Doflamingo Knows

"Don't tell me…" Law gasped as his body temperature suddenly plummeted extremely low. A cold sweat gathered on his already cold forehead. His absent heart thumped rapidly hard inside the walls of the Sunny's ship at the impossible thought that was forcing itself out of his head and onto his lips. Doflamingo is a Celestial Dragon. It can't be. Doflamingo can't possible be a Celestial Dragon. He released a strong string of curses through his mind. This was far worse than he could have possibly imagined. Doflamingo, the man who had killed Corazon, wasn't just a warlord of the sea, he was also a Celestial Dragon with world wide power over everything and everyone. Neo and their child were in far more danger than he ever thought they would be.

His heart took several more sharp beats before his mind cleared just enough for him to think. He drew in several breaths, careful to keep his outer expression calm so he wouldn't give anything away to Doflamingo. Calm down. Keep your blood pressure low. Keep your thoughts clear and calm. If Neo senses how much stress you're in, how much danger we're really in, she'll break through my order and come here. I can't let her do that. I can't let her come anywhere near Doflamingo, especially now that I know he's a Celestial Dragon.

"What's the matter, Law?" Doflamingo asked with a deep chuckle before looking around the island. "You look a little pale. By the way, where is that adorable little lover of yours? She is here with you, isn't she?"

Law flinched. His eyes sharpened like dagger as he clenched his fists so tight that his nails and sword sheath bit into his skin. He forced himself to relax and gritted his teeth to the point he knew would make his jaw ache later.

"I know she's here, somewhere. Or maybe she's on her way here," Doflamingo said, bringing his eyes and malicious grin back to Law. "I sure hope she is. I was hoping to give you two your wedding present. I suppose I could give it to you now, but that wouldn't be very proper of me. It would be best to wait until you two are together. So that's what we're going to do. We'll wait. I can wait a little bit longer to give it to you. But she is coming here, isn't she? I don't believe she's the type to willingly let you be here on your own, especially with the history between us. Would you like me to send an escort for her?"

"You stay away from her, Doflamingo!" Law hissed.

"What's wrong, Law?" Doflamingo's lips curled into a smile when he caught Law's eyes flickering over to Fujitora and the navy. "I just want to secure your lover's safety. We don't want her to get lost now do we? Or maybe she can't get lost? Does this have something to do with your bond to her? I already know you can share pain with her."

"Share pain?" Fujitora asked. His eyebrows perched up at Doflamingo's words. "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Doflamingo chuckled deeply. "I'm surprised you don't know, Fujitora. The navy is always so slow when it comes to gathering such intel. But I can't say that I blame you this time. Law's precious little lover is a rather evasive species. They can be hard to detect and even harder to capture. Surely the navy, at the very least, has noticed that she doesn't exactly feel human."

"Yes. I have heard all of the reports and newspaper articles about that." Fujitora nodded. "In fact, I just happened to run across her while I was in the town a little bit ago. I could easily tell that she wasn't human at all with my observation haki."

Law growled and cursed under his breath. An admiral being here was shocking enough. But that admiral being that close to Neo was almost heart stopping. He gritted his teeth. She must not have recognized who he was. If she did, then she would have warned me about him being here. Crap. This whole thing has gotten completely messed up. But if he was that close to her, why didn't he try to arrest her? Was it because she was with the Straw Hats? Or is there some other reason behind his motives?

"Not to worry, young man," Fujitora replied. He turned his closed eyes in Law's direction. "Other than the typical pirate charges on her, she did nothing in the moment for me to arrest her for. But that could change depending on what happens here today."

"Well, perhaps you would like to know what exactly she is then," Doflamingo said. "I've had another one of her kind working for me before. They're a tough breed, but they too can be broke if giving the right amount of… persuasion."

Law narrowed his eyebrows. He's clearly talking about Ren. What did he do to her? Did he do something to her? She seemed to be working for him of her own free will, but was that all a lie? Was she hiding something from us about her relationship with Doflamingo?

"So you found out what that young woman is?" Fujitora asked. His eyebrows perching up more with curiosity, as were the soldiers behind him.

"Is he for real?" a soldier asked.

"I don't know," another one said.

"I wonder what she is," a third one added.

"Then tell us! Tell us what she is!" a fourth soldier demanded.

"Yes! Tell me! Tell me what she is!" Caesar said as happy tears streamed down his cheeks in anticipation on finally learning what Neo was. He reached out towards Doflamingo like it would help him get the answer faster. "I have to know! I've been trying to figure that out for so long now!"

Doflamingo chuckled deeply. "Impatient, aren't you all? I see no harm in going ahead and revealing what she is. It's quite interesting."

