Broken

Characters: Penguin, Law, Shachi. Rating: K. Warnings: None.

Penguin surveyed the damage and wanted to cry. Law was going to be furious. Not with him, or any of the other members of the crew, he hoped, but that almost made it worse, because without a clear target he didn't know where was safe to escape to. He tentatively rested a hand on the crackling machine in the corner, flinching whenever its flying sparks of electricity landed on his unguarded skin, and hoped vainly that there was some way to fix it.

Why couldn't Mugiwara have woken up like a normal person, regaining consciousness yet no immediate motor functions, giving him time to calm down before he jumped out of the bed. With injuries like his, he really shouldn't have been able to move, let alone create a new exit out of both the infirmary and the Polar Tang itself. The submarine worked perfectly well without a hole in the roof and while carrying equipment for repairs was a must, Penguin wasn't totally confident they had enough to do more than patch up the external damage to make it watertight again. Certainly they didn't have the necessary equipment to repair such extensive damage to their infirmary, because it was in the safest place on the ship. If an external attach reached it, then they'd be sunk anyway.

They'd never expected an internal attack, and now the machinery was paying a heavy price. It was going to cost a fortune to replace it all, and Law was notoriously picky about his equipment. Penguin wasn't even certain they knew of anywhere in the Grand Line that could meet the required standards, let alone affordably. They were going to have to go on some uncharacteristic raids to get the funds, weren't they?

The shouts of his fellow crewmates had died down, and in their place Penguin could hear the sound of repairs beginning – all external, as he'd expected. With a sigh, he left the decimated infirmary to check up on his nakama. Mugiwara had hardly been gentle in his bid for suicidal freedom, and he'd seen more than a few of the crew fall trying to restrain him. Law was presumably busy making sure Mugiwara wasn't undoing the last two weeks' of work, or dealing with Jinbei (or both), as he appeared to still be on the shore, rather than investigating the damage to the Polar Tang himself.

Penguin was not looking forwards to playing the messenger.

Helping his injured crewmates – admittedly most of them were dazed rather than hurt although there were a couple of concussions – was a valid form of procrastination, right? With the infirmary hardly in a state for patients, he corralled his nakama towards the recreation room, convincing them to take a break on the sofas rather than jumping straight into the repairs. Law had probably dealt with anyone that had been in the way of the Mugiwara-tornado on the shore, but Penguin couldn't in good conscious not check. After all, if Mugiwara really had driven himself back to the brink of death, Law was going to have to prioritise him.

Poking his head out of the door, Penguin could see no further casualties. Annoyingly, before he could slip back inside to return to those he'd already treated, he was spotted by an irate Shachi, who was leading the repair effort.

"Hey, what's the damage?"

Penguin winced, wishing he hadn't yelled that from the other end of the ship. There was no way to avoid Law's attention, especially as his captain was still sitting on the same rock, straw hat once again in hand. A torn divider explained why he wasn't with Mugiwara, although didn't explain Jinbei's absence unless he'd braved the wrath of the Kuja to follow.

"Three concussions and another four dazed," he hedged, knowing full well that Shachi had been asking about the Polar Tang and not their nakama.

"And the Tang?" Law pressed, joining in the conversation. Penguin tried to bury his face in the collar of his clothes with little success.

"The infirmary's totally wrecked," he mumbled, pointedly looking at the horizon, away from his nakama. The surrounding temperature seemed to drop, and Penguin hastily vacated the threshold, shuffling across the deck as far away from the door as he could get.

"I didn't quite catch that, Penguin," Law lied. Penguin knew he'd heard just fine. "I could have sworn you said Mugiwara-ya wrecked the infirmary." Hiding would do him no good, so with one last sigh, and a prayer to anything benevolent that might be listening that Law wouldn't go completely crazy, turned to face his captain.

"The ceiling is obliterated," he reported. "All the machines are shattered, as are half the beds and the operating table. The electrics fried, leaving it with no steady power supply."

Straw hat still clenched in his hand, Law sprinted inside. Less than a minute later there was a cry of outrage, followed by the tell-tale blue glow of a Room, presumably as Law attempted to piece back together anything that could be saved. Penguin decided a safer place to be was joining the loud-mouth ginger in leading the external repairs.

When the Room disappeared, and Law emerged from the door, he made a beeline straight for Penguin and Shachi, who both froze. He bore the tell-tale signs of frustration, and while their captain wasn't one for emotional outbursts, that didn't mean they didn't sometimes happen.

"You two," he started, and they stood a little straighter, not in the slightest bit reassured by his tone. "Next time I think it's a good idea to bring a rival pirate into the infirmary, stop me."

The real reason Law wanted to delay going into the New World: the Polar Tang infirmary still needed fixing. The amount of damage the Polar Tang takes from Luffy's grief isn't clear, especially as by the time Rayleigh appears it seems all fixed up again, but Luffy is a bundle of chaos in rubbery human form, so I don't think it's too outlandish to think there was some reasonably serious internal damage.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari