Remnants of the White City

by Watermelon24

When gloomy baby doctor meets spoiled merchant's daughter it's not exactly love at first sight. But Law is going to find out that taking care of his first patient is harder than expected... What if Law isn't the only one to survive the Flevance tragedy? And what if one day they run into each other again? A Law x OC story.

13. Silvers Lining

Oh, I'm so happy you guys liked the Rayleigh plot twist! It took me long to figure out where this story was going... ^^

And again, thanks a lot Guest666-69 for the Doflamingo heads-up. All these evil, unnecessary letters that just keep sneaking their way into my head...^^

I'm sorry this update took so long. I wanted to keep my promise so badly (Law and Savenna really needed to meet again, like right now ^^), that I kinda messed up... The chapter just kept getting longer and longer so I ended up making it two... Oh outline, my friend, how do I keep forgetting how important you are?

I'm sorry this turned out to be such a mess, but I hope you'll enjoy the next two chapters (that couldn't be one but really wanted to XD). And thank you so much for reviewing and following this story, you awesome people keep me going!

---

"Do I need to put away the sharp objects?"

"That's for toddlers, Rayleigh. But since she cut out the heart of last man she met, maybe that might be a good idea..."

Silvers Rayleigh usually enjoyed company. There were always new stories to listen to and new people to cheat at cards, but kids were something else. Rayleigh was terrified of kids. He had had apprentices before, young idiots like Shanks who he had barked orders at, but everything under fifteen made him feel helplessly out of place. "Do you think the stitches will hold?" he asked.

"I hope so. With almost three years of Amber Lead in her system her body doesn't heal as well as it should. Most of her injuries are old but the metal weakens the scar tissue. It remains fragile even after a long time," his other house guest explained.

Dr Vascul Pulmon was a short man with dark hair, round glasses and a particularly low threshold for stress. He regularly reminded Rayleigh that he wasn't getting any younger and that it was high time to change his lifestyle. However, picking up Amber Lead survivors wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

When Rayleigh had casually pointed to the unconscious girl on the kitchen table, the doctor struggled with a first panic attack. When he recognized the color of her skin, he suffered a second. The former pirate had to serve him a cup of sake before he was able to reach for his medical kit. But once his anxiety had subsided, he transformed back into the most meticulous person Rayleigh had ever met. He cleaned the girl's wounds, hooked her on IVs and blood bags, and tried to assess the state of her condition.

Rayleigh wasn't at his most confident either. The girl had successfully bled over this entire floor, a few chairs and the table cloth he had forgotten to put away. After a life-long battle with all sorts of injuries, he had cleaned and dressed hers in no time. But she had it out for him. Whenever he was convinced she wouldn't suffer any more blood loss her wounds reopened, undoing all of his previous efforts. He almost thought she was doing it on purpose. The old pirate was therefore more than grateful that the doctor hated traveling so much, that he still lived on the same island he had last seen him on.

Finding the girl was a different story. Rayleigh had left Sabaody about a month ago looking for North Blue coating supplies, as one of his most trusted providers hadn't shown up. After sailing up the old trade routes he was more than surprised to find a marine fleet blocking the Flevance passage. The sea which used to teem with merchant vessels, had transformed into a grave yard of rotting ship carcasses breaking through the waves at low tide. The nearby islands were swarming with pirates, and through an old acquaintance Rayleigh had found out what happened. Of course nothing of the Amber Lead epidemic had made the papers. Silver Rayleigh might not be a pirate anymore, but the Wold Government hadn't changed a bit. They still let guns clean up their messes.

"Do you think you can help her?" Rayleigh asked hesitantly.

"Temporarily, yes. Sadly, there is not much I can do about the poisoning," Pulmon replied and frowned. "But there is something unusual about her condition that is worth looking into."

Rayleigh raised a questioning eye brow.

"If we consider that each generation carries a higher percentage of the metal in their system, this patient should have suffered multiple organ failure by now...Which leaves us with the question why she is still in such a good shape."

"You call this a good shape?" Rayleigh pointed at the heap of bloody bandages. The doctor shook his friendly head. "What I'm treating now are superficial injuries. But she shouldn't have been able to rob anyone in the last six months, because she shouldn't have been able to walk or even move. Not according to science, at least."

The doctor was right. The epidemic and the attack on Flevance hadn't allowed for any survivors. So how had this girl managed to survive a disease that had ravaged her entire people? Clearly, Rayleigh knew more about the Amber Lead syndrome than he knew about her. He had questioned the bandits, but all they had heard was that she had fled the White City the day it was destroyed. Apparently they didn't even know her real name. And neither did the other pirates or the sailors heading south. The girl was still be alive but she might as well have been a ghost.

Savenna was very much convinced she was dead. Surrounded by warm fuzziness, she squinted as her field of vision was suddenly invaded by rays of sunlight and Silvers Rayleigh's wrinkly, slightly spaced-out face. Against all odds, she must have ended up in the nicer part of the afterlife. She didn't remember Rayleigh dying, but then who really knew for sure? That man's life was anything but an open book. Savenna wondered if the rest of the late Roger Pirates would show up as well. Maybe if she asked nicely, someone would tell the whereabouts of the One Piece. But suddenly Rayleigh disappeared and a round, serious-looking face took his place.

Savenna scowled.

"Can you hear me?" The voice was so loud she almost cringed. Slowly the bright light dimmed, and she found herself face to face with man in a painfully familiar white coat. "You are no pirate," she croaked unable to hide her disappointment.

"No, and thank god for that," Pulmon said with an indulgent smile as her gaze wandered to her bandages and then back to him. Her white eyes sharpened as an understanding seeped into her mind. "I am not dead, am I?"

The doctor shook his head. She should have known. There was no easy way out for her. When he introduced himself, she couldn't help but stare at him with disbelief. What on earth had made him take her on as a patient? Every Fort Esperance doctor had taken off faster than anyone could say Amber Lead.

None of this made sense. When Savenna tried to piece her memories together, she realized it wasn't her head that was spinning. The whole room was moving in a slow, floating motion. They were on a ship. Slowly her features twisted into a frown. "Wait, if I'm not dead then how come I just saw Silver's Rayleigh walking out that door?"

"Well..." Just as Pulmon was about to explain that the former pirate had been the one who hired him, Rayleigh himself walked through the cabin door with a glass of water. If Savenna's face hadn't already been white, the color would have drained from her cheeks. Paralyzed she stared at the man, her mouth wide open. Silvers Rayleigh glanced at her just as alarmed. "What's wrong with her? Why is she making that face?"

"S...Silvers Rayleigh?" Savenna stammered.

"Yes?" This was the moment when it was up to her to say something, but Savenna just kept gazing at him like an idiot. Brows furrowed with concern, Rayleigh walked up to her and held the glass of water under her nose. "What is it, girl? Are you in pain? Are you hungry?" When Savenna still didn't react the former first mate shot the doctor an angry glance. "Great! She's afraid of me!" he growled. "What did you tell her, Pulmon?"

"Nothing..." the doctor muttered, before seeing what his patient was up to. "What are you doing? You shouldn't get up just yet."

When the blood started returning to her face, Savenna had managed to pull the IV out of her arm and started climbing out of bed. Ignoring that she had almost no feeling in her legs, she limped up to Rayleigh, her face beaming. "I read everything about you! You are one of my favorite pirates!" she revered with admiration before making a deep, shaky bow.

"Former pirate..."

Groggy from the drugs and drunk on fascination she spluttered on, "You saw the end of the Grand Line! You grilled Sea Kings on your camp fire and could smash entire ships with your fist! Oh, and the time you entered a swimming contest with a mermaid..." Now it was Rayleigh who stared at her with bewilderment. "Slow down...How do you know all that?"

"I read your biography!" Savenna announced proudly. She would have shown it to him but it had been destroyed in the Flevance hospital fire with the rest of her things.

"I wasn't aware someone had written one..."

"Two, actually. But that doesn't matter now that you're here! You must tell me everything about your travels! And about Roger, and Shanks and the New World and..." she kept on babbling with stars dancing in her eyes.

"It appears you have a fan," the doctor laughed, glad to see that his patient was feeling better. Rayleigh shot him a slightly desperate look from under the rim of his glasses. And with a smile of distress he wondered what he had gotten himself into.

---

On the second day, Savenna felt the consequences of her exploits in Fort Esperance. Even the bones in her body were hurting. With a painful grown she lifted her head off the kitchen table and squinted at the sunlight falling through an open bull's eye. The air smelled salty. Her white hair now almost reached her shoulders, but it still looked as if she regularly cuddled with a high tension wire. Someone had put a blanket over her shoulders and dressed her in a shirt reaching down to her knees. The floor was still moving, making her vision spin.

"Never been on high sea before?" Silvers Rayleigh was sitting at the other side of the table smiling knowingly in her direction.

"Not really..." She had just enough time to wonder why he handed her a bucket before her stomach twisted and she threw up the food she didn't remember eating. "Where are we?" The room around her was a chaos of food supplies, pots, dirty dishes and random pieces of furniture .

