Yeah, this would have been waaaaay to long...^^
Here goes Chapter 14 :-)
Under the protection of the Conqueror's Haki Savenna Silvers felt invincible. Refusing to be the latest laughing stock on Grand Line, she resumed her training with more zeal than ever. It was set. Rayleigh had told her to pursue her dreams and that was exactly what she would do. Since she had been a little girl she had wanted to become a pirate, and now after all this time, the opportunity finally presented itself.
She thought less and less of her enemies. Sava might have needed them to die, but Savenna Silvers wanted more from life. She was ready to punch everything Rayleigh threw at her, but the old pirate remained cautious about her training. Worried that using Haki would be bad for her health, he suggested they continued with safer things such as sword fighting and close combat. And as usual, one week later Savenna was already taking her protection for granted and started complaining. "That is so unfair! I was just starting to become good at Haki!"
"Tell that to the people who are dead. You should be grateful that you have a Haki to shield you in the first place," Rayleigh replied sharply. Savenna went on sulking but he wouldn't relent, and handed her a sword instead. She picked it up listlessly and resumed her training with considerably less enthusiasm. When Rayleigh grew tired of her permanent scowl, he went to see Pulmon. Only after the doctor assured him that it was safe for her to use the other two Hakis, Rayleigh allowed it back into the program. However, he remained extremely strict and threatened to cancel their sessions should Savenna even once consider using the third.
They crossed the Calm Belt on a hot summer day. Without the cool sea breeze the heat grew almost unbearable. Even the birds were suffering under the summer sun. While Pulmon dreaded everything about the Grand Line, starting with how they would survive the crossing, Savenna was hiding in the shadow of the crow's nest and smiling through her spy glass. "And I thought the books had lied about everything."
"What do you mean?" Nell asked, her legs dangling over the side. The thing that would make her lose her cool still had to be invented. While Savenna couldn't wait to see the most dangerous sea in the world, Nell shrugged it off as another destination for crazy people.
"Seems the old bag of bones has still some strength left," she laughed and handed the spyglass to the other girl. A good distance away they could see how Rayleigh swam toward the horizon while tugging their entire ship through the still waters of the Belt.
"A legend after all," Savenna stated proudly.
The crossing was a success. They had made it to Grand Line in only a few days, with Rayleigh pulling the ship and Savenna's sword securing dinner. During their stops in the windless sea, they played music, cheated each other at cards and watched Pulmon dance while the best parts of a Sea King were sizzling on the grill.
It turned out that the Grand Line was the only thing to live up to Savenna's picturesque expectations. On her unlucky birthday she received a Log Pose from Rayleigh, which she insisted on wearing on her wrist according to tradition. And when a few hours later they finally landed on a small tropical island, instead of dying of Amber Lead Savenna debuted her career as a pirate.
With the Pose charging on her wrist, she jumped off the ship and scanned the island for the strongest pirate to test her Haki skills on. To her disappointment, however, the island proved boringly pirate-free, but she still managed to get chased through the jungle by wild animals, drink beer in three different taverns and pick a fight with half a marine commando stationed in town. At the end of the day, she staggered exhausted back to the ship and passed out on deck with a wide smile on her face.
Trouble arrived by mail the next day. Savenna was just getting herself a second cup of coffee, when Rayleigh walked into the kitchen wearing an irritated frown. "In one day? Seriously?"
Savenna furrowed her brows when he handed her a piece of paper. Immediately her tired features lit up. "I've got my own Wanted poster! How awesome is that!" she cried out, almost spilling coffee over her new treasure.
"So awesome that the marines know where we are," Rayleigh growled. "Not that I wouldn't appreciate a reunion with my old friend Sengoku, but I would rather not damage this ship any more than it already is," he said pointing at the dents and holes it had accumulated after Fort Esperance. Savenna wasn't exactly the subtlest of students.
She was too busy inspecting the poster to listen to her new father's complains. "The White Bandit wanted for thirty berries?" she scowled. "This can't be right. Why so little money? And what kind of a dumb nickname is that? The marines really hire anyone these days," she lamented. And when she saw the picture she wished she had spilled coffee over it.
"You don't even see my face!" The photographer whose mother was called many uncivil names that day, had just taken a picture of the back of Savenna's white head. Unsure if she should lash out with rage or wallow in despair, she let her head fall on the kitchen table. "My pirate life is over!" she moaned. "Now Mihawk will never marry me!"
"What on earth are you talking about?"
Savenna didn't bother to look up. "It's easy for you to talk, Mr Dark King."
"You realize I've being doing this for a little while longer than you, right?" Rayleigh remarked. Every time he thought Savenna couldn't be more dramatic, her talent for exaggeration still managed to surprise him.
"But I want to be as tough as you!"
"I'm not sure marrying Dracul Mihawk will help you with that..." he teased, earning a deadly glance in return. Rayleigh's frown was replaced by an amused laugh. "Alright. Let's make a deal, White Bandit. I'll train you some more, at least enough so you can raise your bounty and get a decent nickname. And in return, you'll go easy on those poor marines until we get to Sabaody. Deal?"
Savenna sulked a little while longer. Then she smiled. "Deal."
"Good," the pirate smiled. "Now, marine back-up is approaching from south-east. Would you please lose them over the reef before Pulmon starts panicking?"
"Aye!" Savenna's first chase with the marines was less exciting than her short adventure on land. In less than a half an hour she had outmaneuvered the two middle-sized ships, thrown all the terrible posters over board and headed calmly to her weekly medical exam. The next day, disguised as a humble, slightly damaged merchant ship, they set course to the Red Line.
Not much had changed since Rayleigh had named Savenna his daughter. Even though they were very different in character it turned out they had more things in common than they had thought. People didn't question the family relation since both had the same white hair and the same hearty laugh. And the more time Savenna spent with the man the more did she start speaking like him, adding a few curses here and there and losing her wariness of strangers. They still fought regularly over pretty much anything but had gotten into the habit of resolving arguments with a Haki competition.
There was something about the Conqueror's Haki that drew its users together. No one really knew how, but it made up for what they lacked on blood relation. Sometimes Savenna simply happened to know what Rayleigh wanted for breakfast and on other days he knew when she was about to get sick before she did. It seemed like the few people in the world who had the chance of wielding that particular Haki couldn't be indifferent toward one another, whether it was in a good or in a bad way. Just as with Roger being his captain, Savenna being his daughter just made sense and he even started to forget the way life had been before. Although Savenna pretended that she was taking her new name for granted, she was more proud of it than she had ever been of anything. Every day she practiced her new signature and imagined pulling her thong at the old classmates who used to tease her. See? Not only am I alive but I also have a famous father now. Take that, peasants!
