#I swear to God I'm nearing completion on the next chapter of this and 'ghosts speak in whispers and lies' and current seagull fic

[nehswritesstuffs]

banish every gaslight; let clarity shine - Part 17

There's... a lot going on here, but in a good way.

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] - Part 9 [FFN/AO3] - Part 10 [FFN/AO3] - Part 11 [FFN/AO3] - Part 12 [FFN/AO3] - Part 13 [FFN/AO3] - Part 14 [FFN/AO3] - Part 15 [FFN/AO3] - Part 16 [FFN/AO3]

Law tries to sacrifice himself to Doflamingo, only for Baby 5 and Lami to have other ideas. [3746 words; AU where there is a Third Corazón, whose existence makes Law’s life hell]

Chaos reigned as the victims of the Birdcage began to realize where their lot truly lied. Random folks were taken over by Doflamingo’s power, killing their friends and family with tears in their eyes and anguished apologies on their lips. Soldiers not being puppeted tried to control the chaos to no avail. It was precisely the sort of chaos that Doflamingo desired—that he craved—and it all became disturbingly clear that this had been his intention all along.

“Shit, we’ve got to move,” Law hissed. He looked over his shoulder and saw the fringes of Luffy’s troupe. “Strawhat-ya, think you can get your minions to make a distraction while I get my sisters to safety?”

“They’re not my minions,” Luffy scowled. Lami and Baby 5 appeared on either side of him, equally irritated.

“We’re not going to step aside and let you do all the dirty work,” Baby 5 pouted.

“We’re not babies,” Lami added.

“Yeah, and the set of us are eleven stars, in case you forgot how to do math,” Law replied. His sisters both avoided eye contact—he had them there. “Lami, you literally just got your memories back—I’m going to need you to hold back for a bit until we’re sure there’s no permanent damage. Strawhat-ya and I are going to take down Doflamingo.”

“…but…!”

“No buts—doctor’s orders. Now don’t make me Shamble you away from here myself.”

“Fine.” Lami glared at Law, who instantly felt cowed. “You better come back.”

“For my sisters? Yeah.” He held open his arms and Lami and Baby 5 both hugged him, the pair holding him tight until suddenly he was gone, pebbles falling where both he and Luffy had been standing. The sisters looked at one another and instantly knew how the other felt.

“We’re not listening to him, are we Bee?” Lami chuckled.

“Since when have we listened to him when he’s being an idiot?” Baby 5 asked. She took a cigarette from her pocket and lit it, sucking in some smoke before exhaling heavily. “Let’s go before anyone too annoying finds us.”

“Yeah—I gotta see what it is I can do now that my memory’s back!” Baby 5 looked at her with slight confusion. “Oh, uh… they say that power is stored in memories…? I might be stronger after all this!”

“You think so?” Baby 5 wondered. Lami shrugged.

“There’s only one way to find out, now isn’t there?”

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

It wasn’t ideal, but Law was more than willing to let Strawhat-ya’s entourage haul ass in his stead if it meant that he got to Doflamingo without getting too tired. Although he had plenty of stamina normally, his abilities being tied to such a thing was a huge downfall in a situation like this, forcing him to rely on others. While normally it was his crew he fell back on, the present company left… much to be desired.

“Don’t think I’ve forgiven you,” Cavendish scoffed, narrowing his eyes at Law. While the Supernova was with Luffy and Kyros on the stronger Ucy, the blond captain was on his trusty horse Farul, heading towards the King’s Plateau in the most beautiful of ways… just ask him.

Law knew better, though. This guy was just weird. Why did he need to keep relying on weird people? Annoying people? Frustrating people? It was getting to be a bit much.

“I don’t care what you have and haven’t done,” Law replied dully. Ucy jumped over a large piece of rubble and it forced Law to hold on to Luffy, as well as Kyros behind him grab onto his shoulders. “Can’t you drive?!”