"Doflamingo!" Law released another string of curses through his mind upon realizing that Doflamingo knew the truth about Neo. He knows! He knows that Neo's an elemental! Did Ren tell him?! Or was it someone else?! If he managed to have one elemental in his crew then it's possible that he has others! Or does this have something to do with that man that Blackleg mentioned?! Was it a human that revealed what Neo really is?! How would that man even know about the elementals? Did he meet one that told him everything out of trust then was betrayed? If so, what all did they tell him?! Does he also know everything about our bond?! Does he know that if one of us dies the other will die as well?! Calm down. Our bond is rare. It's possible that elementals who live among humans don't know about the bond. Focus now. You can worry about that later. Deal with the here and now first. Forcing all these thoughts and questions out of his mind, Law forced himself to regain control over his emotions. There was no point in stressing out over questions that would most likely never get answered to begin with. "Leave her out of this! This deal has nothing to do with her!"

"It has nothing to do with her?" Doflamingo asked. His smiled faded for a few seconds before spreading back over his lips with the intent to do some serious malicious things. "She was with you on Punk Hazard! She helped you take out my equipment and most trusted subordinate! She helped you kidnapped another important subordinate! And you really have the gall to say she has nothing to do with this?! She has everything to do with this! I didn't bring her into it, Law! You did! You are the one that brought her here! You are the one who married that creature, that freak!"

"Doflamingo!" Law warned. "Don't you ever call her a freak! And she is none of your business!"

"It's your fault, Law!" Doflamingo continued. "You are the one who brought an elemental into the human world, into the New World, into the life of a pirate! You didn't think you could possible keep her hidden from the world did you? If you wanted to do that, then the best thing for you to have done would have been to abandon your pirate life and live with her on some secluded island! It's only human nature to be curious, Law! Bringing her out here into the human world? It was only a matter of time before people found her out! I'm just moving events along! Trafalgar Neo…"

"Doflamingo!" Law growled. "Don't!"

"…is a creature called an elemental!" Doflamingo finished. "And not only that…"

Law's heart and stomach lurched. There's no way. He can't possible know that she's a royal as well.

"Trafalgar Neo is also a princess," Doflamingo said. "She's the ruler of her people."

Law's stomach dropped all the way to the center of the planet. White-hot anger building up in his chest made his vision become spotted with red dots of rage while his brain filtered through thousands of different ways to murder Doflamingo. There were no words to say how angry, how furious, he was at Doflamingo right now. There were no words to say how angry he was at himself for being naïve in thinking he could keep her and their secrets safe. Doflamingo, and now the navy, knew what Neo was.

"Elemental?" Caesar asked, his ears perching up with interest. "What the heck is that?"

The navy's ears also perch up at the warlord's words.

"It is exactly what it sounds like. Elemental is related to or embodying the powers of nature. Her crystals and powers have nothing to do with a devil fruit at all," Doflamingo explained. "It's magic. She is a magical creature. A magical creature that can somehow share pain with Law."

"Magic?" a navy soldier asked as murmurs began to pass through their group

"What's he talking about?"

"I don't know. But this would explain a lot. Her powers, magic, or whatever, is connected to nature that could also explain why she's so young looking."

"Wait, isn't there another soldier in the navy who also feels inhuman?" a soldier asked.

Law's eyebrows twitched upon, somehow, hearing the navy soldier's words through the pounding in his head. Jory. He's in danger too if they really believe in what Doflamingo had said. Neo will be upset if anything happens to him because the navy found out our secrets. For her sake, I hope he abandons the navy and heads back to Luminous. Luminous… Crap! Whoever told him about all of this, I hope they were strong enough to not reveal to him the location of their home land! I know elementals are abnormally protective of their home, but they are not immortal! And, depending on what methods Doflamingo used, they could still cave and tell him what he wanted to know! The elementals might be strong, but they've never faced a devil fruit user, aside from me, before, especially one who has murderous intentions! And a surprise attack would cause a lot of damage to them, especially if the ones who attack them fake being in distress! The elementals could be welcoming a wolf in sheep's clothing into their home! We have to get out of here and find a way to warn them to not trust anyone who comes to the island that can't prove they are allies to Red Hair or us! Come on! Focus! Get their attention back on you! Worry about the elementals later when there's more time and Neo is safe again! At least she's with Straw Hat right now! He'll protect her! Now focus!

"That's most likely the case, navy soldiers," Doflamingo said. "They can easily blend in with humans. I wouldn't be surprised if there are hundreds or thousands of elementals in the navy and among humans."

"You know, he's right! A friend of mine once told me about a guy who came off as inhuman and seem to be able to do things that should have been possible," a soldier exclaimed.

"We must get back to headquarters and find this guy," another soldier added. "We can't allow this to happen. We must find them and kick them out."

"Yeah!" the soldiers cheered.

Stupid morons. Jory hasn't done anything to you. He's actually been helping you. And yet here you are, ready to kick him out just because he's different than you. You navy soldiers are pathetic. Law opened his mouth to cuss them out, but stopped when Fujitora spoke up.

