"Stupid peacock, what do you think you're doing!" yelled the blonde Cavendish. Unfortunately, Bartolomeo didn't seem to hear him. He'd woken up wrapped in chains, which was uncomfortable to say the least. His hair was a mess, his clothes were wrinkled, and there were definitely a few grease stains on them. Wherever the green Mohawk haired man had gotten those chains, he definitely hadn't washed them.
Then the asshole had gone and lost the goddamn keys.
The green-haired punk was standing just out of reach of Cavendish's kick, and picking his goddamn nose.
"Sorry, Cabbage –"
"IT'S CAVENDISH!"
"—but I don't know where it is. We're probably safer with you there, though—"
"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN YOU—"
"Um… Mr. Pirate?" said a feminine voice from just outside the room. Cavendish turned from a glare to a smolder. This place was teeming with attractive young ladies.
"I, um, found this when I was cleaning this morning…"
Cavendish smiled warmly at the woman, inviting her closer. In her hand was a single key. "My dear, what a wonder you are. I believe that was exactly what I needed. Please, unchain me so that I might wring that filthy man's neck."
She shyly stepped forward while Bartolomeo stuck out his tongue at Cavendish, this time digging wax out of his ear.
In moments, Cavendish was up and stalking towards Bartolomeo, his rapier in his hand, ready to –
Huh. That was strange. He turned to the young maid who was busy collecting the chains in a neat pile. "Excuse me, but… is there a feast today?"
Bartolomeo lit up at the thought of a feast, his eyes aglow and sputtering nonsense about Straw Hat waking up early.
The maid shook her head. "No, my lord. Princess Violet has requested it for a patient of hers."
"Ah! Luffy-senpai~!" squealed the exuberant Bartolomeo, and he proceeded to dash out of the room, following an enormous tray of food. Cavendish shook his head, but figured he should also greet Straw Hat. Well, as soon as he had cleaned himself up. He procured a brush and washcloth from the maid before she left, and cleaned himself to the best of his ability in a nearby bathroom. As he left the bathroom, another tray of food walked by, and he followed it to a side room just off of the main entrance hall. He held the door for the man burdened by the food, and paused.
Wait. That wasn't Straw Hat.
Bartolomeo was currently sitting by the bedside of a very ill looking young woman. She practically looked like a skeleton underneath her nightgown, and was listening politely to Bartolomeo as he regaled her with a much-embellished story of the events the day before. Cavendish narrowed his eyes. There was something odd about this woman.
First, Princess Violet was there, handing her food items to eat, holding a glass of water and sitting opposite of the door. The Princess was waiting on this sickly woman.
Second, the woman looked not only ill and severely malnourished, but there was something… otherworldly about her. Cavendish approached slowly, not sure what it was that was bothering him. All of his instincts were on edge for a bedridden woman with a surprisingly large appetite.
Violet greeted Cavendish with a warm smile before standing up.
"Bartolomeo, could you help her for a while? I'm afraid I have some other duties to attend to. I'll send someone to take over in a short while."
Bartolomeo nodded, barely pausing in his wild retellings. Cavendish listened, arms folded across his chest as he studied her. It was when she looked up, into his eyes, that he caught his breath.
Her eyes… they were not a single color. He supposed they were green, yes. But there were specks of other colors in there, specks of blue, brown, gold, and black. Her expression was dazed, and she had a small smile tucked into the corner of her thin lips. She might have been pretty once, but whatever she had gone through had stripped her of whatever prettiness she once had. Her hair, where it wasn't bald, was just barely touching her shoulders.
"The two faced man, come to play…" She giggled. Her voice had been as airy as her expression, but something about it chilled Cavendish to his bones. Bartolomeo seemed none the wiser, and she returned to eating while politely seeming to listen to his stories.
Cavendish folded his arms in front of him to keep himself from drawing his sword, and leaned against the wall. This… woman. There was something unnatural about her.
He continued to observe her, telling himself that he was intrigued and not because he had any desire to protect the stupidly ignorant man in front of him. He was so focused that he even let Bartolomeo call him Cabbage twice before he interrupted and hit the dipshit. She simply giggled. She never stopped eating, and whenever her food plate started to dwindle, another servant would come in with another large plate of food, almost perfectly timed for her to start eating again. It was probably an hour or more before she put down her food and touched Bartolomeo gently on the arm.