“You can’t drive a bull, Torao! That’s silly!” Luffy looked back with a wide grin. “Ucy’s doing just fine!”

“That’s what you say.” Movement caught the corner of Law’s eye and he saw Pica’s stone form smacking its arm as it tried to hit the glints of light running up it—Zoro-ya. At least his oddities were being put to good use distracting an Executive… one turned to their side, one distracted, and two to go…

“Where is Miss Lami and Miss Cinca?” Kyros asked lowly. Unease swept over Law; he didn’t like the other man’s tone as he almost whispered in his ear. “I feel an obligation to them; there was so much I could have done for them over the years, yet I missed the opportunity due to my position.”

“They’ve always been nuisances—don’t blame yourself,” Law replied. He could hear Kyros chuckle in response. “Do you have sisters?”

“I have a sister-in-law, and she is a spitfire.”

“Don’t get a second one. I can’t recommend it.”

“It takes better men than us to survive more than one sister,” Kyros laughed. Law couldn’t argue that fact—how he survived the years he spent with both Lami and Baby 5, he had no clue.

“Shishishishi, I don’t have a sister, but I’m sure it’s not too much different from having brothers,” Luffy snickered. “Soon you’ll be able to laugh like that every day! Mingo’s not gonna know what hit him!”

Law hoped he was right—part of his roping Luffy and his crew into everything was to provide a wild card option that even Doflamingo could not anticipate—but would it be enough? There was so much that he couldn’t account for in this hellscape of a country that he was now determined to get his sisters out of, even if it meant the most morbid part of his original plan came to fruition.

Then again, big siblings were supposed to do anything to protect the younger ones, right? All the way down to the wire. Especially big brothers and trouble-making little sisters; then again, if it was so universal of a thing, then Cora-san would have had a much different fate…

No. Nothing about Doflamingo was normal. Things that were supposed to be experienced by everyone—or at the very least understandable to everyone—were beneath him. He couldn’t fathom taking care of a younger sibling if it didn’t work out best for himself in the end… the man’s concept of love was twisted and perverse, ruined by his worldview and the desire to watch everything burn to the ground from the safety of his perch.

If there was anyone who could stop him, Law knew that the list was short and he was towards the top—if not at the top itself—and he was making it his duty to keep it that way.

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

Baby 5 and Lami had to dodge swarms of citizens and literal bullets before they came across an area they could reasonably catch their breath in. It was—ironically enough—an outdoor training yard, where children played at their favorite games and adults practiced for gladiator tryouts. Now it was deserted in favor of finding the starred bounties before the time limit was up.

“Okay… so… how do we measure how strong you are now?” Baby 5 wondered. Lami fiddled with a punching bag, making sure it and its stand were secure.

“I dunno, but there has to be some way of doing it,” she claimed. “If only Thelma had been more specific about metrics…”

“Thelma…? Who’s Thelma…?”

“The lady who altered my memories,” Lami shrugged. She landed an experimental punch on the bag—nothing out of the ordinary. “She put a copy of herself in my brain to explain what happened if I ever unlocked my memories, saying that power is stored in them somehow. My guess is that she was a nice lady when she wasn’t rewriting people’s brains for money.”

“Oh…” Baby 5 watched her sister land a couple more punches and kicks before a thought came to her. “Since there doesn’t seem to be a way to measure this, let’s just try different fighting techniques. How about Rokushiki? Do you think you can do those now?”

“I can try.” Lami moved away from the punching bag and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Her instruction in the Six Powers had been so long ago now… could she even do it? She tried to use Shave and instead of moving super-fast, she tripped and fell on her face. “Nope—that’s still a bust.” Baby 5 helped her to her feet, face still scrunched up in thought.

“How about more Haki? You were already pretty good at it.”

“I can try…” Lami went over to one of the practice dummies and coated her fists in Haki. It felt easier than before, at the very least, and she’d take it. She readied one punch and ended up knocking the dummy’s head off before she could even touch it.

