Chapter Text
The pirates loaded them onto a Marine warship, stripped of her flag and with the emblazoned mainsail painted over with a black smear. Ettienne didn’t know what these men in matching tan boiler suits wanted, but he and Lisa were herded into the galley with the forty or so people that these pirates had butchered Marines to get.
Marines who were shooting them and burning their homes down. As much as it seemed contrary to common sense, it felt an awful lot like these pirates were rescuing them. They certainly hadn’t been rough or threatening (to the civilians, anyway).
“Alright,” the one with the orca hat said, clapping his hands to get their attention. “If you’d kindly stay in here until we’re clear of the blockade, that’d be great. We’ll explain everything once we’re not in imminent danger.”
With that, he closed the door on them, returning to the cacophony of cannon fire. Ettienne looked around at the many faces around him, searching for two specifically. There were a handful of children, huddled together or with whoever they were most familiar with, but none of them were Law or Lami. Lisa shared a horrified glance with him and they slipped over to the galley door. It had windows in it, though only a limited view, but the deck was alive with tan boiler suits, scurrying around under the direction of a particularly large man in the same garb. Even if they were sufficiently distracted by their various tasks, there would be little chance of them slipping through to the smaller boats.
Worse, they didn’t have the skill to use any of those vessels well enough to get clear of the cannon fire.
Horrible sinking terror took hold of him, like stepping into a deep mire and trying to walk. Their children were still back in Flevence and they had no way to get back to them. A blue light enveloped the ship and the cannon fire fell abruptly silent. It stayed silent even after the light vanished.
The view of the sea had changed somewhat as well. Where he had previously seen smoke, Ettienne could only see the dark horizon, a few stars peeking through the cloud cover.
Footsteps approached the door and he and Lisa backed away. The man with the hat labeled ‘penguin’ opened the door and stepped inside with a rueful grin. “So. The fight’s over, so now I’m sure you all have questions.”
Lisa drew up to her full height (not much in total, but she still managed to give off an intimidating air). “Why only those here? This is some kind of rescue, no?”
“Right, so yes, this is a rescue—” his face grew abruptly grim “—as for who got rescued, we grabbed everyone who was still alive. There may have been a few who made it out a back way, but I don’t know what happened to them. I understand that most if not all of you are missing someone, many someones, and I apologize for that. We came here as fast as we could.”
Silence hung heavy in the air as those words sank in. Ettienne swallowed hard. “My kids. You mean they—” He couldn’t finish the question. How was he supposed to cope with losing them like this and living on?
Penguin hat looked at him and then at Lisa. “Oh! Are you Lami’s parents?”
Both of them closed the distance. “Where is she?” Lisa hissed.
As if summoned by the question, the door opened again and a polar bear wearing an orange jumpsuit tip-toed in with a little girl tucked in his arms. Their girl. Lami smiled at them and patted the bear’s arm. “Thanks, Bepo!” she said, slipping down to the floor.
Ettienne scooped her up in shaking arms. Thank the Blues. “Wasn’t Law with you?” he asked her.
“Yeah, he had to go check something though, so he wasn’t there when Captain came to get me.” No. Seas, no. “Oh! Captain said he could cure Amber Lead! He cleaned out my lungs already and it feels so much better!”
Ettienne’s brain skidded to a halt. What.
The whole group’s collective attention turned to Penguin Hat and Bepo. Penguin Hat nodded solemnly. “Our captain has a Devil Fruit. He’ll be starting with the most severe cases first, naturally, but we’re planning on curing all of you.”
“Why?” someone asked. “Why take so much risk to help us? Much less offering a cure, for what? What’s the price?”
Bepo, fidgeting with his hands, spoke up. “Captain grew up in Flevence.” He ducked his head as their gazes turned to him. “Sorry. He cured himself and now we’re back to help his people. . . Um, there isn’t a price.”
Ettienne stared at him. Everyone stared at him. Penguin Hat grinned, “You heard him. Well, we can start as soon as you guys are ready.”
The crowd shifted nervously. It sounded too good to be true.
Lami piped up, “It looks scary, but it doesn’t hurt! I can go first if you guys are scared, though.”
Ah. She had said he’d already cleaned out her lungs. Whether from that or some other reason, she clearly held no fear of these pirates. “If. . . If your captain allows it, could I watch?” Ettienne asked, holding her close.
“You a doctor?” Penguin Hat asked.
“A surgeon.”
“Fair enough. I’ll ask him.”
The captain was every inch the terrifying pirate if one went by his appearance or his sharp gaze, but he spoke gently to Lami when he saw her, and was polite to Ettienne when he heard of his request. He wore a mask over the lower half of his face, but Ettienne couldn’t shake the thought that he’d seen him somewhere before. Well, he was only a few years younger than Ettienne, so it was reasonable to assume they’d seen each other once or twice before the man left for piracy of all things.
