Cassandra sighed and threw her pen across her desk. As much as she loved spreading her influence throughout the island, she sometimes missed the days when everyone understood that not cooperating with her meant a visit from someone sent by her Sisters if not her Sisters themselves. There was no point invoking the alternate name she had been using for years; she wanted everyone to know she was the one responsible, not Owen Weanie. Knowing what people who opposed her thought she didn't know was exhilarating, but it still meant her plans weren't moving as fast as she would like.

"Take a break soon," she said as she descended to the main hall, where NYMPHE and HEROINE were working on TITANIDE.

"Like You're One To Talk."

"I'm taking a break right now." She entered the main bedroom, pulled the fashion magazine from Lyn's hands, and flumped down onto her. "Distract me."

Lyn grinned cheekily. "I don't remember you making an appointment."

Cassandra buried her face in the crook of Lyn's neck and inhaled deeply. "Surprise inspection."

"Sorry, sweetie. I can't change my schedule, even for you," Lyn teased.

"I'll just have to get rid of whomever you had plans with next."

"But Mitsu hasn't fully paid you back yet."

Cassandra looked up at Lyn, taking in the dyed tips of her short hair. "You were going to meet Mitsu?"

"Nope! You should see your face!" Lyn hugged her tightly and gently rocked from side to side. "I'm seeing her in a couple days."

"Do you even know where to start looking for her?" Aisha asked without looking up from her book.

"I'll just ask around!" she exclaimed brightly. "I'm almost as good as Cee at that!"

The aroma of food heralded her crew members' arrival. "Knock knock," Alexander said, taking it in stride when Theo charged in behind him and snatched the bags of food from his hands. "Let's eat."

Cain sat down on the ground with his own pile of food. "We figured with Morgan gone, some of us could treat ourselves."

Cassandra rolled to the side as Lyn sprang up. "Yay! Remember, nobody tell him anything. We ate perfectly healthily."

Alexander lifted his foot as a sanitized right hand scuttled past to replace Theo's dirty one. "Don't worry. We'll all blame you if he finds out."

"Then I'll blame Cee!"

"I wonder whom he'll believe?" Aisha opened her box of okonomiyaki. "I thank the restaurant workers, transporters, and farmers for delivering this bounty upon us. Clearly God in Their infinite wisdom has seen fit to spare us today since I don't see spider eggs or toenails."

Theo spat out her food to prevent herself from choking before joining the rest in laughter. Aisha's prayers could be quite interesting in their diversity. "I haven't seen you for a bit," Alexander commented. "Have you been with Min's family?"

"For most of my free time, yes. It's a good way of helping both the crew and my conscience." Aisha lightly shook her box. "That, and the risk of combat is low."

"I have been keeping Min busy," Cassandra acknowledged. "There's no sense wasting a hard worker. Before any of you say anything, the work she's doing isn't exactly bad. I trust her more than any of the others, and not just because she knows what I'll do to her husband and son if she misbehaves. She is, above all else, a civilian who wants a better life for her family, and I'm not evil enough to punish her more than the World Government has."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Lyn said quickly. "That reminds me. Why didn't you tell me you've been in contact with Hode? I'd obviously find out eventually!"

Theo quailed under Cassandra's inquisitive gaze. "I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret."

Cassandra sighed. "I assumed you'd deduce that given that she and I are on the same island."

"That's bullshit, and you know it, Cee."

Aisha raised her hand. "Can someone fill me in?"

"If Cee lost her memories and wanted to date anybody in Fizzlenaw, Hode would be her first choice."

"That's not"-Cassandra ran her hand through her hair when Lyn crossed her arms-"necessarily true. Even I think that's too absurd a hypothetical to consider."

"I don't think Hode will steal her from me," Lyn assured everyone, "but the fact that you wanted to hide it from me is a problem."

"You could say it's a matter of intimacy," Alexander provided.

Cassandra glanced at him. "She's twice my age and has never loved anyone or anything in her life more than her ship. I'd put money on her being ace."

"And if she were an obedient, allo guy, she'd be everything you'd want in a datemate," Lyn said. "That is not the point. Why didn't you want to tell me?"

"You know why."

"I want to hear you say it."

She ran her hand through her hair again and sighed. "My relationship with her is… unusual. She's more similar to me than almost anyone I've met outside the world of assassins. I never know if she's genuinely going to help me or get in my way, and vice versa. It's like a gambling addiction. Will she help me against Mircalla? Probably, but she could just as easily stab me in the back. It's a messed up, exhilarating kind of trust in each other's skills and abilities."