Ah… well… shit…

“There they are!” shouted a voice. Baby 5 and Lami both looked towards the entrance to see that there were a few dozen people now entering the training area. They could have taken them out easily, but they were all seemingly random citizens who looked terrified; there was no way they could harm them.

“We don’t want to fight you!” Baby 5 insisted. “Please! We’re trying to figure out a way to stop Doflamingo!”

“You say that, but we know how strong Doflamingo is,” one of the citizens said. “Bringing you to him is our only option.”

“Y-Yeah…” another person said. “We don’t wanna do this… but we have to…”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Lami added. She stepped between Baby 5 and the citizens, coating more of her body in Armament Haki just in case someone made a quick move. “We were part of this mess, so we’re going to help clean it up. Please trust us!”

“Is it true?” someone asked from further back. “Are you not actually Doflamingo’s niece?”

“Yeah!? Are you really related to another one of the Warlords?!”

“What else has been a lie all these years?!”

“We don’t want to do this, but we have to!”

“Why are you worth so many stars?!”

“How come you’re one of the Birdcage targets?!”

“Just turn yourself in!”

“If you plan on cleaning this mess up, then why are you here?!”

All the questions began to pour out, each of them bombarding Lami with not only the questions themselves, but also the raw emotions coming from each of the citizens. Shit… this must have been the Observation side of her Haki having grown more sensitive, as she could feel everything from the group bearing down on her unlike anything she’d felt before. The questions kept coming, and she kept being pressed further down… down… down… down…

“QUIET!”

As she screamed, Lami let out a burst of Haki, hoping that it would help bolster the Armament protecting her from the townsfolk and shore up her Observation against their emotions. Instead it made them collapse, everyone but Baby 5 and a lone teen holding a bat falling unconscious to the ground.

“What the hell…?” Lami wondered aloud. “That was not what I wanted to do…”

“That’s…” Baby 5 looked at the teen and saw that his knees were about to give way underneath him. “Kid! You see that?” He looked at her and nodded shakily. “That was Conqueror’s Haki, just like Doflamingo! Spread the word that Princess Antonia is going to win this!” The teen dropped his bat and ran, which made Lami scowl.

“You shouldn’t’ve done that,” she chided. “Poor kid’s about to piss himself.”

“Think about it: Doflamingo is so confident he’s kept you right where he wants you all these years that he thinks you’re weak. You’re not—that was Conqueror’s. I’m not making it up.”

“It’s just Armament, like when I broke through the memory block.”

“I thought that at first too, but this is a lot more than just Armament.” Baby 5 took Lami by the shoulders and looked up at her, ready to shake her younger sister for emphasis if needed. “You’re strong, Lami… people are naturally drawn to you… that burst of Haki made people pass out… made Sugar pass out…”

“Then what you’re saying is…?” She looked at the unconscious people laying around them, unnerved. “…I can take him down without touching him…?”

“Not alone, but that’s the idea.”

“Do you think Law-nii can do it too?”

“Don’t know; don’t care. If you’re this powerful,” Baby 5 gestured towards the unconscious citizens, “then we need to get you up to wherever Doflamingo is so you can help kick his ass.”

“…but I’m not…”

“Yes, you are! My brother is smart, but my sister is strong! Now if I’m right about this, then you’re likely the only one other than Straw Hat and Law-nii who has a chance at defeating Doflamingo… and frankly I’d put you at the top of that list. You’re able to do something I’ve only seen him do! That’s worth something, isn’t it?”

“I guess…? I don’t know how to control it though…”

“We’ll figure that out on the way,” Baby 5 insisted. “This changes everything!”

Lami really, really hoped she was right. Time was running out and there was only so much they would be able to do when it came to stalling the inevitable.