When he was ushered into the makeshift surgery suite in the infirmary, he was told the name of the captain’s Devil Fruit, and the world made more sense. Of course the Ope-Ope could cure Amber Lead.
The process was fascinating. Even better, Lami would be cured! He couldn’t wait to tell Law—Law, who hadn’t been there when Lami was rescued, who likely wasn’t. . . He sucked in a deep breath and focused. These pirates were kind, he might be able to ask them to allow him to use one of the small boats to get back and search. Even if he only found a body, it would be better than not trying.
He carried a still sleeping Lami out of the infirmary, skin clear for the first time in years, and nodded at the various waiting adults who clutched at the kids they were responsible for. “The captain told me he could cure three more kids today before he has to rest.”
Lisa stepped up to designate the sickest children first and the pirate nurse ushered them in. Ettienne answered any questions as best he could (without alarming anyone too much). Once everything settled again, he passed Lami to Lisa and approached one of the pirates.
“I am very grateful for your help, but I need to know if my son—I have to know.”
The man grimaced, looking honestly grieved to speak the words. “I understand, sir, but you have to realize that going back in there is a death sentence. We took a chunk out of those bastards, but they’re still there. You’d only be bereaving your wife and daughter.”
Ettienne flinched. He was, logically, correct. . . but everything in him screamed at him that he couldn’t just give up on Law. A small hand wrapped around his. Looking down, he met Lami’s resolute eyes.
“Law will be okay.”
It sounded like a promise, for all that Ettienne knew it was merely a little girl’s absolute faith in a brother who’d never been anything but brave and kind to her. He managed a wobbly smile. “I see. We’ll just have to wait for him to find us then.”
Lami grinned up at him. “Yep!”
][
Law clawed at the sides of the chest, trying to unlatch it. Someone had picked it up after the shots rang out and walked a while before setting it down again. He needed to get back to Cora-san, he needed to get this stupid box open, he needed to stop crying, damnit.
“Okay, okay, feisty,” a voice said, laced with nervous laughter. “Here we go.”
The box opened and someone scruffed him but before he could do more than snarl and try to swipe at them, they placed him on a bed with—Cora-san. He was pale and unconscious but breathing and not bleeding out in the snow. Law reached out to touch him, breathing a sigh of relief to feel even a weak pulse under his fingers, before remembering that someone else was in the room.
The man sported a pleased grin and a tan boiler suit? Odd but certainly not as ridiculous as some of the Donquixote Pirates.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
The man’s grin faded to something a touch more sincere. “I’m Iruka. Robu and I were tasked with getting you two somewhere safe. Sorry we couldn’t let you out until the big guy was aboard, but we figured you’d be less likely to stab us if he was safe.”
“That doesn’t explain anything! Who are you?”
“Ah.” He scratched the back of his head. “We’re pirates, sailing under the Surgeon of Death. Our captain has a vendetta against that pink feathered bastard and a debt to pay to the big guy here. So we stitched him up and brought you along since he was protecting you. That enough for you?”
Law considered this information. “. . . Maybe. Did you guys kill Doflamingo?”
“Captain did. Scattered his pieces around Minion just in case.”
Law swayed, vision going blurry at the edges. Doflamingo was dead. Assuming this guy wasn’t lying anyway. It didn’t mean they were out of the woods, but there was one less enemy—one less lurking danger hanging over their heads.
Strong arms caught him and laid him down next to Cora-san. “Easy there, kiddo. You’re safe now.” A familiar smoke-scented coat rustled as it came to rest over him. Relief and exhaustion crested over him and he slipped under without complaint.
][
Rocinante blinked up at the ceiling. The rocking under him told him they were at sea, but last he remembered, he’d been laying on his back in the snow. Doflamingo had shot him. He’d stood up to make sure those shots hit him instead of—
Law, where was Law?
He tried to sit up but someone he couldn’t see pressed his shoulders down. “Hold up, there. Both the gremlin and my captain will yell at us if you tear your stitches.”
Gremlin? Ah. Naturally, Law had already left an impression in however long Rocinante had been unconscious. He turned his head to look around the cabin and one of the hands moved to draw his attention to the black feathered coat next to him, which had Law’s hat peeking out of it. Law himself was sleeping soundly, wheezing still, but breathing. Rocinante breathed a sigh of relief (with only a mild pang of pain in his chest). He looked up to find the mysterious man who owned those hands.
“Who might you be?”
The guy grinned and said, “Robusuta, nice to meet you. If I’m not mistaken, you’re Corazon, formerly of the Donquixote Family. What should we call you?”
Rocinante found himself mildly baffled by the nonchalance he’d issued that statement with. Clearly, either this guy didn’t know enough, or else they’d fallen in with some seriously dangerous people. “Corazon is fine, for the moment. Where are we headed?”
He wasn’t tied up, if one excluded the bandages he could feel around his chest and arm, and Law was tucked beside him with no obvious restraints either. Whoever their. . . rescuers. . . were, they weren’t worried about escape attempts or hostility.