"Enough of that," Fujitora ordered. "That man has done nothing to any of you."

"But, Admiral-"

"I said, enough!" Fujitora snapped. "I will not have you all creating a lynch mob because you found out one of our soldiers isn't human. I do not know this man personally, but if he has served the navy with dedication then there's no reason to run him off."

Well, that's a surprise. Fujitora has some honor in him. Neo would have admiration for him, Law thought. But that doesn't change much of anything here. I still need to get them focused on me.

"Joker!" Caesar then cried out as he lunged forward. "Kill this jerk already! I want my freedom back! Then let me have Neo! I want to conduct experiments on her even more now that I know she's not-Ack!"

Law grabbed Caesar's scarf and jerked him backwards. He said, "I'm not handing Caesar back over to you! You didn't follow the terms of our deal, Doflamingo! The deal is off! You get nothing!"

"What?! No! What are you talking about?! Not when I'm this close! Let me go!" Caesar demanded.

Doflamingo laughed. "Oh, trying to take attention off your precious lover, Law? All right then, I've said what I wanted to about her for now. Let's focus on us. And I must ask is that really how you speak to your boss after ten years of silence? What would your lover say about your rudeness, Law? Leave Caesar with me. You know how valuable he is to me. Now hand him over to me."

Neo clenched her teeth so hard that her jaw ached while she rocked back and forth on her feet. She knew she should stop it, but she couldn't. She was far too upset. Something had happened. Something had put Law under a lot of distress. The feeling didn't last long. But she knew he was just concealing his thoughts and feelings from her so she wouldn't worry about him. "Well, to late for that, Law. I'm already worried. What's going on over there?"

Neo tried not to focus on Law. She tried to focus on the battle below her instead. It had to end soon. It would end soon. Then she could go to Luffy and tell him what as going on. Luffy would help Law. He had too. The Straw Hat captain said that they were friends. And friends helped each other. She just had to be patient and trust in both Law and Luffy's abilities. Law was strong enough to handle whatever Doflamingo threw at him. He would be fine. He would be fine until Luffy got to him.

She forced her eyes to watch, to study, Luffy's movements in battle as a distraction. She watched him punch and kick through all of his opponents that came his way. None of them stood a chance. Even those that were wielding weapons couldn't do anything to stop the rubber man. Luffy, she noticed, seem to have a very free, very loose fighting style. He was just bouncing all over the place. She couldn't help but wonder if that had something to do with him eating the gum gum devil fruit or if he would just fight that way because that's just how he learned to fight or if it was an effect of his personality. She knew her own crewmates had different fighting styles. This must have been what worked best for Luffy. And it probably did have a lot to do with his devil fruit considering he's had it for a while now. If she recalled her godfather's stories correctly, he's had this devil fruit since he was a kid, around seven.

Her thoughts paused when she noticed Luffy staring down the bull that was in the competition. Though she didn't want her thoughts to be on anything but Law, she wondered how and why a bull was in this tournament. Was it intelligent enough to make that decision for itself? Or did someone own the bull and put him in for the heck of it? If the bull managed to win, would it eat the devil fruit? Did it even know what a devil fruit was? How would it even use the devil fruit? A wild, fight loving bull could be just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than a human wielding Ace's flame flame fruit.

She shifted her thoughts. Searching out the animal again, she looked for signs of distress of being in this fight. But she couldn't find anything. The bull appeared to like fighting in this tournament just as much as anyone else. That gave her some relief. At least the bull wasn't being forced to fight against his will. The bull wanted to be here.

She twitched when she saw that Luffy and the bull were now staring each other down. She wondered if Luffy was actually going to fight this creature. He didn't strike her the type of person to hurt an animal that wasn't trying to hurt him. But this bull was trying to hurt people. What would Luffy do? She swallowed and waited to see what would happen as the second ticked by painfully slow.

"Oh, now the Brutal Bull is facing the unstoppable Lucy!" She heard the announcer say. She was grateful to be able to hear the man's voice from her perch on top of the coliseum. It would have been torture to sit up on the top of the coliseum and not know exactly what was going on below her. The information the announcer gave out on the fighters helped to distract her. "The Brutal Bull has fought death row prisoners in this coliseum just the other day! He killed more than half of the prisoners in that fight! That certainly makes him a killer bull! The Coliseum's Grim Reaper! And because of his behavior in these fights, people call him Brutal Bull!"

Neo sighed. That was some information she could do without. She didn't like the idea of an animal being used like this. She wondered who ever came up with this tournament idea. She wondered if it was Doflamingo. This was his kingdom after all. She bet he had something to do with this. And with Ace's flame flame devil fruit as the prize, this was undoubtedly a trap to purposefully get Luffy inside of this place.