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

Law was beginning to rethink his approach to everything as he was attempting to hold his own against Doflamingo. It would have been a bit easier if Trebol wasn’t also there running interference, making it that much harder to actually get close enough to Doflamingo to land a hit. Bad enough he’d already was faked out by decapitating a clone made of string what the actual fuck, but Luffy had also been with him, only to get distracted again, making it so his wild card was so wild he couldn’t even follow a goddamned plan, seas help him.

“Why do you insist on being like this?” Doflamingo pouted mockingly. “I could have given you everything…”

“You keep saying that as though repeating it enough makes it true.”

“It’s worked for Dressrosa and it sure as hell worked for my ancestors,” he claimed. “That’s how politics works; say something loud and long enough and people will eventually believe it.”

“Yeah, and they’ve been shown that you’ve been lying to them this entire time,” Law spat back. He kept looking around in an attempt to find something to buy him some precious time—all he needed was seconds of pure action to enact his plan. The large Room over the Plateau was already up and he was not going to ruin that by acting rashly.

“They were poor before and are rich now; money talks, boy, and most of all it softens people’s opinions of little scamps like myself. Why would they listen to anyone else? Not even their old king will have their ears, because people are willing to overlook war and strife and things not being right as long as they have cash.”

“…and what about the hundreds of Dressrosans you’ve had Sugar turn into toys over the years? I’m sure they won’t be too thrilled by having a few extra beri.”

“Seen for what they are: troublemakers,” Doflamingo replied. “Let them go and the discontent will breed without me. Dressrosa will collapse upon itself and finally get what it deserves after the centuries of being ruled by pretenders.”

“Behehe… they will be the first to fall, won’t they Doffy?” Trebol chuckled.

“They might,” Doflamingo mused, “or they might have to watch the world collapse around me, thinking they’re safe until it finally infects them, where they all turn in on themselves. It all depends on if they disappoint me this afternoon or not.”

Law flexed his fingers; this was going to be difficult. He needed something that would knock both of them off their games—if not off their feet—they were too confident for there to be nothing he could use… wait a moment…! A voice that sounded suspiciously like Cora-san rattled in the back of his brain, reminding him of words he hadn’t genuinely thought of in a long time.

‘The People of the D. are the natural enemies of the gods.’

That was it!

“You don’t know how doomed you are,” Law scoffed, his grin wicked. Trebol looked confused while Doflamingo’s brow knit in irritation.

“You look like you suddenly remembered a big secret,” Doflamingo noted. “What’s so funny that you have to remember it now?”

“You don’t know my whole name.”

Doflamingo’s face went pale.

“…and why would your name be something that important?” Trebol wondered in genuine confusion. Seas, he was stone-stupid. “The name of an orphaned piece of trash means nothing.”

“My sister and I carry names passed down in our family for generations,” Law boasted. Just a little bit and they’d be caught off-guard enough. “My full name is Trafalgar D. Water Law and I am your worst nightmare.”

“A D.? Tch, like that’ll work on us—Doffy…? Doffy, what’s wrong?” Trebol looked at Doflamingo to see that the other man was shaking in an emotion he had never seen in him before.

Donquixote Doflamingo was terrified.

As Trebol began to freak out over Doflamingo’s lack of composure, Law made his move. Not staying in one place long, he switched himself around at almost a lightning pace, slicing through Trebol with the Radio Knife multiple times and piercing Doflamingo’s heart with Injection Shot. Both men collapsed—the former into a bunch of chunks and the latter simply dead. He went back to where he had been standing and dropped the Room—he could finally take a deep breath and relax. It was done…

…or so he thought. Trebol began to chuckle ominously despite his chopped-up state. Law’s eyes slowly crept to Doflamingo, whose body was still as a slight breeze passed over them…

Then, suddenly, Doflamingo’s body jerked; once, twice, and finally a third time brought out a groan from the man. He sat up looking absolutely furious.

“I… I pierced your heart…” Law panicked. He took a step back as Doflamingo stood up. “You should be dead—your heart is in shreds!”

