So… it took three months, in the end. Um. You see, this is why I don't like cliffhangers. But I'm doing like last year and dropping this chapter right before a huge anime convention, because that's what I like to do when I need to be working on cosplays: write.
As usual, you can find me in between chapters on my Tumblr blog. Check my profile for a link!
Also, let me remind you that I'm also posting a BNHA fic and that I now have an AO3 account under this same penname, though the only stories I have there are Anomaly and the ongoing Folding Socks. I'd upload this one there too, but it's so full of mistakes and the first chapters are so ugh that I'm honestly embarrassed to spread it further, and if I take the time to go back and edit I know I won't find the will to keep writing. Let me know if you'd rather have it available there too so I can make up my mind!
Edit, October 28th: It has come to my attention that there's a nasty script infecting profiles on this site and screwing up accounts, so that was the last straw. I've made this story available on AO3 too, and from now on I'll be posting it on both sites.
The reception the last few chapters have gotten is honestly blowing my mind. Thanks for your unending patience and support, everyone, you're the bomb and I love you.
Jag: Thanks! Most of the travels went pretty well, even if I spent most of the time working! And sorry I made you wait so long!
jazzinjuke: First of all OHMYGOD JJ WHAT WAS THAT FLOOD OF COMMENTS. I do not have words to say how much I appreciate your feedback, which is bad because words are supposed to be my thing, but anyway! I miss you and I hope you're doing well! And to anybody else who might be reading this, please check out her stories! They're great, they'll make you laugh, water your crops, clear your acne and make you feel all fuzzy inside.
Hyphen: Thank you! By your comment and can tell that you've read this more than once and honestly, it blows my mind that you'd like it so much? I hope you enjoy what's to come!
24. On the brink of time
(May the bridges I have burned lead the way back home)
Saki swung her sword at Marina, and she missed the mark, too. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Mack inside the office, but she couldn't count on him being of help while he was handcuffed and unarmed.
Oh, how she wished she could get out of this one talking, but Marina didn't look in the mood for a chat.
But she had to buy time while she thought of a way to escape with Mack, so she tried anyway. "I take it that the family reunion didn't go well?"
Saki ducked Marina's reply to her head by a hair's breadth, marveled at its eloquence despite it not containing a single word, and she decided not to ask again.
"Stop this farce," Marina said through gritted teeth, drawing out more chisels and holding them between her fingers. "Your captain is under tight surveillance and your ship can't sail. You have nowhere to go."
Saki supposed that decent Marines had to be like this, trying to get their targets to surrender before jumping at the chance to maim them, but she wondered if it ever worked with anybody. She wasn't keen on giving up just because a figure of authority asked, and Saki considered herself a pretty decent person compared to some of the unsavory fellows that were roaming the seas.
She eyed Marina's weapons warily. "See, that's not true," Saki replied with the first thing that came to mind. Talking was easy and let her steal a few extra seconds to think. If only she could injure an arm or hand, she'd have a much better chance at getting out of there. "I have somewhere I need to be soon."
Marina's reply was lapidary. "The only place you'll be is a cell." And she punctuated the statement by throwing a chisel that flew past Saki and cracked the floor before lunging at her.
Saki sidestepped Marina and drew an arc with her sword hoping to get a hit in, or at least keep her at a relatively safe distance. But she had the short end of the stick no matter what she did, because Marina could attack from afar, and if the way her chisels got embedded in the hard tiles was an indication of her arm strength, she couldn't risk a hand to hand fight, either.
Marina avoided the slash, and before she could regain solid footing, Saki advanced towards her to try to cut at her shoulder. She missed, and immediately went for the opposite arm, but in a display of dexterity and brute force that Saki would not have believed could be possible before living in the Grand Line, Marina caught her blade between the chisels in her hand and swung it away, and it took Saki all the strength she could muster not to lose her grip on the sword.
She stumbled backwards for a moment, enough for Marina to regain the initiative and throw a chisel that hit the mark and ended up stuck on the wall behind Saki.
Saki ignored the flash of pain in her thigh and the blood starting to soak her borrowed pants. It hurt, but it hadn't injured her badly. She could stand, and she counted on the adrenaline to help her keep moving, and for the wound to hurt like nobody's business when she woke up in the morning.
She let out a measured breath as she regained her stance, and Marina stopped briefly to examine her.
Saki didn't like the way she was looking at her and tried to make it know. "I don't usually mind when pretty girls stare at me, but—"
"Where did you learn to fight?" She cut her.
Saki frowned a little. She tried to rest her weight on her healthy leg without making it too obvious that the other one hurt like Asterian noses after the wake of Rotten Feet Joe. "Why should I tell you?"
"You fight like a Marine."
Saki remembered when the man she had fought in Carpus' estate had asked her something similar, and it finally clicked what he had meant. She had been taught by an ex-Marine, so it was only natural that she'd picked up things they taught in their good little soldiers academy, or wherever their fledglings went to learn to swing their brand of justice around.
She didn't get why that was so surprising when there were Marines all over the world. Their style was bound to get out in many places.
"I'm not a deserter, if you're worried about that," Saki said flippantly.
Marina sneered, "Of course you aren't. You don't—"
Saki launched her next attack before Marina finished talking, because waiting was for evil overlords, Marines and people who could afford to lose, and Saki didn't fit in any of those categories at the moment.
With a hiss, Marina stepped aside and diverted the blade's direction again with the chisels. But this time, Saki was ready for it and she didn't lose her balance. It didn't stop her from leaving her guard wide open, though, and Marina didn't miss the opportunity to jump back to put distance between them and throw another chisel.
Saki was ready to dodge, but she didn't need to.
Mack stepped in between the two women and put his shackled hands in the middle of the chisel's trajectory. The chain linking the handcuffs split, and with a smooth movement, he caught the chisel as it fell to the floor and twirled it between his fingers.