"He's charging at Lucy! But Lucy is just standing still!" the announcer continued. "Did he get paralyzed with fear or something?! Brutal Bull is about to stab him with his horns!"

Neo sigh again. Going by what she knew about Luffy, there would be no way this bull could actually hit him. But still, her heart skipped a beat when it looked like the bull did pierce his horn through Luffy's body. She relaxed before the announce could say, "He some how fend off the attack! Lucy is fine!" since it was only an after image the bull hit.

Neo kneaded her eyebrows and squinted when it looked like Luffy was encouraging the bull to attack him. She whimpered when pain, sharper than before, stabbed through her forehead. She relaxed her forehead and started rubbing it again with her fingers. She didn't have time for any of this. When would this stupid fight be over with already? She released a frustrated growl. She no longer cared about the rules of this tournament. She was going to use her winds to flip that bull and the rest of the fighters out of the ring. The bull then charged again at Luffy. She started to summon her wind crystals again, but stopped when she noticed that Luffy wasn't going to dodge the bull this time. She also noticed something else. A familiar pressure was being released from Luffy. It was the same exact feeling she got when the Dark King and her godfather used their haki. "He's using his haki to tame the bull."

Neo relaxed her body posture when she felt the bull's killing nature slowly subsiding. Once the bull was completely relaxed, she watched Luffy jumped upon the bull's back. The bull's blood thirsty nature had completely vanished. It was gone. Unable to stop it, she broke out into laughter. The sight of Luffy on the back of the bull in the middle of a bloodbath just was too much for her. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and dropped to her knees. Her bells chimed wildly as her laughter rolled effortlessly passed her lips.

Through her hysterical giggles, she looked down the check the distance between her and the crowd in the coliseum. She was far enough away that no one would be able to hear her. Her laughter came harder then, causing tears to stream down her cheeks and her sides to ache. "I can't believe it! This is, ha ha, serious! And he's acting, ha ha, so silly! And I can't believe, ha ha, I'm laughing right now! Law's in trouble! Ha ha ha! Why am I laughing?! This doesn't make any sense! Ha ha! This is… this is like back on Punk Hazard when the lab was caving in! Ha ha!"

"I-I can't believe it! He's riding on top of the Coliseum's Grim Reaper! What a man! Lu-"

Neo gasped as the strong feeling of a strange shift in the air around her. Her laughter vanished as her eyes shot to the north, to Green Bit. Her electric blue eyes widened in shock when she saw the flame engulfed meteor falling down towards the smaller island. Her breath hitched in her lungs when the meteor hit. "Law!"

"Hm." Robin hummed and looked up at the ceiling of the strange underworld dwelling place she and Usopp were currently in. The rumbling had finally stopped, but dirt particles were still falling down on them. She was worried. "Neo."

"What is it, Robin?" Usopp asked when he noticed the woman's concentrated stare up at the ceiling. "It stopped shaking. There's nothing to worry about. Well, at the moment anyway. This place looks like it's pretty sturdy."

"It's not that. I'm worried about Neo," Robin replied.

"Neo?" Leo asked. "Who's that?"

"She's a friend of ours," Usopp replied. He looked down at the Tontattas. "She's very important to our crew, especially Luffyland. If you happen to meet her, be very nice to her. She's had a hard life. But she's very friendly and really sweet. I know she'll just love you all. You're the right amount of cute for her taste."

"Oh, all right then!" Leo smiled. "If she's a friend of the great hero, then she's a friend of ours!"

"That's great," Usopp said just before the Tontattas when back to their party. He leaned over closer to Robin at that point. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure. But that little earthquake before was clearly a result of something Law did," Robin whispered. "And if Doflamingo is really up there, I'm sure he's told Neo to stay away from him. I get the feeling that Neo is really upset right now. And that's not good for her."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Usopp asked. "She's obviously been in plenty of fights before. Why would this one possible be different?"

Robin looked at the sniper. She weighted her options of telling him about Neo's pregnancy or not. With how events are turning out, she figured it would be better to have as many people know about it, just in case. She knew Neo and Neo's crystals would protect the baby and herself, but that didn't make her or the baby immortal. Damage and death could still occur. And she didn't want that to happen to either of them, especially if there was something she could do to protect them. So she leaned even closer to Usopp and told him the truth. She whispered, "Neo's pregnant."

"What?!" Usopp shouted.

"What's wrong now, Usoland?" Leo asked, turning his eyes back to the pirate.

"N-nothing at all," Usopp stuttered. He waved at the Tontatta with an unconvincing grin before forking another bite of his fish meal. "Just a private conversation with my friend. Go on and continuing the party. The fighting fish is really good."

"It sure is good! And all right then, we'll leave you two to your private conversation! I'm sure you have a lot of planning to do!" Leo said with a nod before once again turning back to his friends.

"Are you serious?!" Usopp demanded with force control as he whipped his eyes back to Robin.