"About two hundred miles south of Flevance," the old pirate replied casually.

"When...How...?"

"You passed out during your presentation of my accomplishments in the New World," Rayleigh chuckled, pointing to the heaps of paper spread all around the poorly equipped kitchen. Savenna froze. Crap. Her old enthusiasm had gotten out of hand and pain medication rarely showed her from her best side. She closed her eyes in embarrassment. "I made charts?"

"And maps. And then you argued why you would have been a perfect addition to the Roger Pirates. You even tried firing a cannon."

"Does this ship have cannons?"

Rayleigh shook his head. "You threw a plant out of the bathroom window and told me to use my imagination. I must say, my life sounds a lot more interesting coming from you."

Now that he knew that the girl was neither going to slice herself open with a kitchen knife nor use it to murder him in his sleep, Silvers Rayleigh had regained some of his laid-back attitude. Her craziness remained on a manageable scale. Savenna, however, prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

"So now that we spent about ten hours discussing my life, it's time we talked about you. Let's start with you telling me who you are," Rayleigh suggested.

Savenna forced herself to sit up straight. Desperately thinking of something to say, she couldn't help but feel that the entire situation made no sense. Why was she here? Why had Silvers Rayleigh saved her? Savenna couldn't give him an answer before getting a few herself. "Why did you help me? You don't even know me."

"I know enough to be responsible for what happens to you. But I need to know more to be able to protect you," he replied.

The childish admiration fled from her face and her features hardened. This was a bad time for jokes. A few years ago she would have sold her soul to be taken under a real pirate's wing, but now she refused to believe what she was hearing.

"Protect me from what? I have only one enemy, and no one can protect me from that." She raised her white arm letting the silver skin shimmer threateningly under the southern sun. Rayleigh was unimpressed.

"That's not what I mean. You used the Conqueror's Haki to kill half a dozen men," he reminded her. "And that is a problem." Savenna remained silent.

"With this power you are both a weapon and a target," he went on. "If one marine was hunting you because you escaped Flevance, you can count on an entire fleet coming for you when they find out about the Haki. And it is my job to keep that from happening."

Still unable to connect the dots, Savenna shook her head. "This makes no sense. Why would the marines care about my Haki? And why do you care? Silvers Rayleigh has better things to do than babysit a bandit girl."

The man sighed. She might have been his biggest fan, but that didn't give him more of a say. "Because not just anybody can use the Conqueror's Haki. And those who do tend to become a thorn in the World Government's side." He needed her to understand what was at stake. This was a whole other level than Amber Lead. "It is not something you can learn. It's a force coming form life itself, from your own spirit and will power. Yours is the same Haki as mine and Roger's, and I believe you know what that implies."

Savenna's eyes widened with awe, while Rayleigh watched her with intent. "The marines and the World Government did terrible things to your country. And there have been other people who suffered the same fate. Letting your power fall into their hands could have devastating consequences."

"And you want to protect me and my Haki?" she asked almost soundlessly.

"If you allow me to," Rayleigh said. "Of course, if you wish to hand yourself over to the marines, you are free to do so. I would never tell someone what to do. It's up to you to decide. But should you choose to remain in control of your power, then I can help you."

They sat in silence for a while, his words slowly sinking in. "It's a little too late for that..." Savenna muttered darkly after considering his proposition. There was hardly enough time left for her to choose any side. Even if Rayleigh was right and her Haki was valuable, there wasn't much left for her to do.

"You would be surprised," Rayleigh objected as if reading her thoughts. "Hell knows how many times Shanks has looked death in the eye. Or Roger. Being king of bad decisions was the first crown he ever earned," the former first mate chuckled. "Haki tends to make life somewhat...unpredictable."

Then Rayleigh got up and walked over to the kitchen counter. He opened the upper drawer, pulled out a small bag and placed it on the table in front of her. Hesitantly Savenna reached out for it. But when her fingers ventured inside, she withdrew so fast as if something had stung her. She didn't need to open it to recognize the hat she had worn while murdering six marine soldiers.

"Your friend insisted that I gave this to you," Rayleigh explained, then frowned at the petrified expression on her face. "Don't you want it anymore?"

Savenna hesitated. Did she still want it? The memories and the pain? When living with the bandits she thought she was finally able to move forward, until everything had fallen apart. Rayleigh was right. The government had done terrible things to her people and it would never stop. If it wasn't Flevance, it was another city. If it wasn't her sickness, it was her Haki. A vicious circle.

If she were to live on, there was only one thing she would live for. To finish what she had started. If she didn't, more people would get hurt and those who were already dead would never be able to rest in peace. With Haki she could finally take real revenge.

Slowly, Savenna's fingers closed in around the bag.

"Alright then."

When she remained silent, Rayleigh sighed. "I have no idea who you are or what happened to you. And you obviously don't want to talk, but at least tell me what I am supposed to call you."

Savenna pondered, instinctively clinging to the object in her hands. She couldn't give him her real name, but neither could she use Lamie's nickname. Both weighed too heavy on her heart. But names were like costumes. They could be changed and shortened at one's convenience.

"S... You can call me S. And I want you to teach me Haki."

Seafood was sizzling in the frying pan when Savenna decided to venture on deck of Rayleigh's ship. Painfully she dragged herself out of the chair and limped to the cabin door. When she staggered outside, the sea wind hit her in the face like a wet towel.

Savenna had never been so far south. Here the air was heavy with salt and past rain. The sun had almost reached the zenith and there were no clouds in sight. She could feel the heat transpiring through her skin. In these longitudes, she would have to find a way of concealing the lead that didn't involve three layers of clothing.

Cautiously, she approached the railing. Looking around she noticed that the ship was nothing compared to the Oro Jackson. There were three crammed rooms below deck, a bridge with a steering wheel that Rayleigh had secured with a rope, and a shaky lookout. And around them, there was no land to be seen, only the horizon drawing a hazy line between sea and sky.

Watching the water ripple at the stern, she understood that with every second she was going further away from what had been home. And when she thought of the task she had committed herself to, she dared to remember the last time she had taken revenge.

Although she had tried her best to keep the images from resurfacing, she was suddenly back in the marine headquarters, the scalpel in her hand, the pulse of her victims in her ear. But as she recalled the power crashing through her body, she was overwhelmed by guilt, shame and horror. For a split second she felt like throwing up. And remembering Law scowling at her under his mushroom hat, she wanted to throw it overboard.

No, she couldn't go on thinking like the Flevance girl arguing with her governess. She had to be tougher. The Major had deserved to die, just as did the royal family, the World Government and Doflamingo. Fetch had taught her better than to chicken out of a difficult job. It was all just a story - a game. And if she kept playing, she would not only make it through, but she would come out a winner. Play pretend was what she was good at. Only this time the person she was fooling was none other than herself. She was a murderer now and she would learn how to become a better one.

Grimly she laced Rayleigh's bag shut. It contained weakness she couldn't afford to feel again. And with a bitter taste in her mouth, she staggered to the storage room and threw the hat into an empty trunk. And on her way to the kitchen, she wrestled Sava into the depth of her heart where she wouldn't hear her howl.

---

In next to no time the suspicious orphan became a spirited, self-proclaimed crew member, and Rayleigh realized that Savenna hadn't been joking. She was as determined to learn Haki as she was to find out everything about him.

When her face hovered above him first thing in morning, he was so startled he almost put a knife to her throat. "Finally, you're awake!" Savenna called out with a hint of annoyance. "Do you always sleep with a knife under your pillow?"

Groggy, Rayleigh pulled the blanket over his head and prayed she would go away. But no. "Is it because you're afraid we get attacked? Do you get attacked often? Wouldn't it be exciting if we were attacked right now and we could fight them off with our Haki?"

"There's absolutely nothing exciting about being attacked in your sleep," he grumbled through his beard and rolled to the other side.

"I can't wait!" For a second there was silence. Then she asked, "So when are we going to do pirate stuff?"

Rayleigh sighed. "There's not going to be..."

"But Roger said you should always be ready for a new adventure! Don't you remember? He was your captain after all. So when will you teach me Haki?"

With a look of newly discovered exasperation, Rayleigh pried his eyes open. It had been over twenty years that anyone had told him what to do or when to do it. But now, he figured he had no other choice than to get up if it wanted to avoid her waving welcome flags at every pirate ship coming their way.

As the day went by, Rayleigh started asking himself what he had been thinking bringing a kid on board. The girl followed him everywhere. She tailed after him, asking one question after the other, waiting for something to happen as if his ship were a traveling circus and he the main attraction. Shaking his head he wondered how a person could change so drastically over night, but he had no other choice but to play along. First he tried to satisfy her curiosity, but every question led to a dozen other questions, and at noon Rayleigh was exhausted to the point where listened only to half of what she said. "Why do you think we have the same kind of Haki? Does that mean we are related? How many marines can you knock out at once?"

He had forgotten how annoying Haki users could be. Shanks had been a pain back in the days. But at least he had been a great deal dumber at that age and spent his free time fighting Buggy. She, however, knew exactly what she wanted and went to obsessive lengths to get it. For the first time in years Silvers Rayleigh had completely miscalculated.

