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nehswritesstuffs · 1 year

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banish every gaslight; let clarity shine - Part 8

Okay, I'm back! Hope everyone's ready to cry. :D

Part 1 [FFN/AO3] - Part 2 [FFN/AO3] - Part 3 [FFN/AO3] - Part 4 [FFN/AO3] - Part 5 [FFN/AO3] - Part 6 [FFN/AO3] - Part 7 [FFN/AO3]

As one sibling back home tries to make the best of things, the other two realize exactly what lengths Cora-san is willing to go for them. [3433 words; AU where there is a Third Corazón, whose existence makes Law’s life hell]

Baby 5 hid the Den Den Mushi in her hoodie as she made her way out of headquarters and over to the garbage dump. Although it was her job to stay behind that time, she wanted to make sure there was nothing that could watch or listen to her, just in case. It was really one of Law’s hoodies that she was wearing, her having started to wear them with him not around to protest. She found a good spot and took the snail out, giving it a piece of lettuce before making the call.

“Crackers.” The snail made the person on the other end look so tired. Why was he so tired?

“Cookies,” Baby 5 said. A moment’s pause and the snail peered at her.

“A… child…?”

“Um… I don’t know who you are, but Cora-san told me to call you,” she explained. “He said he needs me to tell you whenever the Young Master leaves Spider Miles. He left.”

“Cora-san…?”

“Yeah.” Her hands trembled as she held the snail in one hand and the receiver in the other. “I’m not allowed to ask questions. I’m not allowed to lie to you. I’m not allowed to let the others know I call you.”

The man—Baby 5 knew it was a man on the other end, because he sounded like Lao G if he was nicer and more tired—regarded this carefully. “Do you know who I am? Any idea?”

“I told you: no—Cora-san just told me to do this while he helps my brother and sister.”

“Does he have a snail I can contact him on?”

“No, sir. This was his only one. He said he’ll call you when he can.”

“Sounds like Rosi, alright.” The man gave a weak chuckle. “You are very brave, child. He chose well when he gave you this job.” He seemed to sigh heavily and there was the sound of papers shuffling. “Due to the unofficial shift in protocol, I am not going to ask your name. I shall refer to you as Child, and you can refer to me as Grandfather. Just keep doing this, alright? I am proud of you, Child.”

“Thank you, Grandfather.”

Baby 5 gave the man on the other end of the line the course of the Numancia Flamingo to the best of her ability before the line cut. The snail fell asleep and she held it close to her chest, trying to keep it warm as she went back to Headquarters.

What sort of people was Cora-san talking to, and why did they need that information? She put the snail back in its habitat before she went back to cleaning, wanting to make sure everything was nice and neat and orderly for the others to get back. They needed to not suspect anything.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Months began to creep by and hospitals continued to burn, while information continued to be passed along. Baby 5 made it a habit of staying behind at the base when the rest of the Family was on missions, wrapped in her brother’s sweatshirts during the day and holding her sister’s stuffed animals at night. She felt the eyes of the other Family members as they would come home to a spotless headquarters and somehow knew their suspicions. Her being alone was not normal, so why was she alone so much now? Did they know she searched through their things for information? How long would it be before they discovered that Child was passing information to Grandfather, and that it was happening via Cora-san’s old transponder snail? What would it take for her cover to be blown and what would happen when it finally happened? Would they know it was all in the name of protecting her siblings?

There was only one way to find out, unfortunately.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

[CLASSIFIED]

Official Transcript of Military Den Den Communications – Operation: FALLEN DRAGON – File Number 01746.100059.1511.00234

Listen: I don’t have much time. There’s these five kids in Doffy’s group. Two of them are likely beyond help, but the middle three… no matter what, I need them to be saved. Whatever happens to me, you have to sa…

[INDECIPHERABLE]

She’s the one I gave the snail.

[INDECIPHERABLE]

…I know about [REDACTED] and what [REDACTED] did! Did you really think that was [REDACTED]

[INDECIPHERABLE]

Remember… it’s two girls and a boy. Raise them if I’m not there to do it. Please. I fear what Doffy will do to them if this all is blown to hell.

[INDECIPHERABLE]

They deserve so much more than this. We both know it.

[END COMMUNICATION]

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was very cold as Law and Lami sat huddled together on what seemed like a deserted island, waiting in the small alcove where Cora-san had told them to stay while he went somewhere. Law tried to wrap his cloak around his sister as well as himself and failed at getting more than half of her in the extra fabric.

