Taken
Neo nodded as the crew once again went over what she was supposed to look for. They had spent a couple hours in the morning going through a mock tracking session with her. She pulled her eyes from them and looked over at Law. He was talking with Shachi, Bepo, and Penguin several feet from her. Those were the three she was going to be trying to find in her very first tracking session. And she wasn't allowed to track Bepo from his animal side. She had to do with her eyes only. Her eyes then dropped down to the dwindling fire. It had gone down a bit from this morning. She also noticed that the burnt wood smell and the smoke were no longer noticeable to her. Apparently they've been here long enough for her to have gotten use to the smells.
After a few minutes the three nodded at their captain then took off towards the forest. Law then walked back over to the rest of the crew and Neo. He sat down beside her. "They're going to hide now. We'll give them a few minutes to get well hidden then you're going to go find them. I'm also going to let you go in alone. If anything happens, just call for them and they'll reveal themselves. But, if you need me to come to you, I will. Just send me a signal with your crystals. Raise some vines in the air. Will you be all right with this?"
Neo looked at Law then down at the ground.
Law could tell immediately that she was unsure about going in by herself. He was a bit unsure about letting her leave his sight since he had become such a strong, reliable presence to her and that this was the first time they were going to be separated for so long outside of the comfort and safety of the sub walls. But he wanted, and really needed, to see how she would do on her own.
After a few minutes, she took a deep breath and released it. "I…I think I will be fine. Penguin, Bepo and Shachi will be close by…and you'll still be near me despite me not being able to see you, won't you?" Neo raised her eyes back to his.
Law slowly nodded while staring into her electric blue orbs. He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear making her stiffen again. "Of course I'll be here. I'm not going anywhere."
Neo nodded as the crew tried their hardest to bite back their snickers. They failed miserably. She tilted her head at them in confusion and curiosity while Law shot them a warning glare then ordered them away from the fire.
Law snapped, "Why don't you all go train or something?"
"Aye aye, Captain!" the crew cheer simultaneously and scattered to find something to do.
Neo glanced at Law, when he huffed and grumbled something under his breath while leaning back against the log, but didn't say anything. She hugged her knees and remained quiet until Law decided the trio had enough time to hide themselves.
Law tapped her on her knee with his finger. "Get going now. You have until sunset to tag all three of them with your water crystals. When you tag one of them, they'll return to camp so you can continue to find the rest."
"Yes, sir." Neo stood up. She had one foot over the log and paused when he spoke to her again.
"And remember you're not to use your crystals to track them," Law said.
"Yes, sir, I understand." Neo nodded before heading off to find her quarry.
…
Neo stepped into the shade that the leaves cast down over the new forest floor. It instantly shaded her from the warm sun above. The lingering smell of the sand and sea faded from her nose as it was replaced with the smell of the forest leafs and flowers. All the smells she enjoyed and was starting to really love having around. Before she never noticed how wonderful nature smelled to her. A smile spread over her lips when a gray rabbit scurried out from underneath a bush. It looked at her curiously, wiggling its nose and tail before darting off.
She wanted to go after it and play with it, but her training took priority over playing. So she turned her eyes down to the ground and started looking for footprints. After walking around the forest for a few minutes she managed to find where the three crewmates entered into the forest. She followed them about twenty yards into the forest before the footprints separated. Looking over them all she followed one right in front of her until they disappeared. Frowning, she remembered Conner telling her that some people will hide their tracks when they know they are being followed or would do it in case of being followed. Back tracking to the footprints she found that all three of them had erased their footprints. She was going to have to track them a different way. So she headed out on the trail she was currently looking at and started looking for other signs that someone had come this way.
…
Neo panted slightly as she knelt down to inspect a broken limb and some mashed down grass. She hummed before standing back up. It was two hours into her tracking and still hadn't found any of them. But she did find signs they were leaving behind them. She found flattened grass, broken limbs, some of Bepo's fur, and just about everything the crew had told and showed her that morning and before.