After refusing to reveal the location of the One Piece for the fifth time and having successfully avoided talking about his late crew's love life, Rayleigh lumbered into the kitchen hoping to soothe his headache with a cup of sake. Only moments later she rushed in after him. With her white cheeks sun-burned, her hair disheveled by the breeze and her face marked with a healthy fatigue, she looked almost like an ordinary girl. Rayleigh smiled despite himself. At least she was getting better.

"May I have one too?"

Defeated, he pointed at the bottle. "Suit yourself." For a while, they sat in long-awaited silence, sipping their sake - Savenna overjoyed to be sharing a doubtlessly meaningful drink with Roger's first mate, and Rayleigh satisfied that she couldn't drink and talk at the same time. Later when a scandalized Pulmon tried to wrestle the cup out of Savenna's hands, asking Rayleigh how he could call himself a responsible adult, the old pirate leaned back with resignation.

Maybe he was getting old. He, the fearless Silvers Rayleigh, who in fifty years at sea had fought countless battles, put enemies to flight and survived various acts of torture, was vanquished by a sick, little girl. How ironic. Then he reminded himself that she was everything but a sick, little girl. She was a very young Haki user and a trained thief. Pulmon might fret over her health all he wanted, but despite her childish behavior she was doted with the ferociousness of a grown man. After giving it some thought Rayleigh decided that if she wanted to become stronger, then he would show her how.

---

"Rise and shine!" Rayleigh's voice hollered through the cabin.

Savenna pressed her eyes shut. It was not yet six o'clock. "Go away..." Even though she had taken up the habit of sleeping in a different place every night to get a few extra minutes of rest, there were only so many corners she could hide in.

"Adventure's calling. One last chance," she heard him call from the other side of the store room door.

"Forget it, old man!"

She buried her face into her pillow as he marched inside, but her disguise wasn't half as good as she had hoped. He lifted her sleeping bag with nothing more than a finger, and chuckled as she dropped on the floor between two bags of rice. Groggy, Savenna growled at him. "I swear, one day..."

"You will make my life miserable, yes, yes, I know. Now hurry up."

Savenna cursed. Where did the old man get his energy from? Irritated, she trotted back to the old tool shed Rayleigh had transformed into a small cabin for her and got dressed.

It had been two months since Silvers Rayleigh had taken her in, and one month and three weeks since the death of another childhood crush. Rayleigh had not only turned out to be a boring pirate but also an annoyingly stubborn person. Savenna felt cheated. The more time she spent with him the more she was convinced he knew nothing of piracy whatsoever.

Since she had come on board, Savenna hadn't witnessed a single bar fight, hadn't sunk a single ship and was still waiting for the sword she had been promised. Rayleigh wouldn't even demonstrate his own Haki skills, much less teach her anything useful. She had tried everything; nagging, begging, bribing, hunger strike and was currently considering surprise attacks. Maybe if he felt threatened he'd be more inclined to use his power.

Instead of looking for treasure and fighting marines, Rayleigh spent his days fishing, tinkering on that scrap heap of a ship that was bound to fall apart any minute, and buying supplies without bothering to haggle even though he was constantly short on money. Every time she suggested they robbed someone instead of sharing all the food they couldn't afford, Rayleigh told her to stop being so negative. Negative? The World Government was was just being pragmatic.

As usual, Savenna was in a foul mood when she climbed on deck. Her long hair was braided back, while she got into the habit of wearing gray old sailor pants she had shortened herself, as well as one of Rayleigh's less worn-out shirts. Some of the old bandages were still covering her arms. Even though her injuries had healed, she was still apprehensive about the white skin and preferred to keep in covered.

"I can't go on land! Everyone will know," she had protested when they were to dock on an island for the first time. There hadn't been enough clothes on the ship to cover up her entire skin. And let alone any make-up. The moment they set foot into port, she was doomed.

Rayleigh hadn't shared her concerns. "We've already reached the southern half of the North Blue. I doubt anyone here has heard of Amber Lead, much less seen any of it."

Savenna remained unconvinced "Did you even look at me? I am a freaking ghost, Ray! Don't you think people will suspect something?"

The old pirate stared back at her and when he realized she was serious, he laughed lightheartedly. For all the things she pretended she knew, she hadn't really seen much of the world. "Believe me, there are much stranger things walking these islands than a human girl with white skin. Wait until you meet a merman or a mink, or even old Ivankov..." he assured her.

Savenna had no idea what he was talking about. But in the end she had let herself be dragged on land under the condition that she could hide in Rayleigh's shadow. It turned out he had been right. No one had said anything or even inquired about her. But it took her six trips to be persuaded that it wasn't just a coincidence.

That morning, Savenna sneaked over the bridge with a short knife in her hand when she heard a noise. When a pile of old fishing nets welcomed her at the stern, she snorted. "Mending nets? Again? That's so unfair!"

"If you'd gotten up earlier I'd given you something better to do," an amused voice called down from the lookout. Savenna squinted against the sun until she spotted the man climbing down the mast.

"Liar!"

It was all she had been doing until Pulmon had begrudgingly declared her fit enough to leave the bed. Whatever parts of the ship needed fixing, mending, sharpening or changing Rayleigh dumped it on her. If she hadn't already stopped daydreaming by then, the sunburns and the sore muscles would have brought her back to her senses.

In return, Rayleigh soon got a taste of Savenna's true character. The rich girl might have lost her money, but the attitude hadn't gone anywhere. Convinced that she had already had her fair share of housework at Louise's, Savenna battled him on every single mending order, burning to learn something deadly and useful instead. But with Rayleigh being as stubborn as her, they rarely agreed on anything without a fight.

When he had finally swung himself on deck, Savenna took her chances with the knife. But before the blade could get anywhere near Rayleigh, she was already flying overboard and hit the water with an angry splash. "You need more than that if you want me to use Haki on you," the old pirate grinned as soon as she resurfaced, spitting and cursing.

"I'll get you for this!" she croaked swimming back to the ship. "Do the nets or I'll tell Pulmon!"

"Go ahead, but I'm sure he'll agree that a morning swim never hurt anyone."

Savenna smirked as she pushed the wet hair out of her face. "He might not care about me, but he will care about the rum bottles you made me drag on the ship last time we docked! Do the nets or I tell him how bad off your liver really is!"

Silence. Finally, she had him! Rayleigh wasn't an easy one to play but she knew he would come around. "Alright," he called leaning over the railing. Then he smiled and walked away.

Splashing around, Savenna's sense of victory dwindled. "Didn't you forget something? How I am supposed to get out of the water?" she yelled, looking at the ladder still sitting rolled-up at the stern. "Hey, Ray! Come back, you sneaky, old ...Argh!"

Rayleigh was quite pleased with himself. Old techniques worked best. By keeping the girl occupied all day, he had made sure she had no time to think of her sickness or fantasize about her storybook pirates. And even though she was too stubborn to realize it, she slowly learned how to survive at sea. She already knew how to set sail and had acquired the basics of navigation. Even though she mostly succeeded out of spite, the basics were there.

But Rayleigh needed to figure out what to do with the girl. Although there was no doubt she had been born into high society, she had the unruly heart of a pirate. That's why Rayleigh believed that taking her to Grand Line was the only option considering her potential. But no matter what plans he or Savenna had made for the future, everything depended on the good will of Amber Lead.

---

Dr Pulmon was well aware that he couldn't cure his patient, but he was still determined to uncover the mystery behind her condition. However, neither Rayleigh nor Savenna made it an easy task.

They had the poor doctor constantly hovering between panic and exasperation. None of them seemed to understand why hunting poisonous fish or frying sketchy-looking mushrooms were a bad idea. Also they had obviously never heard of cleaning or folding their clothes, and made fun of him when he fought to keep the general mess out of the office he had set up in the rear of the cabin. Like a crazy person, he regularly ran around on deck trying to keep Rayleigh from letting a sick thirteen-year-old steer the ship through a rocky strait, or allowing her to drink and smoke while teaching her new card tricks.

"What do you expect me to do? Get her a nanny?" the old pirate scoffed. "She suffered things no man should ever see. The least I can do is treat her like one." The doctor was helpless to that reasoning. But surprisingly, while he expected her condition to decline with Rayleigh's questionable parenting, she seemed healthier than ever.

Although she kept up the habit of rarely heeding her doctor's advice, Savenna enjoyed hanging around his office. It had been ages since she had last sensed the calm, thoughtful silence of a room full of medical textbooks. When she closed her eyes she was thrown back in time. The smell of ink and disinfectant, and the sound of a pen rushing over paper felt just like the nights she had spent watching Law study.

Having a real doctor around wasn't bad either. When she felt an attack approaching, there was always someone to keep her pain in check. She stopped suffering from random infections and spent her bad days resting without having to worry about someone finding out. To kill time she had started reading the doctor's textbooks that she kept on her nightstand next to her romance novels. She devoured volumes on anatomy, epidemiology, genetics and pharmaceutics, not with the intention of curing herself but because with ever page she slowly started to feel at home again.

