A/n: Wishing you all health and safety during these crazy times. Take care of yourselves and each other. We'll make it through this, guys.
parva venena - "little poison"
Half a year ago, as the ship turned for Rubeck Island, a shadow appeared at his door.
"Ne, Doffy, what's going on?"
Doflamingo leaned back in his chair, feet propped up. Three empty wine bottles bumped the legs, rolling pins spinning in their dusty, semi-circle paths. They stopped at the ghost's tattered shoes, its eyes hidden beneath a scruff of gold.
"Context, Trebol."
Steps lurched across the moon-spilled floorboards. Trebol's face shined with sweat.
"I heard Jora spoke with you. That woman's hysterical. Already failed you once and disobeyed you once too. Not worth dirt, whatever she says."
Doflamingo regarded him, unamused.
"Such a nasty thing to claim about family, my Club." The chair stomped upright as he uncrossed his legs. "I'd watch it if I were you."
Trebol stiffened. "I'm merely saying—"
"I know what you're saying. You never say anything else." Doflamingo kicked open his drawer, rummaged around for another bottle.
He pulled out the first one his fingers brushed against and stared at the dusty label. White burgundy. Rosi's favorite when he'd actually been in the mood to partake. They had tossed back a few together once upon a time in this very cabin.
Doflamingo sighed, propped his legs on the desk again.
"But she had a point," he said, more to himself than Trebol, "She was right in a way."
He turned the bottle. "I wasn't listening. And it was my fault."
xxx
(At the outer gates of the quarry town, Vergo scrutinized the torn snow leading into the hills. Even several hours later, his right ear was still ringing, a siren's warble in his skull. The left one was plugged and bled like a stuck pig, swamping half his senses in tarry-black silence. In all likelihood, he had probably lost it for good.
Vergo folded up some cotton cloth and stuffed it tight for the time being.
"Should I follow them?"
The Den Den shook its head.
"They've nowhere to go and I wouldn't underestimate him anyhow. He's a big, strong lad. Would've been at your rank if he'd stayed with the marines."
His scowl darkened.
"I wasn't expecting you to say any of that to him."
The snail's eyes rotated backwards. "Behe, don't get too riled. Not all of it was true. The real punchline might've moved him too much. Gave him ideas."
"He was an obligation though," Vergo said, harder, his own voice echoing oddly back at him, "A job and that's all."
Trebol was quiet a moment, observing him as if he was something quite ridiculous.
"Don't you ever tire of the same delusion again and again?"
"What?"
"Eighteen years spent searching and obsessing and disgracing himself over that buffoon. Fell into all these pathetic pieces when he ran off anyway and an obligation was what you saw there? A job?"
Vergo did not reply at length.
"...What else was I supposed to see?"
Trebol snorted, utterly amused disbelief. "If only Doffy was just a smidge more like you, Vergo. We'd never have had these problems in the first place."
Things crashed over the line. Long nines. The slap of water. People yelled and things thudded against wood. The Den Den's eyes slid to the side.
"Whoop, sounds like it's time to check how we're faring overhead. You get yourself fixed up. Head back to your boat." It grinned. "We'll be meeting our king soon. Aren't you excited?"
Vergo did not respond. He stood there for a long spell after Trebol hung up as well, the forested hills smeared blue in his glasses.
Rosinante slashed across his thoughts again, his features bloodied and broken beneath the weight of Vergo's fists. The thunderous expression, the vivid dying eyes.
Like something wild and enormous crumbling into dust. It was Rosinante's face for only seconds.
And then it was someone else's.
Vergo's flesh crawled.)
xxx
"Your fault?" Trebol gaped. "What do you mean it was your fault?"
Doflamingo scraped a fingernail around the neck of the bottle. Felt a flare of irritation.
"Would it have gotten to this point if I'd known the answer to that, you fool?" he said, "Would I be here now?"
"A king shouldn't ever concede. It is weakness."
