A/N: Gotta love when I get to uncork some good writing flow, because this chapter was giving me a hell of a time let me tell you.

Eleven

Trebol stared at the Den Den in his hand and bristled—during the entire time he had been with the Young Master, rarely did he disagree with him. In fact, he could probably count occasions with just his nostrils. This time, however, it was different.

"It's about time we turned that child into a toy," he sniffled. He glanced over at Sugar, who was eating grapes on the other side of the room. "You've been wanting that for some time now, haven't you?"

"You're gross," she sneered. He huffed at that.

"Come on—don't tell me you've never wanted to turn the Young Master's 'niece' into a lovely little toy." He watched as her gaze shifted off to the side; ha, caught. "We turn her now and the Young Master has nothing to be angry over, you will get your revenge for Monet, and all the while we will concentrate everything we have on making Trafalgar pay. Sound agreeable?"

Sugar made a small noise as she stared at the grapes on her fingers.

"Think about it," he continued, "we can make them all suffer at the same time—Antonia for giving you the cold shoulder, Baby 5 for keeping her away, and Trafalgar for overshadowing everything you've done in the Young Master's eyes without even being here. I think it sounds like an excellent plan."

Sugar popped a grape into her mouth and considered it—revenge was a dish best served maliciously, after all.

Off in an alleyway within the labyrinthine streets of Dressrosa, Law and Baby 5 sat huddled together out of sight as the former worked on the latter's arm. He was doing his best to separate the seastone bar from her muscles and tendons, but it was proving difficult. Anytime he tried to touch it, it zapped the Room shut and she twitched in pain.

"Hold still," he griped as another Room fizzled out. "I can't touch it as much as you can."

"It's a bit difficult considering you have my arm and shoulder in your lap," she huffed. She watched as he opened another small Room and tried to access the seastone. "Is your bedside manner always this terse?"

"I don't know—ask the pirates whose hearts I gave to the Marines so I could get close enough to Doflamingo to kill him," he replied. "They might be able to shed some light on the situation."

"Oh, so it's true," she said, scrunching her face as he attempted another Room. "I thought that was just something the creep said to unnerve me. You have a lot of explaining to do."

"Here I was going to say the same thing, considering what I'm pulling out of your shoulder and the fact our kid sister thinks she's literally a completely different person," Law hissed. Baby 5 simply scoffed at that.

"I'm the one who needs to explain?! I've only been the one holding this entire thing together for thirteen years! All while you were off playing pirate!"

"Bee!"

"Why didn't you come for us?" she sniped. At that, his face got red.

"I did! By the time I got there, Doflamingo had already moved into the Grand Line!"

"You knew where Spider Miles was! Why didn't you come along sooner?!"

"…because I needed to get stronger and train, or else that I wouldn't've had a chance at getting you and Lami out, even with a sneak-attack!" Bickering was definitely something he did not miss; he got it similar from Penguin and Shachi, but nothing quite compared to a sparring match with Baby 5. She pouted, the expression mentally sending Law back in time to when it was three little kids against the world. "The last thing I wanted to do was fall in with Doflamingo again because I was stupid enough to go in unprepared and half-cocked!"

"…and you didn't think that there was even the slightest benefit to letting us know you were alive?!"

"…and let that asshole know too?! Ha—now I see that the risks were really outweighing the benefits." He grew quiet for a moment before looking Baby 5 directly in the eyes. "Whatever he did to Lami, he could have done to me."

Her chest felt tight—oh… an ability like his… with the terror that happened to their sister…

"Finding out everyone moved out of Spider Miles before I could get there broke me, Bee," he whispered. He licked his lips in thought before closing his eyes and sighing. "Thinking that Lami was going to be buried in a foreign sea… that you were the only thing I had left from before and you were still so far away… if it weren't for my crew, I don't know what I would have done to myself."

"Where are they?" she wondered quietly. "I'd like to meet them."

"Not here—Doflamingo's too dangerous for the likes of them." He was able to push a little more out the way of the seastone before the Room fell again—almost had it. "They love me like a brother, but… they're strong like the North, not strong like the New World. If anything happened to them, I'd never forgive myself."

"A bunch of fussers?" she scoffed. "You got a crew of Giollas?"

"No… I got a crew of yous," Law admitted. He held out Baby 5's arm towards her and nodded. "Take it out while I've got the Room up and at least it won't hurt." She did, holding the seastone nail between her fingers as she watched him continue to work on the wound.

