"The medics are completely dumbfounded. They've never seen anything like it." The nurse was saying, leading Albert through the medical wing of the castle. She was dressed in a simple white dress. Her brown hair was tied back, and she looked at the world through weary eyes. Albert could see that her job probably kept her tired all the time.
"I don't think I got your name, miss." She glanced back at him.
"Belinda." He smiled.
"Ah, yes. That is one of my favorite names on a woman."
"Oh...thank you?" She looked a little unsure, glancing to the sides with raised brows, so he switched to talking about why he was there.
"What time were the guards attacked?"
"The Doctor says about 2 am. The shift change found them."
"Were the guards...you know...drunk?" Albert didn't want to offend the woman, and she gave a sharp look.
"Of course not! They are men of duty, not idle wants. They protect this castle with nothing but their wits about them. They have more respect than that." He waved his hands to try to calm her down.
"I'm sorry, sorry. It was just a question."
"Hmph." She muttered, turning straight forward again. He sighed inaudibly. He was never very good with the ladies. Even when he wasn't trying.
"So...describe to me what happened to the guards." He tried moving the discussion along. The nurse turned in front of a door, taking hold of the handles.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" She pushed open the doors, revealing an operation room. Several doctors dressed in white with masks over their faces turned to look at the noise. They quickly returned to their work, bustling around three tables. With all the activity, Albert couldn't see what was on the table, but he had a feeling of what he would find.
"This is the Seer, Doctor. He requested to look at the guards." One of the doctors, the most senior of them, Albert guessed, set down a few instruments and removed his mask as he approached.
"Yes, we heard you wanted to see their strange conditions." He gestured him forward, and the con hesitantly followed. Most of the medical team looked hard at work. Placing tubes and fluids onto stands constantly.
Albert was brought up right next to one of the tables where a man, rather the pieces of a man, were laid out. A monitor beside the table registered that the man's vitals were still stable and that he was, indeed, alive. It was horrifying.
He was cut up in several places, across the shoulders, torso, arms, and legs. Albert almost didn't want to look, but he had to 'glean insight from the victims,' as the King would put it. He was really starting to question whether he wanted the whole Seer act to continue. It was starting to get pretty serious.
"In my 36 years of medical experience, I've never seen anything even close to this being possible. Things like this," He gestured to one of the men, shaking his head emphatically. "These things simply don't happen on this island."
"Um, sir? Have you ever been off this island?" The doctor looked offended.
"I grew up, studied medicine, and became the most skilled doctor on this island. I've never had to leave for any reason."
"I see…" Albert scratched his head. If these people had never left the island before, then they probably hadn't ever heard of things like Devil Fruits or strange occurances of that nature. The very thought of it would probably give them all heart attacks or something.
'It's a good thing you're an excellent liar.' He thought. He held his head up high and walked around the doctors, looking very important and intelligent.
"Well, just by looking at these attacks, and by the stable and very much alive condition these men are in, it is obvious to me that this was done by…"
The doctors waited expectantly, and Albert paused for dramatic effect.
"...ghosts." The women widened eyes showed their panic, while the doctor only narrowed his eyes with a small shake of his head.
"...ghosts? As in, the apparitions that do not exist?" Now Albert pretended to be offended.
"Why, my good doctor, ghosts do exist. They do not show themselves, are very greedy and love playing tricks on humans."
The doctor remained silent, still very much doubtful of the false seer, but he wasn't about to rule out any possibility at this point. After all, the condition the guards were in was absolutely unheard of.
The nurses seemed to look onto Albert with a newfound respect, respect of a man who was knowledgeable in the unknowable and unseen. The con smirked a little at the thought. Ladies did love a man shrouded in mystery, after all.
Law sat, cross-legged upon his bed, turning one of the four small daggers he kept beside him at all times in his hands. The blades were well polished, thanks to his careful ministrations. The leather grips well oiled and sturdy, also due to his care. It was as if their owner had never left…
But she had. And she still hadn't returned, much to Law's agony and frustration. She still wasn't back aboard his sub where she would be safe and sound and cared for and loved…
Loved. The dagger stopped moving in his hands as he thought about the word. That's all she really wanted, he realized, was to be loved. The deep affection of another. Why was that so hard to obtain? Even he, a stubborn, sadistic Supernova, didn't understand it.
The World Government just had to make that impossible, labeling her a demon at the young age of 7. Taken away at 11, forced to be put under the care of Viper. In that time, a mad doctor did unknown things to her, more than likely scarring her emotional state permanently. The abuse and spite she'd been shown had never stopped, just changed as her situation did. Her entire life, that's all she'd been searching for: a place to belong and be loved.