But whenever her ego rose to unreasonable proportions, Nell was there to put her brains back into place. When Savenna would burst inside their cabin venting about another terrible injustice she had had to endure, she wasn't surprised. "How dare he call me spoiled? I wanted to get one canon, not seven!" Savenna ranted. "That's nothing compared to what other merchant ships carry! And besides, shouldn't he be granting me all my wishes now that I'm his daughter?"
"Are you alright?" Nell muttered with concern. "You seem more entitled today than usual. Did you experience any insecurity that you feel you need to compensate for?"
Savenna gritted her teeth. Oblivious to her lack of tact, Nell gave her a warm smile in return. "Don't worry, it's nothing too bad. You're an only child. That happens."
Savenna sighed with exasperation.
"My mother always used to say, that the best way of dealing with people who love you is being kind and thoughtful toward them as well. I hope that helps." Nell remained calm and continued sorting her knives while Savenna prowled around the room muttering silent curses. Nell's conception of help was not always met with enthusiasm.
It hadn't taken her long to find out that Nell would never really be someone's little sister. Instead of adopting a Lamie, Savenna felt she had concluded a pact with a personal demon that would always confront her with the truth she didn't want to hear. She could scream and argue as much as she wanted, Nell who was rationality itself and never let emotions cloud her judgment, always managed to outwit her. The girl was only eleven years old but her mind had the clarity of Savenna's old governess. She saw through every disguise. Maybe that's why she found their arguments so irritating.
Also, Savenna wondered how she could have believed that Nell had ever needed her protection. As soon as she was comfortable on the ship, she started studying different kinds of blades – sharp and deadly like her mind. As soon as Nell had known where she belonged, she could more than just stand up for herself. But even though she didn't need Savenna's protection and didn't know how to respond to her overwhelming affection, she loved her friend very much.
After venting and insulting a wide range of innocent people, Savenna concluded as usual that Nell was right. She never admitted it, of course, but she appreciated being alive and Rayleigh having done more for her than she could have asked for. She was even grateful for Nell's bluntness. Sometimes she was the only one capable of piercing her imaginary bubble and bringing her back to reality.
Savenna couldn't have everything, and for the first time she didn't want to.
No matter how much Savenna wanted to stay awake every minute they were traveling the most dangerous sea in the world, sleep caught her as soon as she placed her head on the pillow. Pulmon who was too scared to stick his nose outside after dark, remained in his cabin reading. So Nell didn't see anyone when she ventured on deck that night to practice her knife throwing in the dark. It was hard to concentrate with Savenna snoring in the same room. But as she made way toward the stern, she realized she wasn't alone.
Flickers of light fell through the cracks in the wooden walls of the armory shed. Rayleigh didn't see or hear the girl when she stepped inside. He was bent over a pile of papers, his face weary in the light of a single candle. First Nell thought he was doing inventory, but when she stepped closer she drew a sharp breath. The old pirate's eyes shot up at her. For a moment she thought he would be mad, but instead he remained silent and handed her one of the posters.
Wanted: Trafalgar Law – Dead or Alive.
"I picked them up on the last three islands we've docked at. Another one came in the mail tonight," he said. For a while they both stared at the picture of a boy in a furry hat. A pirate and a captain. "He's alive?" Nell muttered.
Rayleigh gave a short nod.
"How?"
"I don't know."
"Why didn't you tell her?" she wanted to know, calm as only she could be. Rayleigh wasn't the only one who had heard Savenna's story. Nell knew about everything. The dissected squirrel, Savenna's first stitches, the burning hospital and the hat that had proven him dead. For her Trafalgar Law had been a character out of a ghost story, but now that she was looking at the picture of the boy with the sad smile the words started to come alive.
Rayleigh drew a hand through his silver hair. "This isn't the person she remembers from the Flevance border," he said. "I looked him up the moment I found out he was alive. He survived the epidemic and managed to get himself cured. But people say he's insane. The marines call him the Surgeon of Death. He might have been an innocent doctor's son back then but not anymore. Apparently before assembling his own crew, he was part of the Donquixote family."
The color fled from Nell's face. That couldn't be true. The Law she had imagined would never have served a man as cruel as Doflamingo. They were too much alike. He would never have worked for someone Savenna had sworn to kill.
"That's exactly what I thought," Rayleigh admitted after noticing her bewilderment. "Even if he managed to escape Doflamingo's claws, hardly anyone remains the same after that vulture is through with them. It would be surprising if there is any humanity left in the boy."
Now she understood the helpless expression on Rayleigh's face. What were they to do with this information?
"Lying to her is that last thing I want to do," Rayleigh admitted after a while. "But I can't help thinking about what Pulmon said. Everything depends on Savenna's will to survive. And she has come so far. She had found a purpose and she seems...happy."
"Don't you think she might be happier knowing that he survived? They are the only ones left of an entire nation," Nell asked hesitantly.
Pensive, Rayleigh shook his head. "Do you remember what happened when she believed he was dead? Amber Lead almost got her. Savenna's survival depends only on her Haki now, and I don't know how many revelations she can take. Can you imagine how she will feel if she finds out he was alive this whole time, that he worked for the man responsible for Fetch's death and that, worst of all, he never came back for her?"
"It will break her heart," Nell said.
"And put her life in danger. I can't let that happen." Suddenly his voice lost momentum and he turned to Nell, as if asking for permission. "I know she will probably hate me for this but I have to protect her." The girl weighed his words carefully and then, with a heavy heart, she nodded. Savenna had given her a new life. And losing her as a friend was a risk she was willing to take to protect her life in return.
The posters were burned that night. From that day on Nell and Rayleigh did their best to take them off everywhere Savenna was likely to stumble upon them. That entailed getting up before dawn, inspecting shops and taverns of every island they landed on, and even raiding local post offices. They never talked about it but developed a need to redeem their guilty conscience.
Rayleigh trained Savenna harder than he had trained anyone before. Knowing that becoming a ruthless pirate was the only thing that would make her happy, he didn't hold back. As much as it hurt him to see Pulmon treat her cuts and bruises, he told himself that it was for her own good. After breaking one promise, the least he could do it honor another.
