A/N: Thanks once again for all the support everyone! I think this might have been my longest chapter so far.

A slight WARNING this time, for some tense medical scenes. Nothing really all that bad. Also for those who maybe haven't caught up, there are brief vague spoilers in regards to manga chapters 1043 and 1044. However, I try to make it subtle enough that it doesn't really show anything too blatant, but for those in the know, it's obvious.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up ahead of time.😉

Chapter 4 - Unexpected Guests

The waves rolled wildly as the lone submarine fled Marineford's waters. The Heart Pirates crew were used to this however and piloted the Polar Tang expertly within the rough depths. They attempted to keep the movements of the ship as smooth as possible, knowing that right now, their captain was doing what he did best in the ship's fully equipped emergency operating room.

They had thought their captain had lost his mind by deciding on a whim to enter the Marineford battlefield. They had no stake in this battle of the best!

And yet, as always, they followed his lead wherever he decided to lead them, their trust in him unwavering.

When the captain decided to take in the two injured infamous figures of the First Son of the Sea and the captain of the Strawhats, they had all internally screamed in flabbergasted shock, but externally they didn't even bother to raise an eyebrow.

The Captain was the best doctor there was. And when he decided to take on a patient, no one could stop him from his chosen course.

So right now, as he was working to save lives with the crew's medical team, the rest of the Heart pirates worked to keep the Tang on course and steady.

One wrong move could cost a man his life…

In more ways than one.

Trafalgar D. Water Law had been a practicing surgeon for years now. He is the best he is at what he does.

And yet–

What the heck was this?!

"Keep him steady! Use seastone if you have to, but hold him still!" The man yelled to his assistants.

He had had Sachi and Penguin heading the operation on the ex-warlord Jinbe as it was a rather simple procedure all things considered, which left him with Ikkaku and Clione as his own medical team, while Bepo, Jean Bart, and the others maintained course.

However at this particular moment, perhaps he was in need of some of the more physically impressive members of his crew.

StrawHat had been in dire straits, his mind comatose from psychological shock, his body strained wayyyyy beyond its limits. His blood looked to be a cocktail slurry of chemicals to the point that he was sure the kid would need a completely separate detoxification procedure once they had finished the initial set of surgeries. He could write copious amounts of notes simply to outline all the things that had gone wrong with the kid's body.

To Law, he was what he would classify as—a challenge.

Everything had been going well with the surgery so far until StrawHat's heart stopped.

Well, cardiac arrest on the operating table was nothing he wasn't already familiar with and knew how to handle. And again, considering the drugs that were in Strawhat's system. He was surprised that it hadn't happened sooner. No need for alarm.

He got the kid's heart started once again only for it to go into ventricular defibrillation. Again, nothing Law hadn't dealt with before. Nothing a little counter-shock couldn't fix.

The heart stopped as it was supposed to, but this time it didn't start beating correctly again.

And the lungs also chose this moment to stop functioning as well.

Great.

This called for more desperate measures.

Getting a syringe on the larger side, he chose one of the many emergency medicines he had on the operating tray. With expert aim, he plunged the needle straight through the ribs and into the heart before pushing down.

The response was immediate. The black-haired teen involuntarily gasped and his body arched up before beginning to spasm, going into shock. His lungs once again began to inflate and his heart began to beat. But it wasn't beating in any way that Law could recognize…

Ikkaku was trying to hold onto the patient to stop him from flailing around so much. "Did he start to fibrillate again, Captain?!"

Clione was trying his best to help her, but StrawHat was way stronger than he looked. "I've never heard that kind of heartbeat in my life! Fibrillation or not!"

Law arched an eyebrow as he too had never heard such a sound. The heart was all over the place, its beat as loud as that of a jungle drum, at the weirdest rhythm he had ever seen from the organ. He had hoped he wouldn't have to remove the heart as that could cause a lot of undo stress to someone in StrawHat's condition, even with using his powers. But he had no choice if he was going to save the supernova's life.

"Hold onto him for a second, I'm about to–"

Before he could even go in to remove the recalcitrant organ, the brunet kid's eyes shot open and he gasped aloud once again behind the oxygen mask! The surrounding monitors and medical machinery begin to beep and shriek, going absolutely haywire.

