#I apologize in advance for crimes against Iberian languages

[nehswritesstuffs]

banish every gaslight; let clarity shine - Part 9

Oops I watched OPLA all in one go and I, like much of the fandom, is sobbing at how good we got it. Now I'm actively considering importing some of my fics circa 2006 onto AO3, so I'm curious...

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] - Part 8 [FFN/AO3]

Luffy upholds his end of the bargain, while a toy can't help but lend an ear. [2257 words; AU where there is a Third Corazón, whose existence makes Law’s life hell]

Law and Antonia did their best to not freak out as they flew through the air thanks to Luffy’s insanely springy legs. He landed on a few rooftops and used them as further springboards, taking him further and further away from the palace.

“What the fuck is going on here?!” Antonia gasped. “Put me down, you psychopath!”

“Can’t! Gotta get you away from Mingo!” Luffy kept bouncing, unperturbed by his cargo squirming.

“Strawhat-ya doesn’t seem like the sort of guy you can reason with,” Law stated sourly. It was frankly demeaning being hauled around all over the place as he was, but what choice did he really have? “Mind telling us where we’re going?”

“Not far,” Luffy said. Sure enough, he landed hard in one of the plazas, his feet crumbling the cobblestone underneath them to dust. He put the pair down and grinned at them, only for Antonia to smack his head. “Ow! What’d you do that for?!”

“Warn me next time!” she hissed. Antonia was about to scold him further when someone tackled her in a hug—Baby 5…?! “Whoa! Where’d you come from?”

“Nia, I was so worried!” Baby 5 sniffled. “I was afraid that Doflamingo got you!”

“Wait… don’t you always refer to Uncle Doffy as Young Master…?” Movement caught Antonia’s eye and she saw Viola unlocking Law’s cuffs. Seconds passed and he began to vomit as his Devil Fruit abilities came back. “Violet…? What are you…?”

“He needs time to recover,” the older woman said. She held Law’s shoulders as he retched to keep him steady. “We’ll never get to do anything with him in this state.”

“Torao sure as hell took a beating,” Luffy noted. “Whoever did that must’ve been someone he really didn’t want to fight.”

“That… that was me…” Antonia said, her voice quiet. She watched as Baby 5 crouched down on the other side of Law; he was only able to look at her for one fleeting moment of realization before passing out into Viola’s arms.

“Law-nii?! Law-nii, stay with me!” Baby 5 took her brother and felt the wound on the back of his head, grimacing—it wasn’t looking good. “Fuck… what did you do, Nia?!”

“I was only doing what Uncle Doffy wanted!” Antonia retorted. “…and since when do you call a complete stranger nii? Don’t tell me you’re in on his lies too?!”

“What lies?” Luffy wondered, tilting his head. “Gun Lady said that Torao is important to you both, but also that you’re like her sister. If he’s important to you, then it makes sense to call him nii, right? Why don’t you call Torao that?”

“I don’t know him!” Antonia snapped.

“Then maybe it’s about time to show you the truth,” Viola said grimly. She activated her Devil Fruit and held Antonia’s face gently as she went to press their foreheads together. Instead, Antonia backed out of her reach. “Nena, what is the matter?”

“This is wrong,” Antonia frowned. “You two are acting weird, this man knows about things in my head, and this kid,” she pointed at Luffy, “just punched my uncle through a cinderblock wall! What is going on here?!”

“I’m trying to show you,” Viola said, “now if you will just let me…” She took a step towards Antonia, only for her to take another step back.

“No!” She looked at Viola, at the expressionless Luffy, at Baby 5 cradling Law in her arms next to a puddle of sick, and couldn’t understand a damn bit of it. Another step backwards and she turned on her heel to run, simply wanting to get away from there.

“What are you waiting for?!” Baby 5 scowled. “Go get her!”

“She doesn’t want to be here,” Luffy said with a shrug. “I can’t stop her from that.”

“You got her over here!”

“Yeah, and she was the one who left.” Luffy looked back over towards the palace and grinned manically. “I held up my end of the bargain; now it’s time to kick Mingo’s ass.” He began to run off, only for Viola to shout after him, attempting to chase him down so that she could guide him through the city streets. That left Baby 5 with the unconscious Law, the former doing her best not to cry.

“I did my best, Law-nii,” she whispered. “I tried to keep Lami-chan safe as I could, but Doflamingo made it so hard…” A hiccup escaped her; fuck, it felt embarrassingly childish. “Please… Law-nii… help me save her…” His face crinkled in pain—he was still alive!

“That’s now the plan,” he groaned. Law opened his eyes slightly, the bright sun above almost blinding to his dizzy, ear-ringing, concussed self. “It’s really her, isn’t it?”

Baby 5 nodded, motion shallow and full of tears. “Yeah… it really is. She doesn’t know it, though.”

“…and you didn’t figure out a way to tell me earlier, why…?”

“It was too dangerous. I thought that was obvious.”

“Seas, I forgot the pain of having little sisters,” Law scoffed. “I don’t know if it’s the concussion talking or something else, but I’m ready to kick our uncle’s ass for doing this to us. You in?”

Despite the tears in her eyes and the way she was biting her lip to stay calm, Baby 5 could not remember a time she wanted to laugh in joy harder. She nodded and held up her hand, which Law clapped with his, resealing the bond they both feared had shattered beyond repair long ago.

“Okay, Bee. Let’s go get our kid sister back.”

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

Antonia ran fast as she could through the Dressrosan streets, trying to put as much distance between her and the others as possible. She bumped into all sorts of civilians as she did so; everyone was confused, as seeing their princeseta in such a state wasn’t exactly normal.