Saki wished the guys had been there to see that, and then dare them to try to sneak again into the galley without Mack's consent. "I'd clap if my hands weren't full," she said with admiration.
"Save the smart comments for another day, will you?"
Saki shut her gaping mouth and nodded, even though he couldn't see her.
Marina's face, meanwhile, had turned the color of the walls at the sight of her brother. He was acting as a human shield in front of Saki, and while Saki was grateful, she couldn't say she liked it, either.
But it was a good thing that his hands were free. Saki took advantage of the confusion to glance back and see that Sturgeon was holding his own against the few Marines that had followed them and pressing them towards the staircase. Not bad for a guy who'd been in a dungeon for days.
That they hadn't been caught in a pincer by the enemy meant that the whip guy was either unconscious, or had he gone after Shachi and Penguin, and the latter made more sense, given that those two were headed to Law's location. Securing him would be a priority for the soldiers, and that took some pressure off the three pirates in Marina's corridor.
On the other hand, it meant that they were wasting time dealing with her when they could be helping out with the whip man. The longer the crew was separated, the likelier they'd be picked off.
Saki was trying to convince herself that Mack, Sturgeon and her would be fine and the two others plus Law would be able to deal with whip guy when something she'd heard earlier clicked in her mind.
The one they'd come across called himself a Commodore. The soldier they'd met at the entrance had mentioned a Rear Admiral. And Marina had said Law was under strict vigilance.
"Mack," she whispered in a hurry, "you need to go with the others."
He took a fleeting look at her before deciding that it was best to keep glaring at his sister. "Are you nuts? Why?"
"There's a Rear Admiral where Penguin and Shachi are headed," she said as quickly as she could.
"Wha— Then what are you going to do?"
"You and the guy on the back go ahead and I'll buy us time." No that she wanted to be left alone against Marina, but she saw no better way.
"She's going to kill you."
She thought that saying that she meant to try really hard not to get murdered wouldn't be very convincing. "There's been a few attempts and history is in my favor," she attempted.
"Absolutely not."
"Look, leave your sister to me," she insisted. "I'll do my best not to hurt her."
Mack sounded exasperated. "It's you who's gonna get hurt, you fucking dimwit."
"If you have a better idea, I'm all ears."
Meanwhile, Marina was listening to their conversation with open disbelief. "You think you can deal with me alone?"
Mack ignored her in favor of telling Saki off. "Sure. You go ahead while I distract her."
"I can't run."
Mack cursed under his breath. "This is suicide."
She couldn't deny that it kind of was, but saying it wouldn't help her cause. "Have some confidence!" She needed it too.
He stayed silent, and while Saki couldn't see his face, she knew he was torn about what to do.
"I'll be back with Captain," he said, sounding none too pleased.
"Right. I'll hold the fort."
Before running towards the stairs, Mack said, "Potatoes aren't going to peel themselves."
Saki immediately ducked to the side. "Message received!"
"Where do you think you're going?" Marina yelled, and threw a chisel at her brother that missed the mark by far too much to not be intentional.
Saki took the chance to approach her, wincing as she put her weight on her injured leg to launch another attack. "Where do you think you're looking?" She retorted.
An upwards slash managed to connect with Marina's arm near the wrist, but it wasn't enough to rend that hand useless.
"Out of my way!" Marina yelled, and her swing nearly brushed Saki's nose.
Truthfully, Saki would have liked nothing better than to do as she asked and let her go after someone else, if that wouldn't mean letting the rest of the crew get trapped between three Marine officers. As things stood – and Saki couldn't stand very well at that point – she didn't have much of a choice.
"What's your problem with Mack?" She asked. In normal circumstances Saki wouldn't have asked at all, because she knew better than to pry into family matters, but any that bought her a little time was welcome. And, in truth, she was slightly angry that she was willing to threaten her own family. "Is this how you treat your brother after so long?"
Marina was visibly taken aback by Saki's question, likely because the last thing she had expected was to be given moral lessons from a pirate. Saki didn't blame her. She wouldn't have accepted advice from herself, either.
"Who do you think you are to question how I deal with my family?"
Somehow, that didn't sit well with Saki. Because she knew what she had asked was none of her business, but Marina was Mack's sister, and she didn't like to hear her talk about him like that. "Are you really?" Saki snapped. "Because I don't know many sisters who would treat their brothers like you."
She supposed she found her ungrateful for wasting what little time she could spend with her brother after so many years.
Marina was also getting angrier with each reply. "I'm not going to stand and listen to you prattle about something you know nothing about."
"I know Mack well enough to know he's cares about you and he doesn't deserve to be treated like that," she retorted.
"Shut up! Don't talk as if you know him!" And with that, instead of throwing the next round of chisels, Marina lunged at Saki to stab her.
Saki dodged the attack and, with her free hand, grabbed at Marina's injured arm with all the strength she could muster. With a yelp, Marina's hand let go of her weapon in reflex, and Saki was in a perfect position to slash at her torso, but doubted for a moment and only grazed her. This woman was Mack's sister. She couldn't go overboard. She had to incapacitate, not to kill.
That small hesitation was all that Marina needed to kick Saki's weapon hand and make her drop the sword, and next thing Saki knew, she was shoved with inhuman strength and hit the floor, some of the rubble created by Marina's chisels digging sharply into her back.
"Maybe I know him better than you now," Saki said, panting and staring at Marina defiantly, trying to goad her into moving closer. If she tried to get up immediately, she was getting stabbed, and reaching for her sword was out of question if she fancied keeping both hands. "How long has it been since you had a proper conversation?"
Marina inhaled deeply, and the outburst from before was a thing of the past. "Your entire crew is trapped in this island. Your captain is getting shipped to Impel Down in a day," she replied in the composed tone of someone who knew that the battle was settled. She was breathing heavily too, but other than the blood running down her hand and the dust her attacks had created, she didn't look much worse for wear. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here and now. Give me just one reason."