“Oh, we’ve already arrived,” Robusuta told him, moving to pull a chair over to their bed. “We just didn’t want you to wake up mid-transfer, never mind trying to manhandle you without Bart or the Captain around. Anyway, we’re at Swallow Island. Captain had us take you here while they mop up the rest of your old crew.”
Rocinante stared at him. “And what exactly do you mean by that?”
The man raised an eyebrow at him. “That bastard Doflamingo tried to kill you, no? Captain had prior beef with him, so we decided to help you guys since, uh, the whole ‘enemy of my enemy’ thing, or whatever. Don’t worry, the kids will live. I think he’s planning to drop them off somewhere they’ll get help for whatever drove them to that guy.”
These pirates were enemies of Doffy, and Rocinante didn’t recognize them. “What crew are you with? I didn’t think there were any in North Blue who could pull this sort of thing off.”
“Oh, our captain’s called the Surgeon of Death,” a new voice piped up, shouldering the door open. He carried a tray of steaming food that smelled savory. “We’re New World pirates.”
How the fuck had Doffy already made enemies of that caliber, let alone someone who’d go out of their way to come to North Blue to kill him? “Dare I ask what my brother did that prompted this?”
The men shared a weighted look. The newcomer answered, sighing, “He killed someone he shouldn’t have. Captain doesn’t forgive easily, if ever, and certainly not something like that.”
“I see.” Doffy, like as not, hadn’t known he was being targeted. He killed so frequently and ruthlessly, he probably hadn’t realized he’d picked a fight he couldn’t win. Rocinante wasn’t sure how to feel about that, really. On the one hand, it was definitely the natural consequence of Doffy’s actions, but on the other, he’d hoped that it would be the Marines—or more accurately, Rocinante himself—who took him down. “Thank you for telling me, then, and sparing our lives. That is a rather surprising kindness, even if it was only done to spite Doflamingo.”
Robusuta shrugged one shoulder. “Eh, we would have saved the kid regardless. He’s from Flevence, same as Captain.”
. . . No way. “You’re those pirates? The ones that rescued those people?”
They’d met a family, after one particularly disastrous hospital trip, who’d given them a place to lay low for a bit. The family had shared Law’s accent and quietly told the two of them about an unlikely rescue in the middle of the attack—about a cure that the Captain alone could affect, though they didn’t know the details.
Forty-seven souls saved.
Law hadn’t worked up the courage to ask after anyone by name, and Rocinante hadn’t pushed the matter either.
“Yeah, that was us.”
“Will your captain cure Law?”
The pair twitched guiltily. “So, based on what we saw of the Minion Island mess,” the still unnamed man began, “you got him that Devil Fruit, yeah?”
“Why should that matter?” he asked, a horrible ache in his chest that had nothing to do with the freshly stitched bullet holes. His arm tightened around Law.
“Captain can’t fix him, now that he’s got that Fruit.” Robusuta held up a hand to forestall anything Rocinante might have said. “However, Law now has the power to remove the poison himself. It’ll likely take a few days, since the Ope-Ope uses stamina, but it is doable.”
The pressure eased the slightest bit. He nodded.
“Anyway, Swallow is one of the islands we left survivors on,” Robusuta continued. “It’ll be quiet enough for you two to recover, even with the inevitable power scramble from the other pirates out here now that Doflamingo’s gone. We’ve beached the boat away from the island’s harbor, since it’d be best to cure the Amber Lead before slipping into town. We’ll leave you both the ship and the supplies already aboard.”
Rocinante frowned. “Isn’t this your ship?”
“Ah, no. Tang is coming to pick us up. This ship was just to transport you two.”
The more he heard the more baffling it got. “Why go so far, presumably for people you’ve never met?”
Nameless laughed, like he’d told a good joke. “We’ve never met you, sure, but the gremlin you’ve adopted is a Trafalgar, no?” He blinked and nodded. “We don’t promise things we don’t intend to keep, and Captain promised Law’s little sister that she’d see him again.”
“What?!”
Law, who’d apparently woken up at some point in the conversation, shoved himself upright, coat pooling around him. He swayed a little, but Rocinante steadied him with one arm. “Lami—you saved Lami?” he rasped.
Their smiles gentled almost in tandem. Nameless answered, “Yeah, kiddo. She’s on this island, with both your parents. They’re safe and free of Amber Lead.”
Law’s breathing hitched wetly, but he blinked furiously and ducked into his hat to keep the tears at bay. For the first time since Rocinante had known him, he actually looked his age. Not weighed down by the horrors he’d seen, or the anger that threatened to consume him, just a kid, relieved beyond measure to know his family was still alive. Carefully, Rocinante eased himself up, aided by Robusuta’s hands on his back, to wrap Law in his arms and hold him.
The pirates left, once they were sure Rocinante wasn’t going to fall off the bed and hurt himself. He appreciated that. Law would need a bit to process something like this.