"Save your strength. Throwing punches is fun but an armor has to last at least half a battle" the pirate said after Savenna's fist had almost sent him flying to the back of the ship. Both her arms covered in black Armament Haki, she finally understood where the Major had gotten his strength from. She had fought a Haki battle before without knowing it. And finding out that the Major had had at least a little power to defend himself, made that episode of her life seem a little less awful.
When Rayleigh called for a break, Savenna decided to go for a swim and coaxed Nell into joining. "Don't make that face, it's going to be fun," she said letting down the ladder.
"I hate swimming."
"Is there something you don't hate?" Savenna rolled her eyes. "Life's too short to sulk around like that. Come on!" Those were the rules of the game. Nell told Savenna things she didn't want to hear and Savenna pushed her to try fun things she would never do on her own. She forced her to dance, to eat sweets until she threw up and pushed her over the ledge when she wouldn't dare. And while Savenna usually came to terms with the hidden truth's about herself, Nell used every excuse to evade Savenna's challenges. But when Savenna stood behind her waiting, her arms crossed in front of her chest, there was no way out.
Nell put down her knives, took a deep breath and jumped. Savenna clapped her hands before jumping in after her and floating lazily on her back. "Pfff what a show-off! Diving like that..." she muttered when Nell didn't resurface. But when more time passed and her friend was still nowhere to be seen, Savenna knew something was wrong.
"Nell?" she called out, frantically splashing around in the water. No answer. Where the hell was she? With her heart pounding in her ears Savenna took a deep breath and dove under water. Despite the blurry vision, she could see Nell's body hovering motionlessly between the branches of a water plants snaking through the currents. Pulmon and Rayleigh were already on the bottom of the ladder when Savenna pulled her friend out of the water. "What happened?"
"I don't know. She just went down like a rock," Savenna spat and helped them lift her lifeless body on deck.
But when Pulmon tried to revive the girl, something strange happened. The moment Nell spat out the water she had swallowed, the doctor's ears started growing. Then his nose, then his eyes until the poor man looked like an abstract painting. Then the deck suddenly shrunk to half of its size almost throwing Rayleigh and Savenna off the ship. And as she grabbed the railing to pull herself up, Savenna's skin slowly turned a dark shade of blue. But whatever it was, it lasted only for a few more seconds before both people and objects returned to their initial state.
"What is happening?" she cried out when Nell was slowly regaining consciousness.
"Well," Rayleigh said somewhat startled. "It seems we have a Devil Fruit user in our crew."
Nell had eaten the Forge-Forge fruit without knowing it. It explained why Savenna had saved her from the pirates and why the girl appreciated Rayleigh's cooking so much. After the death of her parents, Nell had gone hungry for months. That's why when a strange looking fruit had fallen off a marine convoy, she hadn't thought twice before eating it. But food didn't remain her only concern. When word got out about who might have taken the shape changing fruit, Nell had both pirates and marines following her trail.
"You don't have to do this. I'm alright," the girl said when Savenna kept harassing Pulmon to examine her a week after the accident.
"How do you know? Are you a doctor?" Savenna snapped, but regretted it instantly. The shock was still sitting in her bones. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. It was just scary, you know. I almost drowned you."
"It wasn't your fault. I was stupid for eating that thing in the first place."
"Did you never use it before?" Savenna asked hesitantly. Nell shook her head slowly. "I don't know. If I did, I don't remember. I never paid much attention to how things look."
Nell rarely noticed when someone got a new haircut, and wouldn't even care if from one day to the next she woke up wearing another face. She dressed in sober and practical clothes, preferably dark so she could wear them even when they got dirty, and was absolutely no help when going shopping. When Savenna asked which shirt she should get of the two she had selected, Nell said they looked exactly the same to her, leaving Savenna to curse in front of the mirror for another hour.
But while completely unable to care for appearances, people's thoughts and feelings were an open book to her. Silent and invisible most of the time Nell was good at reading people, which was the reason her bluntness tended to hit them in the right place. That's why hearing about Trafalgar Law had upset her so much. For the first time she had been wrong about someone.
The Forge-Forge fruit seemed therefore completely wasted on Nell. With a single touch the user could change the size and color of pretty much anything for a limited amount of time. To Savenna's disappointment it could not make objects appear out of thin air. Whatever Nell intended to change had already to be present in her immediate surroundings. Also, she wasn't able to use the fruit on herself, and only under stressful circumstances could she extend her power to more than one or two targets at a time.
In spite of Savenna's encouragement, she used her fruit only when everyone started forgetting about her having it in the first place. She managed her first Forge when fishing with Rayleigh. She waited for the pirate to go inside for another box of worms, and used her power on the next fish that bit. Then she lowered it back into the water and called for Rayleigh. The pirate laughed like a little kid when he pulled out a fish three times its usual size.
A week later she pulled a similar trick on the doctor. Hiding in his cabin, she made the man appear half a head taller every time he looked in the mirror. First, the doctor didn't believe what he saw, but after a few days he got used to it and walked out of his room smiling a little brighter. And soon, convinced that he had indeed grown taller in his late years, he started venturing on land all by himself.
Savenna and Rayleigh were amazed.
What Nell created were illusions, but they seemed to make her crew mates happier. And unlike Savenna who grew bored when no one was trying to bite someone else's head off, Nell appreciated peace and harmony. That was how she tried to ease her own conscience when ripping another poster off the wall. She wanted her friend to be happy. But she couldn't help wonder if the boy in the picture had really become such a terrible person, and if maybe once in a while, he remembered the girl from the White City.
"If I see one more unpaid cargo bill, I will throw myself overboard," Savenna growled at the numbers blurring in front of their eyes. Then she smashed her paper down on one of thirteen piles and rolled on her back, watching her cabin move from upside down. "How did this man never get into trouble?" The floor of their cabin was covered in five years of paperwork Rayleigh had never bothered filing.
"Being Silvers Rayleigh helps," Nell replied.
"Argh." Outside, there was nothing but the blue of the ocean. They had been traveling underwater for days. But as exciting as it seemed, Savenna wanted nothing more than to get back to the surface. With stars in her eyes she had discovered what Rayleigh's coating was really for, and spent days watching colorful coral reefs and shoals passing them by as they dove down to Fishman Island. She couldn't wait to see the city for herself and was gravely disappointed when Rayleigh said they would be traveling through without a halt. The island was caught in the crossfire of another political conflict, which they needed to avoid if they valued their life.
