deathsdoctor | Appointments 2.0

[It doesn't take a Jedi to understand the pain and anxiety Law must be feeling right now. It doesn't even take someone particularly perceptive. And that's why Luke seeks him out. He only has a few people left here, and Law is perhaps only a step behind Ami, Leia, and Han on that list. So, with the Force to guide him, he seeks the man's presence. And is unsurprised to feel him out at the beach. Which is where he'll go, a bottle of Alderaanian ale and two glasses in a basket under the crook of his arm.

He's silent when he approaches, taking a seat in the sand at his friend's side. It's not easy to put anything into words, but he feels like he should be here. He needs to be here.

There's a long, quiet moment before he says a word, and that word is just:]

Hey.

Hey.

[Law's eyes are shot red. The beach a little while down is in tatters - he couldn't help but give in to his emotions a few times. It's incredible what can be packed into hey and they've got the art down to a science.

His voice cracks and he wipes his face with the back of his hand.]

I saw the broadcast.

[He reaches into the basket and pulls out the bottle and the cups, his gloved right hand steady, but his organic left one trembling slightly. It’s hard thinking of the possibilities of all this. It’s uncomfortable and upsetting, even if Luke is sure there will be a way to make it all right. ]

I saw your question, too. John will find a way. Bil’s research can’t have been wasted like that.

[His head turns just slightly.]

I love him, you know?

I don't regret marrying him. I would do it a thousand times and then ten thousand more for good measure if I was made to choose again. I didn't care he was dead.

He's Itachi and he's been my reason to keep going. My reason to smile. My reason, even if I've faltered at times, not to become bitter and fall back into a darkness that I was saved from. He's held me up just as much as I've held him up, if not more.

He's my treasure.

... and I was braced for us being separated, but never like this. Not down to a choice like this. We've both had... unspeakable things happen to us back home. I can't say which one of us had it worse. He died, I lived living death. I think we've only truly lived here, if each of us was really honest. And we're both... so, so tired, Luke. I don't know if he wants to go on living, even now, and worse he'd choose death not because he wanted it. But he was being unselfish. ... to set me free so I'd go home without hesitation.

... I'm scared. I'm living my nightmares again.

Edited 2015-01-22 05:44 (UTC)

[Luke listened to Law silently, just let him speak. There wasn't anything he could say, and even if there was...it was Law's pain. He was the one who needed to speak, and the Jedi's turn to listen.

It was hard, hearing that, and each pause, each...word...Luke understood on an intrinsic level. He knew loss and pain, like Law. But there was something different about this. About how the pirate spoke, something that made even Luke's losses seem pale in comparison.

When Law finished, Luke sat silent, head bowed and eyes closed for a long, long moment. His hand clenched slightly, his jaw tightened, and he expelled a heady breath before he managed to bring words to his lips.]

Law. [He reached over and set his one human hand on the other man's shoulder.] It...won't end like that. You won't be separated.

[Faith is the word that comes to mind for Luke. A belief that something positive, a light...a beacon...will shine through the darkest night. He's been accused of being too faithful in the past, of relying too much on destiny and the Force, but it has never, ever told him wrong.]

I know it. That is not how this all ends.

"There is no need for despair in this world. A merciful hand will always reach out to those in need."

[He weakly smiles.]

You remind me of the Sister right now.

[He slumps, leaning into the hand, sending up a desperate prayer to anyone who would listen. Faith.

He's been reduced to scraps again and again. There's so few things he's had faith in.

He'll try. ]

[Luke’s hand squeezed gently, trying to be reassuring. He knew Law was not a man of faith, not really. Neither was he, not in the traditional things that people here seemed to consider such, anyway.]

I’m afraid I’m no nun, Law. But I do have faith. This will all work out, for the best. For you and for Itachi. Everyone here wants that ending, and I just…I guess I have a feeling. Something in the Force. We’re due for a break, you know. After…everything…

Haa... yeah, but she'd have liked you regardless.

[Flevance had been a very religious country. Cora-san had been faithful too... though his was a faith different than of his countrymen.

No matter how he had been then... but knowing he was one of the natural enemies of God and after everything... had left him spiritual, but not truly faithful. But God was man - Tenryuubito human just like everyone else. All false - not deserving of worship.

