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Nika opens his eyes.
That is the first thing that is wrong. Nika should not have eyes to open. Not like this, not physical ones. And yet he has eyes and he does open them.
The second thing wrong is that he can't feel Luffy. The spark of joy and energy and life and will that he felt even before he started to wake from his long nap. His host, vessel, partner in righting things that went wrong so long ago. Their very souls are intertwined.
And yet Nika cannot feel him.
And finally, the third thing that is wrong. Everything else throws him off at first, makes him not pay attention to what he can see with his now-open eyes. But then he does.
And Nika freezes, wrath and panic and sorrow setting in, before they are replaced with a great determination.
Because the third thing that is wrong is Trafalgar D Water Law, Nika's Heart, slumped next to him. Or rather, his body is slumped over next to Nika. There is no breath in him, no life, and his soul is gone. Law is gone, as surely as Luffy is, and this fact is unacceptable.
The world has just been changed, Nika has won after so long. And now the strings of fate, of cause and effect, seek to deny the reward that is so richly deserved? To take those who have fought, who Nika loves, to the one place that Nika cannot follow his mortals?
(And never before has that word been so distasteful. To be mortal is to die and, as Nika has just learned, some deaths are simply not to be permitted.)
Then Nika will tear asunder those strings, will defy the very nature of the world again if he must.
He has the power. Nika can feel it, everything that he had ever been, coursing through his veins as he stands. Coursing through Luffy’s veins, because he can just barely still feel the traces in the body, if not the soul. Three lifetimes of strength and millenia of belief.
It will be enough.
Enough to fix what was done to his vessel, what his Heart so foolishly did to himself. Because it is so clear, so easy for Nika to trace the threads of power in this body and know what was done.
Luffy died. He was killed, and Law could not abide by his death. Chose to undo it even at the cost of himself. But even Law, his bright Heart, was still just a mortal. Did not truly understand matters of the soul and the limits of his powers.
The Ope-Ope no Mi has the ability to grant eternal life for a price paid with death, willingly given. Can take mortal flesh, doomed to die, and strip away that fate. It is an amazing ability, blessing and curse, beyond what any mortal should be able to do.
What the Ope-Ope no Mi does not do, is grant its wielder the ability to restore life when it has already ended.
Luffy’s soul must have left by the time Law took the steps to grant him immortal life. But no body can live without a soul, and Luffy might have been gone but Nika's Fruit had not yet departed. And there a soul could be found. Nika himself.
His vessel's body is now as undying as Nika himself, life woven through every part of it. All for Nika, who can't claim to have ever truly been alive. Man traded for god.
This, Nika knows with surety, is not what his Heart wanted.
Luckily, Nika is a creature of life himself. At least enough to repair and keep a body, as Nika picks up Law's body with a gentleness that is not needed by an empty shell. Presses lips hot enough to burn to his forehead in blessing and protection.
Law's body will not wither. Will not fade or decay, his Fruit not leave him, in the time it takes Nika to retrieve his soul.
And then he turns, treasure still in Luffy's his arms. The souls he's looking for are familiar, even if he has only ever brushed against them before. Close and mourning and doubtlessly unaware of what his Heart planned to do. That he would play the role of martyr.
They have all been good followers, good friends, to his vessel. And, more importantly, counted among their number is the one Nika needs.
The Soul King. The one who possess a Devil Fruit that can create a path to the land of the dead, where only mortals may walk. A place that Nika is forbidden to go by his own nature.
Normally.
~
"You are sure?" The King of Souls is serious in a way Nika knows he normally is not as he asks. It is unnecessary, but kind. And for all that he has gone beyond what a mortal normally might, Nika knows that he does not understand what Nika is. What Nika might and can do.
What Nika will do.
"There's no go back from this, you know. Are you sure that they'll thank you?"
"I have decided. And, if not immediately, they will with time." Time Nika is making sure that they will have. "And you know that you must make a choice as well. Your bargain can only shield you once. You know the price you pay to come with me."
"Oh yes, good sir, I know. It's why we're doing this now, while the rest of my crew sleeps. They are all so young."
Nika does not bother informing him that he is hardly older than the rest of them. He hasn't even seen a full century, the difference between him and the others can be measured in mere decades.
"Open the way, then. And pull me through, to where no god is supposed to go." Nika laughs some as he says it, his nature demanding it. He must laugh at this, at breaking down one more barrier. One more rule.
And the Soul King joins him in his laughter as his soul leaves the bones that house him, hand outstretched for Nika to grasp in the way that no mortal could.
Nothing about Nika is mortal.
There is pain, of course, as he is pulled nowhere and to another world entirely. Nika was prepared for that cost. Mortals stop feeling pain when they enter the land of the dead, but every part of it rejects him, as everything he is rejects it.
It hurts far less than the last thing he sees of this world, his Heart's motionless body laid out on the sand, and so Nika carries on.
~
In a blink, they are in the realm of the dead. The King of Soul's mortal form is gone, replaced with just his soul itself floating there. Nika knows that, were he not still in Luffy's body, he would be nothing more than a giant ball of fire and freedom.
As it is, Nika likely has the most solid form in this entire realm.
"Here we are." The Soul King hovers near, staying close enough that he shields Nika somewhat. It is good of him. More pain would make it harder for him to focus on the task ahead. "Now we just have to find them, I suppose."
"I can do that. I know my–" Not vessel, not right now. "–partner's soul intimately. I should be able to trace the echoes of it anywhere."
"Then lead on, Mr. Sun God." There is a sense of humor in the Soul King even now. Despite everything. Perhaps because he knows they are sensing it right, perhaps because he is one who has learned it is best to smile and laugh in the face of pain and challenge.
