A/N: Holy wah I had so much trouble with this chapter! Many apologies, and hopefully this won't give me that much trouble in the future. Fingers crossed!

Thirteen

Antonia stumbled as she found herself transported to a rooftop in an instant, falling into what seemed like someone's mattresses that had been airing out. She barely had the chance to get back to her feet before she heard a large explosion overhead and screams from below.

"Are you alright?!" Antonia felt a gentle pair of hands support her as she stood, skin cold against hers. She looked and saw it was Trafalgar; it wasn't clear if he was about to break or if he thought she would instead.

"Listen, I—!" She tried to get half an apology out—something that would propose a temporary truce between them—and she was cut off by him pulling her close in a hug. There was something about it that felt… right… that felt like it was almost natural. She lifted her arms and cautiously hugged him back, action uneasy and limp.

"Ik leafd du, zus," he murmured in her ear, voice threatening to crack. He then held her at arm's length and held her face, concern furrowing his brow. "Zus? Begrypst je…?"

"She doesn't speak it anymore!" Baby 5 groaned in exasperation as she landed on the roof. Her feet stopped being rockets and she touched down on the roof, running up to her siblings just long enough to grab Antonia and begin pulling her towards where a ladder was resting on the edge of the roof. "Come on! It looks like Trebol just made a wall of mucus to block my attack—we have to use the time we got!"

"What happened?" Antonia asked, everything else forgotten. "Why am I down here?!"

"My Devil Fruit allows me to manipulate everything within a given space—a Room," Trafalgar said. He held open his hand and a blue sphere appeared around them. After snapping his fingers, Antonia found that they were now on the ground, having been moved almost instantaneous as before. "I ate the Op-Op Fruit—I'm a Modification Human—it's the perfect ability for a doctor. A pirate's uses all pale in comparison."

"…but you are a pirate," she noted.

"A doctor first, like our parents," he claimed. "Then again, some of the things the Celestials hate the most are healing and those under them receiving care before them; I'm sure I'd turn pirate even if I wasn't hunted for our heritage."

"Yeah, about that…"

"We have to go!" Baby 5 ordered through grit teeth. She pulled on Trafalgar and Antonia's wrists, urging them away from the palace. They turned the corner and came across some folks who were picking up things that had dropped from buildings and stands thanks to the force of the explosion, the lot brightening when they saw members of the Family.

"Princess Antonia! Lady Cinca! What was that?"

"Yes, is the palace alright?"

"Who is this young man?"

"More importantly: are both of you okay?"

"You have to get out of here!" Baby 5 insisted. One of the older citizens stared at Trafalgar, then at Antonia, and then at Baby 5.

"What is going on?" she wondered. "I did not know the King had a nephew…"

"ROOM!"

Antonia felt the warm sensation again, then the tug-tug-tug of going through Trafalgar's Chambers ability. By the time she was reoriented to the world around her, Trafalgar and Baby 5 both were pulling her into an empty house, out of sight from everyone. Soldiers passed by the side of the building and the older two relaxed only when they could no longer hear the clanging of their armor.

"Either one of you want to tell me what's going on?!" she snapped. Trafalgar and Baby 5 looked at one another and grimaced.

"I've been trying to tell you but you won't listen," he replied frankly.

"Yeah," Baby 5 said with a heavy exhale, "he has. We have. I don't even know all what he's been telling you, but I can almost guarantee it's true."

"So… if what you're saying is true, then I'm some person named Lami who isn't even related to Uncle Doffy, let alone his niece?" Antonia scoffed. When Baby 5's expression did not change, she frowned. "You never told me why…?"

"You wouldn't've believed me for a moment, not to mention the fact it would put both of us in danger," Baby 5 said. "I was trapped."

"…and you, Mister Tall, Tan, and Tattoos—if you're my brother, where the fuck have you been?"

"Working towards getting here, I can assure you," Trafalgar replied. He wasn't looking at either of the others, contemplating something as his eyes slipped out of focus. "Now we just have to figure out how to get your memory back… maybe with some stimulation using old items you don't normally see… or possibly reverse whatever was done…"

"Devil Fruit," Baby 5 chimed in. "I don't know which one it was or what it did exactly, but Doflamingo had someone use their Devil Fruit powers on her."

"Then maybe we can find whomever it was…?"

"Can't—he made sure Lami-chan's memories were gone, then blasted the lady's brains all over the side of the infirmary and sold the resulting Devil Fruit."

"How do you…?" Antonia stared at Baby 5 incredulously, causing the other woman to shrug.

"I should know; I scrubbed the wall."

Antonia's face crinkled in a mixture of disgust and horror. "Uncle Doffy wouldn't…"

"Oh, yeah he did." Baby 5 also tried to think, though it was more of a pout than anything. "I wish we were closer to the palace still—then we could get the photos I've saved."

