Pain bit at Nuvo's wrists as she groggily awoke on her cell floor. The shackles have chaffed and blistered again…she thought wearily. But wait…this isn't right…I conjured a key…I can get out of these… But to her dismay, she could not move. What is this?... She tried valiantly to move her arms and legs, but she only succeeded in causing the chains to rattle, creating a terrible echoing racket in the dark. It hurt her head. The darkness was thick, and she couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed.

"Doflamingo? Are you there?"

"Nu..."

She knew without doubt that it was Scabor speaking to her, and the realization chilled her to the bone. She tried to speak again, to ask him how on earth he had gotten into Impel Down, but then she remembered that he was dead, that she herself had killed him, and she was certain that she must be dead too. This was her own Hell to suffer, chained to a floor in the dark with only other ghosts whispering to her forever and all time…

…

"Nuvovniya!"

She bolted upright in Doffy's four poster bed, sweat dripping over her like she'd just stepped out of a rainstorm. She looked frantically around the room, then down at her wrists, certain they would be bleeding from her shackles. Of course, they were not, and only this visual proof could convince her that she had only been dreaming. She sighed deeply and collapsed back into the silky sheets, then immediately cringed when the wet material stuck to her back.

"You were thrashing in your sleep." Doffy gently pushed her sweat-matted hair off of her forehead.

"I'm sorry. I was having a nightmare abou-"

"Hush." He pushed one long finger against her lips. "It doesn't matter now. It's over."

He bent down and kissed her deeply, but even with those ravenous lips against her own, Nuvo couldn't get the sound of Scabor's voice out of her head. Sensing that she was not in the moment with him, Doffy pulled back, sighed, and reached for the tassel hanging next to the bed and pulled it sharply. Moments later, Juliette appeared in the doorway, looking perfectly composed despite the late hour. She glanced over Doffy's naked torso, clearly admiring the view, but then turned up her nose at the sight of Nuvovniya next to him. Doffy had used his strings to create this Juliette-summoning service, connecting the tassel to a bell in Juliette's room. He could ring for her any time he chose, and Juliette never failed to arrive in the doorway after a minute or two. Never.

"We require fresh sheets. And draw a bath for Nuvovniya as well."

He stood from the bed, nude and unashamed, and fetched his robe from the chair across the room. Juliette's eyes followed his every action lasciviously, not daring to look away until he was covered. Annoyed and then irritated by her own annoyance, Nuvo also rose from the bed unclothed, crossing to Doffy.

"Would you hurry up and get those sheets changed, Juliette? As you can see, we've made quite a mess in them."

…

Sinking into the hot water, Nuvo drowsily allowed her mind to wander. She hadn't told Doffy about her semi-success with summoning her powers in the lab with Caesar that day. Their conversation about figuring out what she really wanted for the future and who she really wanted to be had prevented her from feeling comfortable talking to Doffy about it, although she wasn't sure why. She was afraid that her desire to keep this secret from him might indicate that she didn't feel like she could truly trust him, and that thought upset her. She had felt for so long that Doffy was the person who knew her best, and whom she knew best as well, but ever since they'd conquered Mariejois, she had felt a certain distance between them. He had met his goal of becoming the ultimate King that he always felt he deserved to be, and now she had no idea what to do with herself other than to be his queen.

But there's more to me than that. There must be…

But what?

The question had been haunting her for over a month, since Caesar had successfully triggered her ability in the lab. They'd done some follow up experiments since then, but unfortunately, she still couldn't summon the winds at will. Caesar theorized that it had something to do with breath, since their biggest success had occurred when he had taken away her ability to breathe. He had suggested that she had possibly stopped her own breathing due to fright when she had saved Dellinger from the Manticore.

"You may have very briefly gone into shock. People in that state often lose oxygen, which could explain why you were able to activate your powers so quickly and with no previous experience. The winds that you summon may be a powerful exhalation of some sort of super-breath."