---

Savenna lowered the spyglass and smiled. After a full week at sea they were finally approaching an island group. It turned out to be quite a famous place. Many North Blue pirates stopped there for supplies before continuing down toward the Calm Belt or Reverse Mountain. Vendors were selling fruit already packed for oversea travel, down the road newbie pirates could take their pick of cheap swords, and at the corner a small pirate crew was customizing their first jolly roger.

Savenna jumped down from the bridge and decided to do some shopping. The doctor was still too scared to go on land, and she didn't trust her other crew mate to buy anything but meat and sake. Sometimes Savenna wondered how Silvers Rayleigh had managed to survive for so long.

A few weeks ago when she had observed women basking in the southern sun, walking down the street in short skirts and shoulder-less tops, she got jealous enough to stop caring about the color of her skin. Just because I'm sick I don't have to look it, she thought and started wearing all sorts of strange clothes she picked up during their travels. Rayleigh and Pulmon used to exchange questioning looks when she tried on something new, but decided it was safer not to comment on it.

After changing into a summer dress, Savenna started raiding the kitchen for savings. With Rayleigh it was the usual procedure. She tried the bottom of every jar, the back of the freezer, the broken dish washer and every other place the man used to hide money in. But when she couldn't find the two hundred berries she had managed to squeeze out of a trader a few days ago, she gritted her teeth. "Seriously? I bet he's gambling it away this very moment! What are we supposed to eat now?" She could boast as much as she wanted about traveling with King Roger's right hand, but in the end she still had to take care of things herself.

An hour later she was strolling down the market, three bags of food and a red apple in her hand. A few curious faces turned around as she walked by but she just waved back, her white lips curling into a smile. Pleased with herself, she took another bite.

"There you are." She almost choked when Rayleigh manifested in the crowd, wearing his gray cloak and the usual crooked smile. "There are a few new faces in town and I thought of heading to the tavern. What have you been up to?"

Savenna raised her chin in defiance. "I don't know if you have noticed but your culinary escapades have left us with an empty fridge. And since you've probably already lost all our money, I had to go shopping by myself."

Rayleigh shot a questioning frown at her bags and Savenna cocked her head. "I stole it?" she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It was indeed the only skill she had down to perfection. Immediately, the amusement faded on Rayleigh's face. "From whom?"

The girl shrugged. "The woman with the kid. She has good cabbages but talks too much. Then the guy at the corner..."

"The one with the wooden leg?"

"Maybe..." Savenna hardly remembered them. But the old pirate stopped and turned to her, his eyes dark behind his glasses. "You steal from widows and cripples just to make sure we're not hungry? Why would you do that?"

Savenna stiffened. Looking up at Rayleigh she realized for the first time how tall and scary he could be. Too proud to give in she did her best to look unimpressed. "Why shouldn't I? We needed food so I got us food. Problem solved."

Of course she knew that it wasn't something to be proud of, but over the last three years she had learned to forgo moral luxuries. Besides, being a pirate himself she doubted Rayleigh had the right to tell her anything about right and wrong. Suddenly the anger drained from Rayleigh's features. Instead he stared at her with disappointed confusion. "I might not be as strong as I once was, but do you really think I would let anything bad happen to you?"

Surprised, Savnna let her arms hanging and watched how Rayleigh pulled the berries out of his pocket. "I was about to go for groceries," he said flatly.

"Oh."

When he spoke again, his voice had grown thin. "I know you're a thief but hurting innocent people because you believe that everyone intends to hurt you isn't right. You both deserve better."

Suddenly Savenna wasn't sure who she was supposed to be angry at. "What exactly am I supposed to do then?" she exclaimed. "Play nice and wait for good things to magically happen to me? That hasn't worked out very well so far."

"Caring about others would be a good start."

"Are you're saying I'm a bad person?" Savenna seethed. "Congratulations, it took you long enough to figure that out! You found me on a godforsaken island covered in marine blood, what the hell did you expect?"

Rayleigh sighed. "That's not...What I mean is, if you stop expecting the worst of everyone you will realize that you don't have to do these things. Not everyone is your enemy, me least of all. I thought you knew that. Trusting people might spare you the pain of making decisions you will come to regret."

Against all reason, she understood that he wasn't really upset with her because she stole the food, but because she hadn't trusted him to take care of it. Savenna pressed her lips together. Trust. Just like she had trusted her mother, Dr Trafalgar, even Louise and Doflamingo... And they all had betrayed her. How was she to know if Rayleigh was any different?

Unfamiliar with teenage snarkiness and Savenna's taste for the dramatic, Rayleigh didn't know what to say when she turned around and disappeared in the crowd.

Furious, Savenna snaked through waves of pirates and traders. How dare he speak of trust? Without a country, a name, or a family, there was little left for Savenna to put her trust in besides herself. She had thought Rayleigh would see it as an expression of strength instead of weakness.

But what did Rayleigh know, anyway? For her there were no real choices. As badly as she wanted to, she couldn't just assemble a pirate crew, sail around the world and spend her days drinking as long as the royal family and Doflamingo still drew breath. She had always done what she had to do. She had not survived by being nice to people, but by knowing when exactly they were to screw her over. If stealing from strangers was what it took then she would do it. If Rayleigh waited for her to become a caring, goodhearted girl before he taught her anything useful, she would be dead before learning a single Haki move.

Even though Savenna tried not to care about it, she couldn't help feeling hurt. She was aware of her flaws but somehow she had believed that she had proven her worth to Rayleigh. She kept complaining about him and testing his limits, but his approval meant more to her than she would admit. However, his moral compass was pointing north and hers wasn't, and Savenna feared that the old pirate would never see past that.

Savenna stamped through the town pushing people out of the way, when she couldn't help but overhear yelling in a back alley. Annoyed but somewhat intrigued, she retreated behind an empty food stand and secretly peered into the direction of the voices.

A group of four pirates had a little girl cornered. They weren't even closely Wanted poster material, but all of them were armed to the teeth and two were obviously drunk. The girl wasn't a pretty picture herself. She must be a few years younger than Savenna, even though her exact age was hard to tell. Old blood had dried on her long, haggard face, while felted black hair hung in tails from her head. Her dark eyes met the attackers with a calm, almost stoic glance. Either she was about to fight back hard or she had already given up.

The Fort Esperance bandits had taught Savenna the importance of keeping a low profile, but unfortunately she had never entirely forfeited the pleasure of sticking her nose in what was none of her business. She considered helping the girl but figured that it would be risky to attract attention to herself. But when she saw the child standing there, her tiny back against the wall, she had an idea.

Saving an innocent, little girl was exactly what a goodhearted, selfless person would do. Why hadn't she thought of that right away? Helping the girl was the perfect occasion to get into Rayleigh's good graces and tip the scales in her favor.

With a self-satisfied smile, Savenna considered her options. She could make a run for it, steal a few weapons and turn the situation around. But months had passed since she had last fought a real fight, and with her condition progressing she didn't trust herself enough to take on four grown men. Finding a marine strong enough to save the girl but stupid enough not to recognize Amber Lead, was also rather improbable. Therefore, Savenna decided on the third option.

Her face flushed with genuine panic, she went looking for a group of freelance justice enthusiasts with a freshly painted jolly roger under their arm. Moments later she was sitting on an old barrel watching the back alley being stormed by a rookie pirate crew. It was quite a show. The attackers didn't stand a chance against a combination of foolhardiness and Grand Line fever. After praising their courage and admiring their strength the way the girls in her books always did, Savenna saw the rookies off and prepared to receive her prize.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a sugary voice. The girl was still not moving. "Thank you..." she muttered awkwardly after staring at Savenna for another long minute. Her voice sounded weak but sober.

"Oh, don't mention it. The pirates did all the work really," Savenna replied with a casual smile.

"No," the girl said, suddenly intense. "I saw you hiding behind the stand earlier. You found me." She seemed totally convinced that she owed her life to Savenna. Perfect. Weird, but perfect. Rayleigh would see just how caring she was. "Where are your parents? Do you want me to take you home?" Savenna asked.

The girl stared bleakly at her feet before shaking her head.

"No parents or no home?"

The girl remained silent.

"I'm sorry," Savenna replied flatly. There wasn't much she could say to that. Other than the fact that no one would give her a reward for saving the girl, the information wasn't of much use. Also, telling the girl that she was an orphan herself wouldn't be of any help. Slowly Savenna realized she didn't know how to react altogether. Much time had passed since she last mourned her parents' death, and she had put so much energy in avoiding to think of Fetch and Law, that she had forgotten how to react to any of the emotions that had once governed her life. She felt like she needed to leave. But before she could turn around, the girl stepped closer. "Are you a ghost?"

"What?"

The astonishment in the girl's eyes was replaced with admiration. It didn't fit her gloomy appearance or the calm severity of her face, and Savenna had no idea what to do with it.

"When my mother died her skin looked just like yours. Did she send you to look after me? She told me she would."