The answer was obvious to Saki, and she wondered why it wasn't to Marina. "Because if you wanted to kill me, you'd already have."
Once upon a time, when Saki was still very young and learning the ropes, the Old Man had told her that what made a good Marine were not combat skills or officer ranks. A good Marine knew they worked for justice, while a bad one thought they were justice. That was what made all the difference. Hunter, judge, and executor, he had said, should never be the same person.
To Saki, that had been a matter too philosophical to consider, and it wasn't her problem, because she had never even thought about becoming a soldier. It wasn't until the words had left her mouth and Marina's stoic mask split that she noticed that she was onto something, so she pressed.
"Good Marines aren't butchers."
Heaven knew that the Old Man and Saki's father had been the last thing from it.
Saki watched some of the tension leave Marina's shoulders, but in exchange, she drove at Saki a stare meant to disassemble her.
"Don't speak as if you know me." The words left her mouth like they were painful to pronounce.
"I don't. But Mack wouldn't care for a bad person, so there's that."
Marina started to walk towards Saki, and as soon as she lifted a foot from the floor, Saki saw her opportunity and swept Marina's other foot from under her with a kick from her injured leg that made her see stars.
Quickly, she reached for her sword at the same time an enraged Marina threw a chisel.
And in that moment, time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Every movement of Marina's seemed to unravel before Saki's eyes before it happened. In the heat of battle, caught between the pain and the slight blood loss and the adrenaline coursing through her body, she was only vaguely aware that this was happening, but it was how she sensed Marina's chisel before it even left her hand, and consequently ducked it before it hit her.
Both women were back on their feet at the same time.
Marina had a sardonic smile on her face when she spoke. "I don't know why I expected a pirate to not play dirty for once."
The hand gripping two of the chisels at her waist was shaking ever so slightly, something imperceptible had Saki not been in such an extraordinary state of awareness. She had managed not only to enrage, but also distress Marina with her words. Perhaps she had hit the nail on the head and something had rung true to her. And, as long as Marina's attention was split between the battle and somewhere else, Saki knew she had a chance.
"You really should've known better," Saki breathed out, somehow feeling lighter on her feet. As if time had slowed down only for her, she was acutely aware of Marina's shifts, her quick breaths, the way her fingers twitched as they held her weapons, the tension in her legs as she was ready to jump at any time.
She could say she was even having fun, despite the situation not being conducive to that in the slightest.
Marina's fingers slid down the handles of her chisels and Saki ran forward to attack. This time, she was able to avoid Marina's weapons before they trapped her sword, and crouching at the last moment, she drove her left elbow into Marina's solar plexus. Marina stumbled for a moment, but she slashed at Saki anyway, and though Saki was able to see that coming at the last second, her injured leg didn't allow her to get out of the way, and blood started to pour from a new wound on her left elbow.
"Yeah," Marina said dispassionately, "I should have."
The next blow came as Saki was widening the space between them by swinging her sword back at Marina, and Marina threw a chisel that went off course as she got out of the way of the slash at the same time.
Saki immediately pressed on, knowing that that chisel would graze her at most, and though she was right, she didn't count on something else.
Marina's weapon flew too close to her wrist and ripped Banu's bangle.
It caught Saki off guard, and, out of pure reflex, she glanced at the colorful threads falling to the floor. That minimal distraction proved to be crucial.
Three chisels left Marina's hand at once, and two nicked Saki's right elbow and left leg to finally lodge themselves in the wall at the far end of the corridor.
The third one, however, hit the mark, between Saki's collarbone and her right breast, and when she fell to the floor this time, she had so much difficulty breathing that she couldn't even attempt to push herself up.
"I don't get you," Marina said from a few paces away. Saki couldn't see her. The feeling of awareness from before was gone, and her field of vision was limited to the grey-white stone of the tiles slowly turning red.
Saki had wanted nothing more than to see her siblings again, but if this was how she had to meet them, she hoped that they would take much longer than her to show up on the other side. Though in the meantime, maybe she could ask her mother about the stone cube, and say sorry to her father…
"You go on about morals like you know what they mean."
She didn't think her crewmates would take kindly to her dying, and she was exhausted just by thinking how much apologizing she'd have to do if they got on her case in the afterlife. It was enough to make her want to stand up again, if it would save her the hassle, but will alone didn't make her able to.
It was a pity. There was so much she still wanted to do, so many places to see with them. Saki had been scared at the prospect of dying many times, but never sad until then.
Marina's voice sounded like it was far away. "How can you leave everything behind and speak of family like it matters?"
She had bought them time; hopefully enough to make a difference. And, when all was said and done, that was all that mattered.
Saki heard Marina's footsteps approach, and while she could only see a pair of scuffed leather shoes, she understood her words clearly.
"Don't you have any regrets?"
And as Saki's eyes closed against her will, her silent reply was a smirk that vanished with her consciousness.
—
Law didn't have to wait long for the very much awaited reunion with his crewmates.
Penguin and Shachi entered the hall guns blazing, if by guns blazing one meant screaming bloody murder and adequately running like their lives depended on it while a Marine officer with whips for arms swung his appendages wildly behind them in an attempt to catch them.
Curtiss reacted like he hadn't been expecting such a bombastic entrance. Law, on the other hand, who at this point in time was very much used to how his companions rolled, was able to put aside his surprise and even feel some relief that all of their limbs were still attached to their bodies.
"Captain!" Shachi yelled as soon as he saw him, and Law lifted his arms as much as the seastone allowed him to let him see the cuffs, and then Shachi stopped on his tracks because he had just noticed Curtiss standing up to block his way, and Penguin bumped against him and sent them both to the floor, the result of which was an unending run-on sentence and one of Flagel's arms hitting his superior officer square in the forehead and getting it stuck in glue.
