Back with another chapter and all that. Most updated version is on Archive of our Own (Ao3), my UN is the same. I'm honestly too lazy to update them here too lol

I'm starting over again

Can I get it through my head

'Cause I'm on the ground

"Empty" by Day Wave

Chapter 7

Naiya wiped down one of the booths quickly. She'd been working at the diner for almost a week. She'd gotten to look at several news clippings from earlier that year. Coda hadn't really questioned it when she asked about them, probably assuming she was interested in recent events. He had had one about "Fire Fist" Ace's execution. Naiya, at first, was just drawn to the article. It felt like something she knew about, but she was struggling to even remember a single detail. She read the article over and over whenever she got the chance. She read the pieces about it so much that she had a dream about it that felt so real it had to be.

The devastation Teach wrought that day... it had not only terrified her, but it altered her whole world view. It had been a war at Ace's execution, and Naiya had not been on the side she had wanted to be. Her hands had shook when she saw Teach consume Whitebeard, enraged and broken by the death of his son. She had felt her hand burn as black blossomed across it when her resurrection fruit brought Teach back to life. It hadn't been the first time she had brought someone back from death from a distance. Teach had made her bring back two other people from the brink before he had tried this. Naiya had been familiar with the pain of her lifespan shortening to revive another. It didn't make it hurt less.

When Naiya had heard Teach laugh, realizing he had absorbed Whitebeard's devil fruit powers as well, that this had all been planned. Teach was going to kill people indiscriminately merely for their devil fruits. Naiya felt herself shaking in terror. She had to get away from her brother. Now she was merely all the more terrified of being found by her brother. She couldn't allow it to happen. He would kill more and more people until she herself was killed as well by his greed.

Naiya was both sad and glad to have that memory back. It was an important one. It was the reason for the spot on her hand. She didn't want to resurrect her brother ever again. It was why she had tried to kill herself. She hadn't thought that she would be able to hide from him. At the time, Teach had been closing in on her location, since she hadn't been able to leave the Grand Line. No one but pirates and marines were brave enough to sail to a new sea, and neither were likely to help her. Naiya had seen no other way out. She had to bite the bullet. She was scared of dying, but she was more scared of what Teach might do if he got a hold of her again.

With this weighing on her mind, Naiya was ready to leave the island. She had spoken to one of the merchant ships about hitching a ride to the next island for 400 beri. It was a lot of money, but she had to keep moving if she wanted to stay off Teach's radar. He would find her if she stayed put for too long. Word would get around.

"Naiya, can you go ahead and open up?" the owner, Coda, asked her.

"Of course," she smiled at him and moved toward the front of the store to unlock the door and flip the sign over, "You remember I'm leaving tomorrow, right?"

"I can't convince you not to?" he asked with a slight smile.

"Nope, no way," Naiya responded, and he laughed, his blonde hair falling back off of his face as he did. She smiled slightly, brushing out the skirt she was wearing.

"Too bad, a cute girl brings in more patrons," Coda said, flourishing his words with a wink he thought was smooth. Naiya snorted at that. Coda had been courting her since the first couple of days she had started working for him. He was a nice guy... but she just wasn't interested. Beyond that, there was no way she could even manage a relationship at the moment. It would just endanger the other person's life.

"I doubt that. It's almost always the same people in here," she replied, shaking her head, a few strands of it falling out of her bun. Coda grinned at her, wiping off a few glasses.

"Hey, you can't blame me for trying to keep you around," he told her. Then people started trickling in, and Coda had to go start cooking because Fred was sick and his sous chef needed prep help. Naiya fell into the easy flow of waitressing and putting on a smile no matter what was said to her.

At the end of the night, she and Coda cleaned up and said their goodbyes. The tips she had gotten from the regulars was definitely more than usual, and she had a feeling it had to do with her leaving. Everyone in this small town was kind. Naiya stretched her arms, letting out a sigh. She felt pretty good about the following day. She hoped it would live up to her expectations.

.