"You mean these…?" Antonia reached into her cloak pocket and pulled out the photos, handing them to Baby 5. "I knew you kept everything from before Dressrosa, so I went looking around in our old room. If there was anything, it would have been—hey, are you alright…?" She cut herself off as she noticed Trafalgar staring at one of the photographs, his eyes glassy with tears and his hand hiding his mouth.

"You kept these…?" he marveled, voice cracking.

"Well, yeah…" Baby 5 said. "Why wouldn't I?"

Instead of answering, Trafalgar bit his lower lip and turned around, leaning on the wall for support as he tried to not cry between his deep, measured breaths. Baby 5 and Antonia looked at one another before the former went over to him and rubbed his back in an effort to calm him.

"Hey, Law-nii, come on, don't shut down on us now," Baby 5 said in the gentlest tone she could manage. "I know today's been a lot, but there will be time for this when Doflamingo's dead."

"Bee… I…"

"Hey, don't cry; you needed me, and now I'm here. Simple as that."

Antonia watched awkwardly as Trafalgar folded himself into a hunch so that he could sob shakily into Baby 5's shoulder. She watched them hug—her best friend and this familiar stranger—and still felt like there was a missing piece to the puzzle. Something about it was wrong and she wasn't sure as to what.

"If…" she started hesitantly, "…if I am Lami like you say I am… if these photos are proof I'm missing something… and they're not doing anything to fix it…" Realization spread across her face. "I need to unlock my heart."

"…you what…? Baby 5 asked, crinkling her nose.

"Before I went back to the palace and found these," Antonia said, taking the photos back, "I ran to Flower Hill to think alone. Except I wasn't alone. Thunder Soldier found me."

"…and you didn't try to kill him…?"

"Thunder Soldier…?" Trafalgar pretended he was not wiping tears away with his sleeves. "Who is that?"

"This toy that we've been trying to catch for ten years," Antonia explained. "There was something… weird about the conversation, like I was talking to someone's patient dad and not a wanted criminal. He told me to unlock my heart—to look inside it with Haki—but I don't know of a technique like that."

"The correct amount of Armament Haki can allow someone to touch a Logia," Trafalgar noted. "It's probably related to that. Did Soldier-ya give you any other clues?"

"No, but he knew about you, so I don't know what all was really happening." She licked her lips idly as she thought. "I can use Armament Haki, but I'm not trying to punch an entirely different Warlord's face in… this isn't something we need to be tangible…"

"Maybe it is…?" Baby 5 suggested. Trafalgar waved it off.

"She's talking about the emotional heart, not the physical; it's not a thing we can give weight and mass in order to manipulate like sand."

"We don't know that!"

"Bee, if we get out of this alive, I have a whole ship full of single men I need to introduce you to."

"Why are you still such a sarcastic asshole after all this time?!"

"Behehehehe… maybe if he learned some manners…"

The trio looked towards the door and saw Trebol standing there, Sugar peeking out from behind his coat. All five were at a stand-still, knowing that if one made a move then the other four would act, and that none of it would be pretty.

"It's bad enough we've got your lousy allies after us," Sugar frowned. She held up something and scowled. "Look familiar?"

"It's… a grape…?" Antonia said, squinting at the object. "You're always eating grapes…"

"Maybe they don't know," Trebol mused.

"I guess it won't matter soon," Sugar replied. She put the object in her dress pocket and steadied herself. "Contract."

"ROOM."

A flash of blue light and Trafalgar, Baby 5, and Antonia were outside, replaced by pebbles from the pavement. In the distance, a child screeched angrily and older two siblings pulled the latter along.

They needed to get out of there. Immediately.

Meanwhile, in another part of Dressrosa, Viola was very much running on her last nerves when it came to the young man she was trying to guide through the city. He was a good kid, and a strong fighter, so it was not like she was regretting her choice, but at the same time…

"Where's this Mingo guy?" Luffy wondered as he looked around. Viola took a deep breath and repressed the urge to scream.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," she reminded him. "Last reports have him in the palace."

"…and where's that…?"

"The complete opposite direction from where we're going."

"Well that's silly. Why aren't we doing that?"

"You saw a beetle."

"Oh yeah! That's right! I wonder where it went…?"

"I thought you wanted to help take down Doflamingo." Viola frowned as she watched Luffy approach a bug, the lad poking at it while grinning madly.

"Well, yeah, I wanna punch him real bad, but I was thinking and something's telling me that I can't do that quite yet." Luffy picked up the beetle and watched as its legs struggled in the air. "Torao and Gun Lady and her sister need to do something first. Then I can kick Mingo's ass."