Aisha mulled this over. "Like how you shoot Damien because you know he won't die."

"That's a different kind of gambling," Cassandra said with a smile. "No matter how Damien fucks with my plans, I know without a doubt that he'll help me when I absolutely need him. The events three years ago proves it. With Hode, it's more like we repeatedly force the other to prove that we can handle whatever shit we throw at them. If she wanted to become Empress, I would provide support, but if she couldn't handle the tricks I pulled along the way, then that proves she couldn't hack it."

"And if she wants to become Pirate Queen?" Cain asked.

"That's the other thing. Our ultimate goals are not the same. I would bet anything that she truly doesn't want the Corsair Crown. I just wish I could figure out what it is she really wants," she grumbled.

"Aaaand?" Lyn prompted, covering Theo's ears.

"And I may have once or twice imagined what it'd be like to dominate her," Cassandra very reluctantly admitted as Theo tried to escape Lyn's grasp, "but she can never know that, understood? That doesn't leave these walls. Captain's Orders. I know she and I tease each other a bit, but I would rather kill her than even hint that I'm only 99.9% joking. Happy?"

Lyn bounced over and pulled her into a tight hug. "Yep! I don't care how many times I have to repeat it, but communication is part of a healthy relationship. Especially. Ours." She punctuated the last two words with light headbutts.

"Sigurd and I would have gone through a lot less heartache if we had officially ended things instead of letting our relationship peter out," Cain said to everyone's surprise.

"I don't know if Sasaya would have accepted me if I had come clean," Aisha added, "and we'll never get the chance to find out. My other girlfriends were, in hindsight, not the healthiest people to date. Those relationships were as stressful as they were satisfying precisely because we didn't communicate properly."

Alexander snorted. "Not quite the same vein, but Tank and I have a shitload of talking to do if we're gonna get close to figuring things out. And if I decide to keep Hothead from killing her first."

"I've never dated anyone, but I'm sure what they said is right," Theo said, her solemnity bringing smiles to everyone's faces.

Lyn tightened her embrace. "And I have so many exes because even though I was upfront with them about how it's basically impossible for me to be monogamous, they ignored that when things started to get serious. Do you know how many times I've said 'I told you at the beginning that we weren't going to be exclusive' to people who secretly hoped they were The One who would get me to stay with them alone?"

"And you knew from the beginning how it's basically impossible for me to not keep secrets," Cassandra shot back.

"Compartmentalizing and keeping secrets aren't the same and you know it. I don't care that Hode came by. I care about you hiding it from me."

A brief look around the room confirmed that she had no allies. "Fine. I didn't think things through as well as I could have. I'm a bit busy at the moment, in case you haven't noticed."

"That's not an apology."

Cassandra shook herself free. "I wasn't apologizing. I can't change the past, and there's no way I won't do similar things in the future. I understand that you're upset, but I won't say what I don't mean."

"Do you remember when I protected you in Sabaody?" Alexander said to his fried calamari. "Refresh my memory. What was that punishment for?"

"What do you want me to say? I can't change who I am."

"You choose not to change who you are," Aisha said sharply. "There's a difference."

"The freshly exiled Cassandra Negras would beg to differ about me not having changed."

Lyn sighed in exasperation. "And the reason she would beg to differ is because we spoke up when she forgot about us, like we're doing right now, and tried not to do the same thing again. When we want you to say you'll do better, we're not expecting you to not pull this shit ever again. You will mess up plenty of times. We just want you to try to think about how we feel when you hide something like this."

"The others might not care as much," Cain said, "but when they do, their protests tend to be harsher."

"Just because Damien's temperamental doesn't mean-"

"Does Miserie know how you found her?" Aisha cut in, pressing her lips in a firm line when Cassandra remained silent. "We haven't told her because we thought you had."

"What good comes of her knowing?"

Fries scattered everywhere when Theo shot to her feet. "That's it right there! Stop thinking you know what's best for us all the time! Of course, Miserie won't be happy when she finds out, but she'll be a lot less happy if she finds naked pictures of herself three islands from now. I don't even know how she'd react."

"You know we're right," Lyn said. "Give in. I'll reward you when you do."

Cassandra rubbed her face. "I'm still not sorry, but I'll try to do better. Happy?"

Lyn spun her around and kissed her just behind her ear. "Wasn't so hard, was it?"

"I'm going to have Damien keelhaul all of you."

"Are you gonna tell Miserie?" Theo asked.

Cassandra glared at her. "I will."

Lyn sat down and pulled Cassandra onto her lap. "So! What else have you been hiding? We're dying to know!"