Naiya boarded the merchant ship, greeting the captain with a smile the following morning. She paid him the prearranged 200 beri, holding onto the other half to ensure her safe arrival at the next island. What Naiya had not been prepared for, was to be handed over to the marines almost an hour after heading out to sea. There wasn't anywhere for her to even attempt to run to. She couldn't swim. Hiding her vivre card in her mouth, Naiya gave herself over. She didn't know how to fight, and she had never been very physically strong. This was her fault for never trying to earn either of these traits. If she ever got away from the marines, she'd be sure to give it a shot this time.

The marines didn't even bother to put her in sea stone cuffs, "She was worth 20 million?" One of the grunts asked his captain. Naiya sat on the deck with a frown on her face. She was almost tempted to stop cooperating, but she couldn't trust them to not beat her within an inch of her life. She was better off staying silent and doing whatever they asked.

"It was because of her brother, who she had been aligned with at the time, and I wouldn't be too comfortable. No one knows what devil fruit power she has... just that she has one," another marine warned. Naiya stared out at the sea. She wondered if she'd be executed before Law even bothered to try to follow her vivre card. She had another week to their month deal, after all. Hopefully the marines weren't in a hurry to kill her. Naiya glanced at her backpack with a frown. A couple of marines were rummaging through it. They cheered when they found her money and then again when they found her panties. Naiya wondered if someone could die of mortification. It seemed pretty possible with how she was feeling.

"You think capturing her will even make the paper then? Sounds like catching her wasn't even a priority," another marine said. Their captain sat on a crate rubbing his beard.

"It'll probably be in a side note," someone else responded, "Capturing a pirate is capturing a pirate. No one has to know it was easy." The other guy laughed at that, and Naiya frowned. She kind of wished she had been able to put up more of a fight.

"We could always use her as bait too," a marine spoke up. The captain snorted at that.

"That's something for an admiral. Don't you know Blackbeard is a Yonko? A lieutenant like me is not up to the task of trying to fight that man," he said. The other marines quieted down at that.

"Then what are we going to do? Execute her?" one asked. Naiya looked up at that, becoming interested in the discussion of her face.

"We lock her up. No one wants another devil fruit back out there," the captain responded. Naiya felt miserable. What an exciting turn of events. She got to spend time in a jail cell. She was in no way excited about that, at least it was better than dying she guessed. Honestly, she had no idea.

.

Naiya had no idea how much time had passed since she'd been brought to Impel Down. She had barely managed to hang onto her vivre card. She'd had to hide it in between her breasts and pray it wouldn't fall out while pressing her arms against them as much as possible without being noticed while they frisked her for weapons. She was lucky they didn't notice it, but then again, the guards were looking more for a shine of a weapon. They had given her a prison uniform, and Naiya hated the itchy texture of it. She was pretty sure she was on the first or second level of the place. She hated the chains around her ankles (luckily they weren't sea stone) , but mostly she couldn't stand how boring it was.

Naiya had hid the vivre card inside the stone wall of her cell for safe keeping. She didn't know if the guards were in the habit of checking them for weapons or not, and she didn't want to risk losing it again. Naiya honestly didn't even know why she was still hanging onto it. It wasn't like Law was going to come and get her out of there, but just knowing she had it and that there was a chance she could be rescued kept her going through the endless days.

Naiya had taken to drawing pictures into the stone with her fingernails, which splintered and cracked from being constantly pressed against the ground to get a pretty bad drawing of Bepo's smiling face. The drawings cheered her up a little though. Naiya wasn't sure that they kept to a regular feeding schedule for prisoners. She'd dropped some weight, and she couldn't really remember when she last ate. She just knew it was stale bread and water in a paper cup every time. The hunger was hard to deal with, but the isolation was probably worse. Sometimes she spoke quietly to the drawing of Bepo before crying when she thought about how she would probably never see him again.

She was tired. Naiya's back hurt from sleeping on the uneven ground. Her skin was getting a strange pallor to it by what she was calling the seventh day. She counted them every time she saw food. Which was likely once a day, considering how her stomach rumbled constantly until the hunger started to bother her less.