"Yes." Robin nodded.

"Then what the heck is she even doing here?!" Usopp growled lowly. "Is she and Tra insane?!"

"Tra didn't know until a little bit before we arrived here. It was too late to do anything about it then," Robin explained.

"What?!" Usopp gasped.

"Listen, Neo will be fine. Her crystals will protect the baby to a degree, but she and the baby can still die or get seriously injured in battle," Robin said, easing the sniper's worry a little bit.

"All right. So who all knows about this?" Usopp asked.

"As far as I know it's just us, Nami, Chopper, Sanji, and Tra," Robin said. "Unless something happened on Sanji's end, no one else knows. And we're not telling them, especially Luffy, unless we absolutely have to."

"So you're telling me all of this because of what's happened?" Usopp asked and Robin nodded. "I see. You want to protect Neo and the baby. Hold on a second. You didn't say her name when you told me who all knows."

"That's because she doesn't know. She would have freaked out if anyone told her," Robin replied. "It was Tra's decision to not tell her. He'll inform her once we're out of Dressrosa and safe again."

"I guess that's the right decision considering how she reacts to new things," Usopp said. He glanced over at the Tontattas. "Should we tell them about this?"

"That I don't know," Robin said. She turned her eyes to their new friends and pondered on Usopp's question.

"Law… what the heck?! What's going on over there?!" Neo whispered to herself as she tried to contact him. He wasn't answering her so whatever was happening clearly had his complete attention. She forced herself not to try and contact him again. Her eyes were locked in the direction of Green Bit, her mind forgetting the battle below her. "How in the world could a meteor come crashing down to the ground like that? That was not an ordinary occurrence. Did someone with a devil fruit do that? What kind of devil fruit-Hn!"

Neo flinched when a sharp pain shot across her right cheek. She placed one hand on her stinging cheek and rubbed it gently. Lowering her hand back down to her side, she clenched her fists and her teeth. She forced her eyes to pull away from the direction of Green Bit and back down to Luffy's battle. The rubber man was still running around the area on the back of the bull. She watched as they ran into the giant's foot. Her heart seized up when the giant in the ring pulled back his fist and punched both Luffy and the bull into the ring's floor, cracking it. The giant straightened his body back up and walked away. She summoned her crystals in an attempt to assist Luffy, but stopped when Luffy sat up. She relaxed when Luffy easily knocked out the giant, with the help of his armament haki, and carried the bull off to the side of the ring where he would be out of the way.

"I can't take this," Neo said to herself. She dropped to her knees and sat down on her legs. She pressed her hands to her face and tried to stop her tears from coming. She took several deep breaths, slowly getting her tears to subside. Once the desire to cry was gone, she lowered her hands to her lap. "What am I suppose to do? I can't interfere in Luffy's fight, even thought I want to. I can't help Law because of his stupid order for me to stay away. Maybe I should have stayed with Zoro or Sanji. They would have known what to do about this."

Neo sighed. She looked up at the sky. A cloud shaped in the form of a penguin passed by. Her homesickness returned as the cloud reminded her of her absent brothers and sister, especially Penguin. "Penguin… I wish you was here. You certainly would have known what to do about this. And I could really use your advice right now. Should I go ahead and interfere with Luffy's fight? If I do, he'd most likely be angry with me. I can't do that. So what? What the heck am I suppose to do? Law's in danger. He won't let me go to him. So what can I do? I'm too far away to help him with my crystals. If I try to do that from here, I could end up hurting him. If only I could see where Doflamingo is, then I could-Uh?! That's it!"

Neo shot up to her feet with a startled gasp. She mentally slapped herself. "I'm feel so stupid right now! I can help Law! I can use my projection technique and project my image to him! That way I can see where Doflamingo is and attack him! It might be a bit of a stretch since I've never projected my crystals and myself this far before! And Law probably won't be happy about it since I'll be in a vulnerable position while I'm projecting myself, but…"

Neo looked around, carefully scanning the area around herself again. No one knew she was up here. This was the safest place as any to use her projection ability. And if she laid down, she was sure to remain unseen by anyone, unless they were flying. But how many people actually had the ability to fly? One more second of debating and it was decided. Law might be upset with her, but he only ordered her to stay away from Green Bit and, technically, she still was. She took a deep breath and laid down. Not knowing how long she was going to be able to project herself this far, she got as comfortable as she possibly could then closed her eyes and concentrated on projecting her image to Law.

Law growled to himself as his blood dripped down his cheek. He forced himself not to think about how this was effecting Neo. He knew she was upset and confused about him banning her from Green Bit. But she would be fine. As long as she stayed away from Green Bit and Doflamingo, she and their baby would be fine. He would make this up to her, somehow. And he knew she would understand why he forbidden her to come here once he told her about the baby. If he got the chance to do that, that is.