"Nothing. Plan's working just fine. Some of them are holding out - you'd think a billion beli bounty would hold more clout - but they'll come to terms with what happens when they cross me."

"Are you gonna kill them?" Aisha frowned at the brightness in Theo's voice and narrowed her eyes further when Cassandra's even gaze fell upon her.

"Some of them. As for the others… some things are worse than de-"

Lyn rested her head on Cassandra's shoulder. "Stop, Cee. That's just petty, and you know it. We're not trying to fight you. I'm hurt that you hid Hode's visit from me. We can leave it at that."

They ate in silence for a while before Cassandra leaned back and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry about how I acted. Just now, to be clear. You're right, Aisha. I choose to be a bitch because I love it. It's easy doing what comes naturally. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in how I can use other people's feelings to my advantage that I forget to consider that people feel those feelings."

"We know," Cain said as Lyn hugged her. "Your absolute relentlessness is one of the things I admire most about you. You just sometimes use it in situations that don't call for it."

"That's how I got my first real friends, after all, by ignoring what they wanted or cared about to accomplish my goal just like I did everybody else."

"Well, that's not how you got us!" Lyn said cheerfully. "Except for Morgan."

"That's because every godsdamn time I ask someone if they'd be interested in joining, I get turned down. Meanwhile, people with skills too useful to dismiss keep barging onto my ship and demanding I take care of them like I'm a godsdamn babysitter." Cassandra cupped Lyn's face and kissed her cheek. "At least one person accepted my offer."

"But you- mmph!"

"At least. One. Person. Accepted. My. Offer," she said, keeping her hand on Lyn's mouth. "I'll make sure that's what the history books say."

\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\

"And exactly for what reason have you gathered us here this evening?" Morgan asked from the cozy cabin's kitchen as Cassandra shut the door behind her.

She tossed her overshirt on the couch. "Venting. The others were bullying me, so I can't exactly vent to them. You guys will have to do."

Oya reclined with her eyes closed as usual. "An ascending tightrope walk above a net of forks and knives is cause for entertainment if the balancing pole randomly gains mass."

"You're not included in that group. I am going to do my best not to lock you outside during this crew bonding time. Something close to my best."

"Tha's what you get fer grabbin' a babblin' old cuntflasher!" Damien said, hanging from a support beam to do his inverted sit-ups. "Coulda made yer life easier just by gettin' a bashed up radio if you want yer ear talked off!"

"Because if one cannot decipher Nawi's cryptic sentences, the information granted by her Sight is useless and maintaining a broken radio is easier than the extensive care she needs to live and move to the best of her abilities." If Cassandra didn't know any better, she could have sworn there was just a hint of pride in Raven's voice.

"Right in one, Blackie! 'Ow's it for you?"

"The likelihood of me understanding her before she dies is slim at best."

The dining table shook as Miserie shifted beneath it. "That is bad for Raven because she is the crew's doctor, but not for Miserie. If Oya said something Miserie needed to know that she did not understand, someone who is not Raven will tell her what Oya meant."

"Eh eh eh. Schools swirl in shining spirals, each individual following a safe tail of an unsafe face."

"Damien, I know this is your first permitted night out of the medbay, but I would really prefer it if you didn't exercise yourself right back in there. Alexander hasn't imbued the ship with enough healing spirits yet. I'll also lock you outside the next time you call my nakama dumb, Oya." The previous night's conversation Cassandra had had with the other half of her crew came to mind. "Now, there's no easy way of saying this, Miserie, but you deserve to know how I found Heavens Above."

"Still not a believer in breaking news gently, I see," Morgan said brusquely.

Cassandra momentarily diverted her attention to him. "You know it wasn't out of malice. I genuinely had forgotten. I was right though, wasn't I? I gotta say, I'm impressed how composed you've been over the last two weeks."

He pressed his lips firmly together.

"Before arriving in Matarm, Cassandra informed Morgan that her sister Helen assassinated his mother," Raven identified after a brief pause. "She explained how he would possibly enter a loop of negative emotions that could physically harm him because of her beauty. Fourteen days ago, Morgan encountered Helen face-to-face."

"And you completed your duties flawlessly afterwards. I guess the dangers of everything involved with Heavens Above was a pretty good distraction, and you haven't been unusually snappy with me before now."

"I would certainly not be acting as calmly as I have been had I encountered Helen before my forced maturation or lengthy incarceration."

"Those who feast at the table of another sometimes offer generously under pretense of sharing said table instead."

Cassandra's gaze lingered on Oya. "So how long are you going to pretend it doesn't bother you?"