“That was a neat trick, boy, but you should really save that sort of thing for someone who cannot repair their own organs with strings,” Doflamingo spat. He activated his own Devil Fruit ability and trapped Law in his strings. “What do you know about the Will of D.?”

“Only what Cora-san told us,” Law replied. He attempted to keep a cool demeanor, yet it was difficult to with his limbs locked and his fight-or-flight response screaming that he needed to flee.”He knew what we are, but didn’t live long enough to tell us. My parents died before we were old enough to learn what our secret names mean. I’m sure you know… tell me… why are we that terrifying to you?”

“You vermin are no more than the boogeymen of Celestial nurseries, you’ll be loathe to learn,” Doflamingo replied. He twitched a finger and Law’s right arm was sliced off, the string making a clean slice through muscle and bone, allowing the limb to drop to the ground as Law screamed in pain. “Children in Mary Geoise are told that if they’re not good and do the things proper Celestial Dragons do, they’ll be eaten up by the People of the D., their flesh cooked into stews as their bones are gnawed and entrails sewn into wee purses to hold all their teeth. You were nothing more than lies Auntie Teolinda told to strike fear in Rosi’s heart and stoke inspiration in mine. To think of it again took me by surprise, is all.”

Tears stung Law’s eyes as he was consumed by pain, first in his arm, then when Doflamingo landed a solid punch to his stomach, then head. He fell to the ground a crumpled, bloody mess as he reached for his severed arm, cradling it as he attempted to open a Room and fix it. Doflamingo kicked him in the side, knocking him into the dirt. Lifting his leg, the older man’s lip curled in a sneer as he readied to crush his skull like a ripe melon, ending the struggle once and for all.

“Say hello to my idiot brother for me.”

Except, he didn’t stomp on Law’s head. His foot was stopped by another—he looked at the owner and saw it was none other than Lami, glaring at him with all she had.

“Don’t touch my brother,” she snarled. He smirked at that.

“Antonia, my darling, don’t be like that,” he replied. “Naughty children must be punished—you know full-well I’m right.”

“I know full-well that you’re full of it.”

“Lami… don’t…” Law coughed. “Get out of here…”

“Fat chance, Law-nii; it’s our turn to protect you now.” Just as she finished her sentence, Baby 5 came rocketing in from Doflamingo’s left side, snatching Law while using her missile-feet to quickly bring them out of sight. Doflamingo nearly went after them, only for Lami to recapture his attention by letting out a burst of Haki…

...Conqueror’s Haki.

“Well, look at what we have here,” he hissed. “Aren’t you a little too small-time to be using that?” He unleashed his own Conqueror’s Haki, allowing it to clash with the young woman’s, threatening to overtake her. “How’s that for a trick?”

“Don’t you dare!” Doflamingo turned around and saw Luffy standing there, his own Conqueror’s Haki flaring as he fumed. “I wanted to punch out Mingo!”

“Get in line, Straw Hat!” Lami insisted. “My beef with him is bigger than yours!”

“We both have big beef!” Luffy shouted. “And then, when he’s defeated, we’re gonna eat a lot of beef when we party! You hear that, Mingo?!”

“I hear a gaggle of nasty children whining,” Doflamingo stated. “Why don’t I teach you a lesson so that you can learn your place? This is a world for the strong, for the ruthless, for the unyielding, and it has no place for misbehaving children.”

“Strong? Ruthless? Unyielding? It’s a good thing you made me those things.” Lami finally used her foot to push away from Doflamingo, kicking them apart from one another. Luffy tried to punch the Warlord from behind, only for him to hear him moving and dodge, with Luffy and Lami colliding and tangling together as they fell to the ground. By the time Lami was able to extricate herself from the rubbery noodles that served as Luffy’s limbs, Doflamingo already had strings coming from his fingers, ready to fight.

Okay. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. But it was all they had.