"But don't all ships have to stop for inspection?" she objected.
"Not mine. At least for now," Rayleigh said. "The island keeps changing Yonko protection and as long as the right one is in charge, I can travel through with whatever cargo I want." However, Rayleigh was the only one on the ship to benefit from Yonko immunity, so all other crew members had to remain hidden until the island was out of sight. That's how they ended up doing the coating business books to kill time.
"I never thought I would miss land so much," Savenna moaned while outside one shade of blue slowly floated into another one.
"So you could set another marine base on fire?"
"That happened once and I didn't do it on purpose," Savenna objected. "Beginners' error."
"Of course."
She pondered over something to chase her boredom. Then her eyes caught a dangerous glow. "I know what we can do," she called out. "Let's find out what else your Devil Fruit has got in store."
Nell suspected nothing good to come out of this.
"It's a shame we can't dress up together..." Savenna went on. "But can you make me a fish? Oh, how about a mermaid?" she asked. "No, wait!" Her eyes lit up with mischievous excitement. "Could you make me pretty like Boa Hancock? Beautiful with boobs like cannonballs? I always wanted to have those!"
"Wouldn't they make you fall over?"
"Not if I had a butt to balance the weight."
"Hmm."
As much as Nell was tempted to test the limits of her powers, changing isolated physical attributes was still beyond her expertise. Just as with Rayleigh and Pulmon, she needed a mental picture to make anything happen. Also, while Savenna knew every shameless detail about her favorite pirates, Nell had no idea what Boa Hancock looked like.
Then she had an idea. She couldn't imitate the empress but she could find a way to make up for her lie. If she pretended that Trafalgar Law wasn't alive, her Devil Fruit could help her pretend that Amber Lead had never happened. Savenna had sure talked enough about how pretty she would have been, if she hadn't fallen sick.
Still unsure what her power could do, Nell closed her eyes and carefully reached for Savenna's shoulder. When she opened her eyes, Savenna was gone. Nell found her standing in front of the mirror, mesmerized.
"How..." Savenna started but fell silent. The natural color of her skin that had vanished so long ago that she almost didn't recognize it when she finally saw it again. Everything was different, and yet the same. Savenna was taller, her hair wilder and her edges softer. Nell's disguise had created the spitting image of her mother. Round chin, healthy pale skin and blond hair. Only the eyes remained her own. Dark and filled with feverish wakefulness.
She couldn't watch when the power of the Devil Fruit faded, and turned away before she turned into her true self again.
"What kind of island is this?" Savenna frowned into the distance. Through her spyglass Sabaody looked like a giant broccoli bubble.
"It's called a mangrove forest," Rayleigh explained, putting away his Vivre card after the destination had finally appeared on the horizon. "There are seventy-nine trees in total. It's a place like no other. It how its downsides but it will grow on you, I guarantee it."
Two hours later they docked in front of a run down tree house on Grove 13. Whether vegetation had taken over since Rayleigh had left, or whether he had simply never cared about it in the first place, was hard to say. The small house had been built within one of the tall green mangrove trees, with its crown reaching up to the sky and its roots going deep under water. Branches had weaved around the window sills and were slowly taking over the interior. The front door hung askew and the stairs snaking up were missing a significant amount of steps.
"Well, it is quite charming," Savenna giggled when a loose roof tile fell down hitting a passing pirate on the head.
Only during their first trip into the groves did Savenna become aware of the forest's actual size. Even though the city wasn't built on land, it had different districts and neighborhoods. After her first encounter with Hatchan almost sent her flying off her bubble bike, she observed her surroundings with fascinated bewilderment. The archipelago was so different from the snowy, forlorn landscape of the north. The air was damp and heavy with rainbow-colored bubbles constantly rising and popping above their heads. Everything was oppressively green, lush and bursting with life that sometimes it felt hard to breathe.
Due to the lack of literature on the Sabaody archipelago, it was only then that Savenna found out how close they had traveled to Marijoa. The World Nobles were walking the streets like gods with the slave trade was flourishing around them. For a moment she felt like running back to the ship and hide in her old cabin. Sabaody was the crossroads of the world, and anybody could find out about her condition.
But as soon as they reached Sabaody Park, her concerns were dissipated by the multitude of strange people. The crowd was so enormous that it engulfed everything around it. After fighting her way to the next food stand, Savenna considered that if she had such a hard time finding food in this mess, no one would even try to find her.
Rayleigh was right. In the next few days the vibrant chaos of Sabaody started to grow on her. On the archipelago everybody was either running toward something or running away from it. It welcomed all sorts of people sailing down Grand Line, and was therefore the worst place to stand out but the best place to hide. Also, one never knew what was going to happen. Wandering from one grove zone into another, she witnessed a bar fight, an armed robbery and a marine parade, all in one stroll while eating cotton candy.
Sabaody was alive down to its very roots.
Vendors sold food from all over Grand Line, and Savenna found herself eating things that were still alive before she bit its head off. In their first month, she and Nell roamed the Sabaody Park for days until they had no money left, and made a dozen trips into the worst parts of the lawless grove where Savenna had managed to add two zeros to her bounty. While she loved the risk and danger of her new home, only the human auction house and the World Nobles remained a thorn in her side.
One day she found herself sitting in at an auction just to see the stories it were real. Everyday the auction house was filled with high-ranking pirates and bubble-head nobles, so she remained in the back to attract the least attention. When she finally saw the people being dragged on stage and handed over to the highest bidder, Savenna forced herself to stay put. She felt a violent urge to free every single person, but at the same time she was glad not to be one of them.
Appalled, she couldn't help but stare at the World Nobles in their long silver coats, recognizing the indifference in their faces. They were people of Marijoa, rulers who would sell out their own people. The Flevance royals might have been among them, maybe they had even sat in the same chairs and watched the same mermaid being sold off.
Savenna's face creased with disgust. She felt the hunger for pain stirring but got hold of herself in time. The moment the auction was closed, she was out of the door. The longer she remained in the nobles' presence, the more she thought of the vengeance she had promised to forget. From that day on she carefully avoided every noble procession and didn't go near the auction house again.