“What do you think he’s doing?” she shivered. He tucked her head underneath his chin as coughs began to wrack her body.

“Hard saying,” he lied. He knew exactly what Cora-san was doing: trying to raid the pirate base that was on the other side of the island. Their adult had trusted him with the information in case anything went sour, because someone needed to get Lami out of there if the need arose. He had even left them with a knife, despite the fact he hoped they didn’t need to use it. “He better not be too long.”

“I want Bee-nee,” Lami sniffled. She rubbed her face in her brother’s shoulder and tried not to cry. “Why couldn’t Bee-nee come along?”

“It would be too much for Cora-san to travel with all three of us, remember?” Law said. He hugged his baby sister a bit tighter and hoped that Baby 5 had not been caught yet. “We’re gonna be okay—Cora-san will be the adult who helps.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“No… but it’s important that you do.” Lami began to sob, knowing that their time—her time specifically—was running out. “Hey, we’ll see Bee soon enough. Cora-san is gonna find that cure for us.”

“Why… why are you allowed to be sad about it, but I can’t?!” she cried. “I’m scared, Law-nii! I’m so scared!”

“I know you are, but you have to know it’s gonna be okay, no matter what,” he replied. He went back into his memory for words of comfort from before… from when they had both their parents and school and friends and… fuck… it had been a wonderful life, hadn’t it? There was something too calm about it, as though it was just the peace one felt before a storm came barreling through. Was finding their sister just the eye of the storm? Was that Cora-san? Damned if he knew. “Everything happens for a reason…”

“It’s not reasonable!” she snapped tearfully. “Don’t say things the sisters said! It doesn’t make me feel better!”

“It doesn’t make you feel better because you know they were right!” he fired back. She looked at him, her eyes puffed up from crying, and didn’t know how to respond. “They were right! I don’t know how, but they were! Do you think I like not knowing how?! Do you think I like not knowing the reason?! It’s fucked up, yeah, but what else do we have?! If none of this had happened, we would have never met Bee! Or Cora-san! We’d still be in Flevance, having never seen anything beyond her waters! Nothing changing!”

“…but we’d still have Mom and Dad! Our family! Our friends!”

“…and we could still be dead anyhow! People die every day from things not bullets or poison! Kids, even! If we hadn’t needed to escape, we would have never gotten here, and I’d rather be here knowing more than I did then instead of dying ignorant! I don’t know why, but we were meant to live this!”

That set off Lami again, fresh tears flowing from her. Law gathered her in his arms and pulled her into his lap, which better allowed him to pull his cloak around her as she sobbed into his shoulder. He grit his teeth as he tried to hold back his own tears, wanting to be the strong one… needing to be the strong one…

“Kids! Kids! Where’d you go?!” Both of them gasped and went to wipe the tears and snot from their faces—it was Cora-san! He stumbled into the snow in front of them, looking exhausted and rather worse for wear.

“What happened to you?!” Law gasped. Shit—it had taken fewer bullet wounds to kill both his parents.

“That doesn’t matter,” the man said. He took a heart-shaped fruit out of his coat pocket and held it out. “This is what we were looking for… this is what Doffy was looking for…”

“That’s a Devil Fruit…?” Lami wondered. “It doesn’t look like any fruit I’ve ever seen…”

“It’s a really special thing,” Cora-san explained. “It’s gonna help Law fix you both up, good as new.”

“…but Cora-san, I…!” Law began to protest, only for their caretaker to shove the fruit into his mouth, forcing him to eat it. “Oh, gross! Why the fuck did you do that?!”

“I sure as fuck couldn’t do anything with it, even if I hadn’t eaten my own Devil Fruit,” Cora-san smirked. Although Law was still freaking out over the nasty, meaty taste of what had just been force-fed to him, Lami saw the intense sadness in Cora-san’s eyes… he knew something sad and wasn’t telling them. “You’re the one who’s going to become a great doctor some day, Law. It’s supposed to be yours.”

Just then, the three of them could hear men shouting off in the distance, making them tense.

“Okay, you two find a place that’s not here,” Cora-san ordered gently. “I’ll find you soon as I can guarantee that we can make a clean getaway. Then you’ll be free.”

“Free…?” Lami wondered as they stood.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Free of this disease, free of Doffy, free of everything you never wanted. You can rescue Baby 5 and the three of you will be freer than anyone on this sea. Do you understand…?”

“I think so…?”