Ikkaku immediately went to them to get a grasp of what was going on. While Law and Clione immediately worked to stabilize the young captain.

"What's going on with the anesthesia, Ikakku!"

"I'm not sure Captain, I'm increasing the levels by half!"

That didn't seem to have any effect. Law had never seen such resistance from a patient before. StrawHat Luffy wasn't conscious, and yet he wasn't unconscious either. His eyes were unseeing, the large brown orbs clouded and rolled back in their sockets, and yet somehow tears began to roll unbidden down his cheeks.

His body resisted the restraints and lurched in uncoordinated reactionary jerks. His heart continued to beat in that otherworldly pattern that felt like it was somehow getting louder.

And then to top it all off, something occurred that in all of Law's 24 years, had never sent a chill up his spine as what happened next.

Behind the oxygen mask, Monkey D. Luffy smiled. And not just an average grin, or even one of the wide blinding smiles that StrawHat was known for. Instead, this Cheshire grin went further than that, almost unsettling in its appearance, rapacious and mischievous in nature.

The fact that the kid still had tears streaming down his face, made the entire visage downright disconcerting.

Steam began to rise from the pirate teen's body, his clothes ruffled, and his black hair seemed to lengthen and change consistency, and was it beginning to turn white ?!

When StrawHat began to cackle a strange chilling laugh that lacked any form of mirth, Law knew that he had enough. He ordered his assistants to keep him steady, using seastone restraints if necessary. As long as he didn't touch them, they wouldn't affect his Room.

He stalked over to the side of the room and threw open the cabinet looking through the many vials of medicine, herbs, and potions there. Finding the one he was looking for. Quickly filling another hypodermic, he jabbed it into the boy's neck, straight into the carotid!

Almost immediately, the boy seized and froze, that eerie laugh getting cut off mid-chortle.

His body slowly settled down one part at a time, the strange changes to his body returning to normal. His mouth relaxed, his eyes fluttering closed once again. His strangely beating heart thankfully moved back to a normal, healthy, steady rate.

His two assistants hadn't been able to keep the body from bucking off the operating table long enough for either of them to go and get the seastone, but that was neither here nor there. He wasn't going to allow his patient to surprise him like that again.

With a few quick movements, StrawHat's limbs were separated from his body. His heart was removed along with the lungs to be worked on independently. The monitors went back to normal and the alarms began to turn off one by one.

Seeing no return of the alarmingly strange behavior from his patient, Law breathed an inward sigh of relief. "Ikakku, I need you to monitor the anesthesia extremely closely this time around. Keep him under and watch his vitals."

The woman nodded in relief before moving slightly over to do as ordered. Clione moved to the main assistant position and began to reattach IVs, monitors, and patches that had been jarred or pulled loose. He looked over as his boss examined the young pirate's heart.

"Uh, what was that Captain? I've never seen anything like that happen before."

Law answered absently as he moved to examine some tears in the pericardium. "Nor have I. I'm assuming it might have to do with StrawHat's devil fruit ability going haywire. Though I had thought he had a simple rubber paramecia ability…"

The brown-haired man looked over the kid whose life they were trying to save, and who seemed like he was way more trouble than he was worth. "Are you sure about this, Captain?"

Law stopped and glanced at him, raising an eyebrow at the question, before looking back down to his work and answering with another question. "What's the rule, Clione?"

The man sighed, having known the answer before he even asked. "That 'once the patient's on the table, they don't leave it unless they're stable or dead.' Got it."

Trafalgar Law might not follow the Hippocratic oath as closely as most doctors. Not at all in many respects. He had killed and tortured and maimed with the best of them.

However, when he had a person in his operating room in whatever form it happened to be, he made a conscious decision on whether to save that person's life or not. Most of the time that decision was decided by cold logic, other times, by the memory of the man who had given his life for his own. However, every so often, a voice older than even that one, one that had regressed to the recesses of his mind after all these years, yet every so often made itself known as loud as the first time he had heard it.

"Listen you two, if you mean to become good doctors, then know this. If you can save the life that's right in front of you, you have a responsibility to do so. We save lives, it's in our blood!"