He scoffed. "King." The cork popped open. "What king am I? No brother. No brats. I'm king of nothing."
Shock disfigured Trebol's face, made it greenish ivory beneath the moon. "This is completely unlike you, Doffy. You have ships and treasure, connections and influence. An Emperor's interest, a crew to do your bidding. You have everything. I refuse to hear you speak like this."
Doflamingo rolled his eyes, downing half the bottle in one go. The words were far past stale and hardly bore sense anymore.
"What do you honestly know," he muttered, watching the wine swirl, "He's my brother. My blood. I need him."
xxx
Would it be contrived to say time froze for Rosinante in that clearing? Because it definitely did. Froze solid as a block. Airless, spaceless, the two of them fossilized like insects in resin.
Doffy's frame trembled erratically. He was more red than gold, more teeth than eyes. He looked like he'd rampaged his way here from Hell.
The ornate flintlock glinted in his hand.
Rosinante took it in slowly, before steadying himself against a tree trunk, palm flat against the bark.
He wanted on record that he made the attempt.
"Doffy, let me explain—"
His brother lunged.
Dropped the gun instantly, like he'd forgotten he was holding it, and tackled him. No fruit, no words, just ten endless feet of earth-shattering fury. The impact was breath-taking, knocked every bit of oxygen from his lungs and crumpled the world into a ball.
He heard the fist more than saw it. Rosinante rolled in a random direction. Managed to dodge under some god's protection. There was an awful crack, whether from the split of ice or his brother's knuckles, he was too muddled up to tell.
Doffy was on him again, hand flying for his throat. Rosinante kicked out blindly. Felt his foot connect with an arm. There was a snarl of startled pain, before his brother's weight lifted. Rosinante scrambled away, clods of snow flying in the chaos.
His vision spun like a pinwheel. His head was light. He was going to pass out if he didn't get his breath back.
"Doffy…" he choked, "Doffy, wait—"
His brother did not. He shot to his feet again. The ground was cracking around them. The fir trees bent and moaned.
Conqueror's Haki, mercilessly hot, pulsed through the area. Rosinante gasped as it pinned him down, crushed his body into the snow. His heart screamed.
Doffy didn't even look like he realized he was doing it. He opened his hand, Overheat shooting out of his palm. It extended over him, the ruthless slope of a serpent's head.
"Traitor."
And the cord speared forward. So it went.
Rosinante knew it and expected it, and yet he was still frozen with shock then. Still felt that pinch of fear, that moment of sudden and astonished resentment. He was only human after all and it made no sense then that this was how things were to end.
That he'd run nothing but long, hard circles in the darkness. That he was to expire ten paces away from where he'd started. It wasn't good. Wasn't just.
He had never even—
The kid stepped out of thin air. Quite simply manifested in front of Rosinante with his arms out-stretched.
Rosinante went bloodless with shock. Doffy did too.
"Law?" they said and the child's whisper echoed through the snow.
"Stop it," he said, "Stop."
Rosinante opened his mouth to swear. Or maybe just to scream, since he had zero seconds to do absolutely anything.
By a wayward miracle, his brother was more productive.
Overheat curved past the child, blasting into the nearby trees instead. The sound was remarkably glass-like, a thousand china bowls shattering. A cloud of snow and wood dust bloomed. Leaves were torn loose and sent spinning like a juggler's plates.
Doffy's foot dragged against the ground. It drew a groove from where he must've pivoted to divert the attack. His shoulder must've wrenched in the process too by his grimace. Rosinante had no idea how he'd managed it. Didn't care either.
He stumbled upright and snatched the child in his shaking hands. "You idiot kid," he hissed, shoving Law behind him, "You idiot kid, how the hell did you find me?"
The boy clutched the feathered hem of his coat. His eyes were huge upon Doflamingo, over his russet suit and his veined cheeks, his left arm which hung like a segment of frayed wire.