She wasn't sure if they were leaving her signs on purpose or not. She didn't think they would do that, but she didn't know for sure. Law had spoken to them before they took off. She had no idea what their captain had told them to do or not do. There was the possibility that, while they weren't making this easy for her, they were still purposefully leaving behind clues for her to follow since this was the first time she was doing this.
She shook her head. It really didn't matter what the captain had told them. It was helping her learn how to track either way. She started making her way through the dense brush again when she heard something shuffle nearby. It startled her to the point she almost ran back to Law. But she was able to stop herself. She took several deep breaths and reminded herself that she was fine. And that the captain and the crew were still near if she needed them. With her heart pounding hard, she swallowed and quietly continued towards the sound. "It's okay. It's just one of the three the captain ordered into this forest. No one else is on this island. It's either the crew or an animal."
She rounded a tree and her anxiety quickly left her when she spotted Bepo's white fur peaking through some leaves of a couple bushes. She summoned a water crystal and tagged him with a small ball of water.
Bepo jumped in surprise at the coldness splashing on his back, but quickly composed himself when he saw Neo. He smiled and walked over to her. "Very good, Neo. I wasn't expecting you to find any of us so quickly."
"It wasn't easy. It's taken me a little over two hours to finally find one of you," Neo replied. "But I think I'm going to get the hang of tracking like this without much problems. I just need practice."
"That's good to hear. Proceed then." Bepo smiled. "I'll be heading back to camp now on the captain's orders."
"Okay." Neo waved to him as they separated. "I'll see you later."
"Good luck, Neo," Bepo said before disappearing around a tree.
Neo turned away from him and continued to make her way through the forest. She ducked under a branch and rounded a bush when she spotted another sign that someone had come this way. She bend down and looked at the broken flower. A small speck of sadness settled into her chest at the sight of it. Though she wasn't aware of the type of flower it was, she loved how it looked. It was bright orange with small flecks of white over the petals. She summoned one earth crystal and hesitated before beaming its glow down to the flower. It straightened up and the broken stem was healed. "Well, I'm not supposed to use my crystals to track his crew, but the captain didn't say anything about healing nature. I hope it's all right that I did this since it had nothing to do with finding the others."
A low, cool breeze teased Neo's hair as she continued to stare at the flower. Suddenly the flower blurred and divided in two right in front of her. She rubbed her hand over her eyes, trying to make the blurriness go away, and stood up. She started to walk away from the flower when her vision became more and more blurry. After a few more steps, her head started to spin along with the world around her. "I don't feel so good."
She stumbled and bumped against a tree. She pressed her hand against its rough bark to stabilize herself before leaning against it. She panted, her body suddenly feeling heavy. Looking up through her blurry vision, she saw someone walking towards her in the shadows of the forest. Squinting, she said, "P-Penguin? Sh-Shachi?"
They didn't reply. Neo slid down the tree to the ground, knocking some loose bark off the tree. She trembled as the one person suddenly split into four people. All of them moved closer to her. She tried to summon her earth crystals to shoot some vines in the air like Law has said, but nothing happened. "You're not…them. S-stay away."
"I thought they said it would knock her out," an unfamiliar voice said.
"No, they said it would render her incapable of using her crystals," another unfamiliar voice said.
Through the pounding of her head, stomach, and heart, Neo tried to get her earth crystals to create vines again. One formed in front of her. Small vines slithered out of the crystal's glow but quickly disappeared. Her crystal faded away. In defeat, she slumped against the tree. Tears prickled the back of her eyes. "What's…happening to me? Captain…I'm scared."
"See? She's not going to be able to fight us," the first one said.
The second person that spoke reached out and grabbed her shoulders. Neo scared, flinched and tried to pull away from them. "No! Let…Let go…of me! C-Captain!"
"Sorry, sweetheart." a third voice chuckled. "You're coming with us."
"No! Penguin! Shachi! Captain!" Neo cried again. She summoned her wind crystals and tried to release a small gale. A small breeze gathered around her crystals. She tried to push the breeze outward against the strangers, but nothing happened. She could sense the wind there. It just wouldn't release. Her connection to her crystals kept breaking. Her pulse thundered. Her stomach lurched. Something was wrong with her. She couldn't get connected to her crystals nor get connected to nature. And she was apparently too far away for anyone to hear her scream.