Law, hit by a glorious case of reverse trainwreck syndrome, remembered to scuttle his butt along the wall until he was next to the bars so one of the guys could unlock the handcuffs with the keys that were next to where Curtiss had been sitting.
Penguin took advantage of the momentum to roll over a flattened Shachi without an ounce of remorse and leave the filling of the pirate sandwich currently happening between Curtiss and Flagel, and when he was behind Curtiss he snatched the ring of keys from the wall and Kikoku from the table.
A wave of glue that knocked the breath out of him plastered him against the wall, but not before he was able to throw what he'd grabbed in Shachi's general direction, and with a big grunt, Shachi sprung from the floor, grabbed the keys and managed to fit one of them in the keyhole of Law's cuffs at the same time that Flagel's free arm wrapped around his leg and swung him at the ceiling.
But the instant the cuffs slid from Law's wrist, he commanded, "Room," and the tables turned.
Law reached for Kikoku as Curtiss shot a surge of glue that hit it halfway out of the scabbard, but the sharp edge was able to cut the solidifying glue clean, and Law was able to slide it all the way out.
In one swift slash, he cut the bars of the cell and the stream of glue that was keeping Penguin prisoner.
He didn't think the man with the whip hands would pose a threat, but Curtiss was another matter entirely, seeing how he'd been able to put himself back together the last time they had fought. Luckily for Law, this time he had more material to work with.
Penguin wiggled free of the remaining glue and hit the floor, and so did Shachi when Law cut the stretched arm that was holding him up.
Flagel screeched, prompting a brief halt in the battle. "My arm! My arm!" He was tugging violently at the one stuck in Curtiss' forehead as he watched the one in the floor. "How dare you! My—"
"Pull yourself together!" Curtiss bellowed, and he retracted the glue covering his body, letting Flagel's arm free.
At the same time, Law yelled, "Get out of here!" And at his command, Penguin and Shachi started running the way they had come without question.
Given the choice, Law preferred to be at the first line of battle whenever possible. His powers could be used with precision in less stressful settings, but cutting with Kikoku in a fight when allies were in the middle was always a hassle, and he couldn't afford that sort of caution now.
He slashed in a wide arc that cut both men through the middle, and Curtiss shot at him the same glue web that he had used last time, but before he could be caught by it, he used Shambles and switched himself with one of the cut bars in the ruined cell, positioning himself slightly behind the two Marines and gaining enough to time to slash at them again, before Curtiss cut fix the first cut, and before they could realize what had just happened.
"Shambles," he said again, and he swapped Flagel's midsection with Curtiss's head before cutting their legs and reattaching them upside-down.
He dislodged Kikoku's scabbard from the glue on the floor and ran towards Penguin and Shachi. They were more beaten up than he had assumed at first, particularly Shachi's face, and he didn't have time to ask where the rest were before Mack showed up at the top of the stairs and yelled, "Saki needs help! She's holding off my sister!"
Whatever relief Law had felt upon defeating the two Marines vanished, and he steeled himself to hurry towards Mack, saying, "Lead the way."
—
Just one moment to catch her breath.
That was the excuse Marina told herself over and over when she slumped against the wall. The gash on her right arm wasn't bleeding anymore, but a brown-red layer had dripped over her hand and dried out, making it uncomfortable to flex it.
In her other hand, there was the bangle that had distracted the pirate in that last exchange of blows, and her eyes were fixed on it with an empty stare. Red, white, green. It looked so much like the handiwork of Qaryn's artisans, and she remembered her short stay there, and the people she had met, and the woman she had spent most of the time with, trying to make sense of the situation at hand. Banu, she was called. She closed her fist around it, exhaled, and put it in her pocket as she rested her head against the wall. Briefly, she wondered if she had already moved on and found out what she wanted to do.
The worst of the noise in the tower had ceased, and tough she knew she needed to check up on the men that had been pursuing the pirates, when she pushed herself from the wall, she slipped down it instead, until she was sitting on the floor and she couldn't attribute anymore her ragged breathing and her constricted chest to the fight.
This wasn't how she had wanted to meet back with Mack. She hadn't wanted to find him on the wrong side of the law to throw accusations at him. She hadn't wanted to hear excuses and have him escape in a way that made her unable to help him anymore. She didn't know why she wanted to help at all, after all these years, but if there was something she was sure of is that her brother didn't deserve the same punishment as his crewmates. He wasn't a bad person, and he wasn't a liar—
He'd said he had written to her, hadn't he? Were those letters even real? Her chest hurt even more at the thought.
And then the woman, that infuriating woman lying in front of her had had the gall to say she knew Marina's brother better than herself, and Marina was shaken by the doubt of it being true.
So many years had passed. Perhaps she had told the pirate that she shouldn't speak about family, but did Marina have a right at all to do the same?
But she wasn't allowed the time to set her thoughts straight as the sound footsteps approached through the stairs.
She didn't know where she found the strength to grip a discarded chisel on the floor and stand up to watch the staircase at the end of the corridor, hoping that it was a friendly face. Only hoping. Expecting would have been too much, given the circumstances. She glanced nervously at her midsection. She could've been the one to go down, had her opponent not hesitated, and she didn't know how to interpret that reticence to kill her and be done with it.
She'd never understand how a pirate's mind worked.
Her worst fears where confirmed when, only seconds later, she saw Mack and Trafalgar Law appear from the floor below.
She barely registered the expression on the Surgeon of Death's face when he looked at the body near Marina, because she was too busy taking in the horror etched in Mack's features when he saw the scene.
Her brother had never looked at her like that, and Marina felt a stabbing pain in her heart. Would he rather have seen her bleeding out on the floor than his crewmate?
"Stand down," Law said, taking a step in front of Mack. His sword was in his left hand, still sheathed.