"What are you doing, Cora-san?" Law said, looking at them both like he didn't recognize them, "Doflamingo?"
His brother did not reply. He rolled his shoulder and something popped back into place. The expression was blanker now, less speechlessly enraged. Less feral.
Fury possessed all sorts of faces though and Rosinante's lips pursed into a hard line. He blinked the colorful blotches out of his vision.
"Law, keep behind—"
"It was Trebol and Vergo." He stiffened instantly. Law ignored him, trying to push past his frame.
"It was them," he said again, gazing across the field at Doffy with fear and nerves and the pure, frail hope of a child.
"He's going into heart failure," the boy said, "There's no time."
xxx
"Does a brother leave you behind without a backwards glance, Doffy?"
Silence. Trebol leaned against his cane.
"Does blood judge you and abandon you for doing what had to be done?"
The bottle glass creaked. A sallowness crept into Doflamingo's skin.
"You need your brother? Does your brother need you?"
xxx
(The old ship's cavern was cacophonic, vibrating like an gong with each lit cannon or rifle blast. Trebol meandered his way down the corridor, cane tapping against the boards. His large hand wrapped around the well's banister, his robe dragging wetly behind him.
"This is all over," a voice said to the right, before he could climb the first step.
The Diamond Suite's door was open. Diamante and Pica sat inside, staring at him through the open threshold. Trebol slithered over, amused.
"Behehe, shouldn't you fools be directing the crew?"
"What's the point," Diamante said, "She's gonna sink us eventually. We're headed for Impel Down."
There was another blast. The floor slanted gently beneath their feet. Trebol glanced out the porthole. He supposed it was a valid point. "Doffy'll break us out."
"Doffy will be gone," Pica said, "He'll have broken apart and whatever comes out won't be Doffy anymore. You've killed him, Trebol. And the Family. And us."
A light scowl darkened Trebol's face. "Hmph, you should leave dramatics to the poets."
Pica just glared and didn't respond, glancing at Diamante instead, who rubbed his face. "At this point, I'd rather go to Impel anyway. Can't believe you ever...if he does learn someday—"
"Oh, I'm sure it'll be sooner than that. I told Corazon the whole story after all." Trebol guffawed as they snapped their heads to him, horrified. "Don't you two start as well. It's not going to make a difference now. He won't believe him."
"Why not?" Diamante said, boggling, "Where's this fucking confidence coming from? He's been hallucinating over this guy for over a decade. Probably give his own leg to be convinced none of this shit was real."
Trebol made an amused noise, hands curled over his cane. "Convinced? Doffy wasn't convinced by anybody. Not me or you or Vergo. Not the Family or little Law or that crone Tsuru."
He grinned, coke-bottle glasses glinting.
"It was something far more compelling than any of us, Diamante, and it's been around longer than any of us too."
Diamante and Pica blinked at him, confused.)
xxx
"Get the fuck out," he whispered and Trebol slithered off. Exited without a word in less than a handful of seconds, the door clicking shut after him.
The room was still again. Icy lunar light slipped down the glass and across his desk. The ghost watched him with glittering eyes, kicking its legs against a shelf.
But there was something coiling inside Doflamingo, shoving aside his lungs, twisting his center like a noose. It was a strange feeling and it was old too. Eighteen years old. Maybe older. Visited sporadically. Had no source or name.
xxx
("Fear," Trebol told them, "is like this...little poison. It can creep in through the smallest of weaknesses. A little pain. A little doubt. One lonely chink in the armor would be enough. It's a slow insidious advance and you can push it down all you want, shift it back and forth and around, trying to drown it in denial and wine. It'll still be there. Spreading into every word out of your mouth. Every thought you have.")
xxx
(Law blurted out everything he knew into that cold silent clearing, words almost tumbling over each other in his haste. Admittedly, it wasn't much. He didn't know exactly what Trebol and Vergo had done, except that they'd been parading out all sorts of lies. That all of this was their fault. It should've been enough as far as Law was concerned.