"Not today, no, but tomorrow. Yes. Be prepared. You'll take me, too. Start gathering supplies, make your plans, be ready."
And with that, she went back to eating. Was it just his imagination, or did she have a bit more color to her cheeks than when he first arrived? No, he must have imagined it. Although at the rate that she was eating, he was surprised that she didn't weigh a thousand pounds.
Right around midday, the door opened and Violet returned. She glanced quickly at both Cavendish and Bartolomeo, and gave them a grateful smile. Cavendish pulled out his signature rose – this was why he stuck around. He never could resist a request from a pretty lady. It had nothing to do with the idiot that had made him sleep in chains all night.
Violet walked straight to her former spot on the opposite side of the bed from Bartolomeo. She gently took the woman's wrists, examining both of her arms for a brief moment. Then she asked the bedridden woman, "How about your stomach? How is that one doing?"
She giggled, sending another unnatural tingle down Cavendish's spine. "All better. Just gaining weight now. How's Captain? Oh. Still asleep? Yep. Sleepy sleepy."
Cavendish blinked. Which Captain was she talking about? Was she a pirate, or a marine? His guard went back up.
Violet nodded, then turned to the men and asked, "Did she say anything?"
Cavendish nodded. He reflectively smoothed the creases on his shirtsleeve as the agitation started to get to him, and he repeated what she had told Bartolomeo less than 30 minutes ago. She nodded, and handed the woman a glass of water to drink.
For a moment, Cavendish shifted uncomfortably as he watched them interact. The sickly woman didn't really seem to notice them too much, and started muttering to herself about something Cavendish couldn't hear. She blinked, then snorted, then muttered again.
He shook his head. It was as if the woman was having a conversation with something. And yet, all this time, Bartolomeo continued his story, and the unperturbed Princess Violet wiped her face gently before handing her more food to eat. For a moment, she squealed excitedly about the sudden appearance of food.
Wait. That was it. It was as if they were the ones fading in and out of her perception. That was it. As if they were secondary.
Cautiously, Cavendish folded his arms, delicately keeping a hold on his rose. "Princess Violet, who exactly is this woman?"
The Princess spared a lingering glance to Cavendish, seeming to both size him up and contemplate her answer for a moment, before she went back to examining her.
"Is… When he left yesterday, he gave me a Vivre card for him. I want you to stay here - you won't be ready to go when they need to leave. For all we know, the military could step in at any moment to try to capture them. You need time to heal, and I'm not sure that the pirate life is a good idea for you, anyway."
The sickly woman actually cackled with a mouth full of food before she swallowed and grinned at Violet. Her eyes were unfocused as she spoke. "Right. You think I'm gonna sit here on my butt?"
Violet spared another glance up towards the other pirates on the opposite side of her bed, before she frowned and glanced back at her. "We'll treat you well here—"
"Princess?"
"Yes?"
"Go fuck yourself."
Cavendish bristled at the insult, ready to smack the sickly woman. Instead, the Princess sighed, and spoke softly. "Keep eating, then. I'm going back to help Rebecca adjust. I won't help you escape with us when it is your time to go, so you'll have to get yourself there."
The woman smiled triumphantly, before saluting her with a chicken wing. "Yes, ma'am!"
Bartolomeo spoke, "Should we get Princess Mansherry to help heal her?"
Violet shook his head. "It won't help. I think it is just food she's missing now."
Cavendish folded his arms, and scathingly added, "That and her hair." And her sanity, clearly, but he didn't need to mention that.
The sickly woman smiled up at him, her unnerving gaze making Cavendish fight the urge to squirm. "Previously it was a few internal organs, so I'm glad those came back. It was a little too breezy for me." She laughed at her own joke, and Cavendish swallowed the shiver. She was joking, right? She had to be.
Violet stood to leave the room, stepping around the bed with a quick, parting goodbye.
The bedridden patient stuck out her tongue at the Princess, cheeks full of chicken as she chewed away, humming happily to herself. In between bites, she motioned for Bartolomeo to continue his story.