Back on the ship five years had seemed like an eternity. But once Rayleigh, Nell and Savena had settled on Sabaody, time was just flying by. Pulmon remained on the archipelago and opened a small practice in the protected tourist area of the city. Nell had started forging actual weapons while practicing her Devil Fruit powers on merchandise and customers alike. And Savenna finally set off to become a real pirate.
However, things turned out harder than expected. With all the enthusiasm she had piled up over the years, she traveled from one island to another just to come home in the middle of the night cursing and banging her fist against the wall. As usual, nothing and no one lived up to her expectations. Once she had found a pirate crew, they turned out to be either too weak, too dull or not ambitious enough. The ones stupid enough to get themselves caught during their first voyage had it the worst. Time may have passed but she still sucked at making friends.
"They're just not good enough," she lamented over her traditional cup of sake with Rayleigh. A new bar had just opened across the street and it was a question of time Pulmon found out and dragged them both out of there. Now that she was sixteen and had outgrown the doctor in height, he had gone from complaining that she was too young to drink, to complaining she was drinking too much. At least now she and Rayleigh were on the same page.
"Ever thought of lowering your standards?" Rayleigh considered. "No crew is perfect. Anyone can get stronger and smarter if you give them the chance...I mean look at you."
Savenna shot him a mocking glance. "What is that supposed to mean? At least I won't get myself killed lifting an anchor," she scoffed. "Pathetic."
The old pirate chuckled. "You weren't quite a genius when I started training you."
"Says the man who spent half of our money on a giant paint brush."
"That was for coating."
"Nell's been throwing daggers at it for a year now. I doubt you'll ever use it again."
"True... But that doesn't change the fact that people can always surprise you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Savenna said with a content smile before ordering another cup. But soon the waitress disappeared and was replaced by the short-haired owner of the place. Her dark eyes had been following their conversation discreetly before she walked over and poured them another cup. When she was gone, Savenna smiled deviously at Rayleigh. "That barwoman has been serving us every time since we first walked into this place."
"So?"
"I think she likes you."
"Is this the moment where you make things up because you're bored?"
Savenna ignored him and turned to the owner. She was a tall woman with dark hair and big, intelligent eyes filled with amused curiosity. Savenna gave her a wide smile and pointed at her drinking buddy. "Have you met Ray? His decorative skills suck but he's an awesome pirate and quite a decent mechanic."
"No, I haven't," she said, a half smile twisting her lips. Had Savenna known that introducing Rayleigh to a woman was all it took to throw the pirate off guard, she would have done it ages ago. "Silvers Rayleigh, nice to meet you..." he said almost choking on his drink.
"Shakky."
"And I'm out of here," Savenna muttered and emptied her cup.
"You're grounded," Rayleigh hissed when the woman turned around to get another bottle. But Savenna just laughed and walked away with a self-satisfied smile, considering starting a career as a matchmaker.
Her own love life was something else entirely. Just as she was tired of being sick, she was sick of falling in love. At least that's what she told herself. In truth, she didn't know if she was still capable of it. But sleeping with someone who would probably be dead in a few days was easier than finding out.
She would put on Nell's best disguise and go the only place where they served North Blue beer, and where the thought she could hear Louise cursing from the kitchen. There and only there she allowed for past and present to overlap. Just when it started to hurt again, she would lean back, close her eyes and brush her lips down a stranger's neck.
Savenna's body had experienced so much pain that when it finally received a tiny amount of pleasure, it pulled her toward it as if she had always known where to go. Savenna was young, but she felt the hunger of generations. Now that she could pretend to be tall and beautiful, she wanted to know what it was like to let go.
Intoxicated by human closeness, she rarely cared who she shared it with as long as she could be helpless and powerful at the same time. Sometimes she yearned for arms strong enough to kill and enjoyed the stroke of hands able to squeeze the life out of her. On other days, she wanted those with the weak knees, the sad eyes and the gentle, uncertain hands. She loved the way women's clothes glided over their shoulders, how their lips moved and how their touch was never the same. The slow, exquisite torture. She was driven wild by men's struggle for self-control and how their bodies never managed a single lie. She thought of Rosie when she buried her fingers into their backs and felt desire draw the air out of her lungs until nothing was left on her mind.
The disguise she had used to steal money now served to steal moments of life she still felt she had no claim to. She herself could never ask for anything like that. The white face that looked back from the surface of the water, wasn't one to admire. Regularly she counted the pale scars around the eyes which seemed too big compared to the rest of her face, and little burns left by the Flevance fire. And no matter how hard she pushed, the bones wouldn't retreat deeper under the skin. Thanks to Pulmon's medication she had grown taller, but her body remained lean and fragile, almost bird-like.
Walking home from the bar she followed the central waterway that led from the lawless groves to Sabaody Park. Then she stopped and scowled. A bubble car was carrying three World Nobles over the water toward the auction house. Only this time they were in the company of a commoner. Savenna frowned. From where she stood, she could only see a short, dark haired man in a brown coat. But when he turned around to reach for his bag, Savenna thought she recognized the round glasses and the pointy nose.
"Pulmon?" Savenna squinted into the direction of the carriage, that quickly disappeared behind a mangrove branch. She looked after it for a while longer, then decided to go home. Rayleigh was right, she was probably just making things up. There was nothing these people could have to talk about.
That night, after they had celebrated Rayleigh having found a girlfriend who could make her own sake, Savenna woke up in a sweat. Horrified, she realized her temperature had rocketed up in her sleep. The older she got, the more vicious the Amber Lead attacks became. While she remembered having been able to run around and play cards when she had been sick as a kid, now she hardly got through one without partial anesthesia. Dizzy, she threw in some pills and went back to bed where she lay awake for some more hours, a bad feeling clouding her mind. In the morning, she reached for the Transponder Snail and called Pulmon.
He had just got back from a small trip and cleared his schedule for an emergency appointment. The years hadn't changed him much, except that he seemed a little less jumpy. The last time Savenna had checked upon him he was boarding a ship all on his own.
"How long has it been since you've last had symptoms?" he wanted to know while preparing the injections.
"Three months maybe." Savenna's was already battling a fierce headache and mechanically rolled her sleeves up for the IV. She had been told that chronic patients learned to accept their condition, but she had been living with Amber Lead for about six years now and still despised it with the same passion as before. The next steps had become routine. Pulmon would give her a shot to boost her antibodies, hook her on all possible machines, monitor her fever and knock her out with a sedative until it was over.
