"Why should I? He has sent my crew flying, just like that bear did on Sabaody!" Luffy shouted. His tone and expression were laced with conflict, which Law could understand, and sympathise with.

He knew his ally trusted him. He had heeded to his words, and followed his battle plans against Doflamingo, so it was understandable that Mugiwara-ya was so confused as to why Law was stopping him from getting retribution for his crew; a crew Law knew he loved dearly.

"The rest of your crew are safe, Mugiwara-ya. But you can not hurt him any more! We need him alive, and conscious so he can bring back Nami-ya." Law argued desperately, hoping that once again his ally would put his faith in him and listen.

"I'm not ... bringing anyone back." Nornir croaked. "As I said, all she has to do is intervene and stop her mothers death, and all of this will be gone. She is the key member of your crew."

"If she was as weak as you thought, and had done as you assumed she would, her mother's life would have been saved, and none of us would be here now. Yet, here we stand," Law said with an sophic smirk. "your plan would have been instantaneous, but it has obviously failed. Now bring her back!"

Nornir laughed, then slowly turned his head then to look at person giving him instruction. "Trafalgar Law," he said in a knowing voice, one that clearly roused suspicion in the other captain.

"Is he a friend of yours?" Luffy quickly asked, "Are you helping him?"

"No, he's not-" Law began to explain, but was cut off by Nornir.

"I thought I recognised her ..." Nornir whispered.

"The rest of your crew is on my submarine," Law continued, "Safe, beneath the sea, where his ability can not touch them."

"You knew what I would do, yet you let it happen anyway." Nornir laughed, angering the the Strawhat's captain further.

"Tora-o, you knew! Why didn't you stop him? Why did you let him take Nami?" Luffy demanded, releasing his hold on the fishman to turn and glare at Law, his fists slowly clenching as his began to grit his teeth.

"For the same reasons she never told me who she was," Law frowned as he calmly tried to explain, though he realised then that because Nami-ya had been sent ten years into the past, when he helped Doflamingo capture the Tenjoukin and blackmail the world Government into giving him a seat as a Shichibukai, that his presence now may very well be the prompt Nornir needed to bring her a little forward in time, and ensure their stint together. "to secure that whatever future she was protecting would still happen."

"But this is now, not the future!" Luffy shouted, clearly not in full comprehension of what was taking place.

"What occurs on this day may be the present to us now, but it effects my past, and Nami-ya's future."

Luffy cocked his head to the side, and his hand reached beneath his hat to scratch his scalp. "Your past with Nami?" he asked in a confused tone.

"I didn't think it could be same woman," Nornir smiled in a way that pissed Law off. He clicked his tongue in frustration as the fishman pushed himself to his feet, somehow filled with a new found strength at that realisation. "it seems I have sent her back too far in time," he chuckled, then spat a mouthful of blood on the floor that he dislodged from his throat. "how stupid of you to show your face." And with that said, Nornir's onyx eyes rolled back, flashing white for a moment before turning dark again.

"What did you just do?" Law demanded, extending his left arm and summoning his Room, thought he suspected he already knew.

"I've brought her forward in time, so we can all meet on our allotted day," he sneered. "Until now, I have never been able to use my ability in conjunction with my physical self. But now, with her assistance ..." Nornir paused to smirk at Law, "she can help me become omnipotent," he laughed darkly.

"What are you talking about?" Luffy fumed, and once again his temper boiled beyond mastery and he gripped Nornir's shoulders, ready for another assault.

"Time waits for no man. Except, perhaps, for me." Nornir proclaimed in a sardonic tone.

Nami slowly awoke from a dreamless sleep, one that had seemed to stretch on for countless hours of darkness and nothingness; like the dead, finally resurrected after a millennia of cessation. Thought she was certainly conscious, it was not a true awaking as she was still too exhausted to open her eyes. Her lids screwed themselves together, tightly, and there was a weightiness to them that seemed to be putting pressure on her irises, and causing a dull ache in her skull. She ignored it in favour of concentrating on her breathing, and the rhythmic beeping sound that accompanied it.

Her throat felt constricted and tight, the muscles overly tense, like she had attempted to swallow something acutely large. She wanted to retch, to rid herself of that uncomfortable feeling, but she didn't have the strength in her to attempt it. It seemed her body had already given up fighting that sensation.

She ached all over. Her limbs were heavy and stiff, like she had not used them for an age. The feeling instantly reminded Nami of her time on Little Garden, when Mr. 3 had tried to turn her into a wax statue. 'Was she turning to stone?' Her subconscious mind questioned. She deemed the rigidity to her body a liking to what calcification might feel like, so she couldn't discount it. 'Or had she just been dragged into that memory of Little Garden?' At least, if she had, she was with her nakama, she consoled herself.

But she wasn't there, in that memory, Nami quickly learned. She could hear familiar voices around her then, but she couldn't place them, or discern their words. The muffled sound of clanging metal drew her thoughts to Zoro. She imagined he was close by, tending to his blades, and not posing pompously for his wax statue.

She was lying flat, she soon came to realise, sensing gravity's pull on her towards something soft, yet still uncomfortable. 'A bed.' She perceived, and groaned with pain as she tried to move her aching limbs. Someone moved to stand over her then, Nami was sure. A shadow passed over her closed eyes, darkening her consciousness. 'Is that you, Chopper?' She wanted to ask, but neither her sore throat nor her mind would allow her the ability of speech.