Cavendish shook his head, leaving the room as soon as a maid came in to help take care of the sickly woman. He checked in later, finally pulling Bartolomeo away to plan how to safely extract Straw Hat when the navy attacked. He could have sworn the young woman had visibly gained weight, but that was impossible. Just as impossible, he supposed, as having multi-colored eyes.
—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—
Law supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that he was asleep for two full days before he woke up finally. When he did, the first thing he attended to was performing the much-needed surgeries on himself. That took up most of the morning. Aligning nerves perfectly and reattaching them, particularly after they had already started to heal, was a delicate and nasty business. By the end of it, he revised his earlier assertion – that fairy Princess with the healing fruit was clearly doing more than he had originally assumed. The rest was just time.
He leaned back against the wall in this tiny cabin, surprised that none of the Straw Hats had stepped on him in this time. Taking in his surroundings, it seemed that everyone had woken up besides Luffy. Well, and the two samurai were gone.
After breakfast, he'd be getting ready to go see Is… but if the navy attacked, he was prepared. He'd already bullied Violet into accepting her in the castle if they ended up leaving before his seer was ready.
He grit his teeth. Fuck, she was so close, and still he couldn't have her around. Now that he knew she was alive, if not well… but he couldn't guarantee that the military would wait until she was fully recovered to get her.
After breakfast… After breakfast he would get her, consequences be damned. He was not leaving her behind yet again.
Just as he was about to ask where breakfast was, the two bumbling buffoons that bothered calling themselves samurai showed up with a huge bag of food. Luffy finally woke up as the smell wafted through the air. Law ate quietly as he listened to the news about the increases in military presence since he'd been asleep. He frowned as he tried to devise a strategy to get into the castle if there were scores of the military at the entrance.
He was just about to get up to go get his seer when Bartolomeo burst in and fucked up Law's day. Motherfucker.
Law gritted his teeth, picked up his things, and got ready to leave.
—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—
Law stared out at the expanse of the water, lost in his thoughts, finally alone. He took a deep breath to prevent him from throwing a fit. The last thing he wanted was for anyone here to guess how much that woman meant to him. Even if he wanted to trust them… well, that just wasn't done, Luffy being the single exception.
There was so much that he still had to process. The idea that Cora-san had… actually loved him, and that it had nothing to do with his secret name still had him reeling. There was the fact that he had actually survived this whole experience, that his arm would be fully healed in a few weeks after being ripped off, the fact that fucking Luffy of all people was this King that he's spent the last two years in anticipation of…
And the fact that the disappearing island behind them held the one person he loved the most.
He knew she'd be well taken care of. He'd made sure of it before Violet made him finally go rest with the others. It was stupid, he supposed, that his chest actually ached. He finally had her within reach, and once again she had slipped through his fingers.
The partying had been almost unbearable. He was definitely not in the mood to party when they were getting further and further away from his seer. Besides, the idea that he had asked Straw Hat along because he was disposable, and he not only walked out of the whole experience alive but also more powerful than he had ever been previously was irony at its highest level.
His gaze softened for a moment as his mind did its usual thing and circled back to Isabelle. His Isabelle. The last year and a half without her… If he cared to, he could peak into the corner of his mind that had literally counted the hours. His crew had continued to talk about her as if she was right around the corner, about to pop out anywhere whenever they thought that he wasn't around, or that he couldn't hear them. Her room remained untouched, even though he knew that she'd never end up using it. Although there were days that he wanted to kill her himself for the pain that she'd caused him… The moment he thought he'd see her again, all of it had disappeared from his mind. All he could think about was the fact that she was there, and that he would hear her voice, see her smile again. He resisted the twitch in his fingers, as he remembered that tiny spark from when he started her heart up again. It wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough to compensate for the last year and a half.
There were footsteps behind him, and Robin's airy voice spoke behind him.
"We can't see Dressrosa anymore."
Law bit back his scathing reply, opting instead for cool silence and hoping that if he ignored her, she'd go away on her own.
"You achieved your goal by taking down Doflamingo, didn't you?"
Well yeah, he did. Although technically, it was Luffy who finally took down that monster.
"What are you going to do next?"