After examining her he looked relieved. "You're going to be fine. It's remarkable how your condition remains stable," he said with slight fascination. "I can't help but wonder if every Conqueror's Haki is capable of shielding its user the way yours does."
"What do you mean?" she asked and reached for a glass of water.
The doctor shrugged. "If we can figure out how medical Haki protection works, we might be able to help other people."
Savenna shook her head. "But Pulmon, I am the last Amber Lead survivor. There is no one else."
But the doctor wasn't really listening. Instead he directed his usual concern at a heap of charts on his desk. "Pulmon, is everything alright?" But before he could reply, she saw the brown coat hanging over the back of the chair. It was the same coat she had seen the day before. And the doctor was the only one to wear sleeves in the Sabaody heat.
"That was you on the waterway, wasn't it?" she asked sharply. "What the hell were you doing with these nobles?"
She couldn't believe it.
"No, you are not."
"Excuse me?"
"You are not the last survivor. That's what I was talking to Saint Charlos about. He approached me a week ago to examine an Amber Lead patient in Marijoa. I reported back to him yesterday," he explained, his eyes glued to the floor.
"No, that's not true." Savenna fiercely shook her head. "I read the books myself. The Amber Lead syndrome is a genetic disease. It cannot be transmitted from patient to patient. And everyone in Flevance is dead!"
"Not everyone."
Savenna froze, her white eyes staring at him. "What?"
The doctor sighed and sat down at his desk. "Do you remember the day you told Rayleigh about your plans to take down the royal family? He told you the were dead." Savenna didn't react, so the doctor went on. "He did it to protect you. I disagreed but you know Rayleigh. Haki users always get their way." He smiled feebly at her. "He will probably never speak to me again after today, but you deserve to know the truth. They survived, at least until now. Some time ago they began to suspect that the princess might have caught a case of Amber Lead syndrome. That's why I went to see her."
Shaking her head with disbelief, Savenna felt her hands tremble. "You...went to see them?" The doctor nodded, as if telling here that these people were very much real and had been this whole time. "But why you? Aren't there a thousand other doctors in the capital?" she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady.
The doctor hesitated. "Because that wasn't the first time." When she didn't understand, he said, "Do you know how many good ship doctors there are in the North Blue? Have you never wondered why Rayleigh hired a man completely unfit for travel to take care of a single patient, and why I agreed?"
"I thought you two knew each other..." she stammered.
"Yes, we did. But that wasn't the main reason. I've worked with Amber Lead for many years," he admitted. "The royal family hired me when they knew the outbreak was coming. They locked me up in the castle and wanted me to develop an emergency treatment, and I tried. That's when I came up with the combination of drugs I've been giving you."
His words started humming in her ears. "But I've been at the hospital during the outbreak. I've never seen you there," she protested, desperately trying to make a sense of what she was told.
"I would have stayed, believe me. But they had tried to have me killed long before you were admitted."
"Why?"
The doctor smiled a sad smile. "Because I discovered that the Flevance population wouldn't benefit from any of my findings. The royal family hired me only to treat them in case their own protection failed. And when I refused, they weren't happy."
No matter how Savenna turned it, he couldn't be saying the truth. She couldn't picture this man who knew her as Rayleigh's daughter, walking through the streets of her old home town. This just didn't fit together. And yet, he had known as much about the sickness as old Trafalgar, and most importantly, there wasn't a moment he had been scared of it.
"And despite all of this you agreed to help them now?" she asked after a while, trying to ignore the growing throbbing in her temples.
"I'm a doctor," he replied soberly. "That's what I do. And the girl had nothing to do with what happened. She was so young back then she hardly remembers me." Savenna wanted to punch someone. How did he dare excuse them after what they had done? How come someone was always on their side? Even though she knew that if he had been summoned by Saint Charlos he had had no choice but going to Marijoa, she continued to blame him.
"Amber Lead remained an unsolved mystery for me," he admitted quietly. "I never stopped researching it. And when Rayleigh introduced me to you... Well, I needed find out how you survived what no one else had."
But if Pulmon believed she would let this go just because he had been kind enough to tell the truth, he didn't know her very well. As Savenna's shock subsided, cold anger flared up in her eyes. Not only had he lied to her, but he had had the audacity to help the people she should have killed years ago. If that wasn't treason she didn't know what was.
"That's fits well because I don't need your help anymore," she hissed. Then she jumped to her feet, ripped the IV out of her arm and tried to ignore the pain piercing her heart when she went looking for the one how was really to blame.
Savenna didn't bother opening the door to Rayleigh's workshop. She punched it directly out of the hinges and stormed inside. Confused, the old mechanic looked out from behind a half-coated ship. "Savenna? What..?"
"You betrayed me!" she called. With rage flickering in her eyes, she wrapped her arm in Haki and punched right through the bottom of the ship.
"Hey! Calm down! What the hell are you talking about?"
But Savenna was done playing games. "Let's see..." she said rubbing her chin. "Was it Pulmon's true identity? Or the fake death of the Flevance family? Or maybe you lied about something else too?" Immediately understanding crept over the pirate's bewildered features. "Savenna, let me explain..."
"Explain what? That you have been lying to for most of the time we've known each other?" Savenna was yelling now chasing the customers waiting for their ships. "They have been alive all this time. At least Pulmon had the decency to tell me."
Rayleigh sighed, defeated. "I'm sorry, Savenna. You were hurt and you were not thinking straight. I wanted to protect you from making a decision you would later regret", he explained calmly. It had the opposite effect on her. "Protect me? What right do you have to make this decision?"
"I don't know...I figured that's what a father would do," he said a little lost. But his uncertainty left her cold. She felt the heat of Amber Lead fever rise to her head.
"Don't make me laugh, Ray. I've been able to take care of myself the moment I learned to speak. I bet the only reason you took me in was so to make sure my Haki didn't fall into the hands of the marines. And me killing the Flevance family would have put your mission at risk, wouldn't it?"
Now it was Rayleigh who was angry. "That's not what this was about!" he argued. "I lied because I care about you. I didn't want you to be chasing ghosts for the rest of your life and then realize that you've wasted your years on hatred and anger. Seeing you suffer breaks my heart like nothing else, and I wanted for you to be happy!"