He had made the decision to save StrawHat's life. He couldn't quite understand why he had made such a choice, but he had made it. What was done was done. StrawHat was going to live if it was the last thing he did.

He smirked as he went and grabbed his next instrument. StrawHat had turned out to be quite an interesting and unusual challenge, and Law had learned long ago, never to back down from a challenge.

Schaden had been resting nervously, letting his body regain its strength. He just couldn't rest easy though. They were still way too close to Marineford, too close to man the sails anyway. Everything seemed quiet, and yet Scha couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right…like he was being watched.

Maybe it was just his hyper-vigilance that was making him so jumpy? Lily was continuing her work on FireFist and would probably be at it for hours more. She couldn't fight when she was in that state, her attention in too many directions at once, which left only him to watch both of their backs until they could complete their disappearing act.

Though on the other hand, he had no idea what they were going to do with Portgas once Lily was done. If she succeeded—and he knew she would—he doubted the man could just hop up and go along his merry way. So that meant hiding out somewhere until he had recovered. But where?

The RA had safe houses that they could use, but they weren't suited to taking care of an infamous pirate who would need protection, bed rest, and who knew how much medical equipment for the foreseeable future. Perhaps maybe their CO or some of the other higher-ups could suggest a place? Or perhaps it would be better to contact the remnants of the Whitebeard pirates to take over once he was stable? But that would require having the info and number to contact them, which they currently didn't have.

Schaden was continuing to think through different ideas when he felt the barometric pressure around him drop. A chill fell on the area and the pit of his stomach dropped as a bad feeling sent shudders throughout his body.

He suddenly couldn't feel the presence of many of the living organisms around him, even Lily's presence felt muffled. What the heck? Why was his observation haki acting up? It was almost like something in the area was blocking it. Had they entered some weird field of power? Not unusual in Paradise, but nothing on their usual maps suggested anything like that in the area. There was no one else on or around the ship and while the skies were cloudy, there was no sign of a coming storm. What was going on?

There was no outward visible sign of danger, but his training told him to be careful at all times. An unprepared agent was a dead agent, and Lily was counting on him. So, as a precaution and as the last line of defense, Schaden arched up and began to spread himself over the entire length of the ship. He left most of the deck clear but covered every entrance and archway into the cabins below. Whatever danger there was would have to go through him before getting to Lily. Now all he could do was wait.

A wind blew strongly, tossing the ship hard against the growing waves. However, the unfamiliar voice that came afterwards made Scha flinch in shock.

"See, I told you. Mist monster."

There was no warning.

One moment the deck was completely empty, the next, three men had landed on the ship and were approaching closer, grim looks on their faces.

And not just any three men, but of course, it had to be the RedHaired Emperor, one of his executives, and Marco the freaking Phoenix.

Scha cursed in frustration and despite his weariness and pain, he stretched himself, even more, closing every gap in his perimeter and solidifying his body.

How had these guys traced them so quickly? He knew that the pirates would discover Portagas' disappearance eventually, but he had hoped that they wouldn't have been able to track him to them!

Sigh…this is so annoying.

If it was up to him, he would have just let them have the commander's body. If they wanted to be in such a hurry, far be it from him to deny them. But Lily…she had taken it on herself to do the impossible and he knew that she needed time to work. She had to multitask on several things at once and she could deal with little to no distractions. He couldn't let them divert her attention and possibly destroy whatever chance she had to help that kid.

There was also probably no chance that anyone of them could understand him enough to hear his explanation of the situation. Sigh, humans…

Well, he could at the very least try. Who knew? Maybe one of them would surprise him.

'Please, I know what you've come for, but if you allow me a chance to explain before you pass any kind of faulty judgments, I think we can avoid doing anything we would regret.'

However, from the looks on the faces of the three men and the way they continued to advance, none of them had comprehended what he had been trying to say, or even seemed to pick up the fact that he was trying to communicate with them at all.

Scha inwardly sighed once again at the trouble it was to talk with a species who had to rely on something as flimsy as vocal cords. He would just have to hold out and hopefully tire the humans out for long enough for Lily to be able to come and tell them what was going on herself.