"…and what," Viola grit through her teeth, "might that be?"

"Shishishishi… I dunno! They're the ones that gotta figure that out!"

Forget screaming; Viola was ready to murder something.

Law kept his Room open as the trio ran through the streets, hoping to keep as much distance between his sisters and Trebol and Sugar as possible. He felt sick to his stomach as they ran; having cried more within the past six hours than he had the past six months (at least!) probably had something to do with it. Every so often he replaced them with others from further away, catapulting them farther and farther from danger.

"Hold on, I think I'm gonna be sick," Antonia said after the ninth time they had been shambled through the city. She stumbled towards a potted hedge and vomited into it, feeling about as green as the leaves lining the small, empty park.

"It's not that bad," Baby 5 groaned. "We need to get moving!"

"…and where are we even going?!" Antonia sniped, still bracing herself on the edge of the planter.

"We're going somewhere safe where we can experiment with this mental block of yours for more than five minutes without threat," Law explained. "If we get to the harbor we can take a ship out a ways and…"

"…and leave your allies?" Baby 5 asked.

"They're allies, not friends; they're only useful until they're not."

"I get the feeling that's not up to you," Baby 5 warned. Law rolled his eyes and touched Antonia's shoulder.

"We have to get going—we might be able to take Trebol and Sugar physically, but they're too big of wild cards to just mess with. We have to keep moving."

"Easy for you to say—you're actually used to this."

"That doesn't matter; if we don't keep moving, we won't survive."

"Then let me offer some assistance." The siblings looked and saw Thunder Soldier standing there along with… wait… were those fairies…? "It will be tricky, but the Tontattas and I have a base nearby. You can recover there."

"That at least sounds like a plan that's easier on my guts," Antonia grunted.

"Then come on; let's go," Baby 5 decided. Law scoffed in disapproval, causing her to glare at him. "What, you have a better idea? We'll be dragging her along at this rate!"

"Who even is this?!"

"I am Thunder Solider," the Toy replied. "There is more to me than you realize."

"You're the one that they've been trying to catch for ten years? Why should we trust you?"

"That's not the biggest risk you've taken today."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Is this really the time to be asking shit like that, Law-nii?!" Baby 5 scolded.

"I thought we didn't have time to dawdle," Antonia reminded them.

"We don't, but that—!" Baby 5 was cut off by a glob of… something knocking her over and gluing her to the ground. Law was barely able to turn and he was attacked as well, his Room dropping as he was unable to utilize his hands. Antonia touched the globs and shivered—mucus.

"Behehehehe… can't have too many interlopers, can we?"

Antonia hissed as she spun around and unsheathed her knife—there was Trebol in all his drippiness, grinning as his fellow Elite Officer squared up against him.

"What's the matter, Corazón? Why that look?"

"I'm not in the mood for pleasantries, Trebol," she spat. "Don't think I haven't caught on to the fact you'd rather have me out of the way."

"True, but if it were up to me, I would have never let that Tontatta cure you." He sucked up some snot through his nose. "Too much a liability… just like they are."

"Fuck you," she fired back. "I'm not letting you get to them."

"I don't think you have a choice in the matter," he warned her. She narrowed her eyes in a glare, only for them to widen again in a gasp.

Where was Sugar?!

Just then, movement caught Antonia out of the corner of her eye—there was Sugar, coming after her with her hood down and hands outstretched. Where had she been hiding?! One passing brush of her skin would mean that it was finished completely. No matter what.

"I shall not allow it," Thunder Solider said defiantly. He moved to between Antonia and Sugar, the latter pushing him out of the way.

"We'll deal with you later," she said, the words sending a chill down the siblings' spines.

She wasn't even concerned with Thunder Soldier—the Family's biggest threat to existence.

This was not good.

Sugar's hand was nearly touching her and Antonia felt the overwhelming sense of dread close tight around her chest. She did not want to be a Toy, to have everyone forget her… she knew that was what happened to Sugar's victims. Uncle Doffy had once told her they were only convicted criminals… though with the way she was currently being targeted, it felt as though that was far from the case…

Just then, amongst the cries of Nia, Lami, and Princeseta, Antonia remembered what Thunder Soldier had told her what felt now like ages ago, what she had talked to Baby 5 and Law about. She needed to use Haki to unlock her heart and, maybe, she could use it to prevent herself from being locked inside a Toy's body. Concentrating everything she could, she surrounded her body with Haki, it crackling in the air as it did when she tried using it to escape the palace balcony. This time, however, she put in more than that effort—everything she possibly could as she reached deep, deep down—feeling her Haki brush against Sugar's ability, the two forces meeting before their bodies even touched.

Something exploded and Antonia's vision went white.