Nika hopes he chooses well.
And then he expands himself, as much as he can. As much as he dares, here, looking for any trace of the joy of his partner. Or his Heart, though that will be harder to find.
It is not simple, but Nika is drawn to familiarity. Just the traces, but enough to give them a direction as he pulls them forward. Through mists and past souls, all of his own might and power tuned to one task.
Finding them.
Time here is less real, so Nika has no real idea how long it takes. Not that it truly matters, of course. But they eventually find themselves somewhere, in front of a few souls. Two of which Nika knows, who are his.
It's easy to reach out, to pull Luffy in. His host, his partner, so used to the feeling of Nika's soul, comes eagerly. Obviously knowing Nika, knowing that he belongs with him.
And Law follows, because of course he does. Nika's Heart, their Heart. It's natural for him to want to stay close to Luffy. He loves so deeply.
The third soul that follows though could be a problem.
"Oh my!" The Soul King exclaims as he peers down at the souls Nika has in his beckoning hands. "Is that who I think it is?"
"He is fire-touched." Nika says. Fire-touched and chasing after Luffy. Freedom's Flame was still alive, last that Nika knew, so this has to be Flame's previous vessel.
His Luffy’s brother.
"Is that going to cause problems?"
Yes. It most assuredly will. Nika came for two, prepared for them. Knows that his loves might not thank him once they know the cost, but making choices for those who had freely decided to give themselves to him.
This one had not, beyond the drain it will be to give him form.
At the same time, how could Nika ever deny his partner's desires? How could Nika separate them now?
"Nothing beyond my ability to handle." Nika stops fighting the pull of this place as he answers, letting himself be dragged back to where they entered. The small point through which just a glimpse of the mortal world could be seen.
And then he looks at the Soul King, hating how serious he must be now. But some rules, even Nika cannot escape. "Have you decided?"
"I have. As much as I miss my first crew, I can't leave my new one behind. Especially not after this." He laughs, echoing but quieter than normal. "Besides, I still have to see Laboon."
Nika nods, accepting, and reaches out the hand not cupped around three small souls. "Then take us back, Soul King."
A thread appears, linking his hand to the Soul King's Soul. One that begins to vibrate with a pure, sweet note. It grows louder and louder.
And then they are back in the mortal realm, and Nika must work quickly.
His Heart is the easiest, body preserved and soul right in Nika's hand. It is nothing to give it back to him, sun bringing light and life. Soul given no choice but to stay.
But now, now Nika must do several things at once. Stretch out time til it nearly snaps, the space between one heartbeat and the next all that he has. To save his partner, his champion, and to not doom the flame-touched in his hand.
Luffy’s heart beats.
And in the quiet between beats, stretched out in Nika's will, he call forth the burning wrath of the sun. Power, raw and terrible and his. All that he needs and enough to burn away the planet in a second.
Nika must make it count.
First, switching Luffy’s soul with his own. Giving him back his body, but Nika feels sleep calling him. His prison, his home, and Nika cannot listen to it now.
It is Nika's turn to be free.
So he rejects the call. Rejects the Fruit that has become Nika, and in the fraction of a heartbeat where such a thing cannot exist without his permission, he takes all the pain that Luffy would feel at Nika's power being ripped from his body.
It hurts. A mortal soul could not survive it. A mortal body could not survive it.
It is lucky that Trafalgar D Water Law stripped the mortality from the body of Monkey D Luffy.
Nika will miss his host, being one with him. But he will also embrace the change. Luffy and he created a new world, now they will both live in it.
The world cannot burn if they are to live in it.
So Nika takes the energy he called and harnesses it. Pure energy, pure heat, like this is not made for creation. But it is power, is Nika's power, and he forces it to bend. To be what he needs it to be.
First, a body for himself. So familiar, in how he models it after his host. So alien, in how there is no trace of him in it. This body is for Nika, crafted solely with Nika's own power.
Then, more difficult and time passing quickly, he thrusts power into the soul of the flame-touched. Only possible because he had weilded the power of a logia, that his soul knows reflexively how to take power and element and make it into flesh.
And as a form flickers into being, Nika wills the Sun away. Even the brief prescense of his full power, a fraction of a second, has left part of this beach melted into glass. The sand would probably be hot, if Nika noticed such things.
Before Nika's eyes, sunlight finishes changing into flesh. Nika considers. He may have just created a new Devil Fruit. There is a balance in that. Destroying his to create another, of the Sun, even if it is lesser.
That is less important, however, than Nika's loves. The Soul King holds Luffy, who fell limp as Nika left his body. He is breathing. So is Law, still laid out on the sand.
Nika has done it.
So he let's go of his grip on time, letting it snap back into its normal progression. Feels sand shift under his feet, his own feet.
"Well now, that was quite the show." Soul King is looking down at Luffy, of course. He is his priority. "Though I'm guessing you would like some clothes?"
~
Nika looks up as a newspaper is thrown down onto the table. Looks up at Law, scowling though his lips are trying to twitch up into a grin. "Luffy got himself caught. Again."
Nika shrugs. It's all a game, at this point. He knows Law isn't truly worried. His love has grown more powerful over the centuries. If Law was actually worried, Luffy would be free.
But he isn't. Law knows he isn't the only one to have grown stronger. Luffy is mire than able to free himself, with his power or Nika's blessing.
No, this is just a little adventure. And that Law came to him tells Nika exactly how he wants things to play out.
Nika stands from the table.
"Well then, my Heart, I guess we should get going." Nika grins widely. "We have a husband to save."
And Nika laughs.