But Doflamingo didn't move. Didn't look as struck by realization as Law had been expecting. Maybe he couldn't hear him.
He tried to edge past Cora-san and speak more clearly, but was yanked back with surprising force. Cora-san's face was bone-gray. He looked beyond ghastly. Law touched his leg, eyes wide, before turning back to Doflamingo.
"Please," he said, "help us.")
xxx
("It will destroy you even if nothing else in this world can. Desolate even the sea. Shatter even the sky.")
xxx
Doffy started to laugh—a low, wretched sound that rattled the clouds.
"So," he said, "a child's lying for you now, is he?"
Rosinante stared at his brother, his arm moving lower to shield Law, who blinked in confusion.
"What?"
"You've some nerve to keep expecting me to stomach this."
"What?" Law said again, "I'm not lying, he has—"
"I'll give you credit," his brother said, staring back at him, "You played me well. Sabotaged my operations, stole my kids, left me again—"
"Are you listening?"
"—and here I was for another half year, conjuring excuses for you anyway. Truly commendable."
Law's eyes widened, a steadily more horrified frustration.
"Doflamingo—"
"Enough, Law," Doffy said, a sharp hint of warning that would've silenced the boy six months ago. Still made him snap his mouth shut a moment too on reflex, before he shook his head and opened it again.
Rosinante stopped him this time.
"Law, it's okay."
The child spun around, incredulous. Rosinante touched his head, pressing him gently against his coat to keep him quiet, while his eyes remained on his brother. He breathed once, a struggling inhale through darkened lips.
"Doffy, I was trying to help you," he said, "I went about it the wrong way. In every way. But I was."
"Help me? Oh, yes, I read all about how you were planning to help me. Your two-hundred and seven pages of an addendum file was illuminating."
"That wasn't—"
"Just save it," Doffy snarled, hand curling and uncurling, "Spare me this bullshit and just admit you've always thought I was a chip on your shoulder. This horrible curse set upon you by the gods."
"No," Rosinante whispered, "never."
But his brother didn't hear him. It was almost audible, all the disoriented pieces in his head, forced together and fusing. "It really does make sense now," he muttered, "the way you'd look at me when we were kids, like I was this...no matter how I tried or what I did. You were always planning on leaving me right from the start."
"Doffy—"
"I fucking...we were supposed to be family."
"Please listen—"
"NO, YOU LISTEN TO ME!"
Law jumped hard and shrank down. Cora-san took another careful, wheezing breath, fingers tightening around the child's shoulder.
"Okay. Stop scaring the kid."
Doffy ignored him again. His hand had disappeared into his pocket. "Think I need help, do you? Think I'm sick? Well, I'll show you fucking sick."
Rosinante twitched when he pulled his hand out again, almost expecting bullet strings or goshikito to come launching at them next. Maybe what was actually produced was worse.
The message tube was black and slender, acrylic-chipped and fragile in Doffy's giant, blood-stained glove. Inexplicable dread pooled in Rosinante's stomach.
"What is that?" he said and his brother brushed the question aside.
"He deserves acknowledgment for being such a cautious old man. Really beefed up security since I was last there. Sentinels posted at every point day and night. Triple-checks on the credentials of any ship coming into port. Maybe it was all the unrest this year on the Grand Line. You did put me in this shit-awful mood."
"Who—"
"Took me longer than expected to get a nibble from his guard." Doffy's white mouth curled. "Someone always bites though."
"Who?" Rosinante said again, with more force, a hint of anxious impatience, "Who are you talking about?" He stared at the capsule. "What is that thing?"
Doffy rattled the container gently. It was a hollow, clattering sound.
"Every weakness Dold couldn't hide, every hole he couldn't cover."
Like a battered can. Like the crisp movement of tied paper.
"Sweet Dressrosa. It waits for me."
xxx
(On the waters of the triangle, the Family pulled yet again towards open sea, foiled a third time from turning back around. Minion Island was barely a crumpled form on the horizon now, only illuminated at their distance by the glowing cage bars.