If she was back with her crew, or had been dragged into another memory; either way, she was suddenly pulled back into darkness feeling thankful that she was no longer stuck in that past, and was away from Doflamingo.

She roused a second time, or was it third? Nami couldn't be sure. She felt disoriented and tired, like she'd maybe been slipping in and out of consciousness, unable to find true rest. She'd had no dreams that she could count to track her benightedness, just intermittent pain and the recognition of voices.

On this occasion though, she was strong enough to at least open her eyes.

Shades of dark cerulean and inky teal flooded her vision the moment her lids parted, and though the hues instantly made her assume she had been swallowed by the deep sea, she was too enervated to panic, and her weariness quickly forced her eyes shut again.

For a moment, she simply accepted the possibility that she could be drowning, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it now if she was, which was uncharacteristic of her, and in itself was distressing. Somehow though, she was breathing. That was all she knew, and all she cared for; she was not drowning, not like before, beneath the pier. That encouraging notion gave her the strength to open her eyes again, long enough to take in more of her surroundings.

Metal. Steel or titanium, maybe. It was all around her. 'I'm not back on Sunny.' She lamented, and her cognition was cut short by someone else who was present in the room.

"Don't move!" A stern voice cautioned in an overly threatening manner. She couldn't move even if she wanted to. The same sensation of petrification still lingered in her bones, making her neck too stiff to turn, so she cast her eyes in the direction the voice had sounded.

'Penguin?' She blinked up at him as he moved to her bedside. It was too dark to see his face, but before he got too close, she glimpsed the name that was written above the peak of his cap. 'Why are you taking care of me?' She tried to ask, but instantly realised there was a tube obstructing her throat, muting her voice, and only allowing her to croak with discomfort.

He approached tentatively, then reached for the apparatus hanging to the right of her bed. Nami watched as he tampered with the fluid drip she assumed was attached to her arm, altering the amount of solution that entered her veins. In her last few blinks of consciousness, Nami felt the rigidity in her limbs recede, and with it her concern for the unfriendly frown that darken Penguin's lips.

Nami's return to full consciousness seemed a slow process. Her hazy mind refused to uncloud itself of the darkness she'd come to know so well, and a gentle swirling sensation accompanied that dense fog. She felt as though she could move if she wanted to, but she was too unconcerned to actually do it. 'Drugged.' She could remember it clearly, and it was the only explanation for her lethargy and her previous disregard for her own safety.

'What was that look? She wondered as she thought of Penguin, and then sluggishly cracked her eyes open.

The lights were dim, but still too bright for her sensitive eyes, forcing her to shut her them quickly before attempting to open them again. On her next effort, Nami glimpsed the rim of soft plastic covering her nose, 'Breathing apparatus.' she told herself, then remembered how her throat had been hurting, and the boring tube, so she swallowed to see if it had gone. It hadn't.

She opened her eyes again, blinking quickly to rid herself of the urge to close them, when in her peripheral vision she spotted a large sword resting against her bed. She turned her head ever so slightly to look upon it; that was all she could do. The small movement seemed to send ripples of pain to travel through her entire nervous system, causing her to clench her eyes shut, and wince in agony. She breathed deeply through the mask attached to her face, and once her pain had subsided a little she opened her eyes again to regard the sword.

Nami immediately recognised it by its fuzzy guard, and its hilt wrapped in woven mauve silk. 'Tora-o.' She sighed, grateful to be in his capable hands, then she saw the man himself reclining in a chair not too far away.

He was shirtless, only wearing his oddly patterned jeans and hat. His decorated, olive skin was covered an a sheen of moisture, bringing Nami's attention to the humidity of the room, and she remembered just how sultry his ship could be from her time with the Heart Pirates on Zou.

His golden eyes regarded her curiously from beneath the rim of his hat. His gaze is different from sullen stare she was used to receiving from him. She was shocked to see he was relaxed and keen, causing an irregular beep to sound from the heart monitor she was attached to. He dropped his head then to cover his eyes, but Nami saw the hint of a small smirk flash across his lips before he brought his right hand up to wipe the sweat that had gathered on his top lip. Her eyes followed that hand as it moved back to settle on the arm of the chair, noticing his tattoo-less knuckles when he gripped the arm rest for stability and pushed himself to his feet.

Once vertical, Nami could see that he was possibly as tall as the man she knew, though his muscle definition was not as prominent. He was still perfectly toned and slender, appearing somewhat lanky without the maturity of the brawn he would one day acquire. At least his facial hair was the same, and his ever present tired eyes.

"Don't try to speak." He advised in low voice as he stepped towards her. His familiar smoky tone was a comfort to her after days of solitude crossing to the Red Line, and all the trials she had endured. "You have been experiencing laryngeal spasms during your incubation period, so I've had to keep you on ventilatory support."

Tears pricked at her eyes, causing them to flutter shut. 'What is wrong with me?' She wanted to ask, and felt her jaw tremble as her facial muscles attempted to frown.

"It is safer for everyone if you remain fully sedated for the time being." Law remarked, causing Nami to open her eyes to glare at him briefly before she quickly fell into a drowsy state, unable to control her facial expressions.

"I'll tell you more when you are out of danger." He told her as he finished adjusting the mechanism on her drip, smirking slyly at her as he moved to recline in his chair again.

"Rest." The Surgeon of Death instructed her.

Hmm, I'm not really too happy with this chapter, but I've been going over it for days, and no matter what I do I can't get it to bother me any less. And it had to happen, so I can't just omit it :-/

"when your world is weary, and all is dark,"

15th June 2015