“Good. Now be good brats, for fucking once in your lives.” At that he scrambled off, the kids just barely able to catch him pulling out one of his guns before he turned a corner.

“Asshole,” Law hissed. “Didn’t even ask me if I wanted it…” He saw that Lami was staring at him as they ran and he swallowed hard. “What…?”

“Do you feel any different…?” she asked. He stopped to look at his hands, brow furrowed.

“No, but…” He trailed off, desperately attempting to put what he was feeling into words. “It’s like… the Devil Fruit is trying to tell me what I can do…?”

“Really…?”

“Yeah.” He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to figure out what was attempting to be said.

Heed me, boy, and I shall make you powerful.

Eyes snapping open, Law looked at his sister with a nearly crazed expression. “Lami, hold still; I’m gonna try it on you first.”

“Why?”

“You’re the one with days left,” he replied. The siblings hugged tightly before Law had Lami lay down in the snow, hidden from the snowy path they’d been on. He held his hands palm-down over her and took a deep breath.

“ROOM!”

Suddenly, a blue sphere grew from Law’s hands and enveloped the both of them. Once that was up, he took Cora-san’s knife and held it to his sister’s arm. He pressed down and it made an incision… one that didn’t bleed.

It was working.

Law quickly worked, taking what he knew to be Amber Lead out of his sister’s body. There was so much of it, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. The only time he did was for thirty seconds, tearing off a bit of his cloak for her to bite on to help with the pain. Okay… anesthetic… he needed to remember that for next time…

Then, all of a sudden, the Room dropped and Law collapsed in the snow. He and Lami were breathing heavily as they looked at each other, both afraid for the other to speak. With a shaky hand, he held up a small rock, not much bigger than a decorative pond pebble. It was much more jagged and rough-looking, however, and a reddish brown where it did not gleam whiter than the snow.

“Five years,” he said shakily. “This should give you five more years.”

“Yeah…?” There were tears in their eyes—that would make her older than he was now.

“Yeah.”

“Fuck, there you kids are!” The siblings looked and saw Cora-san was clamoring over towards them, snow stuck to his hair and coat. “Doffy and his crew are nearly here—I can’t let them find you!”

“Cora-san, look!” Lami gasped. She took the pebble from her brother’s hand and held it up. “Law took this out of me!”

“Wait… you did…?” he marveled. He looked at Law, the boy nodding weakly in the snow as hot tears ran down his face.

“She’s gonna be at least fourteen,” he sniffled. “My sister is going to live!”

“Oh… that’s great!” Cora-san replied through tears of his own. He gathered the children up in his arms and they all shared a hug. “We’re going to get through this—just a little bit longer, and we’ll be free. I promise.”

“Cora-san…?” Lami squeaked. She was clammy with sweat and breathing heavily. “Can we go get Bee-nee? And then we can live somewhere nice?”

“I’m sure you will,” he replied, but she shook her head.

“No, you too, Cora-san!” she insisted. “You can be our dad! And we can live together! All four of us!” She gripped his shirt as her breath became staggered. “The four of us can be each other’s new family!”

“Lami…” Law touched his baby sister’s shoulder and she whimpered. “Is that what you want?”

“Yeah!” She looked at him, then at Cora-san, whose makeup was running from his own tears and sweat. “We can have a real parent again, and Law-nii can continue learning how to be a doctor, and Bee-nee and I can figure out what we want to do, and we’ll all do the best thing we can to make the people who tried to kill us suffer!”

“…and what’s that?” Cora-san asked, his voice wavering.

“We can live!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Remember something kids: I love you!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

A heavy thud rammed against Law’s treasure chest as Cora-san was shot—one, two, three, four, five—making the blood in his veins run cold.

Cora-san! You can’t! Law barely heard the order to leave the Corazón for dead and take the treasure. He pressed his limbs to the wooden walls in panic when he felt the chest being lifted up—this was it! His entire world, dark and filled with fear, swayed with the movement of… yeah, Machvise’s steps as he was carried off and away from the scene of the crime.

It was just like three years ago, when he and his sister hid from their executioners in plain sight, except this time they were in separate hiding spots. Cora-san had been reluctant to do it, but they would not fit together in the biggest chest, and besides… he didn’t want Doflamingo’s crew to take what they thought was the most valuable haul, only to get something invaluable instead. Law kept his mind focused—the clearer he could make decisions, the quicker he could grab Lami, get back to Cora-san, and they could begin figuring out a way to rescue Baby 5.