"You hothead," Pink swore at Gladius, both of them struggling to keep their feet at the bow, "I told you not to start anything."
Gladius braced the rocket launcher on his shoulder, snatching the second-to-last warhead from the crate. Their vessel packed more power, but was heavy and slow, not nearly so agile as the sleek frigates under Tsuru's command. She was hammering them faster than they could reload. She was chasing them out.
"They started everything the moment they tried to shoot my captain." He screwed the warhead to the launcher's mouth. "No, when they sent that rat here to try and do us in."
"Sure they didn't send you too?" Pink said and shoved him, "We're Impel-bound now. We're cooked. Hope you've got a fond last memory of the Young Master, because we ain't ever—"
"Can't you both shut it?!" Jora's eyes glowered at them from beneath the mast pole. Lao G lay crumpled beside her, shattered leg half-fitted into a splint as he moaned. Outer crew members scrambled to and fro around them, pushing the capstan. A couple men had already been knocked from the netting and crow's nest by gunfire, flung into the ocean, never to be seen again.
Machvise emerged onto the deck in a panic. "We're runnin' out! Nothing left to fire in the cannons!"
"Or the launcher," Gladius muttered, glancing at the crate. Pink gnawed his soggy cigarette. They'd never be able to outrun Tsuru and they were no match against her without artillery. Pink wrestled with a few dead-end ideas, before the thought struck him and he spun around.
"Baby. We need Baby. Where is she?"
He got nothing but a couple of comically large blinks. Naturally though, considering they'd forgotten all about her. The Family's eyes scattered about the chaotic deck, razing it for any trace of the child.
But Baby Five was gone.
They could not even pinpoint when they'd last seen her.
"Baby girl?" Machvise called, turning around, "Baby?"
Jora stared over the edge of the ship, chalky with horror. "You don't think she..."
A long nine speared into the starboard side.)
xxx
Law looked up, a hint of nervous curiosity.
"Dressrosa?"
Rosinante didn't answer, his eyes glued to the message capsule. He wasn't ignorant of that name. Nor of its history.
"What have you done?"
"Nothing yet." Doffy rolled the container in his palm. "Still unopened."
His fingers curled over the tube, a spider's legs mummifying prey. Rosinante watched it like a man bewitched, ice prickling all over his nape.
"Give it to me."
"Come take it."
They stared at each other.
"I don't want to fight, Doffy."
His brother's lip curled. "No, just to lock me up instead, hm? Chained and shot up with drugs, rotting away somewhere until I'm dead and nothing. You'll go back to your sunny-happy life, rich with glory and praise, free of me forever." His expression grayed, as if the thought was still sinking in.
"And that was the actual reason, wasn't it? That you ever bothered looking my way again. For your precious marines. Your new family."
Rosinante sighed, eyes shutting and opening again. "You're creating your own stories, brother."
"You have no brother." Doffy spread his working arm, feathers blowing loose. "This is the only chance I'm giving you. You wish to end me? Come do it like a man. Save this hapless, darling kingdom."
His features morphed black.
"Or run away. Run away for the last time and see what happens."
The ground began to rumble again, surface cracks forming. The air thickened and Rosinante forced himself not to teeter like a half-erected tower, cursing at his heart to behave.
Doffy lowered his arm.
"Make your choice."
And that was all. The portcullis slamming down, reverberating. The time for exchanges over. He swayed and tried to steady his own weight.
His legs were rubbery and he was starting to sweat. He probably needed to sit down. More likely would've keeled over. It was hard to say what might've happened if he'd been alone then.
As it was though, Law reached for his sleeve. His bewildered eyes shined, surrounded in feathers, like the shells of bird eggs. Rosinante's nails dug into his palm. He looked back up.