"As you have seen, my personal feelings do not interfere with my obligations. My opinions on assassins are not what they were, especially considering much of my distress was due to not knowing whether her death was accidental or planned."

"That didn't answer my question."

"I'm the wrong person to ask about perceiving unknowable future events."

Cassandra sighed. There was no use if he was being stubborn. "Anyway, Miserie, I want you to remember that you're completely safe here. Nobody here will think badly of you, and if Oya says one word wrong about it, I will actually kill her. Got it? Good. To start, there are no mentions of Heavens Above in any document I could find, and I had access to a lot of documents. Do you know what porn, or pornography, is?"

"It sounds a bit familiar, but she can't remember."

"It's media like pictures or videos made for the purpose of sexually arousing people. Do you know what that is?"

The tablecloth shifted with Miserie's nod. "She does."

Cassandra exhaled heavily. "When you were in Heavens Above, you were naked. Someone drew pictures of you, smuggled it down to the Blue Sea, and made copies. A lot of copies. Someone I know recognized you and your tattoo, and I traced everything back to Lustrate."

The table shook increasingly violently as Miserie processed Cassandra's words, and the skyrocketing temperature was no surprise. "I'm not going to say the silver lining is that I found you. I would have found you eventually some other way. It's fucking awful that you were violated like that. I can't imagine what it must be like for-"

Miserie's ear-piercing scream proved her words false. Fear and fury clashed within her, but they were mere ripples on an ocean of anguish. Everything had been taken from her, absolutely everything. The gaping hole where her bodily integrity was supposed to be grew larger than ever, an open wound made completely of nerve endings that seared the very center of her being. Confusion and frustration careened through with a mighty splash. Why her? What had she done to deserve this? What could possibly have happened that warranted all of the suffering she had endured?

Cassandra reached Miserie first, the strength she had accumulated over the years letting her embrace the flailing mermaid without being thrown off. Damien was an instant behind her, the hand on Miserie's head much cooler than the small blue and orange flames fighting for dominance over the rest of his body. Morgan hugged her as well, occasionally wrapping his hand in water to absorb her tears as she wailed.

The maelstrom of negative emotions slowly dwindled as Miserie's feelings of safety and comfort grew like a rising sun. Cassandra kissed Miserie as hard as she could and stroked her hair. "I'm here for you. We all are. We love you and are gonna protect you as much as we can. You don't have to take part in anything you don't want to. All of the ocean's free, and I'm sure Wee Wyntown the wotan - Hode's first mate, in case you forgot - would love to join you."

Miserie's bawling gradually diminished, and she hugged them all back. "She wants- she wants to help her nakama."

"Okay good," Cassandra said with a cheeky smile. "I was gonna wait until afterwards to tell you so you'd 100% want to help out, but Lyn said I couldn't touch her at all until I told you."

Morgan sat back on his heels and winced as Raven dabbed at a burgeoning bruise. "Well, we wouldn't blame you if you want to stop at any time to clear your head."

"Even the most detailed sheet music and immaculately written lyrics cannot hold a candle to a front row seat."

Cassandra laughed and rubbed her nose against Miserie's. "Even though she's Seen the Truth in you, nobody can truly understand how powerful you are until they hear you."

"Th-thanks?" Miserie mumbled.

"Disemboweled intestines may stain tatami mats, but a pen brings worlds to life and countries to ruin."

"But she believes her Sight is still more useful than your voice. Don't worry; that could only be remotely true if she told me what I wanted to know instead of dicking around all the time."

Damien scoffed and resumed his exercise. "Like that maggoty spoogeslurper's eyes matter when shit's goin' down."

"No," Cassandra said before yet another one of their asinine clashes could start. "Not happening right now. I don't even get why you two butt heads. He doesn't understand your insults and wouldn't care if he did, and you don't get tired while fighting for your life, much less running your mouth. If you want, I'll buy you both some recorder snails. You have a better chance riling those up than each other."

"Was that what you meant by venting?" Morgan asked.

Miserie sprang onto Damien, taking the tablecloth and everything on it with her, and Cassandra flopped onto the couch. "Like I said, the others were bullying me. Miserie, how differently would you have reacted if I told you after dealing with Mircalla?"

"Everything happened a long time ago. Waiting a few more days would not have changed anything, so she thinks it wouldn't be a big deal."

Cassandra extended her hands. "Exactly. They were giving me shit for not telling you before now. I don't want to hear anything, Morgan. They also said I should have immediately told Lyn that Hode dropped by."

His brow furrowed. "Well, why didn't you?"