“Is that everything? Good. Let’s make sure we have enough space first…”

Law listened closely for signs that the Doflamingo Pirates were all occupied before lifting the lid off his treasure chest and carefully slipping out. He couldn’t tell which one had Lami in it before he heard Trebol attempting to swallow the innards of his nasal cavity—he couldn’t get caught! Not yet! He ducked behind a nearby pile of rocks, there already being prints going over there he could step in to hide his tracks. Sure enough, there was a yellow divot against the cliff-face—apparently the ship’s latrine was just too far an ask…

Just then, Law heard the telltale whizzing sound of cannonballs hurtling towards them. They hit the cliff-face opposite him with two loud explosions; it was the Marines.

That’s right… Doflamingo had accused Cora-san of being a Marine, not only by the treasure chests, but after they stole a burner snail a few weeks ago as well. Law and Lami had even accused Cora-san of being a Marine. The only problem was: if Cora-san really was a Marine, then who was he having Baby 5 talk to over the transponder snail? Was she caught? Did she get in trouble? Had… had Doflamingo found out because Baby 5 told him…? It made him sick to think about…

“Leave the rest!” Doflamingo snapped. “We have to get out of here!”

At once, everyone scrambled to board the Numancia Flamingo and escape what was most likely Vice-Admiral Tsuru and her command. Law remained hidden behind the rocks while he waited for them to leave, seeing that they had truly left behind much of the load. Ha… Doflamingo was going to be pissed when they returned to Spider Miles…

Before long, the ships were off in the distance, the only evidence they were even around being the distant sounds of cannonfire. Law shuddered as he heard himself let out a sniffle—Cora-san was dead.

Shit! Shit, shit, shit! The teen began to tremble as he realized that things were going to become infinitely more difficult. Having to go rescue Baby 5 with just him and Lami wasn’t completely out of the question, but it was going to take a lot longer than it would have otherwise. He waited until he couldn’t hear the ships anymore before standing up and poking his head out from behind the rocks.

“Lami…?” He carefully picked his way over towards the heaps of discarded treasure and began to search through what remained. It looked like a lot of the chests were weighed down by rocks as just another way for one brother to get back at another. “Lami…? Where are you…?”

As Law continued looking through the chests, a sense of dread settled over him. Lami wasn’t answering, nor was she in any of the other chests. He got to the last one and asked whatever might be listening to let her be inside…

…and found rocks.

“Lami…?!” Law dropped to his knees and cried, knowing that the worst thing must have happened: she must have been taken aboard the Numancia. “LAMI! NO! YOU CAN’T—!” He stopped to vomit, hot and burning over his tongue and throat.

His sister was gone.

He was alone.

His sister was still dying and there was nothing he could do.

He was alone.

His sister was somewhere off in the far-reaching, icy sea, far beyond where he could feasibly go on his own.

He was alone.

His sister was going to suffer.

He was alone… truly alone.

All while she remained trapped.

Once all the contents of his stomach were melting the snow, Law scrambled onto his feet and began to stumble away. His legs were shaky and he felt like hell, but he kept going—the Marines were likely to come back and he didn’t want to be there if they did. He couldn’t go chasing after the Numancia and rescue Lami in the state he was in, barely able to stand upright or move of his own volition.

If this was freedom, then he didn’t want it.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was difficult for Lami to hear outside of the treasure chest—she wasn’t sure what was going on or where she was, but she had the feeling that she should not move… not until her brother opened the lid and took them both away. The chest had moved a couple of times, which made her cautious, because she didn’t know what sort of place she was going to escape from. All she needed to do was wait until the right time and…

…except, the lid lifted on its own, only for a confused-looking Gladius to be staring down at her. Not Law. Gladius. Not Law. Someone else. Not Cora-san. He was dead.

It was not Law.

She was not free.

#One Piece #fan fiction #fanfiction #Trafalgar Law #Baby 5 #Donquixote Rosinante #Donquixote Pirates #Donquixote Doflamingo #I really enjoy how Baby 5 gets to come into her own in this fic. just saying #lol she's got the brother hoodie fit going on lol that's a good fit #there is also no way Law and Lami were taught by nuns and survived w/o some version of Catholic guilt #my source: being Catholic and having gone to Catholic school (despite the fact none of my teachers were nuns (long story))#(I know OP has Nika not Jesus but work with me here okay?)#Trafalgar D. Water Law #Trafalgar D. Water Lami #Trafalgar Lami #...and please don't ask me about opla i know nothing about opla yet my watch party is in a couple days

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