Caesars words ran through her head in a tired jumble as she sank further into the tub. She didn't feel much closer to discovering the secrets behind her powers or to determining what she ought to do with them. At least she was comfortable in the warm bathwater. She felt her eyelids droop as the water inched further and further up her body, slowly submersing her breasts, then her collarbone, her chin, her nose…

The darkness of her dreams returned, only this time she wasn't in her cell. She didn't know where she was, only that it was very warm. She still couldn't tell whether her eyes were opened or closed, but it didn't seem to matter here. She felt so content; more relaxed than she'd been in ages. Her mouth fell open and the echoing vocals came, but not quite the same as before. They were gentler this time, and the winds weren't winds, but a current around her. It wasn't cold this time, or maybe it was and she just couldn't tell because this strange place was so warm, but either way they swirled around her, scooping her up and then gingerly putting her down again. It was like floating in water. Warm water. Like a bathtub…

"NUVOVNIYA! WAKE UP!"

Once again, Nuvo shot awake, sitting up straight in the tub, marveling that she hadn't drowned. She'd obviously fallen asleep in the water, but when she looked down into the tub, she realized there was no water left. Where had it gone?

She gave Doffy a confused look, and she saw him staring rapturously at the ceiling. She turned her gaze upwards, and gasped. The ceiling of the room was covered in churning water, like the surface of a lake, but upside down. There was much more water than could have possibly been in the tub, but there was no way to tell where it had come from, much less how it had reverse pooled onto the ceiling. Doffy kept looking from the ceiling lake to Nuvo and back again, bobbing his head like a buoy.

"Are you doing this?"

She looked at him to respond, but she had no time to do so. The moment she looked away from the ceiling, all the water came roaring down to the bathroom floor. When they had both stopped sputtering like fish on hooks, Nuvo found her voice.

"Go get Caesar. Now."

…

An hour later, the three of them were sitting around the table in Doffy's bedchambers in silence. After turning the watery mess in the bathroom into vapor, Caesar had listened carefully to the story of what had happened. Breaking the quiet with an exhausted sigh, Caesar ran his hands through his purple mane of hair.

"I think our previous theory about your ability being related to breath is only partially correct. You obviously weren't breathing when you slipped under the water, but from what you described feeling when you were below, I think that your power is more related to water than it is to air. Wind and water are closely connected in the natural world, and Impel Down is mostly submerged in the sea. That could explain why your full powers awoke there. Since no one actually saw you move the water from the tub to the ceiling, it's difficult to say exactly what you managed to do, but I certainly think we should use water in our experiments with your powers from now on. Can you swim?"

Nuvo was about to reply when Doffy interjected.

"What experiments have already been performed in the lab?"

The silence was back. Caesar clearly assumed that Nuvo was filling Doffy in on her progress thus far, and Nuvo hadn't discussed her hesitation about telling him with the clown.

"We've attempted many times to bring forth Nuvo's ability. After the first time it happened in the lab, we-"

"When was this?"

Silence.

"A month ago. Roughly." Nuvo muttered quietly, and neither she nor the gas clown dared to move.

"Why wasn't I informed by either of you of this development?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise." Nuvo spoke quickly, and she hoped it wasn't quickly enough to expose that it was a lie. "I mean…well, when it happened in the lab, it was totally by accident. I broke a vial that had a vapor that isn't safe to breathe, and I passed out. It happened while I was unconscious. I didn't tell you because I still can't control it, and until I can, it's practically useless, right? It's dangerous, even. I attacked Caesar in the lab that day, and I didn't even know it until I woke up."

"I-it's true, Joker! I had a nasty gash on my head. She wasn't herself at all." Caesar added, glancing nervously between the pair. Nuvo was grateful that he was corroborating her half-lie, half-truth…or rather, partial truth and mostly lie. But what choice did he have? He wasn't about to tell Doffy that he had intentionally suffocated his lover to force her into activating her powers.

"What do you two know so far?"

"We all know that my gift allows me to summon physical things at will. I've always been able to summon winds, and I believe this newer gift is an amplified extension of that ability. Everything seems to be related to my breath, and my voice as well. The transportation and possible creation of the water is completely new to me. I don't know if it's a new element of my powers or if I just used winds to push the water out of the tub so I wouldn't drown. But it's confusing because when I was under the water, I didn't feel like I was going to drown at all. I felt completely safe. Like I belonged in there…"

"Had you ever tried to summon water before? With your singing?" asked Caesar.

