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Law has always been a drifter at heart, so as soon as he was out on open waters, he brought down his sails and laid back to watch the clouds. The locals would be horrified, but after the Grand Line, even the driving winds and tall waves of the North Blue were a gently rocking cradle. These waves had rocked him to sleep, when he'd been thirteen years old and dying. They were uncomfortably nostalgic.
Wherever the winds blow , he had said to Homing. Wherever the ocean currents go .
He could almost hear Shachi's voice, the familiar "just admit you're lost, Captain" and the rest of the crew laughing at the old joke.
In this case it was true. Law's heart was torn in every direction again. Let catastrophe come for me , he thought, looking at the sheer wisps of white against the intense blue sky. At least then I know what to do.
He was tired. He wished Cora-ya were there. With the Donquixotes out of his reach, he was concerned but unable to do anything but worry. And when has telling himself not to worry ever helped?
He closed his eyes and must have dozed off because the next thing he knew there was the deafening blast and the huge metal hull of a marine ship almost right on top of him.
Cursing in every language he knew, he just had enough time to toss his hat up and switch places with it as the bow of the huge ship crunched into his little wooden fishing boat, and turned it into driftwood.
Shambles was less disorienting for him than others, but still gravity jerked at him, turning upwards motion into a stop, and then a lurch and rush down. He tried to reach out, to feel what on the marine ship deck he could switch with, but he hadn't been far above the water enough, and just as he grabbed hold of a person and pulled, his boot touched the surface of the waves and the first lick of salt water touched his skin through his jeans.
His strength and breath left him, the waves swallowing him. He couldn't move at all, the curse of the ocean well upon him, on top of the bitter cold that gleefully sank its teeth into him. The water foamed and the light was silver-white where it broke through the water.
The great dark hull of the ship brushed against him and he bumped off it, spinning helplessly. His coat billowed, dragging and slowing him slightly, but he still sank like a block of lead.
His lungs felt like a vacuum, he needed to breathe. He could control it for now, but there was only so long he could go before his body would take that control from him. He could only hope for rescue.
The marine ship had noticed him, so there was a sliver of hope there. If only they could find him. Amongst waves like this, it was all too easy to lose a man overboard, assuming that they even cared to look. He had definitely pulled someone overboard with his power before the ocean touched him, if they weren't in shock or drowning themselves, maybe—
A hand under his chin. If he still had control over his body he would have jolted. Someone was pulling him to the surface. He couldn't see them, but the body behind his felt smaller than him.
As they burst through the surface, they both took desperate shaky breaths. Law's were shallow and spluttering, but the freezing cold air entered the sticking burning emptiness of his lungs sweetly.
"A-anyone else... o-on your ship?" his rescuer asked through chattering teeth. Their body shivered violently against Law's. Law would shiver if he could, but the paralysis of the ocean was still strong, and it was all he could do to form words.
"No," he managed to gasp. "Just me."
"Right," his rescuer said. Now that Law had a moment, he could see it was a woman, a tall woman, with white hair that was plastered to her face and neck. She wasn't wearing a marine uniform.
A floating ring on the end of a rope splashed into the water near them and she took hold of it, pulling Law on so he flopped and landed on his neck, bruising his windpipe but keeping his face above water. She threaded his arms through and took hold of the ring herself just before the ring snagged with a jerk, and they were being pulled along by the huge ship.
His rescuer took a handful of water and brushed her sopping wet hair away from her face before looking up.
She had Nico Robin's face.
Law stared in shock, and she misunderstood.
"W-we're going... t-to be okay," Nico Olivia promised.