His internal sarcasm stopped briefly. What was he going to do? This was the goal that he'd spent over a decade working towards. Sure, he had been aiming for Pirate King, but that was more as an incidental, not as something he needed.
Rather than answer to either himself or Robin, Law turned away.
"Leave me alone."
There was only thing he really wanted right now, besides a reunion with his crew members. And he wouldn't be getting it just yet.
As he went down the steps, something caught his eye. That was strange. One of Bartolomeo's crewmembers was actually looking at him. Law's eyes narrowed for a moment, ready for the usual contempt from him.
But the man just nodded respectfully, and then turned back to ogling Straw Hat. Law scoffed. Someone was actually giving him some much-deserved respect on this goddamn ship—
Was… Was that chewing behind him?
He blinked for a moment. Luffy was in front of him, so he knew it wasn't him.
There was an audible swallow, and then, "Hey stranger, long time no see."
He knew that voice. Without stopping to breathe, he turned to face his seer, casually leaning against a railing, chewing on an apple. She was dressed in some khaki pants and light green t-shirt, but no shoes. Clearly Violet had tried to make tame her hair on the half without bald spots. It was short now, just longer than his own on one half, with the other half clipped close to her scalp. It was clearly a successful attempt to hide the bald patches. She had oversized sunglasses that blocked her eyes from being visible from others, but he knew her immediately. For a moment, he fought the urge to immediately grab her and lock lips with his wayward seer. In fact, had they been on his own ship, he probably would have.
Looking closer, as she continued to munch away, she was still far too thin. He could tell that leaning against the railing was necessary; it seemed that she didn't have enough strength to do so by herself. A glance behind him told him that the Straw Hats and crew members of this ship were distracted momentarily with their own fangirlness. Even Robin, with her piercing gaze, was distracted by Franky. He was currently telling her "something something super." Honestly Law didn't care.
She was here.
"How did you get here?"
She pointed. "Green Mohawk man. I like Luffy, too."
He fought an eyebrow twitch. Hadn't she called the King her "favorite" at one point? She giggled, and he relaxed. One more glance around, and he reached out his non-injured hand towards her hand, stepping forward just to brush their fingers against each other. It was all he would allow himself on this enemy ship.
She obliged, reaching at the same time as he did. Their fingertips brushed, and both seemed to hold a breath for a moment as the world around them melted.
There it was. A shock of adrenaline, tingling electricity that soothed his soul, grounding him while it lifted him. For a moment, he fought to remember how to breathe as he basked in an utter emptiness of his mind, a state of relaxation he hadn't had since she had first disappeared on him.
What could he say? What should he say? He had thought over the last year and a half of a hundred things that he would tell her, from scolding and scathing to loving and funny. He wanted to make her cry and scream for all the torment, just as much as he wanted to make her smile and laugh. And make her bleed. He definitely wanted to rip into her. His scalpel was just in his back pocket, ever so tantalizingly close…
Goddamnit, he was fucked in the head.
Here now though… He knew the wounds she had suffered at his behest. His mind relaxed and emptied, and only one thing came out of his traitorous mouth.
"… I'm sorry, Is-ya." He blinked for a moment, realizing with surprise that he genuinely was sorry. This was an odd and uncomfortable situation. Law glanced away, suddenly finding the floorboards of the deck quite interesting material to look at.
Fuck, what the hell was wrong with him?
She answered slowly, carefully. "Captain… if anything, I'm sorry. But… there is something you should know. I didn't… I didn't exactly get away scott-free."
"Scott-free?"
"Don't worry about it. But Law… you didn't feel me at first because I wasn't there. The…" She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
"Shadows?" he finished for her, barely breathing out the question, eyes lifting to meet hers again. She nodded, and Law's blood ran cold. Shifting the apple core into the back half of her palm, she lowered the sunglasses. He frowned at the specs of black that had joined the rest in her multicolored eyes. She replaced her sunglasses, and removed the touch of her hand from his. She nibbled on the apple, other arm crossed across her lap, looking away for a moment.
He took in this knowledge for a moment, before glancing back at the others. After confirming that they were still involved in themselves, he asked, "What happened?"