"...the kid first." His grip tightened on Law's shoulder, silencing any words. "Our boat's on the beach. Open the cage, just a part of it and let me get him out of here."
Doffy eyed him coldly. "So you can swan off the easy way too? You live to insult me."
"You know I'm right." Rosinante loosened his hand, resting it over Law's shoulder instead. "No matter what problems you have with me, the boy's innocent. This isn't his fault. He doesn't belong here either. I'm asking you to let him go."
For another flash of a second Doffy sneered, hard and ruthless, before his features loosened. The child startled when he suddenly turned to him, small white-gray reflection caught in the crimson lenses. Maybe there was lingering affection in that gaze, maybe there wasn't. On emotions of that nature, Doffy was imperceptible to him.
They were silent for what felt like hours, shadows twirling over the snow. A silver ripple of eternity. Rosinante stood very still. The terrifying possibility that Law would receive no mercy certainly existed. Certainly sat buried in the pit of his stomach.
He'd operated an entire year already under the assumption that Doffy didn't care for Law's fate. That all he'd ever seen in this kid was a means for immortality.
But you were wrong, weren't you? A voice said, lifting over the clearing, floating beyond the treetops.
You were wrong.
Doffy looked away, face like stone. He nodded.
"The boy can go," he said, "and whether you return or not will be my answer as well."
xxx
(They trudged past the ancient chalet and back through the notch-marked woods. Down the sloping snowdrifts and onto the frozen north beach.
The corpses of Barrels pirates lay strewn over the dunes. Gunfire pock-marked the dark red sand. Bullet casings washed ashore like polished, silver beris.
Their boat was gone. Swept away by violent waves.
Close by, with the tread marks of something that'd rolled down from the hills, two roundish objects sat trapped in a bed of seaweed. They lulled back and forth with the tide. Something brown and wispy on them like hair.
Cora-san turned him around before he knew for sure. His eyes were grim and knowing, but Law didn't ask him. He didn't care what had happened here, or that they hadn't seen Barrels' men in some time. He didn't even ask what Cora-san was doing as he bent to study a rifle shell, looking towards a large bluff in the distance next.
Law's stomach hung around his knees. Full of the cold expectation that Doflamingo would come charging down the path after them any second. Voice shaking the air, shaking his blood like a bottle of foam.
He wasn't going to help them. He wasn't going to help Cora-san.
How could he? What was wrong with him? How could he?
The questions sliced into him cleanly, cut through all the older, faded lines and opened them up again. He felt vaguely sick and horrified. Like he'd been kicked in the ribs. Like the sun had just burst in his face, all its grayness and ashes blowing past his cheeks.
Something awful formed in his throat and tightened, and Law couldn't differentiate then whether it was from loathing or grief and never would manage the distinction either.
"Fuck him," he said, blankly.
"Kid..."
Law wrenched around. "I'll fix you with the Ope Ope," he promised, wild, "We don't need his help. We don't need anyone's help. He's gone crazy anyway, so fuck him."
Long fingers brushed Law's temple, quivering against his skin. Blue crescents had bloomed over the nail beds.
No time, a quiet corner of Law whispered. No time to leave the triangle. To hide out again. To learn a devil fruit from scratch. No time. No time.
Law slammed the door on it with searing force. It was a stupid thought. Stupid, stupid and unhelpful and Cora-san must've agreed with him.
Why else would he have said what he'd said? 'Take him out of here first?' Yeah, right. If Doflamingo thought Cora-san was coming back now, then he was a complete idiot. They were going to escape. They were going to travel the world.
Dressrosa, in that moment, could have burned.
Cora-san gestured towards the bluff.
"This way.")
xxx
(The cliff was black as obsidian, curved like a crown and softly tressed in snow.
They found the marine boat tucked beneath its shadow, tied still to a cloister of rocks. The vessel was sharp-finned metal, streaked with chrome and cerulean paint and the classic insignia of an anchor. Despite himself, Law felt a pulse of awe.