Law lifted up his sword. He deflected several more string shots from Doflamingo before jumping away from his current location and into the thick forest of Green Bit. He ran straight into the forest before making a sharp left and coming to the shock of his life. His heart literally stopped beating when he saw Neo standing there, obviously glaring at him from behind her sunglasses. He cursed under his breath. "Neo, what the heck are you doing here?! I told you to stay away from here! How could you have disobeyed me at a time like this?!"

'I didn't disobey!' Neo snapped. 'And you better keep running! I won't be happy if we die here!'

Law's body automatically did as he was told. He started running again with her by his side. While running, he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. That's when he noticed she was glowing and transparent. His eyebrows twitched. He's heart took a sharp jolt upon realizing how she was actually there. He said, "Neo! You are using projection?! We've talked about this! You are not supposed to use that unless me or one of the crew is with you! Have you lost your mind?!"

'No, I'm completely sane! But at the moment I am questioning your sanity!' Neo shot back. 'Facing Doflamingo alone?! Really, Law?! Where's Robin and Usopp?! Are they hurt?!"

"They're trapped underground! But they're fine and safe! And don't you dare turn this around on me! You do remember the dangers you are in when you use projection, right?!" Law asked. "You've just made yourself completely vulnerable right now!"

'Of course I know that, Law! You know I wouldn't just use this ability just anywhere! I'm as safe as I can possibly be! I'm still upon the top of the coliseum! No one knows I'm up there! So unless someone has the ability to fly and just happens to be out for a flight, I'm safe enough!' Neo retorted.

Law couldn't argue with that, especially since he taught her that it's rare for someone to look up for danger. But that still didn't excuse her behavior in somewhat, sort of, coming here after he ordered her not too. With a frustrated growl, he said, "And what about your magic?! You're having trouble again!"

'So? We've already established that I'm safe! If my magic disappears again, my projection will just disappear! It's not like Doflamingo can do anything to me here! He won't even be able to see me!' Neo replied. 'I came to help you! I wasn't going to just sit there and feel all of your anxiety with this, Law! By using projection I can physically remain safe while still helping you fight. As long as my project body is here, I can see where Doflamingo is and use my crystals! And I don't understand why you ordered me to stay away in the first place! I know that Doflamingo can easily slice through all of my attacks, but I can still cause him a lot of trouble! Since we're arguing about this, why don't you just tell me why you're so bull headed about keeping me away from you!'

Law gritted his teeth and kept an extremely tight control over his thoughts, forcing thoughts of Doflamingo to the front of his mind to try and keep the real reason hidden. But he wanted to do just that. He wanted to tell her the truth about why he didn't want her here.

'Answer me, Law!' Neo snapped. She carefully eyed him and how guarded he was being with his thoughts.

"I can't do that!" Law said through gritted teeth. He leaped over a giant vine and pressed his back to it. He watched as Neo easily pass through the vine since her body wasn't really there and looked at him from behind her shades. He wished she wasn't wearing them. Despite being in the middle of a fight, with her and Doflamingo, he still wanted to see her beautiful electric blue eyes. He hated that they were hidden from him. "Neo, we can't talk about this right now! We're in the middle of a fight!"

Both flinched when Doflamingo's strings came shooting through the large vine too close to Law's head for their comfort. Without a word to each other, they started running again.

'I noticed,' Neo mumbled to herself as she followed Law. Though she really couldn't tell if they both meant the fight with Doflamingo or the fight between themselves. She pushed it aside for now. It wasn't important. Summoning her crystals to Green Bit, she lifted herself up into the air. Turning backwards so she could see the blonde warlord behind them, she focused on the large vines around her. She felt them twitching in struggling obedience to move on her command. She wondered if maybe she was too far after all to control this type of forest. She has grown her own large forests before, but nothing like this. And she's never tried to control them from such a far distances at the same time she was using her projection ability. That was something she was going to have to correct in the future. She wasn't going to allow something like this to happen again without being prepared to handle it better. While trying to get the plants to listen to her, she moved ten fire crystals in front of Doflamingo. 'Take this!'

"What the he-" Doflamingo started to ask when the crystals appeared in front of him. His voice was cut off when he realized Neo was somewhere nearby. He jerked himself backwards just as she flared up her crystals.

'Dang it! He's too fast!' Neo growled.

"Well, it looks like your sweet lover is finally here," Doflamingo said as he continued to chase after Law. "Where is she hiding, Law? I don't sense any elementals nearby."

'What?!' Neo gasped. Her attempt in connecting to Green Bit faded from her. She turned her eyes to Law. 'He… he knows?'

"Yeah. He knows you're a princess too." Law nodded. Picking up his speed, he leaped into the air and ricocheted three times off some large vines just before Doflamingo sliced them up.