"I'm not entirely certain, Captain. I think I went to live with them for a while. But you know Doflamingo… it was actually preferred. I can tell you it didn't hurt. I can tell you that I'm not entirely certain what happened in that time frame, nor how long it had been, and that I'm sure there will be severe consequences."
"Beyond your immortality, you mean."
Her smile was tight. "Fuck off. I'm not looking forward to that."
"Visions?"
She relaxed, bobbing her head along as if listening to a song. "Always, Captain. Jack will break his crown."
He tucked that bit away for later. It occurred to him that she was right. She wasn't as present as she used to be, nor was she as crazy as she once was. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. He shook his head, preferring to change topic instead of thinking any further on this. "I can't believe the squirt is the King."
She laughed, a bit of tension seeming to relieve itself from her shoulders. "But he's so cool!"
He stared at her for a moment, disbelieving. "You've got to be kidding me, Isabelle."
She giggled, and for a moment, a smile graced his lips.
She was okay. She was laughing her in front of him.
For a moment, her eyes seemed to droop, and she rubbed them with the back of her hand. He crossed his arms, going immediately into doctor mode and assessing her.
"Is-ya, go get some rest. You've a week to recover before we reach Zou." She nodded in understanding, yawning for a moment before she removed herself from her seat and walked into a room not far from where they'd been tucked away in a corner of this stupid ship. He noted the location for later, and then walked into the throng of people to take a seat on the couch. He, too, needed rest. It would be a long road to recovery.
—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—
Law should have been expecting this. He really should have.
Except for the Silver Mine incident (which he refused to acknowledge), the trip so far had been fairly easy. To feed Straw Hat's enormous appetite, his crew members had been polite enough to fish for some of their meals. At the rate that they all ate, and with the rather ridiculous generosity of Bartolomeo, they would have long since run out of food if they hadn't. Law realized that it had to have been provisioned by someone who would have made an accurate guess as to not only which ship they would choose to take them to Zou, but an accurate guess as to how much everyone on the ship would eat.
There was only one person who could do that, he supposed.
The chewing gum that surrounded Law made his skin crawl, so he stuck to the couch as much as he could. It seemed it was the one spot where this germ-infested crew would not stick their gum. He slept in between extreme weather changes where he jumped up to help, as the actual crew of the ship was neigh well useless. He hadn't seen Is since she had first appeared, although he guessed that it was partially to recover her strength, and partially because she was hiding her own horde of food from the master vacuum, Luffy.
Well. He hadn't seen her until now.
It was day five of their journey, and the crew (who had been sleeping out on the deck due to nice weather), was tickled awake in the early hours by quiet singing.
"Jack and Jill ran up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after."
That giggle, he thought. There was only one person to whom that giggle belonged.
"Ah! Miss! You're awake!" said Bartolomeo. He greeted Law's seer with a familiar wave before falling over and trying to shove some gum in his mouth.
Usopp had probably been one of the first ones awake. Law hid his smile. His seer did have a way of making an entrance, at least. He repositioned himself on the couch to watch the show. Is continued the children's rhyme.
"Up Jack got, and home did trot, as fast as he could caper; And went to bed, and bound his head, with vinegar and brown paper."
"Oi!" shouted Usopp, all confidence in his voice and quake in the knees. "Could you not? We were trying to sleep."
All around, the rest of the crew were rubbing their eyes and beginning their day. A few of them waved a greeting to the young woman who was lounging on the railing. She turned her head and spared a glance at Usopp.
"Liar, liar, uso, liar. A God maybe, I'll set on fire…" she sang. She cackled. Usopp paled, and Law couldn't hide his grin any longer.
Bartolomeo looked up at Usopp, "Ah! I brought your friend. She said–" he briefly swallowed his throw up before continuing, "she said she wanted to surprise you."
Usopp blinked. "My friend?"
Franky walked over. Now Is was humming to herself, turned around so she was sitting on the railing and facing the crew. She looked almost back to her full weight again, maybe just 10 pounds shy of perfection. In this light, with the sun behind her and lighting up her blonde hair…
"Oi, oi, this—SUPER— person isn't someone I've seen before."
Bartolomeo blinked stupidly. Robin had untangled herself elegantly from her hammock. She joined the small throng around Is, piercing and observant gaze deducing away. "I believe I may have seen her before. But I don't remember where."