"Not any more than maybe a glass of water if I was thirsty."

"The water that we were dealing with today was freshwater. Do you think you could summon saltwater?"

"I've summoned water and I've definitely summoned salt, so I don't see why not."

"Will you try now?"

Nuvo shrugged and thought a moment. Then the words came to her, as they usually did, and she closed her eyes.

Fall and flow,

Easy and slow,

A light sop of dew drops

From the sea below.

A little spritz,

A kindly mist,

A notion of ocean

Gentle as a kiss…

When she stopped and opened her eyes again, there was no water on the ceiling, but a halo of water was circling her head, peacefully flowing along itself like a tiny circular stream. She dared not tear her eyes away from it, lest she end up unwillingly soaked twice in the same evening. Instead, she carefully moved her eyes left and right, transfixed as the infinite stream bobbed and wove with her. Seizing the opportunity, Caesar ran for a glass from Doffy's liquor stand. With great focus, Nuvo used her eyes to push the water into the newly recruited glass. Caesar poured a small amount into his ungloved hand and tasted.

"It's definitely saltwater. Fantastic! I think I'll run some tests on this, see if there's anything unusual about its contents."

Doffy was grinning ear to ear, and would have seemed giddy if the look was not so sinister on him.

"Caesar, how far are we from harvesting the first SMILE fruits from the lab?"

"We should have a preliminary batch in the next couple weeks."

"Excellent. I'll have Sugar send over a few of her toys to help you finish them off. From now on, I want you to make discovering the extent of Nuvovniya's water power your first priority. I expect what happened here tonight to be kept completely secret from anyone who isn't in this room and I want you two running your tests in total privacy. No one else is allowed to know; not even the rest of the family. Is that clear to you both?"

Caesar nodded so vigorously that he nearly dropped the glass. Nuvo nodded her agreement as well, but couldn't resist asking why. Although no one could see his eyes, Nuvo could swear she saw a shimmer behind Doffy's lenses, as though his eyes were glittering. He turned to Ceasar.

"Back to the lab with you. I want a report on that water by noon tomorrow."

Glad to escape the intense round of questioning, the clown all but ran out the door. Left alone with the person she'd been hiding so much from lately, Nuvo felt the tightness of the intimacy of the room; instead of relief from the burden, she felt like her newly exposed secret was bouncing all around the room, occasionally whacking her over the head.

"I'm sorry for not telling you about the new development sooner, but why don't you want us telling anyone now?"

"I want it to be a surprise."

She tensed herself. She wasn't sure if he was parroting her earlier excuse back at her on purpose, but the idea that he didn't want other people knowing about her new talents was off-putting. She knew he enjoyed it when she had dazzled the crew with her gift of song when they had all been aboard the submarine. Perhaps he'd even felt proud. But now…

"A surprise for who?"

"Everyone. We're going to throw a surprise party just for the occasion."

"A surprise party where the guests are surprised instead of the host?"

"Exactly."

"Exactly whom all are we surprising? And with what, exactly?"

"With you, Nuvovniya. I want you to demonstrate all your abilities at this event. Everything from the gift of song to the summoning of water. I want you to include some version of the attacks you've performed with your enhanced abilities as well."

"But I still can't summon the echo at will, Doffy. It's only happened by accident."

"I'm confident that you'll learn much from your training with Caesar in the next few weeks. I want a full progress report from each of you daily. With every bit of information possible."

Nuvo did not miss the emphasis of his words. He was very unhappy that he'd been kept out of the loop, that much was clear, and he wouldn't tolerate the same disloyalty again. She knew that's how he saw it, as a disloyalty, and disloyalty was not something that Donquixote Doflamingo took lightly. She made mental plans to keep a careful eye on Caesar for the next few days. She wanted to be sure that her friend was not punished for her transgression behind her back.

The cat and mouse game is tiring.

"Alright, I shall do my best. But I want to know what audience I should be preparing for."

"The family, of course, and all of Mariejois' new residents will be invited as well. We can present it as a welcoming party and invite some other high caliber guests and perhaps select members of the press.

"The press? Why should we invite the press to a party full of pirates?"