'Why didn't you tell me?!' Neo hissed. Anger built up in her chest allowed her to finally connect to Green Bit. She stopped following Law and picked up the sliced vines and some rocks and flung them pointlessly at Doflamingo. But like she knew, he easily sliced through them. So while keeping him distracted with slicing up vines and rocks, she moved her water crystals above Doflamingo's head, she gathered water around them and turned the water into seawater before shooting down a ton of water towards the man below them. Her anger bubbled when Doflamingo easily moved out from underneath her attack and laughed at her attempts of trying to use his weakness against him.

"Neo, surely that's not all you can do," Doflamingo said between his deep chuckles. "Where are you hiding? Why are you being so resistance in meeting me? Did Law's bad manners rub off on you?"

'I'm not being resistant!' Neo snapped, despite knowing the man couldn't hear her. She growled in frustration of that fact then started to follow after Law again while continuing to use her crystals to try and slow Doflamingo down. She wrapped a large vine around Doflamingo's body. She bought Law a mere two seconds to move farther away from their enemy before Doflamingo escaped her trap. She gasped and whipped around when she felt vine pieces falling down from the sky and a very familiar pressure of gravity on her chest. 'Law!'

Law jumped away from getting hit from the first vine piece, which almost landed on his head, then stopped when Neo's wind crystals appeared around him and easily blew them away from him. He looked to Neo when she landed beside him. He knew her eyes were locked onto Fujitora, who was standing on a piece of vine that had fallen from the sky, in shock despite being hidden behind sunglasses. 'That's Fujitora. He's the new admiral we've talked about before.'

'But he's the guy… back in town… the restaurant…' Neo stuttered. She growled in frustration. 'I knew there was something about him. I could sense his power, but I could… I didn't know…'

'Calm down, Neo.' Law ordered. 'You just forgot about him. Besides, it's not like you've met him before. You've done nothing wrong.'

'No, I just let my friends come within inches of a navy admiral without realizing it,' Neo grumbled. 'Nothing wrong with that at all.'

"I'm not going to let you have your way, Law," Doflamingo said as he dropped down. He stood on one of the large vines just above Neo and Law. "Now, tell me where that precious lover of yours is hiding. Her crystals are here so I know she's here too."

"Trafalgar Neo is here?" Fujitora asked from his perch on a vine piece. He scanned his observation haki vision around the forest. "I don't see her anywhere."

'I guess observation haki users can't see my projection form,' Neo said with a relieved sigh. 'I never thought of testing that out before.'

'Neither have I. At least we have that knowledge for the future now.' Law gritted his teeth and pondered on what their next move was going to be. Neo was completely defenseless against Doflamingo, but she did have a chance against Fujitora, if it was needed.

'So, if we're done arguing with each other," Neo said. "What's the plan? What are you trying to do here? I know you could have escaped if you wanted to. So why are you dragging this all out? And where's Caesar? Never mind. I sense him near the beach. Why did you let him go like that? He can escape.'

Law summoned all of his will power and forced himself not to flinch when she started asking questions about Caesar. He suppressed his thoughts of removing his heart as deep into the back of his mind as he possible could. They had just gotten over one fight, he certainly didn't want to start another one, at least not now. If he knew himself as well as he thought he did, he knew he'd tell her about removing their heart later.

'Tell me you removed Caesar's heart and that's why you've let him run loose,' Neo said. 'If not, I can use my crystals and retrieve him for you.'

'That's not necessary.' Law carefully ran his eyes over Doflamingo and Fujitora. Doflamingo was still standing on the vine above them while Fujitora was still standing on a piece of shredded vine that had fallen from the sky when the admiral attacked. 'I took his heart when we were crossing the bridge. He won't be able to get away.'

'That's good,' Neo replied.

'We need to run again. Give us a distraction so we can get some distance between these two and us. Ready? Go!' Law ordered.

Neo nodded. She summoned all of her crystals together. Combining their elements, she spun them into a tornado.

"Well, I guess the young woman is here after all," Fujitora said upon sensing the bizarre turn nature just took and feeling the wind and fire from Neo's crystals. "That's a shame. I was hoping she's would have chosen to stay away from here."

'Why in the world would he want that? I'm a pirate. He's suppose to want to capture me,' Neo said.

'Never mind him. Let's just get moving.'

'Right! Here goes! I'm so sorry for doing this to you, Green Bit! You really are a very lovely island!' Neo flung her whirlwind of elements into the ground, causing a controlled explosion. She pushed the majority of the backdraft towards Fujitora and Doflamingo before following after Law. She wrapped her winds around him and flew them both through the forest. 'I don't think that's going to do much good. Fujitora just took to the air. Doflamingo probably did the same.'

"Doesn't matter," Law replied as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his transponder snail. "It was just a diversion anyway."

'Who are you calling?' Neo asked.

"Nami," Law replied. "I need them to come pick up Caesar and get him away from here."