"Give it up, girly. You're not going to get away from us no matter how hard you try."
Neo closed her eyes and tried to force the wind to come. With a hard mental push, the wind whipped out of her crystals and knocked the men down. She used this opportunity to push herself back up to her feet and stumbled away from them. She only got a few feet when one of the men appeared in front of her. Before she could react a sharp pain shot through her head and her body slumped to the ground while grabbing her head. Warm, stickiness gathered on her fingers.
"Now, now, don't run from us," the voice above her said. He knelt down and looked her over. "We really don't want to hurt such a pretty little thing like you."
Her body tensed when he grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. Her mind was screaming at her to fight back, but her body wouldn't listen to her. Tears leaked down her face as her consciousness started faded away from her. Her eyes locked down on the ground while he carried her away. Despite her fading vision, the blood was bright against the green grass. Her eyes slowly closed. Her lips whispering, "Captain…help me," before everything went black.
…
Law stood up to watch Neo as she disappeared into the forest. Once she was out of his sight, he sat back down against the log so he could watch in case she signaled him. No matter what other sounds went on around him, his eyes never left the forest. Currently it had been a little over two hours since Neo left his sight. And every second it bugged him that he couldn't see her anymore. He had been on edge since she had left, but suddenly something really felt wrong to him as a sharp flash of pain shot through his head. His heart tightened so hard in his chest he thought he was going to pass out. Something happened to Neo. He had no idea how he knew this, but he did. He knew she was in trouble, enough trouble that she couldn't send him a signal.
He jumped to his feet and took off towards her forest. Behind him he could hear the calls of his confused subordinates, but he didn't bother answering them or even slow down.
"Hey, Captain, where are you going?!"
"Why did he take off like that?"
"Something's not right if he's taking off like that. Should we follow?" The crew exchanged looks before following after their captain without a word.
…
"Huh?" Bepo paused and turned back in the direction he just came from. Something suddenly felt so wrong to him. He was about to shrug it off and head back to camp when the wind started to blow and blood, Neo's blood, filtered into his nose. Panic settled into his stomach as his fur stood on their ends. He raced back towards her. "Oh no, Neo! Neo, where are you?! Answer me!"
He paused when the smell of blood got stronger and mixed with unfamiliar scents of four men. He took a few more hurried steps then arrived at the exact place where she had tagged him. Sniffing the air, he locked onto her scent, her blood, and followed after her. He looked around before looking down to see drops of blood on the ground. He gasped then shouted her name as loud as he could. "Neo! Neo, where are you?!"
"Bepo!" Shachi hissed while he emerged from some large leaves after hearing Bepo yelling so much. "You're not supposed to be yelling like that! Neo's suppose to b-"
"Neo's been taken!" Bepo freaked, waving his arms wildly.
"What?!" Shachi screeched. "Are you sure?!"
"This is her blood!" Bepo pointed to the ground. "Her scent is mixed with strangers! What do we do?! What do we do?!"
"Crap! Get the captain! Penguin and I will follow after her!" Shachi shouted, looking at the small pool of blood that was seeping into the ground. The then two split up. Bepo headed back to camp while Shachi ran through the thick forest while calling out for Penguin. "Penguin! We have a problem! Where are you?!"
"What's going on?" Penguin finally answered, a painfully slow four minutes later.
"Neo's been taken!" Shachi shouted.
"What?!" Penguin's heart about jumped in his throat.
"I'll explain on the way! Come on!" Shachi quickly led Penguin back to the spot where her blood was as he explained to him what Bepo had said.
Penguin gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at the sight of her blood. His body shook furiously. Someone had their little girl.
"Let's hurry! They went this way!" Shachi said.