Marina glared at him defiantly. He had the injury from the bullet he had taken when he had been captured, but nothing that remained from the fights he'd surely gotten in to get to her – and she was forced to face the fact that if he was here it was because Curtiss had been defeated again – so Marina's self-confidence wavered again. But at the very least she could keep him at bay with her weapons, and with some luck, reinforcements would come soon to help her.
At the same time, she was infuriated and reenergized by that damn pirate who dared to stand in front of Mack as if he was his shield, as if Marina had any intention of hurting him.
"I don't take orders from—"
Marina was interrupted by Law saying 'Room' under his breath, and as the blue sphere grew from his hand and swallowed them, he tightened his grip on Kikoku and he readied to lunge at Marina.
"Captain!" Mack said with urgency, and the worry in his voice was a second stab to her heart.
Why, why did all these people act like they cared? They had left everything behind to become criminals. They had no right to do what they did and still claim to give a damn about each other, or worse, about her.
Marina was no fool. She knew this wasn't like that time in Lymes, when he only had been trying to get away. Those weren't the eyes of a person who would be satisfied with a retreat. But as she took a fighting stance in preparation of what was to come, she couldn't predict what was about to happen.
Instead of running towards her, Law remained in his spot and suddenly Marina was looking at him from inches away, swapped with a piece of rubble that had been in front of his feet.
It happened in a matter of seconds.
Upon switching, Marina lost her balance, and she felt Law's sword pressing against her wounded arm as he caught her. She didn't have time to be surprised that he hadn't let her fall, because right then he plunged a hand inside her chest as he murmured something, and Marina forgot to breathe for a moment.
She saw over Law's shoulder her brother staring wide-eyed at her, mirroring her expression.
Law removed his left arm and let her drop to the floor. In his right hand, there was a clear cube holding a beating heart.
Marina got on her knees and brought her shaking hands – her own body betraying her, showing weakness in front of an enemy – to her chest, only to find an empty space where her heart had been, and when she looked up, she saw Law giving the heart, her heart, to Mack.
She was alive and breathing and it didn't hurt, but he had taken it away, and there was nothing she could do to get it back.
"He'll take care of it for now," Law said icily to Marina. "I suggest you stay where you are, because I won't be so kind if you get in my way again."
Marina could only watch, terrified, as her brother hid her heart inside his clothes and Trafalgar Law hurried down the corridor to retrieve their crewmate.
—
He crossed the distance in the blink of an eye, heart pounding against his ribcage, and his blood ran cold when he saw the chisel sticking out of Saki's chest. In a daze, he brought a hand to her neck to look for a pulse.
He found it right away, beating fast under his fingertips. How long would it last, he didn't know, and he was worried that it could take its toll on her heart. They had to get out. But the reassurance that she was still hanging in there was enough to make him come back to his senses and start planning.
He assessed the damage as fast as he could. Her breathing was ragged. A scratch on her forehead had released a scandalous amount of blood, but it wasn't important. Her skin had a blue tinge from the lack of oxygen. The wound on her right leg didn't look threatening either, but the one on the left shoulder had soaked her shirt and hadn't still stopped bleeding. She likely had a collapsed lung, and removing the chisel would cause a bigger hemorrhage. He needed—
"Captain!"
Law was starting to dread that word every time a crewmate uttered it.
He looked up and saw Shachi just coming from the floor below, waving a small Den Den Mushi. "Bepo says they're inside the Polar Tang and the Log Pose's set! Should they—" He fell suddenly silent when he saw Saki's body and started walking towards her, news forgotten. "Shit, shit, shit—" He stopped abruptly when he saw Marina, but realizing that she wasn't moving, he made haste towards Law.
"I can fix her," he said to stop Shachi. And he had no doubt she would recover if she received medical attention, but time was of the essence and his operating room was too far to risk it. "What about Bepo?"
Shachi nodded nervously, sounding like he was making an effort to not freak out. "Right. He says the guys have managed to start the sub."
He'd seen the docks near the entrance of the building, and Curtiss had said that he was going to be sent to Impel Down the next day, so there had to be at least one ship there. There had been three warships when he'd been captured. If the Log Pose on the sub was already set, the ones on those ships must have been too.
The way Law saw it, they had two ways to leave the island, and, looking at Saki, he knew that one was out of the question if no one was to be left behind. "Tell them to go ahead," he said. "We'll reunite later."
Shachi faltered, probably thinking he hadn't heard right. "W-what?"
"The sub's on the other end of the island and we'd have to fight our way through to reach it. We can't risk it."
"Then how… Oh." He lifted the Den Den Mushi receiver and said, "Bepo, you guys keep going to the next island. We're gonna steal a ship and follow you."
There was silence on the other end of the line, and then Bepo said something else. Shachi repeated for Law when he was done, "Bepo says 'See you in the next island' and 'don't you dare shipwreck while I'm not watching.'"
Law had to smile at that. "Tell him to keep the Den Den Mushi nearby. We'll keep in contact."
As Shachi relayed the info to Bepo, Law looked at Mack, threw Kikoku for him to catch and, doing his best not to rattle Saki too much, he picked her up. "Let's hurry. We need to reach one of the ships outside. Go wild, I'll fix everybody once we're sailing."
Mack nodded and led the way down the stairs. Law followed suit, tightening his grip on Saki as she fought for breath, and Shachi lingered until Law was next to him him and patted him on the back before picking up the pace and passing him.
It was a small comfort, but it felt priceless to Law.
—
Saki hadn't honestly expected to open her eyes again after passing out, not even for a scarce few seconds. She knew it was momentary, because she could feel consciousness slipping from her grip again as soon as she tried to focus her eyes to only see yellow.
Her chest hurt like hell and she couldn't speak, she couldn't feel her limbs, and perhaps was for the best, since she was pretty banged up. Her mind was hazy, but she could tell she was being carried and by someone running, and the ear resting against that someone was picking up a heartbeat that wasn't hers.