Cora-san rushed straight to the cabin even though he was wobbling now and had to support himself with the railing.
"Look in there," he said and pointed at an old pirate chest lumped against a corner, remade into a storage bin, "Might be supplies."
Law hurried to obey. Overhead, the cage winked, a few bars pulling taut.)
xxx
He wasn't too surprised when he stepped into the scene of the cabin. Marine boats weren't abandoned on a whim after all.
Webbed cracks stretched across the black control panel screens, arrow gauges quivering loosely on broken hinges. The throttle was half-kicked off, the wheel dented in two places.
Rosinante gave it a third dent in irritation, before leaning against the well, trying to think.
The prow was already pointed towards sea. He squinted into the distance, needing to ward off black splotches and a dizzy spell, before he could manage to focus on anything.
Shadowed and folded wings came into view. A bird nesting on the horizon. Swallow Island. Not more than six hundred meters away. The boat could make it with enough momentum from shore. Something to blast it forward. He was in the middle of an idea when the kid called out and threw him onto pause.
"Cora-san!"
Rosinante whipped around and strode out to the stern instantly. Law was no longer in front of the chest, but sitting in it, his upper body hanging over the rim.
"Look," he said and held up an oversized belt of smoke pellets. Rosinante's brows shot into his hairline. The chest was packed with mini grenades too, along with several pancake-shaped landmines and a tactical launcher.
"And this."
The kid lugged out a large medical kit. It was spilling gauze rolls and antibiotics. A glistening set of surgical tools was strapped to the bottom. A long, narrow syringe was strapped to the lid.
Corticosteroid, the tag said, Developed by the Isshi-20.
Whatever that was supposed to mean it made Law's face light up. The kid slid the syringe free, handling it with the same care one afforded an antique. Clear fluid bubbled up and through the glass cavity.
"What is that, Law?" Rosinante said, and had the dull thought that he was really asking that question an inordinate amount tonight.
The kid smiled though. "For you," he said, "time."
xxx
(Cora-san listened bemusedly as he explained the properties of the syringe. Corticosteroid by the Isshi-20 could stabilize an uneven heartbeat and temporarily repair atrophying musculature. It would offer relief from pain and nausea, stall further strain and damage for a new window of time.
"How much?"
Law's smile dimmed a slight fraction. "It's a small dose, so not a whole lot. A half day if you take it easy." His eyes hardened. "But that's all I need. I'll figure out the Ope Ope by then and make you better."
"You'll learn to use a devil fruit in half a day?"
Law nodded, chin jutted and fingers curled against the lip of the chest. Ignored the thought of impossible delusional impossible drumming in his skull. "I will. If...if it'll help you, I'll learn how. I'll do it in half if I have to. I'm a fast learner." He craned his head, smile growing again.
"Because we're getting out of here together, right? You tricked Doflamingo and now we're going to see the world."
A moan resonated over their heads before Cora-san could reply. One hundred meters away and hooked into the seafloor, the cage bars bent sideways as if pinched by invisible fingers. They were pulled and stretched apart, opening a diamond-shaped hole large enough for the boat.
The triangle glittered from beyond. Limitless and unending freedom.
It was the most beautiful sight on the planet in that moment. More than his imaginations of Zou. More than Rubeck.
Law turned around. "Come on, Cora-san," he said, "It's okay. I'll take care of you."
Cora-san smiled. He crouched down in front of the chest and just looked at him for a while. Like he was trying to memorize something down to the finest of details.
"All you have to do for me is take care of yourself, kid," he said, tilting his head, "Where do you want to go first anyway? In the world, I mean."
Law blinked, having not actually given the question much thought. Somewhere on the other side of the Grand Line sounded good at this point.
"I don't know, Water 7 sounds cool. Or Alabasta maybe."
"No more sky islands?"
Law's eyes glinted, going cold a moment. "No," he said, voice low, "But I wouldn't mind seeing Zunesha again. Whenever it's safe to come back here."