He had felt that same vague antagonism sometimes towards Loki. Not Saori or Moro, though. Saori especially felt true. Maybe it was because she was a storm and that deeply resonated with a part of him that was connected to storms...]

Maybe. I... feel something too. Something's that very hard to explain.

[He'd last felt it in Marineford. Before he gave the order to move in to rescue Luffy.

The same feeling had finally prompted him here to do something else. Introduce himself to the world as...

Trafalgar D. Law.]

[Well, even Luke would say that Loki was no god. Immensely powerful maybe, but Luke had studied with the man...and been close enough to Banner, Rogers, and Stark to know how he'd been felled. He could only speak through hearsay of the storm goddess, but Obi-Wan had believed she was what she claimed, so who was he to question?

A breath expelled and he voiced his agreement. A resonate sense of change in the air, a buzzing feeling of anticipation in the Force.]

Something is coming. I...have never really felt things in Luceti so clearly, not like at home, but this is going to be important. One way or another, our lives won't be the same again.

And...I guess maybe I'm hopeful it'll be good.

It will be what it will be, regardless.

[He closes his eyes briefly as he finds his next words.]

I've never told you about the Will of D, have I? Or... a lot of things. My past, the nightmares...

[There's a sigh that's nearly covered up by the sound of waves.]

Or even my full, true name.

No.

[He rolls his shoulder and looks at Law.]

No you haven't. Honestly, despite having known you for years, and Nami and Luffy and Zoro, I don't...know...much about your world beyond the very basics.

Tell me about it? What's your full name, and the...Will of D?

It's Trafalgar D. Water Law. My family has always held the D. secret and Water... is an imina. [That doesn't translate well even through the wings, so a brief explanation.] Which is my true name and very intimate. Taboo even. It's not meant to used by the outside world, only those very close and trusted. Law - Law is what everyone else is just supposed to know. An exterior name.

[It's a very ironic name. He has Water chakra, and his Devil Fruit curses him in regards to water.]

It's caused a lot of grief, honestly. My name, when it's found out. Because of the D. I'm a bearer of the Will of D, one of the clan of D. I know only bits about it. Other people know, but to the D. ... we have a long history and a purpose, but most of it is lost.

It marks me as a natural enemy of God.

[Law's right, the meaning of it doesn't work well for Luke...but with the clarification he blinks. That is an incredibly intimate thing to share, really, and he's honored by the trust. But then, Law doesn't really know much about Luke's past, and he'll probably share a bit himself, later. For now?]

The Will of D. So, a mark of destiny, then. Is that right?

[That's about the best estimation Luke really as for what he's been told.]

And I'm afraid I'm not terribly familiar with God, but I've never seen you do anything that would make you the enemy of anything good. What...do you mean by that, exactly? Is the Will of D a bad thing?

You could say it makes me a harbinger. Of fate... of change, at least. They say whenever a D. makes his name known, a storm arises. Things begin to happen, coincidences pile up with the D. in the center. Sometimes there's actual storms too that brew up when it's truly major.

Setting the deck. And when everything unfolds - sometimes years, decades later, those events then have a massive impact on the state of the world.

But is it a good thing? Or a bad thing? I don't know. I don't know what it's about beyond what Miss Robin and I've observed. Except it's feared terribly and surrounded by superstition. The D. will eat your children. Things like that.

[He bows his head.]

Our 'Gods' are the Tenryuubito. Celestial Dragons, World Nobles. Descendants of twenty kings of old, who think themselves not man but divine. They're treated as such, enforced as such, but they're false.

There's other gods we believe in - I myself consider the sea and storm sacred, even if I don't have a particular faith - but we're supposed to put them first.

It's from Mairejois, their home, the term came from. The Tenryuubito and the D. are a danger to each other. That's at least what I was told.

Harbinger of fate. That...well, I can understand that.

[Chosen one and all that.]

And you know, if these Tenryuubito are every bit as false as you say then I say it's probably the other way around. I take it they're the sort of rulers that choose fear over democracy?

Because I can hardly imagine you of all people deliberately going out of your way to eat children.

If there's a kid being particularly annoying, I might just flash my teeth, you know.

[Eat kids. Haha. That's just bunk.]

They can do whatever they want, though, so yes, it's very much fear. They have incredible wealth - each country pays massive tribute to them. Incredible power - the Marines dance to their whim. They can murder and rape and slave without question and they're above all their own laws.