'Your place is with us.' He thought, being decidedly unlike himself that night as he gazed at the four lonely daggers sitting on his bed. The submarine was empty. He could feel it. He could sense that everyone else felt it too. He found it odd that one person could make such a difference.
Before, the crew had been very lively, playing pranks and being complete morons as usual. The nature of the sub had been unanimously male, though that was expected. They hadn't needed a woman on board. At least, that's what they'd all thought.
Then she came along and threw them all through a loop. The pranks continued, but this time with Summer's own craftiness and cleverness included. The food quality had improved, which Law was thankful for. His men had changed as well. The sub was a much more homely place with her around. None of them had thought to realize how much she'd been needed.
'Your home is with us.' He gathered up the daggers in both his hands, feeling how their weight was welcome and saddening all at the same time. They didn't belong in his hands, their grips a little too small to be familiar. They belonged in hers, slicing throats of their enemies as she grinned a wicked smile.
He could envision her, practicing in the training room with her small weapons, beating numerous crew members. She'd been so proud, so happy. Her smile had been genuine, of course, only after she'd decided to officially join the crew.
'You're loved here.' It was true. He'd recognized the fact that he loved her, but he also knew the crew loved her. Not quite in the way he had admitted to himself, but in a strong bond of nakamaship and familial strength. She was their family, and they were hers.
With frighteningly strong hesitation, Law placed the daggers in the side table drawer, closing it slowly as if putting them out of sight would be admitting she was gone forever.
'No. You can't think like that. You will find her and you will rescue her.'
Each day, his conviction grew.
Each day, his despair deepened.
What was it she wanted most? What kept her going?
Her bones and joint were swollen, the skin tight and gray. Her whole body was always cold, the circulation drastically reduced with the bonds around her limbs and her inactivity for weeks.
Was it freedom?
She'd yearned for freedom most of her life, constantly on the run or captured by some group or another. Being confined was her greatest fear and one of her strongest convictions. No cage will keep me bound, she had told herself years ago. No matter where it is, I will escape.
Perhaps it was happiness?
Not exactly that. Happiness had always come second. She'd always believed being free was happiness. Nothing had seemed more appealing at the time.
Maybe it was fame or wealth?
Her ambitions had never involved those two things.
So, what was it?
She accidentally breathed a little too hard, throwing her into a fit of coughing and sputtering. The guard posted by the cage an unusual occurrence, shifted a little on his feet. He held something in his hand and he used it to tap on the bars.
"Hey, settle down in there! You're too noisy."
She tried to control the sounds but her throat was dry and her body ached. Besides, she didn't care much about what he thought. He could go to hell for all she cared.
"Damn bitch…" She heard him mutter.
Their insults did nothing. She'd been called worse before, and she'd be called worse in the future. Because she fully intended to live through this little ordeal and continue on with Law. She vowed then and there.
'I will make you Pirate King. I swear on my life, I will help you be the greatest pirate to have ever sailed the seas.'
Of course, she thought. How could she have misunderstood her feelings? It was plainly obvious.
She wanted the submarine. She wanted the late nights scrubbing mountains of dirty dishes after the hectic dinner rush, the creaky metal walls and sweaty air, the shared bathrooms with the other men, sometimes having to knock a few heads together if they tried to peek.
She wanted her family. The stupid pranks and ridiculous strip poker games that Shachi and Penguin never won, Reid to wake up from his coma, Liam to get better, the crazy adventures that kept them on their toes.
She wanted Law. No, she didn't want him, she craved him. She needed him. Her chest ached at the thought, like a thousand tiny knives pierced her heart when she thought about him so far away. His face, slowly being erased from her memories with each passing day no matter how hard she tried to remember every little detail. Too little too late, she wished she'd started reading the anatomy book he'd let her borrow. It was probably still tucked underneath her bed somewhere, left where she'd idly tossed it that night.
Why hadn't she thought about this feeling before? Why had she denied it? In the circumstances, her petty attempts before to ward away her growing feelings for him had been futile and pointless. Her problems then, somehow so dramatic and big to her, now seemed from another world. They just didn't exist at that moment. She didn't exist.
'Law...'
She missed him. She missed his sadistic grin every time she did something tease-worthy, the dark chuckle when he found something amusing, the glint in his eye every time he slayed an enemy. She missed the training sessions and the infirmary visits…
She missed their kiss.
'I guess I care for you after all. I guess...'
A grin worked its way onto her face.
'...I guess...as much as I hate it...I love you.'
Arriving In: 21 Days970Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzsZvx94bos