He wouldn't let them through, not in the current state of mind they were in. He had a pretty good idea of the Phoenix's feeling on the whole matter. The murderous look in his eyes told him enough. As for RedHair and his man, they were always the wild cards of the four emperor factions. They could be tricky. But in any case, he could not let them get past him. Not until they could think rationally and understand what was going on first. He hadn't built up his stores of strength as he would have liked to face this kind of situation, but there was nothing for it but to just try to endure for as long as he could.

Schaden smirked. This would be a battle of attrition from this point on, and Cimmerians just so happened to excel at this type of warfare.

He called out hopefully loud enough for Lily to hear him. 'We've got company, Lil! Angry ones! The sooner that you can come up here and explain what's going on the better!'

Shanks hadn't known what to expect when Juice had said that the thing that had taken Ace's body was a "mist monster", but now that he could actually see what he had been talking about, he could see that it was an apt moniker. The boat Marco had flown them to was a small Marine patrol ship. It would normally not even support a crew of 10. Yet, as far as he could tell, there were only two beings on the craft, so plenty of places to hide. One of those beings was one of the strangest things he'd ever seen, and he'd seen a LOT in his many years traveling the seas.

A large majority of the deck was covered in shadow. Well, not quite a shadow, it was thicker than that. But it wasn't quite corporeal either. It was denser than the misty fogs of the Florian Triangle, a black miasma that had formed a barrier that blocked all access to below deck. Large sparks of electricity seemed to crackle from off the mist. The dark cloud would have seemed like a strange unnatural phenomenon except for the large glowing purple eyes that seemed to be watching them from out of the dark mass.

There was also no sign of the woman nor Ace's body, so he had to assume that both were below. They approached the sentient creature with sure but cautious steps, keeping a clear awareness of the situation and their surroundings.

He had used haki to scramble the awareness of the Marine body snatchers, but it didn't pay to be foolhardy in this kind of situation. As they approached, the wind picked up, whistling through the wouldn't boards of the boat, making them creak and rattle.

Hmm, odd that the Marines wouldn't have kept even their patrol boats in perfect working order.

To be honest, this whole situation seemed rather odd. Marines usually didn't act so independently, at least not at this level. Could it be some other group working in the shadow of the Navy? CP-9 maybe? Or even CP-0? Now, those guys he could see pulling something like this. But to what end? What could they want with Portgas D. Ace's body?

Shanks knew many dark things about this world. Some that he wishes he could forget. He hated to conjure up the debauched and twisted scenarios and designs that the world government and its insidious CP tentacles could have. And yet, he did have to acknowledge that perhaps the body of FireFist Ace, the son of Pirate King would be a hot commodity to someone, and that just pissed him off more.

Well, no more. This ends now.

Since this was mostly his show, he let Marco take the lead. He watched as the man slowly approached going right up to the mist's edge. He stayed a few feet behind while Lime Juice kept a few steps to the side of him, also observing. Marco lazily looked up into the creature's eyes as he spoke, the calmness of his voice at odds with the icy blaze in his steady gaze.

"I've had a really bad day today so I'm going to cut to the chase. Either let me through, or tell whoever you've got back there to give me back my brother's body. I won't ask again."

The mist monster's eyes narrowed. The wind continued to whistle through the creaky floorboards, but no other acknowledgment came from the creature or any other person on the vessel and the barrier stayed in place.

Marco shrugged and then walked forward and without his usual overabundance of caution, he simply pushed against the fog and surprisingly walked right through!

…Only to then walk right out a few feet away.

Marco blinked rapidly in confusion and looked over at them. They could only look blankly back at him, not quite sure what had happened.

What the heck…was that?

He'd watched Marco walk through the barrier, only to reappear out of the barrier again. Not in the same spot, he had entered but at another point in the "wall".

Juice raised an eyebrow, "Interesting…I think it's sorta insta-teleporting you."

As if to prove his point, Marco tried walking back through, and once again he came right back out again, but this time at the ship's bow.

It reminded him of a logia's abilities, the fact that without haki, you could try to hit them all you wanted and would end up phasing right through every single time. The only difference was that perhaps the monster's ability to teleport was factoring into the fact that every time they tried to go in, they ended up exiting somewhere else.