"Hang in there," she heard Law whisper, and she didn't know if he had realized she was awake or he was only talking to himself, but his voice made her feel safe. "You'll be fine."
He was okay, she thought. He was free.
She wanted to reply that she knew she would, now that he was with her, but she couldn't, so instead, she let her eyelids close again, relieved to know that she was in the best possible hands.
—
The ceiling was white and it reminded her of a hospital's.
It was the first thing Saki noticed when she opened her eyes, which made her feel anxious, because she wasn't on the best of terms with healthcare facilities.
The second was Mack's voice and a curt, "Finally."
Saki turned her head towards him and noticed that her elbow hurt, that breathing hurt, and that her mouth was dry, and before she could ask what was going on, Mack got up from his chair and said, "Don't move. I'm going to get Captain."
Saki sat up as soon as he left, mostly because she didn't really register Mack's order, and tried to recall how beaten up she had gotten for everything to hurt this much. Her thoughts felt slow, something she attributed to medication.
She was in a sickbay she didn't recognize. It housed many more cots than in the Polar Tang, but its only occupant was her, though she saw the bedsheets of another two were messy.
She looked down when she remembered the last time she did, there was a chisel sticking out of her. She pressed against her chest with the hand that didn't hurt moving and felt bandages, and inhaled deeply, which made her winced in pain, and in turn made her left shoulder and right leg hurt at the sudden movement.
She was pressing on her shoulder and testing the arm's mobility slowly, and careful not to do anything weird with the IV attached to it, when Shachi stomped his way into the sickbay, sporting a bandaged nose that forced his sunglasses too high up to be comfortable.
"Yo! I thought you'd be out cold longer."
He sounded congested, but Saki was too confused to derail the conversation to poke fun at him. "How long has it been?"
"A few hours since we left the island. It's morning."
Saki idly thought that if this was the only way she could get a full night's sleep, she'd have have insomnia until she died. "We're… at sea?" She looked around. "But this isn't our sub."
"We borrowed a Marine ship."
The words took a bit to sink in, but when they did, her jaw fell open. "You absolute madmen."
"Not like we could fight our way through the island with you in this state." And he added as soon as he saw Saki's guilty face, "Well, we weren't much better for wear, honestly. Mack's the one in better shape. Peng got a fracture too, and Captain had gotten shot—"
That got through her brain faster. The succession of surprises was doing a good job waking her up. "What? How is he?"
Shachi held his hands up to stop her. "Well enough to clear most of the way to the ship. He took out the bullet himself when we started sailing." And he added casually, "I'll never get used to seeing limbs fly, by the way."
Saki was of the same mind. "And what about the others? Are they in the Polar Tang?"
"They are, and we'll join up when we make land," Law said, entering the sickbay. Even though Shachi had said he was fine, she felt better at seeing it with her own eyes. "I've been talking with Bepo over Den Den Mushi. It seems the Log Pose only took a few hours to set in that Marine base, so we should be headed the same way."
Saki thought for a moment, trying to put all the info in order. After a small pause, she realized something. "If Bepo isn't here, who's at the helm?"
Law and Shachi looked at each other for a second.
It was Shachi who spoke. "Remember that guy we found in the dungeons?"
She did, but she didn't want to. "No," Saki replied, hoping it wasn't true.
"That one."
"He knows what he's doing," Law continued, "and Bepo's been saying for a while he needs help in the bridge, so he's staying."
"Makes sense," Saki said without any enthusiasm. Then she tried to wave her left arm at Law, felt a powerful sting because she didn't remember she had a wound, and resorted to pointing at the IV with her other hand. "Can you take this out, please? I'm making an effort not to look at it."
Law rolled his eyes, but checked the solution bag and he seemed fine with whatever he saw, so he walked next to her. He hadn't touched the IV yet when Shachi said a bit too loudly, "Uh, I'll be going, bye!" and left the sickbay.
"I know that feel," Saki said under her breath.
"Lie down," he said. "I don't need you passing out."
"Right, right," she said, and with a lot of pain she obeyed and kept her eyes closed, just in case.
"You needed a blood transfusion earlier," Law commented. The statement was devoid of emotion and she didn't know if that was meant he was okay with it, or that he was mad and trying to keep it to himself.
"Was it that bad?" She asked, worried about the answer.
He considered his words. It looked like he didn't want to say what he was thinking. "Could've been worse."
That wasn't a good sign. She opened her eyes when he was done fiddling with the needle. "Are you angry?"
He glanced at her briefly and let out a small sigh before replying, "Not at you, no."
Saki hadn't expected that answer, but thought that maybe it wasn't best to ask who he was angry at. "How are you? Shachi said you got shot."
It wasn't very obvious, but he had a slight limp when he moved.
He lifted an eyebrow at her. "Worrying about others in your state?"
"Well, you worry about everybody, and Bepo isn't around to worry about you."
"So you're taking his place?"
"Sorry not to be nearly as fluffy, but you are concerning."
He smiled a bit at that. "You are, sometimes."
She blinked a couple of times before realizing what he was getting at. "…Hey. That wasn't a compliment."
"Take it how you will."
She made a face at him, but he looked more at ease now, and the questions in Saki's mind kept piling up as she slowly recounted the events of the day before. "How's Mack doing?"
He took the IV bag from the stand and brought it to another part of the sickbay she couldn't see behind a partition. "Hard to say. You know how he is."
"He seemed upset when I woke up."
"He's upset in general, I think."
Saki sighed. "I didn't want to hurt his sister, but—"
"Actually, that's something I wanted to talk to you about. Are you awake enough to remember this conversation?"
Saki kept quiet as Law came back into view. "What's wrong?"
He crossed his arms at a distance from her cot and regarded her clinically. "Did you fight her seriously?"
She watched him, baffled as to why he was asking that. "Law, if I hadn't, I'd be dead."
Something softened in his demeanor when she said that, but he insisted. "You didn't go easy on her because she is Mack's sister?"