Ignoring the fact that Savenna was a complete stranger, the girl looked at her like Lamie had looked at Law. It was the look Savenna herself had worn every time her father's ship had come into port. Complete childish devotion. Savenna could slap herself. That's what she got from trying to scheme her way into Rayleigh's heart. More problems.

Halfheartedly, she forced herself out of the girl's spell. "First, I'm no ghost. You can't just go around asking people if they're dead. That's rude," she established crossing her arms in front of her chest. "That's just the way I look. If you think that's strange, wait until you see the mermen or... old Ivankov." Obviously she had still no idea what she was talking about but she trusted the girl not the question her. "And second, your mother is dead and she's not coming back. The sooner you learn to live with it the better. Now go fuss over someone else."

With that Savenna turned around and started walking away. She hadn't made two steps until she knew she was hurting someone because she was angry at herself. Hesitantly she turned around expecting to see the girl in tears, but she just kept looking at Savenna as if waiting for something to happen.

She couldn't have been alone for a long time, Savenna thought. She was too trusting for that. But that would change quickly if she kept roaming the city streets by herself. Childhood was a fleeting luxury, and in less than a few months she would be stealing food from cripples and widows without betting an eye. But even though Savenna knew she needed to get rid of the girl, an old part of her enjoyed the admiration.

The girl was just as lost as her. She would have no other choice that to love and accept Savenna because she would have nothing to compare her to. She would never criticize or abandon her. Ironically, years of loneliness had left her with the secret need for a Lamie of her own.

"What's your name?" she asked the girl.

"Nell."

"Are you looking for a new family by any chance? There are still a few positions open in mine," Savenna announced. "We're pretty lame and always low on cash, so don't expect much." The girl needed a minute to understand what was being offered to her. Only when Savenna rose a questioning eyebrow, Nell gave a fierce nod.

"Good. Follow me."

After looking all over town for Savenna, Rayleigh had begrudgingly returned to the ship. He told herself that she had meant well, and that he should have handled the situation more sensibly. Yes, kids were a handful. He couldn't help but wonder how Roger would have handled it had he lived to meet his son. But unfortunately there was no one to ask for advice now. And since Rayleigh had no idea how to reach out to Savenna, he quickly decided on using his emergency cash to buy up half of the food on the market. Maybe she would appreciate the gesture.

Rayleigh was just putting the pan on the stove when the door flung open, and Savenna entered the room in a suspiciously good mood. Before he could talk to her she was already all over the place. "I'm sorry for what I've said earlier. I won't steal from peasants again, I promise. At least not when you're around," she said.

Skeptical, Rayleigh tried to understand what was going on. Savenna would rather die than lose an argument, so what was she up to? Suddenly the girl turned around and called, "Don't just stand there, Nell! Come on in."

Slowly, a dark-haired urchin ventured through the door and looked around with suspicion. She had never been on a ship before and made a frantic jump every time a wave touched the hull. The old pirate glanced from one girl to the other, trying to understand the extent of the mess Savenna had gotten herself into since they had last seen each other. When she announced she would go to her room and change for dinner, Rayleigh was still staring at their guest.

"Wait... Who is this?"

"Me caring about others!" she replied with a bright smile before slamming her door shut.

---

Nell turned out to be a peculiar house guest. She insisted on doing the totality of Savenna's chores in return for her kindness. Naturally, Savenna didn't object to the girl mending the nets in her stead, and spent her time reading while Nell worked herself through heaps of laundry. Only when caught by Rayleigh's threatening glance, Savenna begrudgingly joined in.

And somewhat like Law, Nell was not familiar with the concept of free time, and took orders only from Savenna while hiding from the other crew members. She didn't know what to do with the doctor as she had never met one, and turned out to be particularly wary of Rayleigh. For some reason, she distrusted pirates and insisted on arming herself with cutlery every time Rayleigh entered the room. Only after ten hours of Roger's best stories and four stitches on his first mate's arm, Nell was finally persuaded that not all pirates were waiting to kill her.

But it was only thanks to his cooking that Rayleigh managed to earn Nell's trust, or at least be allowed in her presence. She devoured his meals as if it were the last food on earth, and slowly started joining him during early morning fishing where they would just sit and stare at the sea in silence.

However, despite Nell's unquestionable loyalty to Savenna, the two girls couldn't have been more different. While Savenna took every opportunity to get her hands on new clothes, Nell had to be persuaded to throw away the rags she had been wearing for Roger knows how long. Also, to everyone's dread and surprise, Nell was an orderly person. Every fork went back to the drawer and every shoe found its way back into the closet. Pulmon was overjoyed that someone finally joined his ranks against the chaos reigning on the ship, while Rayleigh and Savenna watched helplessly as their kingdom was being turned upside down.

Also Nell almost never spoke. Despite having a grave, steady voice the girl only spoke when spoken to and made almost no sound when moving around the room. For Rayleigh, who had grown used to Savenna's regular fits and arguments, it was a pleasant surprise. The downside was, however, that when Nell decided to speak her words weren't the most subtle ones. Once she asked Savenna if she had had a bad night. "Your hair looks like something died in it," Nell said matter-of-factly.

Savenna was outraged but Nell couldn't help herself. Savenna's beloved romance novels were equally lost on her new companion. Nell found them boring and ridiculous. When Savenna read them out loud Nell insisted that the plot involved highly unrealistic problems, and that if the character just learned to communicate with each other, the story could be told in fifteen pages instead of five hundred.

Savenna had started out with the purely selfish motive of turning Nell into the sister she had never had. While most of her efforts failed, she insisted on cutting the knots out of the girl's hair and use Pulmon's books to teach her how to read and write. She also let her sleep in her bed whenever she was too scared to be on her own. Every month she put extra money aside for Nell and forced her to go on land every time their ship entered a new port to show her how fun traveling could be. Like a stray cat being petted, Nell begrudgingly gave in to Savenna's whims and never left her side.

Rayleigh followed the curse of events with amused curiosity. No doubt Savenna never had had a sibling, but for that she wasn't faring as bad as he had expected. Even though he was certain she had invited the girl only to get back at him, Nell slowly started to grow on them. She didn't transform Savenna. But the way she took responsibility for someone other than herself revealed a new, or maybe a very old side of her. The way she accepted a stranger in her life, made Rayleigh think. She claimed she didn't trust anybody, but now he came to realize how much she wanted to. And that's why, even though she wasn't ready yet, her decided to trust her and keep his promise.

When Savenna ventured out on deck the next day, he was already waiting for her. "Today is your first day of training."

She stifled a laugh and lapsed into an incredulous smile. "Are you sure you actually know Haki? You've refused to teach me for so long, I started to think it was all a big joke."

Ignoring her teasing Rayleigh told her to sit down. "Less talking, more listening." Doubtful, Savenna came closer and sat down next to him. She had been waiting for this moment for so long that she couldn't believe it was actually there.

"Now," he said. "What do we always have to remember when using Haki?"

Savenna shrugged stiffly. "Use too much and it kills you?"

Rayleigh shook his head. "The most important thing is staying in control." Out of the corner of his eye he could see her making a face. Like always Savenna had expected something more dramatic. "Since Haki is rooted in your will power, control and awareness are key to harnessing its full strength. For that you have to put your emotions aside and be attentive to the flows of Haki in and around you," Rayleigh went on.

"That makes no sense," his new student objected. "The only time I managed to activate mine was when I was about to tear something apart."

A knowing smile appeared on the old pirate's face. "That makes perfect sense. Shock or intense emotional pressure are one way of awakening the Conqueror's Haki. The downside is that while you unleash a great deal of power, it remains almost impossible to control. You might end up hurting your allies instead of your enemies."

Savenna frowned but didn't challenge him. Baby steps, Rayleigh thought. "Control is important for all types of Haki. While one needs to be born with the Haki you've already tested, the other two can be acquired through training and hard work. They can be significant assets in battle and work wonders for someone who is able to use the Conqueror's."

"Am I going to learn these too?"

"Yes. They both require concentration and discipline and will teach you the basics of Haki use."

---

It took Savenna ten minutes of silent mediation to consider the Observation Haki a complete waste of her time.

"Haki is a life force. It is everywhere, in the water, in the air, and even in your bones. Haki is an invisible power flowing through every fiber of the world," Rayleigh had explained before ordering her to try to detect the flows around her.

How exactly was she supposed to do that, sitting on deck with her eyes closed like an idiot? The waves didn't sound any different from what they had the day before. And the clink of Pulmon's test tubes grew more annoying the longer she listened to it. She considered sneaking to the kitchen for a snack, but as soon as she opened her eyes Rayleigh had already seen through her plans. "Don't even think about it."

"Fine! But I don't see anything! What is Haki even supposed to look like?"

"You will know."

"Argh!"

Even though it had taken Savenna a few years to master her thieving skills, she naively believed that since she had been born with the Conqueror's Haki, the power would somehow magically come to her. But after one week of training she was still sitting on deck with no Haki in sight but a butt that slowly started to hurt. When Rayleigh was away, she tried desperately to lure Nell into talking to her, but the girl was more concerned with her friend's progress than Savenna herself.