"…a crew of mes…?"

"They do annoying shit like make sure I eat and shower regularly and not get too far into my own thoughts," he explained. "Some days it doesn't feel like I have a crew, but a ship full of babysitters."

"Now I really need to meet them," she smirked. Law finished securing the bandage on Baby 5's shoulder and replaced her arm, letting the Room drop on purpose this time. She flexed her muscles and could feel a burning sensation where the seastone sat, but nothing more than if her shoulder muscles somehow had a light sunburn. "I need to apologize for having them take care of your ass for so long."

"Honestly, it's like you never left." He stood and gave her a boost up to her feet. "How do you feel now?" She threw the nail away and, with it no longer touching her skin, felt nausea nearly overtake her.

"Nasty," she admitted.

"That's Seastone Sickness—that wears off quick enough," he assured. "What about your Devil Fruit?"

Baby 5 took a deep breath and swiped her hand to the side, it becoming a sword as it arched. Law's face lit up in absolute delight.

Now they were talking.

Moving carefully, Antonia took advantage of the confusion going on in Dressrosa to head back to the palace. There was such a commotion being caused by pirates and escaped gladiators that it was relatively easy to slip back largely unnoticed. She avoided guards and Family alike, instead heading towards the room that she shared with Baby 5 when her uncle first came to power. It was still where they stayed sometimes, when the rest of the Family was out on missions and it happened that they were left to their own devices. Even Violet was known to stay with them, even though Antonia could tell it made her sad somehow. She pushed that thought from her mind—what she needed to do was find a specific box now that there was no one around to distract her.

If there were any answers to find, it would be in that box.

Throwing open a wardrobe, Antonia began digging into the cache of old clothes and outgrown books in search for the box. When she couldn't find it, she went into another wardrobe; nothing. She threw a pile of blankets from the chest by the window and began to tear that apart…

…ah-ha! The young woman pulled one of Giolla's old shoeboxes from the bottom of the chest and opened it, shuffling through the contents. There was some old coins, a hair clip, papers covered in a child's tidy block printing—Baby 5 had been obsessed with this weird language for a bit—some animal figurines… there! Sitting at the bottom of the box was a thick envelope, something which she never felt the need to look in until that very moment. She placed the box down on the bed and opened the envelope, sliding its contents out.

What poured out onto the bedspread was mostly what Antonia expected: varying loose papers and photographs were now jumbled together, waiting to be sorted through. She picked up what was likely the original of one she had in her own room, one with her and her father… except… there was something odd about it. Everything was the same except for the fact there were… patches…? Yes, there were patches on her skin and streaks in her hair, all white. She touched her cheek where one was in the photo; a sinking feeling set in telling her that what she saw had not been smooth and soft, but disturbingly firm and painful.

Going through some of the other photos, Antonia discovered that she indeed looked like the same in all of them, some with Baby 5 and some with Buffalo and even Dellinger. She didn't remember ever having looked like that—what was going on…?

Then, she picked up a photo that had been turned around in the shuffle to look at it, only for her eyes to go wide. It was of her and her father, but another kid was in it as well. She was holding the camera as she and her father grinned widely, with a sullen boy with similar patches being kept in frame by the Second Corazón's tight grip…

…a boy who by all accounts looked disturbingly like Trafalgar.

Panicking, Antonia brought the photos together and began shuffling through them. Sure enough, the boy wasn't in many of the photos, but was in more than a few, including some with her and Baby 5. How could this stranger be in images of her childhood and yet not in her memories of it? Actually, he was in a lot of the photographs, now that she thought about it…

This was ridiculous; why was there all this stuff hiding in the box of things Baby 5 kept from Spider Miles? It was suspicious—why was all of this hidden away? Why did Baby 5 not bring it out to show her? Why didn't Violet, for that matter? She put most of the stack of photographs in her cloak pocket and began to look through the papers, seeing if there was something else. There was a diary hidden in there, as well as a thick envelope addressed to the World Economic Journal in a child's attempt at copperplate handwriting. She eased open the unsealed flap and slid the contents out, reading the letter.

'Dear World Economic Journal,

'My name is Trafalgar D. Water Lami. If you get this, it means I'm dead.'