Bartolomeo paled, and the pointed an accusing finger at Is. "B-but you told me the rations, you told me you were following the Captain, that the Captain would be boarding with us—"
Is jumped off the railing and hugged Bartolomeo. "Thank you! I found Captain. Don't cause too much— opps, too late!" She cackled. Law shook his head. She was clearly not nearly as sane as she was previously. He'd have to work on that.
Robin seemed to think for a minute. "That song you were singing, what was it? I've never heard it before."
Is let go of Bartolomeo just in time to push him towards the railing so that he could aim his puke. She patted him on the back. "There, there, mister. There, there. It's a song I know."
So Jack will break his crown. Law frowned. Jack was a rather common name, unfortunately. There were three Kings he could conjure up immediately with the name Jack. Now that he thought about it, hadn't he heard her sing this before?
Luffy was of course up on his fake self's hat, completely unaware of the situation.
Robin had a calculating look to her face, and Is grabbed her hands delicately.
"I like you. You've got spirit. Olivia would be proud."
Robin stiffened visibly, and Law heard a small intake of breath. Clearly this Olivia was important to her. Law filed that away for later.
Usopp had his arms crossed. "W-well… Bartolomeo, what do you mean you brought her? From Dressrosa?"
Bartolomeo nodded. Another crew member brought him a glass of water, and he used it to rinse out his mouth. "Princess Violet was taking care of her. Although… How did you gain so much weight?"
She giggled. "I ate and ate and ate." Is patted her belly. "Ate more than my whole crew."
Well that was true. On a good day she generally ate twice as much as the other members of their crew. Missing as many meals as she had? Well, she'd probably been non-stop eating for over a week now.
Bartolomeo blinked stupidly, before he turned green. Probably at the mention of food.
Usopp nodded. "Well, you can't be dangerous if you are friends with Violet. Is Luffy the Captain you're talking about?"
She laughed. "No, no, no, silly. Luffy is King! Captain is Captain."
This only seemed to confuse them more. Is frowned momentarily, rubbing her head. Clearly, headaches were bothering her.
"Right," continued Usopp,"is Luffy the Captain you're looking for?"
She shook her head, frowning.
"Bartolomeo?"
She giggled, then shook her head again.
"Then…" the whole group turned to look at Law. The gig was up, he supposed.
"Is-ya, introduce yourself."
They all blinked, then turned to Is. She saluted Law with exaggerated, comical movements.
"Hi! My name is Isabelle. Or Is. Something like that. Bad feather guy had me, did not nice things, now I'm here."
They all blinked for a moment again. Usopp was the first to stutter out a reply.
"B-b-bad feather guy? Doflamingo?"
Is froze at the man's name, and suddenly lost all of her silliness. She leaned back against the railing, crossing her arms.
"Yeah. That guy." Her voice had dropped an octave, and suddenly she was her sane self. "Long story short, he very much enjoys my powers. After almost a year of running, he finally caught me. When you guys won, Violet found my body, and Captain helped heal me. Needless to say, it wasn't a good experience."
Something seemed to click for Robin. "I remember you now. A photo of you was circling the black market a while ago."
Is nodded. "Yeah. That was Doflamingo looking for me."
Robin nodded, humming lightly to herself for a second. Then she asked, "What were those powers you mentioned?"
She rubbed her head again, frowning and not seeming to hear anyone. Law spoke to her. "Is-ya, come and sit down before you fall down."
She nodded, leaving the gaggle to sit at his feet. She leaned her head on his knee, and much as they had done at his desk so long ago, she promptly fell asleep. He absentmindedly rubbed her head, using it as an opportunity to do some much needed therapy with his hand. The others stared for a moment, and Law sighed. The electricity did much to calm his agitation.
"Sit, and I'll explain."
The curious Straw Hats joined him on the couch. Law explained how he had original found her, as a slave to Doflamingo on a cargo ship. How he had rescued her from that fate with the intention of pissing off Doflamingo, only for her to turn around and rescue a crewmate. He spoke briefly of her becoming a member of his crew willingly, and that she befriended them all, and then how she disappeared for a year to keep Doflamingo away from them, and sacrificed herself to make sure that Law stayed safe.
