Forgotten Memory

"Aw," Celeste pouted as she hovered near Neo. Neo, wearing Law's hat, was curled up in the chair in the library with a blanket over her lap. "Pweddy Princess is sweeping again."

"Let her sleep, Celeste," Elian ordered. "It's good for her to sleep in her condition."

"Condition?" Velocity questioned as she raised her eyes from the book she was reading to Neo. "It's almost bedtime. If she keeps sleeping like this she won't be able to sleep later."

"You know," Elian rubbed his neck. "Being far away from home, without her helpmate and friends at her side. Sleeping will help the time pass faster since there's nothing else for her to do here."

"I suppose you are correct," Velocity replied slowly as she took in her brother. A sudden shift in pressure caused the sprites to stiffen and Neo to snap awake. She jumped to her feet as the sprites dove into her hair to hide.

Pendulum once again appeared in a kneeling position. "Princess of Luminous, how are you doing this evening?"

"What are you doing here?" Neo demanded.

"There is no need for such hostilities, Princess of Luminous," Pendulum gave her a smug smile as he rose up from his mock bow. "I am only here to give you a gift."

"A gift?" Neo cautiously eyed him. She could tell by his smug expression his gift wasn't going to be something good.

"I thought we could go see your lover," Pendulum's smug smile morphed into a sadistic one. Neo's senses alerted her to danger. But before she could do anything the library disappeared from her eyes. Everything went blurry then black.

Neo blinked when things came back into focus. She looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings. She could feel the sprites moving around in her hair. They moved up closer to her ear and poked their little heads out to look around. Velocity was the one who spoke first. "He brought us to the past?"

Neo looked down to where Velocity's voice spoke. Elian spoke next. "But why would he bring Neo here?"

"Who are you?" A boy's voice demanded.

Neo turned to the voice. Her eyes widened as her eyes landed on the young boy wearing a very familiar spotted hat. His skin was covered with white spots. His name slipped past her lips before she could stop herself. "Law…"

"Hm?" The young Law narrowed his harsh eyes at her. "How do you know my name? Who are you? And what's with the strange clothes? I do like the hat though."

"Why did you do this?" Neo couldn't take her eyes off Law. She knew she should look away. She knew she shouldn't be here. Her presence in the past could alter the future. It could alter their future. Her fists shook as she clenched them tightly. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she gritted her teeth and hissed at Pendulum. "Why did you bring me here? Why? What's the point of all this?"

"What's wrong, Princess?" She could hear the pleasure in Pendulum's voice as he spoke to her. "I thought you would be happy to see your lo-"

"Stop it! Stop it right now! Don't say anymore!" Neo snapped her eyes shut and screamed. "Take me back! Take me back! Right! Now!"

"Are you ill or something?" Young Law asked. "Why are you yelling like that?"

Pendulum chuckled darkly as the young Law faded away from Neo's vision and everything went black again. Seconds later they were standing back in the library. It took all of Neo's will to not shake and to not lash out at him with her magic. Tear ran freely down her cheeks and with signs of stopping. "Why? Why did you do that? Do you realized the damage you could have done?"

Pendulum just continued to chuckled darkly as he disappeared once again. Neo's stomach turned in multiple directions. She covered her mouth and bolted for the closest bathroom, emptying the contents of her stomach. Elian hovered in the air nearby, Velocity rubbed Neo's back comfortingly while Celeste sat on her head, stroking Neo's blue hair.

Neo pulled back and curled into a ball. She whispered to herself as Velocity and Elian exchanged concern expressions. "Law…Where are you? I need you. I really need you right now. Please, come back to me."

…

Law gasped, jerking awake from his slumber. He sat up and panted. Nami stirred from her own sleep. She pushed up on her arms and looked at him from across their fire. "Something wrong?"

"I met her before," Law panted. "How...How could I have forgotten?"

"Forgotten what?" Nami blinked.

"I saw her. Years before I saved her," Law said. "I met Neo years before I saved her."

"What do you mean you met Neo before you saved her? Are you even awake over there?" Nami questioned as she sat up and gave Law a concerned look. Their fire snapped and crackled during their momentary silence.