Marco seemed to have also figured that out, as his arms became laced with armament haki, his blue and yellow fire swirling around him.

Walking through once again, this time there was a bit of pause, but ultimately the same effect happened.

Okay…so that didn't work either.

It seems…this was going to take a little more elbow grease.

Schaden watched as the pirates tried to find different ways to try to get through his barrier.

They were of course all doomed to failure.

Even in this weakened state, Scha could make his body into a sort of short-distance portal. It was a bit of an alternate version of the way he could absorb weapons and attacks and launch them back at his enemies. If the humans tried to move through his body at any point, it would just pass them through to another point in his body's axis. They could rush through, punch through, or do whatever they wanted, but it would be like simply passing through air.

It wasn't a catch-all though. To be able to use this ability, he couldn't move from his position once he took it. He also couldn't react offensively, it was basically all defense.

Usually, it worked well in frustrating and wearing his enemies down. He had learned from his practice with the RA that things like armament haki, while it might slow down passage slightly, the overall effect wasn't affected. If he could just keep this up for a while, perhaps the humans would simply give up and sit down and wait.

He had to give it to the pirates though. They weren't idiots. Their actions were methodical. The Phoenix never tried the same ploy twice. Using different kinds of haki combinations, attacks, and fire blasts. The blond RedHair executive seemed to be studying the mythical zoan-user's attempts from all angles, watching every entrance and exit point, doing a few experiments himself with his own limbs, and even shooting at him once (they didn't try to do that again realizing they didn't have any way to tell which way the bullets would exit).

And then there was RedHair himself.

The pirate emperor had yet to make his own attempt. He hadn't even moved from his position, and instead was regarding it all with a keen, discerning eye. He silently observed everything, including Schaden himself for extended swaths of time. It was a little unnerving to have someone actually meet his eyes with such intensity.

They called Dracule Mihawk "Hawkeyes", but right now, it was the mercurial eyes of the master of the Red Force that most resembled that of a bird of prey. What was he plotting? Was he watching for something? Waiting for something?

Well, it seems as if he didn't have to wait any longer to find out. The male finally made his move, walking directly towards him with a quiet confidence in his every step.

Suddenly the scent of ozone seemed to permeate the air, and with it, the wind began to pick up seemingly from nowhere and Scha once again felt the barometric pressure drop and another pressure begin to rise in its place.

The other two pirates had stopped and turned to the RedHair captain. Both seemed to have felt what he felt, and yet didn't seem concerned or surprised. They stood by seemingly waiting.

That strange rising pressure increased to the point where it was beginning to cross the line between uncomfortable and painful. It felt both natural and supernatural at the same time. A raw force that was being created from a central point and spreading out at an exponential rate. What the heck was this? And why did it feel vaguely familiar?

The wind increased aggressively like a mini storm had decided to make its home on the deck of the ship. Schaden's body wasn't so ephemeral that he would get blown apart by such a thing, but he tightened his defense just in case.

The "eye" of the said storm was centered around RedHair Shanks, his black cloak whipping around him violently while his stance stayed relaxed. His hand in his pocket, his eyes like flints. Wisps of black lightning began to arch through the air, crackling in increasing ferocity.

It took him a while to recognize this for what it was. And once he did, Scha wished he could return to his more solid form so that he could bang his head against a rock for how dense he had been.

Of course.

What he was feeling now was simply a much more mature form of the same ability that StrawHat had displayed during the battle.

Some members of the Army had it. Most notably of all of course being their taciturn leader, though it was rare to see Dragon utilize it.

All of the four emperors were said to wield it, and of course, the most proficient of them in it just so happened to be standing in front of him now…

Great.

The Haki of the Supreme King—the rarest of the forms of will, and yet it was manipulated as easy as breathing around the crimson pirate.

Just. Great.

After a moment the young emperor spoke directly to him, "I know you're stopping us for some reason. I don't know why you Marines–if that's who you really are–decided to take Ace's body, and frankly, I don't care. I know you can understand us. I can see that clear as day. Marco said he wasn't going to ask you again, so this time I'm asking you. Open up, or I will make you."

Schaden felt a cold chill at his core.