"Because I want the world to see you, Nuvovniya. I want them to witness the power you hold."

"Ok, so as of right now, not a single soul is allowed to know about my new gifts, but in a few weeks time, you want EVERYONE in the world to know? I don't understand, Doffy."

"What is the one thing that no devil-fruit user in the world can not do, regardless of strength or ability?"

"Swim."

"Yes. Devil fruits have made my crew exceptionally strong, but darling, if you have some semblance of control over water, it would make the Donquixote family-"

"Almost invincible."

Doffy grinned wider still, and though that look had sent warmth through her belly more than once, now Nuvo felt only a deep chill, like a snowstorm in her stomach.

"Yes. That is what I want the world to see at this party. I want to showcase our might. Do you understand that with you on our side, we don't have to stop with Mariejois. We could conquer anywhere we choose, Nuvovniya. We could take down the entire Navy. We could literally rebuild the governing force of this earth from the ground up."

She had never seen him look so ravenous. He fucked her furiously into the night, and as her body slammed into the bed, she felt a terrible realization bloom to fruition. Mariejois had been Doffy's goal since his childhood. He had never dreamed bigger, because there hadn't been any reason too, but now, with her help, he had achieved this goal. So, what could he be expected to do now other than set a higher one to achieve next? With absolute dread, Nuvo realized that he would never stop. There would always be a new treasure to be found, a new place to conquer, a new world to build. He would keep pushing until he destroyed everything, only to build it and destroy it all over again, like a child playing with building blocks.

There would be nothing left.

…

Morning came bright and glaring, and Nuvo was in quite the hurry. In all of the chaos of her growing power, she had completely forgotten that Gladius and Dellinger were due back today, and she had to dress quickly and get over to the top of the grand staircase to greet them. She and Sugar had planned on greeting Dellinger there ages ago, and she had slept in by mistake! She hadn't gotten a lot of sleep even before the long talk with Doffy and Caesar, so she woke up groggy. Not to mention sore, which only slowed her more.

I'll bet Sugar has beaten me there… Nuvo thought, frustrated with her bootlaces that just would not cooperate today. She finally got them on properly, and with a final glance in the mirror at her appearance, she judged that she was presentable and dashed out of the estate.

She saw Sugar waving frantically at her from the top of the staircase as she jogged over to her, panting.

"Where have you been?! They're nearly to the top now!"

Not bothering to explain herself, Nuvo only dragged her fingers through her wind tossed hair and tried to catch her breath. It had been weeks since she had seen Delli, and she'd barely spent any time with Sugar. She dearly missed time with her friends, but everyone had just been to busy lately. Dellinger had just made it over the top of the stairs when she jumped him, burying him in a hug.

"I missed you too, Nuvo." He laughed and escaped the embrace, barely earning a chance to breathe before Sugar had dragged him into her own hug. Nuvo laughed lightly and turned her attention to Gladius, giving him a warm nod, which he returned. It was only then that Nuvo noticed the young man standing beside him.

"And who is this?"

Looking like he'd been hypnotized, the teen didn't answer, but only continued to stare at Nuvovniya. His eyes raked over her body, drinking in her golden gown and imagining the body that it covered. He was certain that she was the loveliest woman that he had ever seen, and although he knew she was asking him his name, he couldn't find the words. She must have been here when the Donquixote family overtook Mariejois, but he couldn't remember seeing someone so fine. Perhaps he just couldn't remember…

"This is Richard. We liberated him when we first came, but he missed the place, so we brought him back to help out." Delli finally answered, since Richard seemed too lost in Nuvo to answer himself. He remembered being struck by her the same way himself, and knew better than to try and talk the boy out of it, but he decided that he would talk to him about being more subtle about it. Doffy would not react well to an open display of affection toward his lover, even if it was only from a whelp.

"That's excellent! I'm sure that you will be a great help planning the welcoming party!"

"What welcoming party?" asked Dellinger and Sugar simultaneously.

"Oh, let's get inside first. I have a lot to talk to you guys about."

Excited to hear news from outside Mariejois and mournful that she couldn't tell her closest friends about what was going on inside her, Nuvo led the group back toward the estate.