Savenna responded with a weak smile. "You're not the first one to say that. But I don't think I can. At least not the way you want me to."
She had been erring all these years, trying to become a pirate without a treasure. She had wanted to be like Rayleigh, to follow in his footsteps and to make him proud, but that just wasn't her. "I know now why I can't find a crew," she admitted. "I tried to take your advice and live my childhood dreams. But the things is, I don't really care about the One Piece, or about friendship and sacrifice. I know that I should, but I don't. Not anymore."
"And do you think killing these people will bring them back?" Rayleigh asked with a hint of desperation, trying to remember the girl who had spent days quoting his own biography to him.
Savenna shook her head. "No, but it will give me back the power that was taken from me. Happiness comes and goes with the people close to you, but power remains," she said thinking of Doflamingo and the queen, living their lives as if nothing had happened. Sometimes she wanted to be them as much as she wanted to kill them. The power of having someone tremble at your very name, of never having to think about food or money and of never having to hide again. Being independent and not owing anyone anything.
She had forgotten about the importance of power, until she had seen what happened when she handed it over to somebody else. Even the best used it for their own good. Rayleigh might have lied to protect her, but he had also protected himself and his own happiness.
His face darkened. "You don't really believe that, do you?" For a moment he saw her wavering.
"I'm a survivor, Ray" she replied then with a fleeting tear in her eyes. "For me it's kill or be killed. I can't seem to learn anything else. I guess I'm just not as strong as you thought I was." Before he could object, she was hit by a heavy cough and blood ran out of the corners of her mouth. Rayleigh rushed to her side, but she pushed him away. "Don't!" she hissed. He was forced to watch how she struggled for air and tried to maintain her balance. Then she looked up at him, her anger gone.
"I wish you didn't lie to me," she muttered.
"You can still trust me," he said but Savenna slowly turned around and left. Rayleigh wanted to go after her but he didn't. He knew this was his fault. It turned out he had been just as selfish as his daughter when protecting the ones he loved. But whatever he said now, she wouldn't believe him. Whatever darkness remained in her after all these years, he didn't have the power to chase it. She would have to do it on her own. And then, he hoped that she would come back and find the treasure she didn't know she was looking for.
Savenna regretted the fun, the laughter and the feeling of home when she walked away. She regretted the things she said, and regretted to have hurt Rayleigh who would have burned that whole forest to the ground for her if he needed to. Many times she wanted to turn around, fling her arms around his giant waist and a pretend nothing had happened. Maybe she had been happy. Maybe it was a feeling one only recognized when it was gone.
But that didn't change anything. There was only one path for her now. And now that she knew that for certain, the old guilt lost its bite. Even though she had grown to love Rayleigh like a father, he had somehow remained the one to draw the line between right and wrong. But now that she had found that he could be as weak as everybody else, his principles were nothing but a paragraph in an old adventure story.
Savenna would never be strong enough to march into Marijoa and murder the royals in broad daylight. But she could do it the Pulmon way. Infiltrate their ranks and strike when they least expected it. And for that she had to do what she did best. Play dirty. Lie, cheat, manipulate and betray anyone she had to to get what she wanted. She hoped Pulmon had done a good job treating princess Emery. Savenna wanted her healthy and wide-awake when she would rip her heart out of her chest.
Two years later...
"Captain Silvers?"
"Yes?" Savenna turned around in her chair, long blond hair falling loosely onto her shoulders. When there was no reply, she rose a questioning eyebrow at the young, slightly trembling marine officer. The rumors about her were ample. Even unarmed and with a steaming cup of tea on her desk, Captain Silvers remained the most terrifying marine who had set foot onto their forlorn base in years. The man tried desperately to remember that, when he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering over the cleavage she never bothered to hide. "Well?"
"A...a letter has arrived for you, Captain," her stammered. Savenna nodded, allowing the officer to place it onto her desk.
Using Nell's disguise to mess with people's heads was one of her favorite occupations. She hadn't spent two days on this marine base and she was already calling the shots. She didn't care when Nell shook her head and told her she was overcompensating. She was eighteen now and not getting any healthier. Nobody had seen her true appearance since they had left Sabaody and it would remain that way. She wasn't among pirates anymore and the tiniest glimpse of Amber Lead would be enough to blow her cover.
Savenna opened the letter and made a face. Smoker, that vulture, seemed to find her wherever she went. He was still jealous that she had drunk him under the table in training camp and got to skip all the Haki classes. And now that he had got himself a fancy Devil Fruit, he wouldn't stop bragging about his accomplishments. He was training new recruits somewhere near Enies Lobby, and didn't miss a single opportunity to remind her that she herself was stranded with a bunch of idiots.
Savenna had graduated the marine academy in record time at the top of her class. Obviously, she had never expected less from herself after her training with Rayleigh. But when it was time to pass on the knowledge, due to her talent Savenna was assigned the students who hadn't passed a single grade. She had considered killing every single one of them just to get out of it, but managed to restrain herself.
"At least I can walk over a puddle without drowning in it, Smoke-smoke," she muttered, before crumpling the letter into a paper ball and throwing it into the trash. That's when Nell entered the office. In her long white-blue marine uniform and the new, dark-rimmed glasses, she looked older than she was. Even though Savenna suspected that she secretly missed Rayleigh and the life on Sabaody, she had accompanied Savenna all along throwing knives at everyone who dared defy them.
"Oh, good you're here!" Savenna smiled. "Do you happen to know what my disciples are up to?"
"One is in detention and the other is about to get released from medial," Nell replied looking at her chart.
"And the third?"
"Got lost on the way from the dorm."
"Terrific..." Savenna's smile dropped. It was exasperating. No matter how hard she trained them and how many times she abandoned them on a desert island, nothing changed. At some point Savenna came to believe that they were too stupid to die. Rayleigh would be delighted at her failure as a teacher. Savenna sighed. Soon she would be promoted commander and finally get security clearance for Marijoa. Patience, she told herself. You only have to stand this a little while longer.
Before she could finish her tea, the local Sergeant came up to her door announcing that it was time for the Rounds. He was a middle-aged, severe looking man with a profound love for protocol. He was usually also the one in charge. But since Savenna was traveling through on her way to Enies Lobby, she was the highest marine authority on the tiny Grand Line base.