Needless to say, by the end of his story, Franky was sobbing. As the only normal one, Usopp had his arms crossed and was frowning.
"I don't understand, though. What exactly are her powers? Why was he after her?"
Law smiled, and tapped his seer awake.
"Is-ya. Tell me about Usopp."
She yawned, stretching as she spoke. "Ah, liar man with the girlfriend back home. You should write to her, you know. She's becoming a doctor to treat your wounds. It's kinda cute, actually." Is grinned, looking up at Law. "Would you treat my wounds, Captain?"
Usopp was currently sputtering and blushing to his roots, while Robin had a thoughtful look on her face. She spoke while tapping her chin thoughtfully with a pen that had appeared from no where. "Interesting. So she can see the past?"
"More or less," Law shrugged. "She sees timelines."
"Is it a devil fruit power?"
This time Is replied. "You guys met Madam Sharley. It's like that, but stronger." She yawned again. "Captain, I've got a serious headache."
"Deal with it, Is-ya."
She pouted. "Fiiiiiine."
Robin was clearly still thinking about something. The woman was far too intelligent for Law's liking to be on a rival pirate ship.
Usopp spoke first. "So Doflamingo wanted her to tell him the future?"
Is shook her head, and then nodded. "Well, kinda? He more preferred the other thing."
"Other thing?"
"Yeah. Can't die thing. That thing."
They all blinked for a moment again.
Is started rubbing her eyes again. "Two more days, Captain. Can I sleep until then?"
Law rubbed her head again, grunting his permission and doing his best to appear uninterested. He leaned his chin on his hand as she fell asleep again, her sunglasses slipping down the bridge of her nose.
"So she's immortal?" asked Robin quietly after a moment. Law thought to himself before he responded. "More or less. She still needs food. Doflamingo almost managed to kill her."
"So she's the one you were watching the water for?" Robin asked, a little too knowingly. Law hesitated for a moment while he mentally kicked himself. He'd been gazing out at the water until he knew Is was on the ship, and then had been sitting or standing without looking out since. Of course a brilliant woman like this would have picked up on it.
Law nodded, saying casually, "She hadn't been well enough to travel, so I assumed she'd stayed behind in the castle. I hadn't thought that Rooster over there would have brought her along."
Robin smiled, leaning her chin on her hand. Damnit the woman was good. She probably knew everything at this point, although Law could tell that the others were in the dark of her being anything besides one of Law's crewmates. Bartolomeo had left the group now and gone to ogle Luffy some more, while Franky still had yet to stop crying. Zoro was asleep somewhere still, Usopp clearly looked satisfied, and Is was resting at his knee.
All was right with the world. The King would defeat the beast, but only with help which he had plenty of. Law would continue to help out as he could to repay some of the debt that he owed before he took the title of Pirate King for himself. Jack would break his crown, they would reach Zou soon, and his seer would be all right.
"Oh, Captain?"
"Hm?" he grunted, glancing down at Is.
"When we get there, don't be worried. Everyone's safe and okay. None of ours got hurt."
Law nodded for a moment, and then Is fell back asleep. She had spoken quietly enough that he didn't think anyone else had heard, not even the watchful Robin (who had been distracted by Franky loudly professing his undying loyalty to his seer).
Whatever consequences there would be for Is staying with the Shadows, Law was sure that they'd face them together and come out okay. One thing was for sure – he was never letting her go again.
—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—
THE END
There will be one more chapter as an epilogue. At this point in the series, since there are so many unanswered questions, you are welcome to either message me or drop a review with your questions. I may leave one more chapter as a Q/A session after the epilogue. The unanswered questions were on purpose – partially because One Piece has yet to finish, and partially because the characters don't know all the answers, so it wouldn't make sense for me to explain it all when the narration is coming from their point of view.
Thank you all for reading all the way through my story. I had a blast from beginning to end, but part of being a good author is knowing where to end it. Anything else that I write would simply be dragging out the ending, and personally I prefer writing fanfiction that complements the main story rather than creating/competing with it. Oda is far too good of a writer for me to try, which we can all attest to since you are reading a fanfiction of his original story.
Thank you again for being awesome fans!
Jenny