Saki rubbed her forehead with her good arm. "Maybe? I hesitated for a moment, but that was it." She was too tired and medicated to undergo a third degree. "I didn't want to kill her, but I didn't want her to get any of you either. I can take hurt feelings over injured friends."
"Why did you send Mack ahead?"
"I couldn't run very well and I figured you could use the reinforcements, with the other two officers going after you. And it would've been dangerous to let Marina meet up with them. That's why I stayed."
"And what about you needing reinforcements?"
"I knew you'd come for me soon."
Law frowned. "What if we'd been held up?"
Saki tried to shrug, but instead she winced. "Better one down than four of us."
He sighed. "You can't be so reckless."
"I don't think I was," she retorted. "I mean, I know that it's your job to keep us safe, but it's the crew's job to keep you safe. Priorities."
It was a pretty ugly conflict of interests, now that she thought about it, and judging by Law's surprised face, he hadn't thought about it like that, either, but he seemed to accept Saki's reasoning.
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure."
Pleased that she wasn't going to get scolded, for a chance, she smiled, until she remembered she hadn't asked the million beli question yet. "What happened with Marina? Did she go after you when I was knocked out?"
"She was still in the hallway when we got there, but she wasn't trouble."
"I find it hard to believe that she didn't fight even harder to get Mack back."
Law shook his head. "I'm sure she wanted to, but I took her heart hostage."
"You… oh." She recalled the day when he had taken her heart out of her ribcage out of the blue. She couldn't think of a more iconic way to start a working relationship. "That would be so poetic if I didn't know it was literal."
"Mack's keeping it," he told her, and he didn't sound particularly happy. "It was the best I could do without killing her."
"When I grow up I want to be as resourceful as you."
Law smirked at her and just said, "All in all, good job. Just don't do it again."
Saki tried to laugh at that and immediately regretted it, having to be content with flinching at the sharp pain that came from her chest. It was the side that didn't use to hurt, so that a novelty.
"Yeah, I wouldn't do that if I were in your place," he said.
"You don't do it that much in your place, either."
He looked at her sideways and went on with his business in the sickbay.
Saki relaxed against the mattress while Law moved things around. She didn't mind the silence; but staring at the ceiling, she was thinking that it was sort of weird to have a sickbay talk in a place that wasn't the sub, and she wondered if he felt the same way. It was then that she remembered something odd about the fight. "It was like time stopped."
"What do you mean?"
"Fighting against Marina. I suppose it was because I was in a pretty bad shape," she hurried to say. "But it was almost like I could see her move before she did. I was sure I'd win at the time. I've never been able to concentrate like that before. Has it happened to you?"
He stared at her with curiosity. "No."
"Hm…"
The stare didn't cease, so obviously, afterwards came the question. "How come you ended up like this if you were doing so well?"
"I… sort of got distracted for a sec."
Law eyed her with suspicion, waiting for her to continue.
She had the feeling that she wasn't going to get praised for this one. "You know the bangle Banu gave me in Qaryn? It snagged and I dropped it."
"You got distracted over that?"
"It was just a split second, I swear!"
Law spoke with a mix of concern and disbelief. "Being a bleeding heart is going to kill you someday."
"…Won't you be there to stop me?" She said, trying to be charming and ready to be suffocated by a pillow. Deservedly so.
But he was feeling charitable. "Do I have a choice?"
And Saki almost laughed again, but she stopped herself in time that once.
"Rest," he said. "You need it. And don't even try to get out of bed."
"…I won't deny I'm curious about the ship, but I don't think my body will agree if I try to move."
"Good. Listen to it for a change."
She nodded lightly. "Am I going to be stuck here for long?"
The immediate reply was a glare. "How many times are we going to have this conversation?"
"…Every time I get hurt?"
And then she remembered the last time they'd bickered about this, when she got the flu and he got so close, and her brain maybe lingered for too long in that image and she decided that getting comfortable against her pillow and closing her eyes was the most dignified out she had at the moment.
He mumbled under his breath, "What am I going to do with you?" A question that she was certain he didn't expect an answer for, because he followed it up by, "I'll be back later" and walked away.
Saki didn't doubt he was, but by then, she had fallen asleep again and didn't notice.
—
She was free and, most importantly, able to move, the next day. In that span of time she had received visits from Penguin, Shachi and Law, but she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Mack, and the worry that he was mad at her intensified.
She couldn't blame him. She was sure she'd have been outraged if a crewmate had hurt her siblings.
So the first thing she did when Law released her was roam the ship, slowly, because she had no other option with her right leg protesting at each step, and try to find where the galley was. She was determined to stake out the place if Mack wasn't around if it meant she'd be able to talk to him. He deserved an apology.
What for, she wasn't sure. In fact, if she had taken some time to think about her reasons, she could have reached the conclusion that she wanted to apologize because it would make her feel better, and not necessarily because she regretted anything she had done.
But she may have done something wrong she wasn't aware of, and she knew for certain that she had worried Mack. That was surely worth apologizing for.
The ship was bigger than she had thought. Even knowing that Marine battleships were big, walking inside one was a different experience altogether than watching them from afar. The only vessel she had spent any amount of time in – that she could remember, anyway, since at least the first days of her life had been spent at sea – was the Polar Tang. The submarine was part metal, part wood, kind of narrow and claustrophobic when they spent too much time underwater, but overall cozy once she got used to it. This ship was much wider, and emptier, and made her feel completely out of place and also very grateful that Law wasn't the kind of guy who wanted a big-ass float with an equally humungous crew.
After much stumbling about, enough trial and error to find the quarters where the guys had holed themselves up in, and a few undignified stops to sit down on the hallway when her leg said no more, Saki found the mess hall. It was easily three times the size of the Polar Tang's and she felt very lost when she got in, but then she detected the smell of something cooking and followed the trail.
The galley was also disgustingly big and could have easily held ten cooks instead of two and a random visitor – there was always one – fighting for personal space. Mack was working on the stove furthest from the door, and he hadn't turned around to see who was approaching, not that he ever did.
Saki knocked on the doorframe to catch his attention, and he only threw a glance at her and a small nod before turning to the pot.
"Hey. It's been a while," she started, and since she got no reply, she continued, "How are you doing?"
"I'm peachy," he said very unconvincingly.
The only sound in the room was of whatever Mack was stirring in the pot.
Maybe an offer to help would ease the mood. "Do you have any potatoes for me to peel?"
"Not right now." He stopped to look at her now. "Can you, though?"
"Oh, sure, my right hand's just fine!" She lifted it and wiggled her fingers. "What's on the stove?"
"Pumpkin soup," he said, lowering the intensity of the fire and putting aside the spoon. Saki kept to herself her comments opinions about the dish. "Shachi is still having some trouble chewing."
"He looked much better today," she replied, glad that he wasn't cutting their chat short. "It's a good thing we have Captain around."
"Yeah."
And silence fell again.
Undeterred, Saki felt compelled to break it. But from far away, just in case Mack had a good throwing day. He certainly sounded moody. "I'm sorry."
This time he stared at her in confusion, and she wasn't sure why, but then he asked, "What about?"
And since she hadn't thought about all those things she could have thought before starting the conversation, she had to improvise now. "About… you know, your sister."
Mack looked like he didn't want to be talking about that. "That wasn't your fault."
"I didn't mean to hurt her." This was a half-truth, but it wasn't a lie that she'd rather have not hurt her.
He waved her concern away. "Mari's gotten hurt worse putting together the luminous sign at the inn."
Mack wasn't the kind of guy to keep his anger in once confronted, but Saki couldn't fathom why he seemed to be so worked up if he wasn't angry at her. "And her heart?"
"I'll keep it safe until I can return it to her. Truth be told, I didn't expect Captain to be so considerate." And with some distaste, he added, "My former captain wouldn't have been, for sure."
"I'm sure he didn't want to hurt her, either," Saki replied.
Mack stared at her for a few heavy seconds with a blank expression. "No, you wouldn't be so sure if you'd seen him."
Saki was at a loss for words for a moment. It stood to reason that Law didn't want to hold back against an enemy that was putting them all at risk, but she was Mack's sister. It had to count for something, and she guessed it had, if her heart was still beating and in Mack's hands.
"What's going on, Mack?" She asked at last.
He shook his head slowly. "That's what I'd like to know. We talked afterwards," he said, and he scratched his curls with discomfort. Saki wasn't used to seeing him like this. "Captain and I, when he was done fixing everybody. He told me to remember what side I was on."
Oh. It made sense that he would warn him, but she didn't get the feeling that Law had been mad at Mack. "But he trusts you."
"I know that. It wasn't a threat. And I know where I want to be."
"…So then?"
"There was something Mari said that…" The sentence drifted and he got lost in thought. There it was, whatever was eating at him.
"Was it that argument you were having when I got there?"
"Yeah."
"Can I help?"
Mack looked lost when he looked at her. "No, I don't think so. I need to talk to her if I want to set things right. And she has to listen."
"That sounds complicated."
"You don't know half of it." Anyway, he said, changing the subject suddenly. "I am sorry. I shouldn't have left you alone. I should've fought with you, but—"
Saki put up a hand in front of her. "Wait, no, stop right there. No one should ever make you lay a hand on your family."
"But I have to defend the family I have now, have I not?"
Saki faltered and her shoulders dropped. It was foreign to hear someone of the crew consider her family, even if she had told Law something along the lines before. "You did."
Mack let a wry smile show. "I could've done better."
"And I could not have gotten stabbed in a lung, but you know, shit happens."
Mack covered his mouth to hold back a snort and turned around to check on the soup. "You say you're up to peeling potatoes?"
"Sure."
He pointed to a cabinet. "Then get me a handful of carrots and chop them. The rest of the crew will riot if there's only soup."
Saki chuckled. "I don't like that we're separated right now, but I'm really glad I ended up on your team. Heaven knows what the other guys are eating."
"They better not get sick while I'm not watching or I'll use them for throwing practice."
Saki thought he had a knack for doing it anyway, but it was wise not to mention it. "I'm sure Captain is of the same mind." She reached for the carrots and, after selecting the ones that looked better, said, "Chin up, Mack. We'll find a way for you to talk to Marina."
He sighed like he was very, very tired.
"No, really! I get it, family's important. We've got to try to clear things up."
Driving a hard stare at her, he replied firmly, "Only, and only if it's possible. No putting yourself or anybody else at risk."
"That's gonna be difficult, but if it's what you want—"
"It is. Captain's right. I have to remember which side I'm on. For better or worse, I've made my choice." He paused. "And I don't doubt it was for the better."
"I think so too, but I'm biased like that."
He bit back a smile. "C'mon, get back to work. You've been lazing for long enough."
"I won't argue against that. I was itching to get out of bed."
"Are you ever—" He stopped, and Saki turned around too to see Law near the door. "Hi, Captain."
The random visitor, Saki thought.
Law nodded at him, and then at Saki, who smiled at him. Apparently satisfied with whatever he had seen, he said, "Just checking in. I'll leave you to your own."
And, same as he had come, he went quietly.
"Mother hen," Saki said loud enough to be heard outside the galley.
The steps hurried after that and a knowing smile made its way to Saki's face.
"He's…" Mack began to say. "Well."
"Yeah," Saki agreed, taking a knife to the first carrot.
"Hm."
But Mack seemed to feel better after that, and the atmosphere of the crew went back to normal. At least, as much as it could with half of their companions in another ship, but solving that was only a matter of time. Saki couldn't wait to reunite with Bepo and the others and be back home. And, in the meantime, the company wasn't half bad.