"Of course, Sergeant." She very much disliked the Rounds but there was no way around it. Every day marine ships brought in new prisoners; pirates of different strength and importance to the government. The Rounds determined whether they should be executed on the spot or transferred to Impel Down. And since Captain Silver was the highest authority that day, the decision was hers. Savenna didn't really care about the fate of the pirates. If they were stupid enough to let themselves get caught, they didn't deserve better. However, every time she ordered the killing shot or watched a ship set sail for Impel Down, she couldn't help thinking about Magdalena's brother she had never met. But Rayleigh had been right. She was born with the Conqueror's Haki and had to make sacrifices to get what she wanted.
Letting the Sergeant lead the way, they went down a musty flight of stairs and crossed the prison row. Pirates who were still held for questioning were either shouting at her, banging their shackles against the bars or vegetating in a corner. The ones with higher priority had already been brought into the court yard.
"How many are scheduled for today?" Savenna wanted to know.
"Ehm..."
"Sixteen, Captain," Nell replied in his stead. As her personal assistant, Nell maintained the habit of always being better informed than anyone else.
"Thank you."
"Actually..." the Sergeant objected, counting the Wanted posters in his files. "There are seventeen, Captain. Another patrol came in this morning." Nell shot him an disbelieving look behind Savenna's back. She was never wrong, and when she was she didn't like it. That was one of the few character traits the two girls had in common.
"Very well," Savenna said. One pirate more of less mattered little to her. "Let's get it over with."
When they entered the court yard, the tiny battalion controlling the base was already in formation, and the Sea Stone cage containing the pirates was guarded by seven marines. Savenna had to hand it to them. They might be on a small island somewhere between Banaro and Water Seven with a four day log charge that didn't make it the most popular place to be, but they were eager to do a good job.
With her white cape flying in the north wind, Savenna stepped onto the execution podium where two marines were waiting to swing their two spears. Nell and the Sergeant remained behind her. "Bring in the first prisoner," Savenna ordered before being handed the Wanted poster and the notes on that particular pirate.
The procedure seemed endless. By the time the seventeenth prisoner was called out, Savenna had condemned ten pirates to death and had six of them transferred to the Impel Down cruiser. Even though the bodies had been brought away, the wood she was standing on was soaked with blood. While some of the younger officers averted their gaze when the blade pierced the prisoners' skin, Savenna didn't bet an eye and had them clean her shoes when the occasional drops stained the leather. At least that kept them occupied.
She didn't bother to look up when the cage was opened for the last time that day. Neither did she notice some of the recruits retreating when the prisoner passed by. Only when she was done signing over the bounties, she shot an amused glance at the Sergeant whose face had lost its color. "Calm down. There's nothing to worry about. This isn't the New World. They are just ordinary pirates," she scoffed. "Besides, we're almost done here, aren't we?"
"One is left," the marine said with a dry voice. "A rookie from the North Blue."
Savenna chuckled. "Is that why you're making that face? Afraid of a little rookie?"
"It's a dangerous one, Captain. I advise you to be careful," he said. Savenna didn't even consider taking him seriously. "You are welcome to go inside should this be too much for your fragile nerves, Sergeant. If not, please be quiet and let me do my job."
"As you wish, Captain."
Only then Savenna noticed the anxious murmur traveling through the crowd. The Sergeant must not be the only one feeling uneasy about her next candidate. The marines in training who had watched the event with vivid interest, had now disappeared behind the battlements and even the more seasoned soldiers clutched their weapons a little tighter.
Who the hell had they captured? Whatever, Savenna brushed it off. She had been trained by one of the most powerful men in the world and her Haki was strong enough to smash this whole base to pieces. She could handle a newbie pirate.
When she finally faced him, however, she felt a little disappointed. He seemed like an ordinary man. A Devil Fruit user in Sea Shackles, but still... But unlike the prisoners before him, the dark-haired pirate walked toward the scaffold with long, confident steps, as if he didn't care one bit about the guns pointed at his head.
A captain. Savenna had met enough to spot one in the crowd. Good pirate captains could be recognized by stance and attitude only. Natural authority, silent confidence and a hint of violence ready to be unleashed at any moment. She could see why he made the marines uncomfortable.
Even though his menacing attitude was a little undermined by the flashy yellow shirt stretching over his broad shoulders, Savenna stiffened as she felt the pirate's cold, slightly amused glance fall upon her. Up close, he couldn't be much older than herself. But there was something cold-blooded and calculating in the way he smiled, lazily twisting one corner of his mouth as if he knew something she didn't.
Savenna's eyes narrowed threateningly before she turned away. She was sure she hadn't met any decent pirates recently, and yet there was something unnervingly familiar about him.
"Who is he?" she asked Sergeant.
"The captain of the Heart Pirates," the marine said. "His crew is still chained up. He insisted on going first."
Savenna nodded. When he handed her the poster, she quickly scanned the page. A bounty of 1,150,000 berries. Not bad for a rookie. But when her eyes fell on the name, Savenna froze.
"This can't be right..." she muttered. Either someone had messed up or Amber Lead was causing hallucinations again. That name didn't make any sense. She was about to accuse someone of giving her the wrong poster, but instead she read over the name again and again hoping it would change, but it didn't.
Wanted: Trafalgar Law – Dead or Alive.
Savenna shook her head violently. Trafalgar Law couldn't be a pirate. He had died years ago. She of all people must know. She was the one who had avenged his death. Or hadn't she?
Afraid of what she would see, her eyes slowly moved back to the pirate standing in front of her. Too preoccupied to notice Nell's ashen face, Savenna suddenly remembered the coal-black hair, the eerie calm and the icy, fleeting smile. I bet you'll be a real criminal when we meet again...
It hit her like a lighting bolt. She felt her fingers creasing the poster. "Mushroom Head...?"
The captain of the Heart Pirates stiffened. "What?" His voice sounded different, raspy and adult. And yet she knew it was his. The smile vanished as his sharp gray eyes locked with hers. Breathless, she watched his indifference mount to anger and boil down to disbelief. Of course he didn't recognize her. Nell's Devil Fruit wasn't the only mask she was wearing. It had been eight years since they had last seen each other – covered in blood and grime and their skin the color of snow.
Just when she thought he had forgotten, Law's face turned blank. "Savenna...?"
That was mean, I know... But I'm sooo happy they finally met again, I've been looking forward to this for so long! :-D *grinning with caffeine induced craziness* Please don't be mad - I promise I'm going to update faster this time!