Antonia dropped the paper as though it had caught on fire. She stared at it for a moment before gingerly picking it back up, careful as though it would break at the slightest mishap. A glance at the date told her it was written eleven years prior… right before they made the move to Dressrosa…

'My name is Trafalgar D. Water Lami. If you get this, it means I'm dead. I don't know if my brother Law is still alive, but our sister is. She mailed this for me. She's our sister because she's our best friend. And she's not dying like I am.

'I was born in Flevance. I now live in Spider Miles, but won't for long. The disease that killed my home was not contagous it was poison. My parents were doctors before they died. They said it was poison from Amber Lead. It's not bad in little amounts but it's bad over a long period of time. There was so much in Flevance when I was born that everyone got sick at the same time. Soldiers killed my mom and dad and grandparents and neighbors and everyone else because someone in the goverment lied saying it was something like a deadly flu. It sounds crazy but it's true. I'm only alive now because my brother and I escaped and he found a way to take some of the poison out of me. We found our sister after we escaped. She's not from Flevance. She's still healthy. She said I should write this all down for you because we don't know if our brother still can.'

Antonia kept going through the letter, reading through the horrors that were written on the page. The child described war in a way she only knew about in her nightmares and places she visited in daydreams. There was something eerily familiar about all of it, to the point she wanted to stop reading more than once. Yet she kept going, knowing that she needed to finish it.

'Since you publish Sora, Warrior of the Sea, Law and I thought that sending this to you would be our best bet at having our story told,' it said. 'I included a picture of me and brother and sister. You can tell which is which based on the Amber Lead spots. I don't know where our brother is anymore and I think he might be dead. My dream is to find him again and not let Flevance die. That way, if I can do one thing, I don't feel so bad about failing at the other.

'Thank you for reading,

'Sincerely,

'Trafalgar D. Water Lami, Age 11'

Eleven…? Antonia looked at the photo that was enclosed and studied it carefully. It was of her and Baby 5 alongside the boy who looked like Trafalgar. If the letter had been written when it was dated, it would have meant she was nine years old. What did it all mean?

"What…what did he doto you…? He took your memories, he took your personality, he took two whole years of your life away…"

That was right… he had said that, hadn't he? Nothing about it made sense; despite the fact she had gone through the box looking for answers, she was only presented with more questions.

"That doesn't belong to you."

Antonia looked up and dropped the letter on the bedspread at the shock. Her Observation Haki hadn't been alert enough, because Trebol and Sugar were now standing there on the other side of the bed. She stepped backwards; the closer she could be to the balcony the better.

"It doesn't belong to you either," she replied.

"The Young Master is looking for you," Sugar stated. "He's always looking for you."

"I'm starting to wonder why," Antonia replied. She watched as the other officers walked to her side of the bed, keeping their sights on her as she backed away. "One Elite Officer to another, Trebol: what's really going on?"

"We're just doing what we all swore to do, Corazón," he replied. "The Young Master's plans are in jeopardy and we're getting ready to make sure he never has to worry about them again."

"Mmm… wrong…" Sugar frowned.

"Okay, sure, we should have been able to do this to your predecessor so that the brat won't have a reason to come after him at all, but we'll make do with what we got…"

Knowing her opportunity was about to end, Antonia guarded her face with her cloak and burst through the glass balcony door, running towards the edge of the platform. She used the railing to catapult herself out over the main of Dressrosa, not caring about the dangers below. Taking a deep breath as she slowed to the height of her jump, she concentrated all her Armament Haki towards the soles of her feet and felt the air crackle around her.

Okay, so she was shit at Rokushiki, but she honestly had the next best thing.

Jumping from foot to foot in long strides, Antonia began to run on the air, making her way further over Dressrosa as she began her descent. At the rate she was going, she was going to be over Corrodia by the time she hit a roof, which was honestly all the better. Then she could concentrate on finding Baby 5 and…

Suddenly, Antonia felt something sticky wrap around her as she stopped. She turned her head and saw Trebol standing on the balcony, with Sugar atop the railing.

Fuck!

She struggled against the mucus as it began to pull her back in, closer and closer to Sugar's outstretched arm. As she went towards the other Officers, she felt the slight crackle of something surround her, warm and comforting as a hug, before she heard a man's voice, angry and vengeful and not at all ready to entertain fools.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR SISTER!"

Something tugged at her just behind her navel and then all hell broke loose.