"The pirate knew you would try to talk yourself out of this, so he told me to stay away. I'm sorry," the girl said, her black hair now cut short and her dark eyes looking apologetically at Savenna. Then she placed a dinner plate next to her and left. "Since when do you listen to that old bag of bones?" Savenna called after her.

After wolfing down the food and brooding over the empty plate, Savenna was still hungry and more annoyed than before. But after anxiously thinking about dessert and listening to the sizzle of Rayleigh's frying pans with growing irritation, she suddenly felt like she knew exactly what was happening below deck.

First, she thought she was imagining it but then she could feel Nell's footsteps on the floor, and the rice boiling inside the cooker. It was as if the scene was played out in front of her. But strangely, she couldn't really see or hear any of it. Haki was just as much sight as it was feeling, like touching a plank in the dark and knowing it was made of wood. Every person, and even some of the objects gave off an bright, distinct light that was always in motion. Could that be the life force Rayleigh had mentioned?

Overjoyed about having completed her first assignment, she jumped on her feet and darted downstairs. "I did it!" she called out bursting through the kitchen door. "You are having sweet rice dumplings for dessert! I knew it!"

Wondering why she bothered to state the obvious, Nell and Pulmon put down their spoons and looked at her like she had lost her mind at last. Rayleigh, however, welcomed her with a wide smile. "You recognized our auras without seeing us. Good." Then he learned back, served himself some dumplings and ordered her to find out how many ships were headed their way.

"Are you serious? I just learned Haki!" Savenna was outraged.

"You've touched on the foundation of Haki. You have to do a lot more to actually learn it. Now back to work." Savenna tried every imaginable excuse to talk herself out of it. But when she realized it was no use, she went back upstairs simmering with anger.

Rayleigh didn't tell her that it usually took people years to detect the aura of others. Her Haki really was one of a kind. But flattering Savenna's already overinflated ego wouldn't do her training any good. She would find out soon enough what she was capable of.

Savenna learned ridiculously fast even though Amber Lead forced her to take regular breaks. Also she was a pretty bad student. In the beginning, Rayleigh had thought that training a girl would be either particularly easy or exceptionally hard, but as it turned out it was just as much of a pain as training any other teenager.

In spite of or because of her talent, Savenna was cocky and impatient all while paying tribute to her wealthy upbringing once in a while. She insisted on learning more advanced Haki moves, but had to be pushed out of bed in the morning to practice the basics. She had motivation enough to practice fighting stances and flirt with random rookie pirates, but when Rayleigh needed someone to help cover the ship in another layer of polish, she would miraculously disappear and come home hours later cursing over that same pirate having rejected her.

"That peasant! I'm sure it was because of my skin... Oh, Pulmon, I'm doomed to die alone!" she would weep to the doctor, who was unfortunate enough to be the only one awake at that hour. But unlike Pulmon who always tried to help everybody, Rayleigh didn't meddle with the problems Savenna regularly brought on herself.

Convinced that becoming stronger would solve her issues, he was just as merciless as he had ever been. He insisted on waking her every morning at dawn, regardless of how late she had been up crying or plotting homicide. And no matter how many times he sent her overboard for nagging or questioning his judgment, he had always a proud smile ready for when she did something right.

---

Rayleigh's fist passed within a hair's breadth of her face. Savenna skidded to the right and ducked avoiding a kick smashing into the wall behind her. When one of the knives flying in her direction managed to cut off a strand of her hair, Savenna cursed. She still had trouble detecting the aura of certain inanimate objects. She gave her concentration one last boost and saw Rayleigh's white shape cutting her off at the bridge. Gotcha, old man! She reached for her own knife and flung it at the cabin door.

Naturally Rayleigh dodged the blade, but Pulmon who had just been on his way on deck was only missed by inches. "What is wrong with you people?" the doctor yelled, unsure whether to be shocked or simply infuriated by the knife sticking out next to his face.

"You could be dead," Nell commented flatly behind him.

"I see that!" the doctor hissed before turning to Rayleigh. "It's three hours sparring per day only. S needs her IV and you are not doing your back any favors!"

"Just one last round!" the girl called balancing on the railing before swinging herself on the next mast. The doctor sighed with defeat. "Do what you want. It's only your health I'm concerned about." It took another half an hour before Savenna stumbling overboard declared the fight over. "I will beat you some day," she threatened wringing the seawater out of her hair.

"Not with that lousy knife throwing. The only thing that will do is collateral damage," Rayleigh replied casually. Savenna shot him an exasperated look before collapsing on the floor.

They had been training for a good month now and Rayleigh was happy. She was progressing well, especially since they had started using Haki during sparring. Directing her aggression at someone seemed to help her concentrate. Rayleigh fished a bit of dried meat out of a bag and handed her a piece.

"What to do plan to do when your training is complete? We don't share the same passion for carpentering but I can always use a hand in my shop. Or I can help you find a crew, if that's what you want," he asked between bites. He had been wondering about her future for a while. The Calm Belt wasn't more than hundred miles away and if she wanted to become a pirate, she was ready to take on the Grand Line.

But to his surprise Savenna hesitated, then averted her gaze. "I want to take revenge," she replied hesitantly. First, Rayleigh looked at her disbelief, unwilling to remember her tiny hands holding a grown man's heart and the mad smile on her face. Whether he believed it or not, that and the joyful, slighting melodramatic girl he saw every day were still the same person.

"On whom?" he asked then.

"The royal family of Flevance and Donquixote Doflamingo."

Rayleigh processed the though, then he said, "I get the royals but what about Flamingo?" He had heard of the man. A coldblooded psychopath from a noble bloodline. Savenna wasn't the only one who wanted him dead.

"He betrayed me," she replied darkly. "But I won't start with him. I need to get much stronger if I want to defeat that bastard."

"How do you know?"

"I fought him before."

Rayleigh drew a sharp breath. That would explain a few things. Not many emerged unscathed from a meeting with Doflamingo. Rayleigh couldn't help but wonder what on earth had happened to that girl. What else did he not know? But however bad her past had been, it didn't change what he thought of her plan.

"Revenge is a tricky thing," he stated coldly. "You think it will make you feel better or somehow change the way things turned out, but it won't. It promises you happiness but in the end it will make you miserable."

Savenna stiffened. After the incident with the groceries, she knew that telling him the truth wouldn't do any good. He had been Roger's right hand after all, always up for a good laugh but dead serious about the moral principles of life. But they had been training for so long that keeping her goals secret from him felt wrong. But she wouldn't give up on them just because he disagreed with her worldview.

Slightly irritated, she turned around. "How do you know?" she asked. "You have no idea how it is to lose everyone and everything you care about and being able to do nothing."

For a split second Rayleigh was taken aback by the darkness in her voice. He had heard it before but it had never been directed at him. Rayleigh considered reprimanding her but that would be useless. "That might be true," he said instead. "But I've been around long enough to know that wounds don't heal by inflicting more pain. No matter who you punish, the past cannot be undone."

Savenna let his words sink in. The rational part of her mind told her that he was right. That the yearning she felt for someone else's suffering was senseless and wrong. But she couldn't help herself.

"I know you don't understand but please, Ray. Tell me one thing and I won't speak of it again," she promised, her voice steady again. "I caught a letter sent by the queen from Marijoa. Apparently the royals fled to the capital after abandoning the country. Is there any chance they are still there? Is there a way I can find them?" Hesitant and uncertain, Savenna tried to find at least a bit of understanding in the pirate's features. "You may disapprove of me killing Doflamingo, but the least I can do is track them down. They have taken so much from me and I want to know why."

Imagining the pain she must be in, Rayleigh considered telling her that this was exactly where they were. He even knew in what street they lived, and could find out what they were having for dinner. His contacts were still as reliable as in Roger's days. He even wanted to lead her to the safest way into the holy city, and stand guard while she slit her enemies' throats. The recklessness they had in common would have encouraged him to do so, but then he reminded himself that he had lived long enough to know better.

Killing the royal family was certainly an appropriate punishment for their crimes, but no matter how tough Savenna thought she was, the blood on her hands would never wash off. Assassinations, battles and self-defense were one thing, but murder was something entirely different. Rayleigh had seen many people fall victim to their own demons after going down the road of revenge, and he cared too much about Savenna to let that happen. Her only shot at happiness was moving forward. That's why Rayleigh did something he despised. He lied.

"You are too late," he replied dryly. "The last member of the family died of Amber Lead poisoning a month ago. Their protection wasn't as good as they thought." Being the better liar of the two, Savenna didn't want to believe him at first. She argued and fought every possible angle of his story, so Rayleigh felt he needed to be more convincing.