Penguin could only nod. He was too furious to speak. He just turned and followed after Shachi. Unable to focus, he allowed his friend to track Neo's blood and the footsteps of the men who took her. Shachi had mumbled there were four people walking away, but he barely heard him. Both knew there would most likely be more than that. But he didn't care at this point how many there were. He was going to wrap his hands around all of their necks for doing this to her. The forest became a blur of green and brown to him as they ran as fast as they could through the forest.
Several heart pounding moments later, they exited Neo's forest on the direct opposite position of their camp. They jerked to a halt when they saw her blood led them to another beach where a ship was sailing away from them. Her blood led right up to the water so they had zero doubts that she was on the ship. Both the two Heart Pirates cursed under their breaths. There was no way they could swim after that ship and actually catch it. But that wasn't going to stop Penguin from trying. "I'm going after her!"
"Wait!" Shachi suddenly shouted, grabbing his friend before he could get into the water. "Neo has control over the elements! She can easily get back to this island by flying!"
"Then why hasn't she?!" Penguin demanded. He whipped around and growled at Shachi. "She may have been sneak attacked, but she should have been able to escape from them by now! She's hurt! That's why she's not back with us! They did something to her!"
Dread settled over Shachi at that point. He knew that his friend was correct. Neo might not be a master over her abilities yet, but she surely could have easily escaped these people unless she really was hurt. He really didn't want to believe she was hurt, but the proof had been there, right under their noses. He looked down to watch as her blood was washed away by the sea. Her blood Bepo had confirmed it for them. Closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, they did the only thing they could do. They waited, feeling completely helpless, for Bepo to bring back the captain.
A few seconds later a familiar, thin blue film appeared around the two men. Another second and their captain, their very angry looking captain, appeared with the rest of their crew with him. His steel eyes shot over to the ship sailing away from them. It was almost a quarter a mile out to sea. With a growl, he held out his hand, ready to form his Room before a sharp pain shot through his shoulder. His body bobbled, his mind wondering why his shoulder hurt so much now. Pushing it aside, forced himself to make the largest room he could possibly make. He was able to get the back end of the ship in his Room and warped them. "Room! Shambles!"
…
Neo moaned as she started to wake up. Mold, blood, salt, wet wood and the smell of bad body odor hammered her nose. The combinations of the smells and her throbbing head made her stomach spin violently. Pushing herself up off the hard floor she was laying on, she rubbed her hand in her right eye as something wet trickled into it. Pulling her hand away she looked at it to find something was on her hand. Blinking she cleared her still blurry vision to find it was blood. She gasped and jerked when someone laughed.
"Timid little thing, ain't cha?" a voice said.
Neo backed up until her back hit a wall when she found she was surround by ten unfamiliar men. She couldn't tell who they were. They didn't wear any kind of distinct clothing that she could see through her distorted vision. One of them stepped towards her. She summoned her fire crystals and shot a blast out at them. She only managed a small candle size flame. "Stay…stay way from me!"
She had aimed at the man walking towards her, but completely missed. The flame floated down to the floor.
The man chuckled as he stomped on the small flame that danced on the deck. "Those gems of your must be worth a lot. Be a good girl and fork them over. We'll let you go after that."
The rest of the men chuckled.
Neo had a feeling the man wasn't telling her the truth. When he knelt down in front of her, her vision became clear enough that she could see what he looked like. He had long, slicked back black hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth with a scruffy beard. He took a puff on it and blew the smoke in her face. She coughed at the foul smell of his breath and the smoke.
"Come on now." He ran his hand over her leg.
Neo jerked away from him. She could feel her anxiety rising. She could feel her crystals wanting to break loose for being touch by him, but nothing came.
"Give us your crystals."
"Leave me alone!" Neo screamed. Summoning a couple wind crystals, she tried to connect to them again. But they flickered and faded before she could even try. Her body jumped when the men snickered at her inability to do anything. Struggling to her feet, she stumbled then ran towards the stern of the ship. She didn't get very far when the black haired man jumped into her vision again.