"He's not going anywhere. You can circle back someday."
Law frowned slightly. "Yeah," he said, "we can."
If Cora-san noticed the correction, he made no comment. "It's gonna be rough for a while, kid. Going on the run."
"I know. But we'll be careful, just like we were this year."
"It'll be hard," Cora-san said, softly, "Painful."
Law gave him a quizzical look.
"I won't think so. Not if you're with me."
Cora-san breathed. It was a very deep and careful sound. He looked away, looked back again and then he started crying. Not audibly, or with any force. Not even for long. Just two thin tear tracks that streamed down his chin and were gone.
He stared, motionless.
Big, warm hands cupped his face.
"Law," Cora-san said.)
xxx
"You are...such a strong kid, you know? To suffer the way you have. To lose what you've lost. To be able to say at the end anyway that you want to see the world and give it another chance. Do you understand how amazing you are? How powerful?"
The boy was blank-faced. Like Rosinante had suddenly switched languages on him. Like he was watching a dream.
"Me and Doffy," he said, "We've been trapped in this cage our whole lives. By time and people, by everything else in between. We could never move forward. We were stuck in place. Maybe that was the difference us and you. Two foolish wretches and a child of D."
Rosinante's eyes dimmed.
"I have no right to ask you this, but...I hope you'll forgive him one day. He was born a little broken. He didn't have your strength. It'd mean a lot to me if you could forgive him. Forgive us both. If you can."
Small hands grabbed fistfuls of Rosinante's sleeve.
"No," Law said then, voice tiny, tears blobbing in his eyes, "No, no, no…"
"Shhh." Rosinante wiped his child's face. "Listen to me."
xxx
("Keep going," Cora-san said to him, there on Minion Island, on a marine boat through the opening of a treasure chest beneath stars and a cage, "You've gotta keep going, Law. Don't look back. Not for anybody."
He smiled, crinkled and blood-stained eyes, teeth peeking past split lips, one of the crowns missing.
"You've made me...so happy, kid. So happy. And I know you'll find people out there again who'll make you as happy as you've made me."
His hands fell away.
"I love you," he said, "Everything will be alright."
Law opened his mouth to scream. There was a squeeze before he could, a sudden pinch at the base of his nape. Then everything was distance and stillness, a bright darkness softer than feathers and dust.
A voice, one he'd try to hold onto all his life, pushed him off to sleep.
You're free now, kid.
Free.)
xxx
He hugged the child a long, long time. Buried his face in the dark, scruffy hair and tried to etch his scent into memory. Thought for a moment that he'd never be able to stand up again, before he finally let Law go.
Laid him down gently in the chest and shut the lid.
Then he swept over to the rail and unmoored the boat. The Nagi Nagi unraveled from his fingertips and disappeared into the furling, slate waves.
He gathered the weapons, strapping on the launcher and a belt of smoke pellets and mini grenades. The syringe plunged into his thigh easily, depressing liquid relief. There was no thinking about it anymore. No going back. They were here and this was ending.
He was scared.
But when he walked off that boat, he was also ready.
With a crumbly groan, the vessel pushed from the rocks. It drifted through the diamond-shaped hole and away from him forever. New blue light glinted off the water top.
xxx
Doflamingo was leaning against a tree when Corazon returned to that clearing. His hand, assaulted by a fresh wave of withdrawal tremors, redid the snapped stitches in his bad arm. The wind had dissipated. The ghost had dissipated too.
Footsteps crunched through the woods. Smooth even steps that came to a soft halt behind him. He turned, head tilted over his shoulder. He stood, strings hissing.
"I didn't think you were coming back," he said, with a flicker of surprise.
Corazon's gaze misted over him. It passed beyond him and onto the tree, with its bark smeared wet with new blood.
"I came back for you," he said, "Always have. Always will."
His hand slipped beneath his coat.
"Now give me that fucking message, Doffy."
A grenade was flung at his face.