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Trafalgar Law was waiting, resting after the beating he had taken.
Hawkins had been brutal, angry. The Heart's Captain wondered what the man had seen in his cards to unsettle him so. Still, he would survive... if the beatings didn't get too frequent, or if the torture didn't worsen.
Trafalgar Law had no such hope.
Shackled the way he was with seastone cuffs, he had no way of escaping or rescuing himself.
He moved slightly, trying to ease sore muscles, shifting bruises, and winced. He remembered well that particular kick Hawkins had delivered. Law's mocking silence had angered him. But the questions he had asked were stupid. "What is your angle of attack? What is the plan?"
Which plan? What attack? He had been laying low with the more recognisable members of their group, doing some small scale reconnaissance. The locals had elaborate plans, groups, sabotage activities... some of them twenty years in the making. Law had some knowledge of them but certainly not their totality. The alliance's plans had been to bring the fight to Kaido's home. It still was if it existed. With an idiot captain like Luffy in the mix, they could hardly plan anything else.
But upon arriving in Wano, the Strawhat had refused to remain discrete, had antagonised the Beast Pirates, had confronted Kaido.
He was not wrong exactly. The Emperor remained their main goal, but they would also need to topple this organisation to go anywhere... however, Luffy had lost. Lost against a terrible display of power from an opponent who didn't even take the fight seriously.
For a short while, Law had entertained the notion that he would make a plan to save his ally from his prison. How arrogant. He couldn't even save himself.
Still, there was a silver lining even in this. His crew was safe. They knew better than to put themselves in harm's way again. With or without him they would survive and, in time, thrive.
Law himself would have to count on external factors. One of their allies maybe, or the population's rebellion on the whole. Either would probably come too late.
Too bad. Law had nothing more to lose, no more fears - his crew was safe, no more regrets - Cora-san was avenged, no more dreams...
"I would have liked to add Kaido's demise to your list of achievements, Cora-san." He said softly in the empty cell. But he had aimed too high and such a thing might never be.
Another voice echoed in the darkened corridor. "Is that what you call him?"
Trafalgar Law raised his head as the speaker stepped in view.
"Drake-ya." Law acknowledged the other Supernova. The former rear-admiral of the marines who had defected for piracy now worked for Kaido. Was he his next interrogator? Probably.
There was a moment of silence.
"You didn't answer me." X Drake remarqued.
Trafalgar Law couldn't help himself, even if it would certainly infuriate a potential torturer into inflicting further damage. "You never did either, on Sabaody. How many of your men did you kill, before or after you defected?"
X Drake smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? But I'm the one asking questions there."
Trafalgar Law raised an eyebrow, actually surprised at both the calm and amusement the man displayed. And wasn't that suspicious... of course Law knew better than to believe anyone with former ties to the Marines, public or not, really defected.
"So?" X Drake asked again. "Is that what you call him? Cora-san?"
Law merely frowned in response, still waiting to see where this was going. He had no intention of giving away weapons against himself.
X Drake sighed, unlocked the door and came in, sitting on the interrogator's bench, letting the silence stretch. Finally he looked up, and spoke.
"I took up the mantle of his legacy of my own free will, you know."
Law's eyes opened wide at the admission. Then Drake-ya was still... a marine! Like Cora-san, undercover!?
X Drake went on. "I was told to call him big-brother. The old man calls him Rosi sometimes, when he doesn't use his full name."
And there was only one man who had admitted seeing Cora-san as a son. *Sengoku?* This was a dangerous name to utter in this context, so Law remained silent, surprised, but listening.
Drake looked at him, talking seemingly sincerely. "He told me you talked, in Dressrosa, but didn't have much time. Well, now that you are pinned down, we can speak at more leisure.*"
Law pondered his response, the leverage X Drake had willingly given him. "I call him Cora-san."
Something in X Drake's posture relaxed. "I'm not sure if you have ever made the link, but we might have well exchanged our destinies that day, on Minion Island. I don't think I ever regretted it."
Law's eyes widened. "You were the child they found!"
X Drake smirked derogatively. "I was nineteen already... but the only survivor of the Barrels pirates. X Barrels was my father. He had been a good man, before piracy. I jumped at the chance to come back to that life."