Since her vision was still slightly blurred she wasn't able to see the sword he was holding. All she saw was him jutting his arm out towards her. Sharp pain stung in her left shoulder. She screamed and stumbled backwards. Her back pressed against the mast of the ship and she slumped against it then slid to the floor. She grabbed her shoulder as blood and tears ran down her skin.
She closed her eyes tightly as the man, who stabbed her, began to stalk up to her. The man held a look in his eyes that she didn't like. She couldn't tell what it was or the meaning behind it, but she did know that his plans for her weren't going to be good.
"Now, now, there'll be no more trying to escape. You are mine now. You will hand over those crystals of yours. I kind of like how pretty you are. I think I'll keep you after all. You look a little young so it's a safe bet that you don't have any experience, but that's okay. I can teach you all you need to know." He placed his hand on her thigh and rubbed it.
Neo tried to pull away from him, but he grabbed her thigh and squeezed so hard he almost pierced her jeans and her skin with his fingers. She yipped at the pain and curled into herself.
The other men chucked again.
Her entire body was trembling violently now. All she wanted was to go back to the sub, to the crew that she had come to know. She wanted the captain, Penguin, Bepo, anyone to come and take her back with them. "Captain…"
"Hey, boss," a man's voice said. "What's with this blue bubble thingy?"
"Huh?" The boss man looked up and inspected the blue film around him and his ship until a light pop sounded and several men were standing on his ship. "Who the heck are you?"
Law didn't answer as his eyes immediately went to Neo's scared form. He clenched his teeth and fists when he saw her and the strange man touching her. "Let! Her! Go!"
Neo opened her frighten eyes when she heard his familiar voice. "C-Captain…"
"And what are you going to do about it if I don't?" The boss stood up and took a few steps towards the pirates.
Law replied by pulling out his sword and immediately sinking the blade into the man's chest in a split second. He then leaned to the man's ear and whispered in a dangerously low voice. "You will never touch her again."
Neo wanted to look away from the man as his lifeless body slumped to the floor of the ship when Law pulled his sword back out of the man's body, but she couldn't. Her body wouldn't move at all. Her mind just went blank at what happened.
Penguin pulled his eyes from their enemies and looked at Neo. He hurried over to her and knelt down. He placed his hand on her uninjured shoulder. "Neo?"
She didn't respond to his voice or his touch at all. She remained staring at Law and the man's dead body with her shocked expression.
"How dare you kill our boss?!" one of the men shouted.
"Wait a second," another one said. "That guy with the spotted hat looks kinda familiar."
"Shambles!" Law hissed. Without another word, he sliced up the rest of the kidnappers into several pieces.
"What happened to us?!" one of the men cried out.
"You freak! What did you do?!" another demanded.
"We're so screwed!" a third man cried. "I knew that guy looked familiar! That's Trafalgar Law! The Surgeon of Death!"
"Then you should have known better than to mess with me and my crew!" Law glared ice daggers at them. His voice was still dangerously low when he spoke again. He hissed as he began to stalk up to them. He clenched a hold of his sword then raised it to them. "You're going to pay for taking her, touching her and making her cry!"
"Captain, wait!" Penguin's voice broke into Law's fury.
Law turned his dagger filled eyes to the one who dared order him around.
Penguin flinched, knowing ordering this man around wasn't the smartest thing he could do, especially in this situation, but it was necessary. "It's Neo. Look at her."
Law pulled his eyes from his subordinate. His body flinched and his eyes lightened up when he saw her. She was frozen against the mast of the ship. Her eyes were fill with tears and fear, of him. He had unintentionally scared her with his intense vengeance and his powers, which he had forgotten she had never seen either of them before now.
"Let us handle them, Captain." Shachi cracked his knuckled. "They're obviously weak since they went after one little girl."
"Neo needs her wounds taken care of, right?" Penguin asked, making sure to be careful with the words he chose to speak with. "I doubt that jerk has cleaned his sword at any point in time. She could get an infection."
Law growled, but put up his sword. He put the men's bodies back in their right positions for his crew to deal with them instead. "Fine. Take care of them. I'm taking Neo back to the ship."
"Aye aye, Captain!" the crew shouted.