After the tenth day, Naiya was delirious with some kind of illness. Her vision swam, and she thought she saw some bread being slid into her cell. She looked at the darkly tanned hand as it left her to die. Naiya wondered if it was normal for people to get sick in Impel Down, or if that was just her. Maybe she had been poisoned. That sounded like something Blackbeard might arrange so that he could get his hands on a new guinea pig with her devil fruit ability. She wouldn't put it past her brother. He used to laugh at her for believing in people, calling her "naive". Naiya supposed he had been right. She could've sworn she heard someone say to her, "I have no need for dogs that bite me when I give them some freedom." It sounded like Teach.

Naiya tried to drink the water, but most of it ended up on her shirt. The bread was too hard to bite into it, so she just left it. Naiya drifted in and out of consciousness after that. She figured she was going to die in her cell. Sometimes her hand razed like it had been set on fire.

One day, Naiya thought she saw Law. She looked at him, but at that point she figured he was just an illusion. There was no way he had come for her. It was such a beautiful thought though. He was likely the only person she knew that could save her from whatever illness was coursing through her veins. The door creaked open, and she barely managed to hear what her Law illusion was saying.

"Have you decided to join my crew, Naiya?" he asked, his tattooed hand was held out in her direction. Naiya's head ached. She couldn't even move her hand. She tried to respond through her chapped lips and dry mouth.

"Yes," Naiya breathed before passing out again. What a beautiful dream.

.

Naiya woke up, feeling significantly better than before. She was in a familiar steel colored room with a mask over her face. She breathed slowly, wondering if she was in a dream. There was no way she was back on the Polar Tang. Even if Law came to get her, he wouldn't be able to take her out of Impel Down without working out some sort of deal with the World Government beforehand. She stared tiredly at the room that looked just the same as she remembered, though there were a few slight changes. There were some papers out on the far wall table. Last time she had awoken there, the place was spotless.

"Naiya!" she heard Bepo's voice say excitedly just before the bear landed on top of her, knocking all the wind out of her.

"Bepo?" she croaked softly.

"I'm so glad you're alive!" Bepo responded, "Law said you're one of us now! I'm so glad!" Naiya felt like that confirmed it was all a dream. Everything seemed too good to be true.

"Oh," Naiya said softly, not sure what to say or how to react. She couldn't dare to hope that Law had saved her twice now. She would be doubly indebted to him, and she was honestly indebted enough, even though it sounded like he was her captain now. So maybe she sold her soul to have another chance, she honestly had no idea. The mark on her hand was bigger though. So it was probably that then.

Bepo left her after he had enough of doting on her, though Naiya had reacted rather despondently. She didn't have a lot of energy to do much of anything. It was a nice bonus that the world wasn't swimming anymore however. After a while Naiya fell back asleep.

When she came to, she caught a glimpse of someone leaving, "Law?" she heard herself say. He paused, turning to come back into the room. Naiya was already starting to faze back out though. She smiled slightly at him, "You saved me..." She didn't hear his response before she was out again.

It took some time before Naiya stayed awake for longer periods of time. She awoke to Law sitting next to her. He looked uncomfortable, yet somehow he'd managed to fall asleep there. Naiya looked at him wearily, wondering if it was possible for her illness to flare up again, thus causing Law to watch over her like this.

Naiya raised her hand up to look at the mark. It now covered four of her fingers. She wondered why that was. What had she revived? Herself?

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Chapter 8 should be up in a bit if it isn't already.

- Minatu

sarge1130: glad you enjoyed that background story bits! There should be more and more with each upcoming chapter.

KitKat24687: I'm glad you're enjoying it so far :DD

"I don't know how it is you are so familiar to me- or why it feels less like I am getting to know you and more as though I am remembering who you are. How every smile, every whisper brings me closer to the impossible conclusion that I have known you before, I have loved you before- in another time, a different place- some other existence."

- Lang Leav