Crap, they had not only mistaken them for the enemy, but they thought they were probably taking the kid's body for some sick purpose. He knew little of RedHair's abilities, only that he was very powerful, even at a relatively young age, an expert at all forms of haki and master of the sword. There was probably even more to the captain, but he hadn't really taken the time to study or read up on it.

He didn't know how all of that would work against his own powers and biology, but he decided that the best bet would be to stand his ground. He'd warn Lily just in case, though since he didn't get a response from the first one, he doubted that she had heard him.

'Lily! We might have incoming! RedHair pirates and the Phoenix are here. Please hurry up!'

Captain Shanks continued to stand there amidst the wind and lightning, the power of his conqueror's will straining the very integrity of the ship itself.

After waiting a few moments in vain to see if he would acquiesce, the redhead breathed out, closed his eyes, and sighed. "So much trouble…"

Large flashes of red and black lightning danced over the man as he drew his large infamous blade known as Gryphon. The crackling sword rose true, aiming straight for him. Schaden braced himself, not knowing if the impact would go through as easily as any other attack, or if it would slow down and get stuck in some way, similar to when others had used haki.

Before the sword had even connected, Schaden let out a bloodcurdling scream...

Lily continued her work in repairing the blood vessels and the heart. She was using every store of energy Portgas' body had to power and feed all these new cells and keep them working. You couldn't make something from nothing after all. The man's body was beginning to look a bit gaunt and she had to pull at every bit of fat the man had. She was going to have to pull from his muscles soon, she really needed new supplies. Nutrients, IVs, Saline bags, Blood bags, nasogastric tubes, and more medical equipment than she cared to think about, but for now, everything would have to come from her.

As long as she was using her devil fruit power, the cells would do as she commanded, lack of metabolism be damned. But that only meant that FireFist would last only as long as she could last. She'd need food, water, and rest to keep this up.

Oh well, let's think about that later.

For now, she was about halfway there to having his heart and lungs complete. She had foregone removing any more shattered bone and damaged tissue in an effort to concentrate wholly on the task. Having cleared out most of the burned tissue on FireFist's heart, she had seen that his right atrium was gone and his left ventricle had also been majorly damaged, but the man's backbone, ribs, and lungs had minutely slowed the attack down, at least to the point where it hadn't injured the heart as much as she had initially thought.

It was probably the reason the guy hadn't just been killed immediately and had even been able to offer some last words to his young brother.

She just had to—

Lily felt the boat sway dangerously and moved to keep everything, including her patient steady. Glancing up, she sighed and hoped that they weren't getting into any kind of horrible weather system. That's the last thing she needed.

She guessed that Schaden would take care of it. She had heard him yell down something before, and though she hadn't heard what he had said, she guessed that he had rested up faster than she had thought. Perhaps the teleporting wasn't as bad this time as she initially assumed. She wasn't quite all that sure about the full-term effects on the Cimmerian's biology over time.

Oh well, she'd leave that up to him.

Moving her fingers, with one hand she continued her work on the heart. With the other, the inferior lobes of both lungs. Even while she did that, she kept a watchful eye on the other systems that she now had control of, making sure they continued as commanded. Building upon building, fixing puzzle piece after puzzle piece until the whole high-powered, complex machine that was the human body could once again be reassembled.

She was so completely absorbed in her endeavor. The entirety of her surroundings had faded far, far into the background. Nothing pierced through that singular focus of simply her and the cells under her command. A queen bee and her absolute control over her many subjects...

So perhaps it was understandable that she didn't realize something was wrong until it was too late…

The first indicator that broke through her focus was a sudden enormous pressure bearing down on her in the room.

The second was the searing hot feeling as if a raw electric current had run straight through her, and she was suddenly paralyzed. Her body was no longer able to move.

Ah! No…!

Her concentration was broken, and with it, her connection!

The commander's cells all shuttering to a halt in response to the sudden absence of her direction, felt almost like the screeching of the sea train's wheels when one puts on the brakes.

And then the third indicator was the icy touch of a razor-sharp blade at her throat.

An unexpected cold voice spoke from behind her, its cadence abrasive and low.

"What…the… hell are you doing to him?"