Law walked over to Neo and knelt down before her. Guilt hit him hard when he reached for her and she jerked away from him. The move caused her to clench her eyes tight and shrink into herself. He paused before placing his hand on her head, feeling her hard flinch at his touch was like receiving an iron punch in the gut. Keeping his voice low so he wouldn't scare her anymore, he said, "It's okay, Neo, your safe now. No one's going to hurt you again."
Neo slowly opened her eyes and looked at him for a second before quickly looking away.
It took everything Law had to not kill the rest of the men who had taken her. He carefully slipped his arms around her. He gritted his teeth when he felt her tense then tremble in his hold. He took a couple deep breaths before picking her up bridal style. He formed another Room to warp himself and her back to the island. "We're going back now."
…
"Let's get outta here," a man said quietly, but not quietly enough.
The Heart Pirates turned their glowing red eyes to them. The men froze like statues just before the crew pounced on top of them. They punched, kicked, and Bepo even bit a couple, repeatedly for several minutes before stopping their assault.
"And don't you ever, ever think about coming after her again! If you do, we will kill you!" Penguin hissed. He was holding one of the men by the front of his shirt and shaking him. "Do I make myself clear?!"
"Y-yes, s-sir," the beaten and bloody man stuttered. "We're sorry. I knew we shouldn't have taken this job, but the boss insisted that it would be an easy one."
"Taken this job? Easy one?" Penguin asked. "What do you mean?"
"We're mercenaries. W-we were hired to go after that girl," the man said. Penguin shot his eyes up to the rest of his crewmates. "They…they said she would be weak enough for us to handle."
"What for?!" Penguin demanded. "Who hired you to attack her?!"
"Th-they never gave us their names or the reason they wanted this done," he replied. "All they wanted us to do was intimidate her. They wanted us to act like we were going to take her away from you all. We weren't really going to take her anywhere, just a little out to sea then we were going to bring her right back. Honest! We didn't realize she was with pirates, especially with Trafalgar Law. We never would have taken her if we had known. It was suicide. We're sorry."
Penguin dropped the man. He turned his eyes back to his fellow crewmates. They clearly had the same bad feeling and thought that he did. Someone purposefully targeted Neo.
…
Neo was still shaking when Law warped her back to the deck of the sub. He didn't say anything to her as he carried her inside and right up to the infirmary. He sat her down on the exam table and propped his sword up next to it. He studied her expression. She was still avoiding looking at him. He sighed quietly to himself then started to inspect her shoulder. Reaching for her shirt, she winced at the same time pain shot through his shoulder. He pulled back and tapped his chin in thought then rubbed his throbbing limb. The thought of warping her shirt off was the first thing to come to his mind, but the blood had already stained it. And he figured she wouldn't want it anyway now that it was connected to being taken away from them. So he settled on cutting it off instead. "I'm going to have to cut your shirt off. But first, I want to get some pain killers in your system so you're not hurting so much."
He stepped away from her to gather up everything he was going to need and placed it on the medical trolley. Once he returned, she flinched again when he got closer to her. He forced down another hot growl at those men who took her as she hesitantly took the pain pills from his hand. Slowly, he reached for her and started to cut off her shirt. When it was removed, he paused to inspect the wound then decided to go ahead and cut off her blood stained bra as well. Once that item was removed, he grabbed a sheet and carefully wrapped it around her chest so she wouldn't be so exposed. He then went to work on her shoulder. Or he tried to. She was trembling so hard that he wasn't going to be able to fix it with her like this.
He stepped away from her once again to get a sedative. He walked back over to her with a needle in his hand, pausing when he saw her flinch at the sight of it. "It's just to calm you down. You're trembling too hard. I can't fix your shoulder until you're relaxed. Do you understand?"
She nodded, but didn't verbally respond.
Law stuck the needle into her arm as gently as he could. Once her body had stopped trembling, he finally went to work on numbing, cleaning and stitching up her shoulder. When he was done with that, he stepped in front of her to check the wound on her head. Luckily this injury didn't need stitches. It just needed cleaned, and then put some antibiotics on, and he planned to watch it closely for infection. Then he decided to try to see if she would talk to him while he dipped a cloth into a bowl of warm water to clean off the blood from her skin. "Will you tell me what happened?"