‘Shit! I have to figure out a place to be alone!’ She continued to run as she tried to make her way through the streets. When that proved too congested for her, she climbed up to the rooftops and began to jump to and fro, using them as bases on which to easily move about. She eventually found herself at the base of Flower Hill, where she was able to stop for a rest.

Fuck… there was so much swirling in her head and she needed to make it stop. It was bouncing around, screaming, wanting her attention more than anything else. She held her head and shut her eyes, trying to concentrate on getting it to stop. Instead, all she could see was Trafalgar’s face as he stared at her in horror. She leaned against the base of Flower Hill as she tried to steady herself and her nerves.

“Are you alright, Princeseta?”

Antonia pulled a pistol out of her holster and pointed it at the source of the voice, her hands shaky. It was the Thunder Soldier, who was staring at her. He didn’t seem to be ready to move, let alone strike, though she kept her guard up.

“What the fuck do you want?!” she hissed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Leave me alone!”

“You don’t look like you want to be alone,” he replied. “What brings you out this way?”

“We’ve been chasing after one another for ten years! Don’t pretend that we’re friends!” She allowed herself to sink down to the ground, her body and weapon suddenly too heavy to keep up. “None of it makes any sense…”

“What doesn’t?”

“Lately? Everything.” She watched as he placed his pop-rifle down and sat next to her. “Uncle Doffy wanted me to wring some information out of a man before killing him… yet… there was something about him that I couldn’t place.”

“Curiós…” the toy hummed. “Who is this man?”

“A shitty little Warlord who keeps spouting lies,” she scoffed. Seas… she was really baring her soul to this toy who normally kept avoiding capture, wasn’t she? Well, it was the least he could do for all the trouble he’d been causing the Family… “I don’t know what a hobby like you would know about it.”

“A surprising amount, nena,” he said, chuckling softly. “This Warlord… he claims you as his sister, no?”

She stared at him and blinked. “How did you…?”

“You were a very different child when we first met,” Thunder Soldier explained. He placed his hand on Antonia’s arm, the act disturbingly Human. “I miss that child—she held so much in her heart that she did not yet know how to handle, and yet did not let that keep her down.”

The young woman stared at the toy, her head tilting in confusion. There were so many times when she attempted to capture him, even kill him, and yet… and yet… something calming was settling over her and she could tell it was from him.

“Nena, I do not know what he has told you, or what others have said in his stead, but know that I am not your enemy, and that I want for you what I want for my own daughter.”

“You… have a daughter…?”

“Indeed, and all I want for both of you is to be able to live as yourselves, with people who love you for who you are, not people who enjoy what they can make you do.” He stood and stared at her, his face unblinking. “Did he call you ‘Lami’ by any chance?”

“…yes…?”

“Él és vivo…” Thunder Solider marveled quietly. “It really is him… you and your sister thought he must have been dead…”

“I’ve never met the man before today…”

“The man, yes, but you knew him as a boy, and he is here to right wrongs from long before you arrived here.” He brushed some of the stray hair from her face and Antonia almost felt better. “Did you know there is a way for you to know which of his words are lies and which are the truth?”

She stared at him silently.

“You must unlock your heart,” he continued. “You must reach deep into yourself, Corazón, and you will be able to bring back your memories of him… of what he means to you… then you can decide for yourself.”

“…but… why should I listen to you? All I’ve ever done is try to catch you for disassembly.”

“Of all the Elite Officers, the Corazón is the one that is supposed to love the most, correcte?” He picked up his pop-rifle and turned around, readying to go. “Some people can use Haki to look into their own hearts—I believe you are capable of it.”

“If you think I’m capable of that,” she mused, “then what does yours say?”

“I do not hold that kind of power,” the toy replied sadly. “If I did, then we would be having a very different conversation.” He sighed, which nearly seemed the oddest thing of all about their interaction. “I wish you luck in figuring out who you are, nena. This is day is only going to get worse.”

At that, he used his pop-rifle to push off and skated away, joined by small creatures when he was almost out of sight. Antonia looked at her hands—one empty and the other still gripping her pistol—and scowled.

Use Haki…? To look into her heart…? It was unlike any technique that her uncle had ever taught her… different from anything the other Officers—Elite or otherwise—ever did on a daily basis. Even if she did want to do it, how would she go about figuring how to apply Haki like that? She was left with more questions than answers; everything from the technique itself to Thunder Soldier’s possible motivations. Part of her wanted to call the toy back and question him some more, while another part felt the need to simply run and not stop until she was far, far, far away from Dressrosa.

Then again, whatever she did she needed to decide on quickly—if her uncle had been punched through a wall by some stringy kid, then he was bound to be angry. The last thing that anyone needed was for him to be angry, least of all the idiot who started it all: Trafalgar. Now that she’d had some space away from him to think, then maybe it was time to go back to him with a clear head…

…except it wasn’t going to be just him, was it? Baby 5 and possibly Violet as well… she didn’t like the idea of it. Maybe, possibly, allowing Violet to show her memories could help…? At least now she’d be prepared… and even if Violet’s memories were altered by time, it wouldn’t be as though she could rewrite them…

Antonia stood, brushed off her cloak, holstered her pistol, and began to run.

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

Doflamingo groaned as he extracted himself from the rubble of the wall he had been unceremoniously punched through. He growled wordlessly as he glared out over the nation—his grip on things was slipping, and he was not going to stand for it. Pulling a transponder snail out of his pocket, he held down the button on the top of the shell and hissed in anger.

“My prodigal nephew and that rubber freak have the Corazón. If I don’t have her back by my side within thirty minutes, then you know what’s going to happen, and you better be prepared for it.”

He threw the Den Den away before anyone could answer.

The King of Dressrosa was done playing games.