No one, save a very few, will act against them. The consequences tend to be unspeakable.

That sounds like a group from my galaxy. Entirely too similar.

[Luke frowns, wondering just how it was that oppressive governments seemed to take root like that.]

Have you stood up to them?

You know... I have been unwittingly been working to take down one for the last fifteen years of my life. An ex-Tenryuubito that wants to literally become a god.

But I didn't actively stand against them until Saobody. When Monkey D. Luffy assaulted one of them for shooting one of his friends and trying to buy another enslaved one. They're not very happy with me freeing one of their prized slaves.

His name's Jean Bart. He's a member of my crew now.

Good. That's good. Those sorts of people should be opposed at every turn.

[Nodding, the Jedi's hand drops to his knee, and the bottle.]

This man you've been working against? Is he as mad as the rest? And...how is it you came to be opposing forces?

His name is Donquixote Doflamingo. He is an absolute monster.

... and that's a story... that's only going to be understood if I tell it in full. It's a very long story and all the parts are important.

... it starts when I was ten...

If you're willing to tell it, then I'm willing to listen.

[And he will.]

[The telling of it isn't getting easier, even if he's done it once before.

It starts in Flevance. It always starts in Flevance. The White City is difficult to get through - his voice is shaking as he does.

The first meetings with Doflamingo and Cora-san. Being thrown out the second story window and into the scrap metal pile. Wanting to kill Cora-san. The beatings by the man in the week that followed, and the Donquixote's Family's reaction to learning of the source of his discolouration. The Rule of Blood - dare touch Doflamingo's brother and die horribly.

Being so choked full of rage and hate and railing against the injustice of it all that he stabbed Cora-san anyway.

But Cora-san covered for him. Being hauled in front of Doflamingo by Jora and Machvise (and he had been such a child to think bribing Buffalo with ice cream would do anything) and being told that Doflamingo wanted him to join his crew, unknowing of what he'd done, and offering him hope to be cured by the right Devil Fruit if it was found. Be his right hand in ten years.

And so he did. Doflamingo had stood up for him before when they had found out he was sick, and he took special interest in raising him to be a worthy hand. He was everything a young, lost boy could desire to aspire to.

At ten, growing up, he couldn't see the subtle brainwashing and psychological abuses being employed. Everyone held Doflamingo up like a god - the young master - and the ties of family he and others like Baby 5 craved were twisted into chains to milk use out of them.

And all the while the disease grew worse.

At twelve, things changed. Baby 5 and Buffalo cajoled out his true name under threat of revealing what had happened two years ago to Cora-san.

Cora-san heard. Said that since Law was a D., he should be no where near him. He had been lying, and lying about everything - even said he wanted to take down his brother to stop his madness. Said no one knew what Doflamingo truly was save for his four top men and Vergo. Told him about the Will of D.

("What do you mean?! Am I a monster or something?!""Maybe. No one knows the truth.")

The boy he was didn't take it well. But he didn't tell Doflamingo either. He had his own honor and the debt from long ago needed to be repaid.

So Cora-san kidnapped him.]

[Cora-san was a marine. He was in communication with Sengoku, Admiral then and Fleet Admiral (now ex) in Law's present. He denied it. Law knew he was lying. He hated the government. But Cora-san was bent on a cure even though Law knew it was hopeless.

He thought if he was cured then he would have no reason to want to stay with Doflamingo.

They went to hospital after hospital. Not that Law himself wanted this - he already knew what he would face. White Monster, plague bearer. Look, I'm not a person anymore. He wasn't - not to them. Call the police, call the army! Why weren't you all exterminated? Cora-san really didn't understand - he just got angry and tried to kill the doctors (Law began to try to stop him). Burn down the hospitals (Tried to stop him there too). And then it was onto the next one, promising this one would be the one to hold the cure. Over and over and over again.

Six months of torture later, it was enough. Cora-san realized the harm he was doing. Law listened to him while he thought the child was asleep pouring his heart out and drowning himself in a bottle.

And it hurt. Away from Doflamingo and with him his humanity was waking up. Doflamingo had been pushing, encouraging him into darkness, and here this man was making him remember what he was before Flevance.