"Be careful, S," he said gravely. He regretted the words the instant they were pronounced. "You might think I'm your friend and I might let you get away with things, but I'm still one of the most powerful pirates in the world and you are straining my patience. I've gone out of my way to protect you and to teach you what I know. You asked me a question and gave you an answer. You can think about that what you want, but I won't teach anyone who misuses their power and does not know the meaning of respect." Rayleigh face remained hard and unreadable. "Revenge is for the weak, and I'm not going to waste my time on weakness." With that he got up and walked away. His speech hit Savenna so hard that she couldn't reply, or even move until he was out of sight. When Rayleigh had disappeared below deck, she felt like crying.

---

A few days later Savenna woke up coughing in the middle of the night. Her head heavy, she saw she had been coughing blood. And looking down on her pillow she realized it had been running out of her nose for some time. The fever stayed down but for the first time in months she was getting worse.

She would turn thirteen in two weeks and three days. And if Amber Lead had been sitting in her neck for three years, on that day it would finally strike her down. It was no wonder the symptoms were returning. And last but not least, she had stopped sleeping after her argument with Rayleigh. Amber Lead hadn't been a part of the role she had decided to play when accepting his proposition and she had successfully blended it out until now. But as she lay awake and listened to the imaginary sound of the lead rasping and scrawling inside her bones, she knew she had gone too far lying to both of them. And now it was too late to tell.

The next morning they threw the anchor at a safe distance from an island with high marine protection. Pulmon was out of supplies and Rayleigh needed to accompany him to shore and left the ship in Savenna's command. She had accepted the order with a wordless nod.

With her head hanging low she watched as Pulmon waved from the little barge. Rayleigh didn't even turn around. He was still mad at her. Somberly she ignored it and tried playing Logue Town Joker with Nell, But all through the game she asked herself how she was supposed to apologize. How come he couldn't understand why she had to do this?

Before Savenna could think of an solution, a bullet flew through the air and pieced a wooden wall within spitting distance of her face. She twisted around and pushed Nell to the floor.

A ship twice the size of theirs had appeared on the port side. It flew a black flag and carried a crew of over thirty men yelling and cheering as they fired another round. "Pirates," Savenna rasped. She ordered Nel to stay down and hurried to Rayleigh's little armory. He had strictly forbidden her to meddle with the weapons when he wasn't around, but Savenna believed an attack was reason enough to disobey. With two blades buckled at her waist, a gun over one shoulder and three rounds of ammunition over the other, she marched on deck. Then pointing the loaded gun at the captain, she yelled, "Shouldn't you have the decency of introducing yourselves before firing at my ship?"

"Your ship?" The big man with a rugged red beard and a dirty sneer on his face jumped on the railing. "As far as we know this is Silvers Rayleigh's ship. He's the one the greeting was for. Where is he? We have come to collect our revenge." His black button eyes wandered over Savenna. "Who are you?"

"None of your business," she spat. "And as far as Ray is concerned, I suggest you back off before I blow you peasants to the bottom of the ocean. No one messes with my crew."

Her threat was met with mocking laughter. "You? A little girl defending King Roger's right hand?" another pirate burst out. But Savenna didn't see anything funny. Negotiations were over. Instead of a curse she sent a bullet through the pirate's chest. When the body tipped over board, the laughter ceased.

The captain's sneer turned into an angry roar. "We could have spared you, but so be it," he yelled. "Take the ship and kill the crew! Let's teach the old man a lesson!"

Savenna threw herself on the floor as another round of bullets came flying her way. After crawling over to the bridge and taking shelter behind the cabin door, she told Nell to lift the anchor. "We need to get out of their line of fire," she panted, looking at the six enemy cannons. Rayleigh might be ridiculously strong, but his ship was hardly better equipped than a fishing boat. They had nothing to retaliate with.

Savenna dashed to the ropes and set the main sail before making a run for the steering wheel and yanking it hard starboard. The pirates had already placed planks between their two ships, when the sails finally caught wind and Rayleigh's ship set into motion. Savenna didn't lose time and fired at the pirates trying to cross over. She landed six hits and took advantage of the unmanned planks to push them into the crevice opening up between their two ships.

Her actions were answered with bullets shooting holes into their sails and shattering their windows. Crap...Where the hell are you, Ray? You might not like me very much right now, but we need back up! Finding shelter behind boxes of cargo, she covered her ears. The bullets, the shattering glass... How could she had ever have dreamed of this? This was hardly any different from the marines storming Louise's hideout. Her old instincts told her to run and save herself, but instead she crept toward Nell and put her arms around the girl.

She and Law had failed Lamie back in Flevance, but she wouldn't make the same mistake again. And although she hated Rayleigh for what he had said, she wouldn't abandon his ship and let him walk into a trap. He might be a pain in the ass, but he had put his faith in her when no one else had. She was stronger and she was smarter now. This time she would protect the closest she had to family.

Carefully, she peered out from behind the stairs. The ship was still headed starboard, and swiftly increasing the distance between them. They were almost out of gunshot range now, but she saw how the pirate vessel was slowly turning and taking after them. With what Rayleigh had taught her she could have outrun them, but not their canons. Savenna froze as she heard the hatches fly open. Six canons were more than enough to end this battle. "Dammit!" If they were to get out of this in one piece, she needed to take them out from afar. And there was only one way to do that.

Savenna leaned back, took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Her Conqueror's Haki was too weak to reach all of the men from such a great distance. But she didn't need all of them, only those would could fire canons. And if her theory worked, it would give them just enough time to escape.

Let's try control. Desperately trying to ignore the screams and bullets catching up with them, Savenna poured all her concentration in the faint auras gleaming in front of her inner eye. They popped up one after the other, their silhouettes burning with cold white fire. Training in remote silence had been a mistake. Savenna's concentration waved as the voices came closer. With gritted teeth, she could finally make out thirty-three men on the enemy ship. Twelve of them ready to charge and fire.

Then she deliberately forgot what Rayleigh had taught her. Emotion was the only fuel she knew how to use. With bullets flying around her she realized how scared she was of seeing death on her doorstep again. She wanted him gone. Her muscles tensed as the pirates' auras mingled with the looming threat of Amber Lead. "Don't you dare come closer!" she hissed.

This time it wasn't anger but blunt fear that triggered Savenna's power. It couldn't be over just now... She wouldn't be able to control it but she didn't care. When she felt the Haki buzzing in every limb of her body, she lashed out as hard and as far as she could, while keeping her eye glued to the twelve silhouettes. "I said leave us alone!" she yelled. And slowly, one after the other, the auras faded. She only dared to open her eyes when the familiar wave of exhaustion hit her body. Fiercely, as if entering a race against herself, she crept back on her feet and started running. I'm going to make it this time!

General confusion had seized the pirate ship and nobody understood why the men at the canons kept ignoring their captain's orders. But whatever time they needed to realize she had taken out the crew below deck, Savenna had to use it to steer the ship either straight into port or out into the bay, even if she passed out doing it.

I'm almost there...When she finally reached the bridge and grabbed the wheel with trembling fingers, a hand was placed on her shoulder. Savenna twisted around tense like an electric wire. Rayleigh was standing on the bridge, his gray cloak handing over his shoulders and his eyes dark with silent rage.

Savenna froze as she felt her stubbornness crumbling along with the her resilience. "I am so sorry, Ray," she pleaded. "I wanted to take them all down, but they were too many! They wanted to hurt you, and the ship... I did what I could. Please don't think I'm weak, I tried... "

She expected him to be even more disappointed in her than he already was. Instead Rayleigh started at her with a mix of sadness and confusion. It took him only moments to understand what happened. After making sure she wasn't hurt, the old pirate took off his cloak and wrapped carefully it around her shoulders. "You have fought my fight for me..." he muttered darkly. "That shouldn't have been your responsibility." Then he stepped away, tall and terrifying. "You did good, kid. I will take it from here."

With the strength fleeing from her body, she watched from under the rim of Rayleigh's hood how he clutched his fists and the pirate ship started howling. Whether it were the men or the vessel itself, she couldn't tell. Then the wood began to stretch and turn under Rayleigh's cold glance, until the whole pirate ship was slowly dragged under water.

"How...? What is this?" Savenna whispered, slowly drifting into unconsciousness.

"The full extent of your power," he said sharply.

Finally she got her demonstration of the Conqueror's Haki. Only she would remember little of it, as she had already passed out when the waves engulfed the ship and Rayleigh made sure that no crew member made it back to shore.

---

After revealing the magnitude of the Conqueror's Haki, Silvers Rayleigh learned about the force of Amber Lead. Savenna had always refused to see him or Nell when she was sick and now he understood why. It was terrifying. He and the other girl stood in silent shock while Pulmon hurried around the room, mixing things and preparing shots. Immediately after he had gotten rid of the pirates, Savenna's caught a fever. They had to carry her inside after she didn't recover from the Haki wave as Rayleigh had expected she would. Now her face twisted in pain as the Amber Lead ate itself through her skin.

"Her vitals are stable for now. She's strong and the medication should kick in any minute," the doctor tried to reassure both of them when Nell had swung her arms around the pirate. Rayleigh tried to convince himself that it wasn't as bad as what he had seen in Fort Esperance. But now it wasn't just some orphan being sick. Seeing Savenna like that after they had parted in anger filled him with a painful helplessness.