Neo watched Law carefully as he dialed in the number for the transponder snail back on the Sunny. She sighed upon realizing that this fight with Doflamingo was just starting. Law wasn't going to give it up now that it had been started. He wanted the man dead after what he had done to Corazon. 'We weren't suppose to fight.'

"I know," Law said in a low voice. "And I'm so sorry that I dragged you into this." He paused. A thought quickly passing through his mind before he quickly silenced it. "Neo?"

'Yeah?'

"I'm going to have Nami and the others, who stayed on the ship, take Caesar and head for Zou," Law replied, carefully. He gritted his teeth when he felt her heart skip a beat.

'Don't you dare order me to go with them! I won't do it!' Neo snapped. Tears pierced the back of her eyes as she looked at him. 'I can't! You know that! I won't be able to… I'm not going to… I just can't… I-'

"Easy, love," Law said while he wrapped his presence around her. His eyes dropped down to her stomach. He wanted her as far away from Doflamingo as humanly, or elementally, as possible, but he knew she would always stay with him no matter what. Still, he had to offer the choice for her to go back to the crew. "I wasn't going to order you away like that. I was just going to offer you the choice to leave."

'You already know the answer to that, Law!' Neo brushed away her tears then she narrowed her eyebrows at him. 'Why do I do nothing but cry here lately? Ugh! Don't even think about asking, telling, or ordering me to leave with them! I won't do it!'

"I know, love," Law replied, forcing his eyes off Neo's stomach before she finally noticed his stare. He turned his attention back to the transponder snail when he notice Nami hadn't picked up yet. "It'll be fine. I won't separate us like that. Come on, Nami. Pick up."

'They might still be having trouble with whoever attack the ship,' Neo said. She turned her eyes towards Dressrosa before turning her eyes up to the sky. 'And we're in trouble too. Fujitora is about to attack. He's floating a bunch of rocks and vine pieces above the forest.'

"That's just great!" Law hissed. "Try and distract him!"

'What about you? Doflamingo's right behind us,' Neo said as she glanced over her shoulder.

"I can handle him just fine. Focus on Fujitora," Law said.

'Okay. His attack is coming,' Neo said just before Fujitora's attack rain down on them. She swirled the wind around them, easily deflecting his attack away as she flew Law down a hill. She focused on Fujitora's location about them. Summoning her crystals up to the admiral, she fired several shots at him. But with the strain of being so far away and trying to do three times at once, she couldn't get a good enough hit on him. He was easily dodging her attacks or deflecting them with his own powers. 'Great. To have a chance of stopping him I need to physically be here.'

"What are they doing?!" Law wondered when Nami still didn't pick up the transponder snail. "Pick up already!"

'Crap!' Neo shot her eyes to the sky.

"What is it?" Law asked as he looked at her.

'He's pulling down another meteor!' Neo banished all of her crystals, except for her wind crystals. She summoned a hundred more when she saw the meteor descending upon them. Gathering them together, she swirled her winds into a twister and shot it up to the sky. Just before her winds hit the meteor, her magic began to flicker out. 'N-! N-t n-w!'

"Your magic is fading again," Law said as he watched her already transparent body fade from his eyes. They ducked behind a vine. He paused to catch his breath before speaking again. "Neo, go back to your body."

'No! I won't!' Neo protested. Hot tears stung her eyes again, but she refused to let them fall. 'I won't leave you here like this! I won't do it!'

"Neo, you don't have a choice. You know your magic is fading again," Law said gently with a soft sigh. His eyes dropped back down to her stomach. He wanted to tell her so badly. Pushing off the vine he was leaning against, he wrapped an arm around her. "You've done enough."

'But, Law." Neo pulled her hands up to his jacket. She clenched a hold of the sides of his jacket and pressed herself into his chest before turning her eyes up to him. She reached up and pulled off her sunglasses. Her magic flared up and she pushed back against the falling meteor, but only for a few seconds before her magic faded again. She sighed. 'Fine. But once my magic straightens out, I'm coming back. I'm sorry I couldn't stop the meteor. Please, be careful.'

Law nodded. There was no point in arguing with her on whether or not she should come back. So he let it go. Most likely she'll get Luffy over here before her magic straightened out completely for her to use projection again. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers just before her transparent body faded away from him. Snapping back into action from the meteor that was baring down on him, he leaped away from his current location. The explosion, when the meteor hit, threw him through the air. He landed on his side then rolled to a stop before jumping up and dashing behind a large rose stem. He looked at his still ringing transponder's snail. "Come on, Nami! Pick up! What's going on over there?!"

...

Author's Notes: Well, not the best chapter every, but at least I finally got to use Neo's projection ability. And we will see how Mingo found out about Neo in a chapter later on. So no worries there. We will know.

PuddyKatz: She sure is.

Inazumame1997: And it just got worse.

Apple Bloom: Yea. But too bad she can't do anything to help him.