"Oh." Cora-san was the only marine he ever trusted. Law would not have wanted to be found by them then, unless it saved Cora-san's life. But the marine he had found was the traitor, and by the time he escaped it was already too late. "Good for us, I guess."
X Drake looked away remembering.
Listening through a door.
Tsuru: "I don't think it is a good idea. He says he is already old enough to enlist, you don't have to adopt him like that..."
Sengoku: "He is my only link to Rosinante! You mean to say I would abandon part of my child!"
Confronting his would be parent.
Drake *crying*: "I'm not him! The child you were looking for! I have no idea who Rosinante is!"
Sengoku: "He would have called himself Corazon for this mission."
Drake: "I never heard of him either!"
"Well, it worked out in the end." X Drake looked back to the prisoner. "We pieced some things together between us, with the old man. But we still do not have the whole picture. Would you help?"
Law closed his eyes, remembered the smiling face of his saviour.
Cora-san.
Making his decision, he cleared his throat. "I don't have all the ins and outs either."
X Drake nodded. "The Barrels pirates had the Ope Ope Fruit, were looking to sell it. The Marines had buyers. The Donquixote pirates wanted it for themselves. You both came to the island to get it for yourselves. Why?"
Law winced. "Doflamingo wanted Cora-san to eat it. Cora-san had the Calm-Calm Fruit, so he couldn't, and he didn't want to tell that to Doflamingo." He paused. "He wanted me to eat it instead."
"To save you from the Amber Lead Syndrome." X Drake completed. "But why you and not a doctor?"
"We couldn't trust the exchange to go well. There was a double agent." Law answered. "We understood too late that it was Vergo... That and I had medical knowledge myself." He added as an afterthought.
X Drake nodded. "So you went in, stole the fruit."
"Cora-san did. I was in pretty bad shape by then."
"There were silent explosions, then gunshots. Was it..."
Law shook his head. "He was wounded, and sent me to give his report to the marines in his stead."
The infiltrated marine showed his surprise.
Law hid his eyes behind his bound and crossed hands. "I happened upon Vergo, gave him the report... begged him for help."
X Drake put a hand on his own face and swore. "Talk about bad luck."
Law bent his head completely, hiding his face. "He beat up Cora-san with haki, me too when I tried to intervene. Cora-san managed to get both of us away. I imagine it was when Vergo called Doflamingo. When I woke up, we were inside the cage."
Law paused there. X Drake offered: "I was just outside of it. I ran, was rescued... no survivors were found inside the cage, nor a child."
"Cora-san hid me inside a treasure chest, used his fruit so I wouldn't be heard." Drake didn't answer, leaving all the time Law needed to talk. "Doflamingo killed him himself, emptied his pistol on him and left him lying in the snow... I escaped after they carried the chest to the shore. Cora-san died right as the Marine bombardment began."
"How would you ...?" Drake began, before realising exactly how young Law would have realised his protector died, when the Fruit Power failed. "Oh."
Law didn't say that Cora-san's last words to him were 'I love you', he chose the other words instead. "Marine code 01746. His last words were defying Doflamingo for me. 'Just leave him be already, he's free.'" His voice strangled on the last words, tears mixing with the blood on his face.
X Drake also wiped his eyes, remembering all the instances Sengoku had told him about Rosinante. His unknown brother, who had freed him unknowingly by his actions that day.
Together they took a few minutes to mourn him.
Then X Drake interrupted the silence again. "The old man took me in as his son, considered me as Rosi's brother."
"I ended up on Swallow Island. Made friends. Cured myself. Became who I am now." Law answered.
X Drake took a key from his pocket, showed it to Law, and stood up. "Do not forget you are part of his legacy too."
"What are you doing?" Law asked, when it was clear that the marine intended to free him.
"I have my own sense of justice." Drake answered, he then added. "I want plausible deniability."
The younger captain didn't move as Drake opened the locks.
"I'll tell the story to the old man. He'll be glad to finally know."
Drake stood up and turned to leave. "Goodbye, nephew." He said.
Law watched him go, dumbfounded.
He only waited until X Drake was out of sight to call a Room.
*intended foreshadowing in chapter 798.