"You know the slight inferiority complex Lyn has about interesting, intelligent people who like playing mind games with me."

Damien burst into laughter. "Righ', not cuz you and Vicky wanna 'ave beaver for breakfast!"

"I can assure you she doesn't. Anyway, I just assumed Lyn would know that if Hode and I were on the same island, there's no way we wouldn't have met as soon as possible."

Morgan's frown deepened. "Wait, back up. Just Hode doesn't?"

"They even compared it to when I fucked up on Reichmann Island by faking my own death! How are those at all the same?"

"So you-"

Cassandra carried on. "It's not even a lie of omission! Do I need to report every single fucking person I see every single fucking day?"

"Not all without hearing care about flutes. Eh eh eh."

"First time I've wholeheartedly agreed with you. I'll let you eat tonight."

Raven appeared on the armrest. "I do not understand why you gave her permission to eat when she already had permission to eat."

Cassandra beamed at her. "The implication is I'm rewarding her for not being an ass without actually rewarding her, because she shouldn't have been an ass in the first place."

It wasn't often her present crew members enjoyed themselves without needing a moderator. Damien and Morgan were obviously at each other's throats - it was unclear if Raven understood her comments more often than not added fuel to the proverbial and literal fire - but their usual combativeness had at least some elements of good-natured ribbing. Oya gleefully inserted herself into the conversation whenever she wasn't slurping her soup so irritatingly loudly it had to be intentional. Miserie made it most of the way through dinner without breaking her utensils, and while her voice wasn't free of her previous pain, it also communicated how much she was enjoying herself.

"Anything else you want to vent about?" Morgan asked as they draped themselves over the couches and chairs to digest their dinner.

Cassandra tugged on the blanket she shared with Miserie. "Why doesn't everybody just do what I tell them to and let me act however I please? Rhetorical question."

"Do you plan on becoming an Empress?"

"Fuck no. Everyone expects one of them to find One Piece first. I know I don't exactly have a low profile, but imagine everyone's reaction when one of the thousands of pirate captains that sail the seas comes out of nowhere to become Pirate Queen."

"Crafting tinfoil regalia is useless without mass genuflection," Oya croaked.

She shrugged. "Every single person on this planet will know my name. Who else can claim that? The mightiest rulers will have no choice but to bow before me, since we'll have gotten strong enough by that time to easily wipe out their countries. Only the absolute pinnacles of Humanity will stand a chance of opposing me, except Damien'll crush them no problem."

Damien never stopped doing airflares. "Bein' the best ain' worth a damn if no cunt wants ta fight you for it!"

"Miserie still wants to wake a leviathan."

Cassandra rubbed Miserie's arm. "I'd be surprised if you didn't. I'll make sure Damien doesn't kill it too fast."

Miserie giggled and adjusted her embrace. "That's what she told Damien too!"

"I will admit, I initially dismissed your dream as a childish fantasy unconnected to reality," Morgan said. "I now understand your intent and motivation, and the world has proven to be far bigger than I previously realized. I may not believe leviathans exist, but I didn't believe Sky Islands existed either and I was certifiably wrong about that. Who's to say what lurks at the bottom of the ocean?"

"Your dream was to become a great leader and return to Winter Isle and unite it under one banner," Raven said.

Morgan stared pensively into his glass of wine as he swirled it. "Correct."

"Eh eh eh." Oya stretched her neck so her head was next to his. "A chipped amethyst unexpectedly floating when glaciers melted may surprise a damaged tiara, but bergs must fully vaporize before peaks can whiten."

Cassandra glanced at him, but kept quiet when he didn't respond. "And what about you? Or are dreams only for people less than a century old?"

Oya's head moved closer to her. "Every sunrise casts phantasmagoric rays. A street act inferior to a circus need not sell hostels to be crushed by a deluge of coins."

"So yes."

"It is my understanding that a dream is more than a goal because the former requires significant emotional investment," Raven droned. "The closest I have is my goal to not lose any Moon Sisters or crewmates and remain a Black Glove Pirate until the crew is disbanded."

"Yahahahar, the sea's got ya by the clit, cumscrubber! Yer bound for the Locker no matter what!"

"Miserie wants to stay with them too, and the crew would not feel right without Raven."

"Nobody could argue otherwise. Someone has to make sure Captain doesn't lose her mind for not knowing everything she possibly could."

"One of two of seven and eleven is too mathematically complex for an apocryphal crater even with a gleaming calculator."

Cassandra beckoned Raven closer, kissed her, and pressed their foreheads together. "I love you so much. We all do. I only hope one day you'll fully understand how much you mean to us."