A couple minutes passed before she finally started talking. Her voice was low and scared as she tried to tell him what happened. "I'm sorry. I don't…I found Bepo. Then I couldn't see clearly. My…crystals wouldn't work."
"They wouldn't work?" Law asked while struggling to keep his voice low so he wouldn't scare her anymore than he already had.
She nodded, wiping tears away. "I…they took me…I couldn't do anything. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. It wasn't your…" Law's voice trail off when he noticed something out of place shimmering on the skin around her eyes. Leaning closer he found it was some kind of light green powder that was almost invisible to the eye. He only saw it when he moved the right way and the light hit it making it shimmer. He stepped away from her once again. When he walked back over to her, he was carrying a small clean towel and a sling hanging over his shoulder. He carefully wiped the powder off her skin and set it aside to study later.
He grabbed his sword. He clenched his free hand so hard that his nails pierced through his skin when Neo scooted away from him as he grabbed it. "Let's get you dressed now before the crew gets back."
Neo only responded with a light nod. Clenching the sheet to her body, she slid off the exam table, holding her arm against her body so it didn't hurt as much, and followed Law out of the room. The two remained quiet as they descended down the stairs to the second level then to his room.
Once inside, Law pulled out a clean pair of clothes for her. He had picked out one of her button up shirts. It was going to be easier for her to put on. He felt guilty again when he started to help her dress. She had flinched and ducked her head when he touched her. He sighed inwardly then put her arm in the sling. "I don't want you using this arm for a while."
"Y-yes, s-sir," Neo stuttered.
"Let's go back outside now," Law softly ordered. He reclaimed his sword, shoved his other hand in his pocket, and headed for the door.
Neo nodded and obediently followed after him.
While heading back for the deck, Law stole glances at her. He noticed she kept her eyes glued to the floor and wasn't walking as close to him as she usually did.
Once on the deck, he watched as she started to walk over to the ladder to climb down, but stopped her by sweeping her up into his arms. The flinch he was expecting came once more. Anger swirled around in his stomach at what had happened. This island was supposed to be safe. No one was supposed to have come here. So why did they? Was it just a random accident? Did those men manage to see Neo's crystals and think they had some value to them? He kept his eyes on her from underneath the shadows that cast over his eyes he studied how she was still avoiding eye contact with him. He wondered what was going on in her mind. Knowing he wouldn't get an answer he warped them down to the beach without a word. When they reached the fire, he sat her down and took the spot beside her. They sat there in silence until the crew returned with only the crackling of the fire as the only noise around them.
…
The crew was boiling hot when they had finished up with the men that had hurt and taken Neo away from them. They wanted to kill them so badly, but didn't. They just beat them to a bloody pulp, steered the ship back to the island, and then let the men go.
"I can't believe someone's after Neo," Conner said.
"This makes me so angry," Archer said.
"And you know it's bad if you get angry," Conner said.
"Please, don't," Archer said. "I'm not in the mood to argue with you."
"What do we do? I know we have to tell the captain about this, but what about Neo?" Bepo asked.
"We'll tell the captain about it but let him decide if Neo should know or not," Penguin said.
"Okay, I think I'll speak with the captain about this," Shachi said. "Penguin, will you distract Neo?"
"Sure." Penguin nodded.
"Why the distraction?" Bepo asked.
"So she won't get suspicious," Shachi said. "Personally, I don't think it will be a good thing for her to know that she was directly targeted."
"Oh," Bepo said. "But why would someone target her?"
"Well, maybe it's someone from her past who saw her crystals and thought they might be worth something?" Archer offered. "Or maybe they wanted to use her for something?"
"It's a scary thought," Conner said. "She could make one powerful weapon."
"But only if she's with us," Archer said. "I doubt she'll get comfortable enough with someone else to be as confident as she is now."
