Surrender

Characters: Law, Hawkins. Rating: T. Warnings: Wano Arc spoilers

Law's nakama were strong. He knew they were; they had to be, to survive so long. Penguin and Shachi had been survivors since long before he'd met them, and they'd just proven time and time and time again that the world wasn't going to break them.

The weak one was Law. Law, who'd got his long-sought-after vengeance for Cora-san and was now all too aware that all he had left were his nakama. His third family, the one he knew he wouldn't survive losing.

A cut on the arm was nothing for Shachi. He'd seen the ginger with a hole right through his body, gurgling blood and still grinning as though everything was fine. Hell, he'd had worse just from accidents on board the Tang.

The problem was Hawkins' devil fruit. Killing Hawkins would kill Shachi, then Penguin, and no doubt Bepo was in the firing line, too, for all he couldn't see him. Law wasn't a fool; their organs were, as ever when things got dangerous, safely tucked aboard the Tang, but he didn't know how Hawkins' power worked, exactly. Was there a maximum range? Would a cut through his heart still reach theirs, supposedly safe and sound in the ocean?

Law couldn't risk it. He couldn't lose a single one of his nakama, and certainly not to his own indirect hand.

"What do you want?" he asked, the words bitter in his mouth but better that than losing his nakama. Anything was better than losing his nakama.

"Surrender." Hawkins was not a man to gloat. In a twisted way, Law respected him for that. "Your complete surrender, and I'll allow your crew to leave."

Hawkins thought him too proud for that, no doubt. What pirate captain of the Worst Generation would sacrifice himself for some weak, no-name members of the crew? Law's crew had no weaklings, for all that they'd kept the bounties minimal, and normally that was a boon but here… what did Hawkins know? How far did his intelligence reach? Did he know exactly who, to Law, those three were?

A surrender would reveal a weakness, members of the crew that could be used against him again and again, but Law had no choice. He couldn't - couldn't - lose anyone else.

"Fine," he agreed. If Hawkins was surprised, he didn't show it.

In the background, Penguin and Shachi were yelling, telling him to leave without them. Insisting that they'd be fine.

"You have my surrender," he submitted. "Now let them go." Hawkins regarded him coolly and he snarled, because complete did not mean unconditional and if he didn't let his nakama go then he'd fight to save them, however he needed to. Whatever it took.

This way was just simpler.

"I did everything you asked me to do." The grand total of one thing - surrender. "Now just let them go!"

Hawkins watched him a moment longer, long enough for Law to start working out contingencies, calculating where Bepo might be, how large a Room he'd need to get his nakama out safely.

"Very well, Trafalgar," the straw man eventually agreed. "I'll accept your trade."

Another tumblr prompt! "Let them go. I did everything you asked me to do, now just let them go!" and really this just screamed the Wano exchange to me, so that's what I wrote. I don't know if this scene was included in the anime (if the anime's even got this far - I'm still back in WCI as far as the anime's concerned so I don't know where it's up to), but I came up with something for the off-screen hostage exchange in the manga anyway!

Thanks for reading!
Tsari