Of course Doflamingo called the next morning about the Ope Ope no Mi under the pretence of using it to save Law's life. Of course he wanted it and Cora-san to eat it to grant him immortality. Because he was his dear younger brother.

Immortality has a price. The Ope Ope no Mi user must sacrifice their own life to grant it.

So Cora-san decided Law would eat it instead.

There was another Den Den call to Sengoku... but as he was listening to him speak, his illness was accelerating. Endstage.

They were running against the clock.

Off to Minion. There had been an unnatural storm on the way. It had whipped up out of nowhere. Cora-san had denied he was a Marine again after hearing the story of Flevance. They both knew the truth.

They snuck onto that island. Cora-san went to steal the fruit, while Law was left in the ruins of the former town there. It looked like Flevance. All white. Covered in pure snow.

Bad memories. It got worse when he began to hear explosions.]

[Cora-san's power was silence. Hearing explosions... was frightening.

But he appeared all the same. With the fruit. And proceeded to shove it down Law's throat before collapsing. Shot all the way through. Law had nothing to save him with - no medical supplies. And his own new found powers?

("Haha... you're funny. I told you its abilities aren't like magic.")

The request to deliver the information about Doflamingo's activities to the Marines. To save a country named Dressrosa.

He found the one Marine he shouldn't have. Vergo. And then he made the worst mistake. He asked for help. He begged him to help save Cora-san's life.

It was a disaster. Vergo had been the spy sent into the Marines as Cora-san had been the spy. What followed was brutal. They barely escaped.

But not for long. Vergo informed Doflamingo of Cora-san's betrayal. Birdcage. A new massacre began of everyone trapped inside. Doflamingo's tools of death were the captives themselves. He savoured them killing each other.

No escape. At least for Cora-san. So he found a treasure chest, used his abilities to silence any sound Law made, and promised the boy his brother wouldn't kill him. Then he smiled, told him he loved him, and shut him in the box.

Pirates loved treasure. If Law was patient, they'd take him out of immediate danger and he'd have the chance to escape when they were looking. It was the best Cora-san could do.

They caught Cora-san quickly enough and dragged him right back. The torture went on and on, inches away; just wood separating then.

Doflamingo appeared. Cora-san revealed himself as a Marine. And then the talk turned to the Ope Ope no Mi. Cora-san admitted that he, Law, had eaten it, then lied, saying that he had escape and was already in Marine custody. (A boy had been captured, yes, and the message intercepted - such strange luck). Doflamingo was furious... but he would have the Ope Ope no Mi at any cost. No matter who he had to face to get Law and his power.

("What am I going to do, you say?! Now that he ate the Ope Ope no Mi... I think I'm going to have educate him on the importance of dying for me!!!")

His perceptions of Doflamingo finished shattering right there. To think he wanted to be like him once. But lost boys are foolish boys indeed...

Then Cora-san proved himself a liar once more. The brothers drew pistols on each other. But Cora-san was far too gentle hearted to pull the trigger and Doflamingo was out for blood.

("Law... won't listen to you, Doffy... He beat his own fate of dying in three years time!! That lost boy that ended up with the mad pirate, he isn't what he used to be.

He won't pick up anything from an heaven sent child that... has strayed from the path like you!!

JUST LET HIM GO!!! HE IS FREE!!!")

Gunfire. Cora-san shot again colliding against the chest. The sudden intervention of Marine ships attacking and the roar of cannon fire that covered his own escape.

Knowing the exact second of Cora-san's death because he could no longer be silent.

Wandering the world like a ghost until he was stronger, because Doflamingo was looking and Cora-san was wrong. The horrible operation to cure himself.

And the resolve to take down Doflamingo if it was the last thing he ever did.]

[Luke takes in the entire story in silence. He's not sure exactly how to take it, other than a mingled feeling of empathy and sudden, ineffable understanding. Of why Law was...well...Law.

There aren't many words worth saying after that. So Luke just hugs his friend, tightly. With all the certainty a man can have, he knows that's...all he can do.]

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deathsdoctor - 2015-01-28 23:37 (UTC) - Expand

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thefinaljedi - 2015-01-29 01:22 (UTC) - Expand

Appointments 2.0

After the announcement.

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If you want to skim or summarize, feel free, I know this is a long one and Luke won't interrupt.

Gotcha! 1/2

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