"Yes, I'm awake," Law pulled up his knees and laid his arms over them. "Ever since Neo has been with me there has been two questions that I never could find an answer for. One, Why did I save her? And two, Why was I so determined to keep her alive?"

"Because you cared about her," Nami said.

"No, she was just a stranger that I happened to come across," Law shook his head. He then looked at her. "Other than the obvious exception of your boneheaded captain, what pirate in their right mind goes out of his way to save a complete stranger? Especially when the Navy is breathing down their necks?"

Nami narrowed her eyebrows slightly. Law continued talking. "I remembered…not long after I joined Doflamingo's crew, I saw a blue haired woman in a white spotted hat and a strange looking man. Both of them were wearing odd clothing. The woman knew my name, yet I didn't know who she was or where she came from. She was crying and kept demanding the man to tell her why he brought her here and to take her back. I never thought I'd ever forget that happened. I did, until now."

"Sounds to me like you two were just meant to be together," Nami said. "But why would you remember all this now? It seems like you would have remembered something like that when you found her. It doesn't make sense."

"He took her back to the past just now. I can feel her crying. She's been crying so much since she was taken away from me. She's hurt," Law gritted his teeth and glared out into the dark forest. "He hurt her. And he will pay for that with his life."

Nami continued to stare at Law. The information he just told her spun around in her mind. She found it hard to believe that someone purposefully had a hand in leading Neo and Law to find each other. But there it was. She knew Law wouldn't lie or make up a story like this. It was a bit too much to think about. She would like to have discussed it more with her current male companion, but she dared not speak again.

It was obvious that Law was furious at what Pendulum has done. It was obvious that Law was coming up with multiple ways to kill Pendulum. And if it was possible, she knew Law would kill him multiple times for hurting Neo. She knew that all of them would help him with doing just that, if it was possible. Instead of speaking again, Nami laid down and watched Law continue to glare and plot before falling back asleep.

…

Elian stared up at the ceiling. His mind was constantly going over and over their trip to the past that Pendulum forced Neo to take. With a light huff, he narrowed his eyebrows before taking to the air. He flew up closer to the girls. Velocity was once again sharing the large pillow with Celeste. Celeste was turned the opposite way of Velocity and had her mouth hanging open, drool running down her chin as she snored slightly.

He pulled his eyes from them and looked at Neo. He hovered over her as he stared down at her. She was laying on her back, slightly twisted at her hips. She was now sleeping peacefully despite the fairly traumatic events that took place earlier that night. When they first went to bed she had trouble falling asleep. She would twist and turn, trying to forget what had taken place. Eventually she had fallen asleep. The blanket that she used to cover up with was laying down at her hips, exposing her upper body to the cool night air.

Elian lowered himself and carefully landed on her stomach. During her restlessness, she caused her shirt to slide up, he placed his hands on her exposed stomach. He took a slow deep breath then let it out. His hands and his eyes started to glow a greenish blue hue. He was so concentrated on his task that he didn't notice she had woken up. "Elian?"

Elian's hands and eyes stopped glowing. He shot up into the air, eye level with her. She was propped up on her elbows. She rubbed her right eye tiredly. "What are you doing?"

"N-Nothing," Elian swallowed. "I, uh, couldn't sleep. So I was just doing some magical exercises."

"Magical exercises?"

"Yeah, I'll show you," Elian held up his right hand and formed a glowing ball. He did a few tricks with it then held his palm up. The ball hovered over his hand before shooting out towards Neo. The glowing ball absorbed into her forehead, making her very sleepy. "Go back to sleep now."

"O…kay," Neo sleepily mumbled as she lowered back to the bed.

Elian hovered in place for a few seconds. After he was sure she was back asleep, he dropped back to her stomach. He placed his hands back on her stomach and started to glow again.

...

Author's Note: Sorry for any mistakes I might miss. I do proofread multiple times before posting, but some still slip through. And, yea chapters without Law won't be fun. But there will be a few coming up next. ;) for good reason.