Maybe if he hadn't been so harsh toward her this could have been avoided – if he hadn't lied to her in the first place. He blamed himself as much for it as he did for the ambush. Remembering the pirate crew he and Roger had defeated decades ago, he felt like a hypocrite. As the former right hand of the pirate king, saying that he had enemies was an understatement. But as long as he could recall he had followed Roger's way – fight them but let them live another day. And now his trusted principles had come back to bite him in the neck. Having preached about the consequences of murder, he was now forced to live with what happened when one let the wrong people live.

Savenna's charade had failed. The missed hours of sleep returned to her in a series of endless, gruesome images showing her what she tried to hard to forget.

Rayleigh had been right. Violence was a vicious circle. She had thought the Flevance girl gone, but she was still there with her, cringing at the things Louise had made her do, at livelihoods she and Fetch had destroyed, at the people she had betrayed, those who she had killed to survive and those she had willingly murdered simply because she had felt like it. Her blood on fire, she recognized the darkness sleeping deep within her soul.

For years she had blamed the lead for poisoning her heart, but in reality the responsibility was all hers. She had been born with the Conqueror's Haki and nothing, not even an incurable disease could have ever opposed her will. No wonder Rayleigh was disappointed in her. Since the very beginning she had used their power to take lives, never to do good. Whether she had a few hours or few days left didn't matter now. Soon she would see them all again, everyone she had hurt and left to die.

She ripped her eyes open when she realized she was screaming. Immediately, she recognized Rayleigh's panicked face appeared at her side in the half-dark. The pirate's glasses had fallen off his nose and his face was a few wrinkles richer. He finally looked his age. "Calm down, S. You're safe now," he assured her.

"I'm so sorry, Ray. I'm so so sorry," she sobbed. "You were right." Feeling the darkness looming over her and the lead leeching the life out of her body, she muttered, "I'm scared... I don't want to die. They're all waiting for me. They know. They remember."

Rayleigh sighed and searched for the light switch. Then he said, "It's okay, S. There's no one here. Just and me." But Savenna still barely heard him. She clutched his arm so hard it almost hurt. "I never wanted to be a bad person. You have to believe me. I ever meant to hurt anyone! I tried to be strong..."

"It's alright."

"But..."

Rayleigh freed himself from her grip and placed two hands on her shoulders. "Listen, it's me who is sorry. I should have never said those things. I promised I would help you and I should have been there to protect you today. It's my fault. And you used you Haki like a master against those pirates. I should have been there to see it."He sighed with resignation. "As much as I hate it, I cannot make your sickness go away. But I promise I will always fight by your side when you need me."

"That bad times teach us to be humble, selfless and loving is a myth," Rayleigh said with determination. "Survival never creates good people but it produces strong ones. They keep on fighting and that's why they end up making mistakes and sacrifices, and sometimes even hurt the ones they love. They are brave enough to make decisions when there is no right decision to make. Good people will curse you or look up to you, but you will never be one of them. Maybe I tried for way too long..." He paused. "There might be metal under your skin but remember that it is also in your heart, and that is the reason why this power has been given to you. And one day you will find a way to forgive yourself for it."

Savenna stared at him with round, bloodshot eyes. "But what do I keep fighting for?" she croaked. The thought of killing made her want to throw up, but she didn't see what alternative there was. "I have no home, no family, no time and not even a name."

Rayleigh smiled indulgently. "To live a life you deserve, even if it's a short one. You are young and I'm sure you dream of many things. And if it's a name you need to follow your dreams, then from today on you will be a Silvers." The pirate chuckled. "Old Whitebeard already declared a few dozen men his sons, so I guess I am allowed to have one daughter."

Just like when Savenna had first boarded his ship she thought he was making fun of her. But when she heard the sincerity in his voice, she didn't know what to say. She was given something real, not a new role to play but a true shot at becoming someone real. But then she shook her head. "Don't offer me anything until you know the whole story. You might still change your mind."

Rayleigh protested, but Savenna snaked herself carefully out of bed not to wake Nell. He wanted to help her but she didn't let him. As she moved with difficulty from one piece of furniture to the next, he followed her out of the room, into the hallways and finally inside the storage room. He frowned as she started pushing boxes around, but Savenna remained silent until she had retrieved the trunk where she had hit Law's hat. It felt alien her stiff fingers.

"This isn't yours, is it?" Rayleigh asked.

Savenna shook her head. That night she told him everything that had happened since her governess had first discovered the Amber Lead mark on her skin. When dawn was breaking and she had fallen asleep with her back against the trunk, Rayleigh still didn't dare to move. Reflecting on her story, he understood there was no real darkness in her, at least none that was permanent. Deep down she had simply forgotten the difference between living and surviving. Silently he said to himself, "I hope your life will be a happier one from now on, Savenna Silvers."

---

Savenna startled awake when the door flung open. Pulmon didn't seem very pleased to discover his entire crew sleeping in a storage room.

"Seriously? You guys just walked off?" the doctor said watching Rayleigh, Savenna and Nell who had sneaked in a few hours ago, with growing exasperation. Slightly disoriented Savenna looked around while Nell rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and Rayleigh kneaded the stiffness out of his shoulders. He had pulled a blanket over them before dozing off himself. "Calm down, Pulmon. What is it? Is the ship on fire?" the pirate asked.

"No, but..."

Immediately Savenna was on her feet. "Is it time? Am I dying?"

The doctor shook his head, his irritation slowly falling off. "Not unless you do something extremely stupid."

"What do you mean? What about my birthday? I'm supposed to die at the age of thirteen," she interjected. The fact had built itself up in her mind over such a long time that it simply had to be true.

But to her bewilderment, Pulmon shook his head again. "Since you first came in I have been wondering about the stable state of your condition. Whoever examined you back then was right about the progression of the sickness. You should have reached the final stage by now. But even after the recent attack you are still too healthy, and I believe I finally know why."

Savenna didn't understand. It was true, she had withstood the sickness longer than her father, and had suffered lighter symptoms than Lamie or even Law. But that had never seemed significant to her, there were no patients left she could have compared herself to.

"It's only when you have defended the ship that I finally understood," the doctor explained slowly.

"What?" Savenna was so exhausted she started trembling.

"The gravity of your attacks increases after you use the Conqueror's Haki. Fainting and dizziness are common second effects, but in your case it demobilizes your body for days and triggers particularly strong symptoms of Amber Lead poisoning. That cannot be a coincidence," he pointed out. But what seemed completely logical to him was lost on everyone else in the room.

"What are you getting at?" this time it was Rayleigh who asked the question.

The doctor smiled a tired smile. "It's the Haki. It's protecting you." Everyone stared at him with confusion. This was impossible. Haki had no medical qualities. If it did someone must have known. While Rayleigh, now wide awake, was shooting counter arguments at the doctor, Savenna wanted to hear the rest of it.

"How? What do you mean?"

"It's simple, really," Pulmon replied with a tired smile. "I should have figured it out much earlier. Haki is the only mental faculty able to influence someone's physical state. And if there is a physical representation of Haki, it has to be on a tiny, cellular, maybe even molecular level, just like Amber Lead. It might be because you activated it so early, or out of some other obscure reason...but the fact is, your Haki grew to fight the poison on its own," the doctor explained.

After turning the thought around in her head, Savenna remembered the times she should have died and the ones she almost had. She had survived her mother's injection, the bullets in her back and spent hours running across town affected with the same poison that had Lamie immobilized. All this time she had believed it was her stubbornness that kept her alive, but it had been the Haki from the very beginning. Haki was a life force depending on the user's will power. She hadn't wanted to die and so she didn't. "So it protected me on its own? I didn't even have to do anything?" she asked hesitantly.

"Well... You do have a bit of a temper on a daily basis," Rayleigh admitted slowly. "So technically, it's possible."

"But if that is true, why does it knock me down every time I use it?"

Pulmon sighed. "Every discovery has a downside. The Conqueror's Haki may be shielding you from the poison, but it's not strong enough to be actively used at the same time. If you do, your body is defenseless against Amber Lead and you will start experiencing symptoms that grow stronger the older you get. Haki represents the force of life, but since we are mortal it remains a limited resource."

"So as long as she doesn't use the Conqueror's Haki, she gets to live?" Rayleigh wanted to know.

"In theory, yes."

For a moment Savenna's world stood still. She couldn't believe that all these years of fearing and waiting were suddenly over. She wanted to laugh out loud, but stopped herself. She knew better than to get excited over good news too soon. "For how long?" she wanted to know. "It won't protect me forever, will it?"

She didn't necessarily feel her symptoms growing stronger but the attacks, when they happened, lasted longer. The Haki was growing stronger, but so was the sickness. Sharing a look with Pulmon she knew that they understood each other. "It's hard to say," he replied. "But judging from the course of disease and considering that Haki evolves with age, I would say five years, maybe six."

Both Rayleigh and Pulmon dreaded her reaction. But instead of cursing his prediction, Savenna smiled a defiant smile. "Long enough to become a pirate."