"That's true," Conner said just as they exited the forest. They all paused and looked over to the fire to find their captain and Neo were already outside and waiting for them. "Well, might as well get this over with."
The crew nodded and mumbled in agreement before they continued to trek over the fire.
"Captain," Shachi said once close enough. "Could I have a word with you…alone?"
"Sure." Law stood up and followed Shachi away from the camp without question.
Neo's eyes followed them until Penguin knelt down beside her, blocking her view.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Penguin asked softly.
Neo took in his tired expression. He was clearly worried about her. She then scanned the entire crew as they sat down around the warm fire, finding them, too, to be holding worried expressions on their faces. None of them spoke to her despite giving her small smiles before their eyes began to scan over the area. She figured they were checking for more people that might be around. Bringing her eyes back to Penguin, she rubbed her upper left arm gently. "I'm kind of sore and tired."
"That's to be expected." Penguin smiled lightly. When her eyes started to drift back over to Law and Shachi, he said, "Hey, you're probably hungry. What would you like? Anything you want, I'll make it for you."
"I'm not hungry." Neo said, not taking her eyes off Law and Shachi. "What's Shachi talking to the captain about?"
"He's just informing him that the men who took you…" Penguin trailed off when Neo flinched at his words. He sighed before reaching his hand out for her. Gently laying his hand on her uninjured right shoulder and said, "Neo, you're safe now. They're not going to hurt you again. And the captain didn't mean to scare you. He was just angry with those guys for hurting you. You do understand that, right?"
Neo lightly nodded but didn't look at him.
Penguin figured she really didn't understand anything at the moment. He decided it was best not to push it. "You really should eat something. Tell me what sounds good and I'll make it for you."
She finally pulled her eyes to back him.
He smiled. "Really. I'll make anything you want."
"I'm not hungry," Neo said again.
Penguin sighed and nodded.
…
Law gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. His fury had surfaced once again when Shachi told him what the mercenaries had told them. "That must be what that powder is then."
"Powder?" Shachi questioned.
Law sighed then told him about the powder he found on Neo's face.
Shachi hummed. "Then they must have used that to keep Neo from using her crystals. But did they have and know it would disorient her or was it the people who hired her who had the powder? Either way, they had something that would disable the use of her crystals. Ugh! I wish we knew about this before. We could have beaten the answer out of them. What are we going to do, Captain? Are we going to tell her about all this?"
Law closed his eyes and breathed deeply. When he opened them, they went directly to Neo. "We're not going to tell her."
"Are you sure about that?" Shachi asked, stunned.
"It will be better if she doesn't know…at least not right now," Law summoned up. "She's neophobic. This could shock her too much. I don't want to lose the progress we have made on her so far."
"Neophobic?" Shachi questioned.
"She's scared of new things," Law explained. "You saw her reactions to new things when she first came to live with us and since then. Whenever she comes across something or someone new, she shies away from it. And just now, when I revealed my fury and powers to her, she…well, you saw. She's nervous around me again because of what I did. I should have been more careful. But it's understandable considering how she grew up. Anything new always meant more pain for her."
"Right. But she'll be fine. She knows you would never hurt her." Shachi let his eyes drift over to Neo. Penguin was successfully succeeding in their plan to distract Neo while he talked to their captain.
"Maybe," Law mumbled.
Shortly after that, the two men walked back over to the fire. Shachi helped Penguin with supper while Law reclaimed his spot by Neo. He cursed himself under his breath as she flinched and stiffened up at his presence. His loss of self control earlier might have very well damaged the little trust she had in him. He was going to have to be more careful in the future. The last thing he wanted was for her to be scared of him again. While they waited for their meal to be ready, he kept a close eye on her. He watched as her eyes became drowsy and she started slumping against the log more. "You can sleep if you need to."
Neo slowly nodded before closing her eyes.
"She all right, Captain?" Archer asked.
"Yeah." Law nodded. "It's just been a rough day."
"Dinner's going to be ready soon," Penguin said.
"That's fine," Law said. "She can eat later when she wakes up."
