Disclaimer: Shiningheart of ThunderClan does not own One Piece. Oda does. The lucky bastard.

Chapter 1: The Rescue

Everything hurt. Her ribs, her arms, her legs, her face, even her hair. Don't ask how her hair hurt; maybe it was her scalp instead. All she knew was that, each time her hair was touched, be it being pulled by those damnable marines or just her moving it away from her face, it hurt. All of the pain just hazed together so that she had no idea what hurt more than anything else. A gasp left her broken and bloodied lips as a fist collided with her side, and she felt yet another crack echo through her body. Another rib fractured, another beating session for Nadeen. She didn't even know what the stupid Navy wanted. They weren't asking her questions, they weren't gaining anything from this. They were just bloodthirsty fools that wanted her to suffer because she called herself a pirate.

Despite this, Nadeen formed a smirk on her mouth and looked up at the shadowed face of the marine beating her this time. "That all you got?" she rasped, coughing up blood. Still, that smirk stayed. "My grandmother hit harder than you." A growl was her reward for her smart mouth, as well as another shot to the stomach. Another spurt of blood flew from her lips, hitting her assaulter square in the face. Her body sagged as she coughed, clearing her lungs of the foul fluid that threatened to suffocate her from the inside, but the ropes kept her up.

The marine wiped her blood off of his cheek, scowling in disgust. Whether the disgust was for her or her blood, Nadeen didn't really know or care. He turned and left without a word, leaving her hanging from the pipes of her cell. They always did this. Came in, tied her up, beat her, and leave. All without a single word. Whoever brought her next meal would untie her. Not that it was much of a meal. Bread and water. Just enough to survive.

Speak of the devil! A man entered the cell with a tray. Despite herself, Nadeen felt her belly rumble with hunger. The marine smirked evilly and set the tray down, reaching up to undo the ropes binding her up. Nadeen resisted the urge to kick him while he was so close. She'd tried it already, from the first few beatings three weeks ago. All that had earned her was another beating and her food taken away until the next day.

The second her ropes were gone, she sagged against the marine until all of her weight was on him. He pushed her away with a sneer, like she was trash, and she fell against the wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. Her body wouldn't hold out on this torture much longer. But she refused to give in. Nadeen smirked up at him, giving a cheeky little wink. The marine used his foot to slide the tray over to her. She didn't scramble up for it like other prisoners might. Instead, she just pulled it closer to her while keeping her eyes on the marine.

Like the others before him, he left without a word. She knew he'd wait outside for a total of three minutes before coming to take the tray and cup of water away, whether she was done with it or not. At first they'd waited inside of the cell, probably hoping to see her desperation for food. But Nadeen had pride, and never acted like she'd been a prisoner for the better part of a month. She picked at her food daintily, knowing full-well that she'd barf it all back up if she ate too quickly.

That's what she did now. She tore the single slice of bread into little strips before eating them so that she didn't accidentally overload her stomach. She did the same with her water, only taking sips. Three minutes on the dot later, the marine came back in and took it. Nadeen allowed him to and slumped back against the wall, closing her eyes and letting the darkness sweep her into sleep. She had no reason to stay awake, so why not pass the time?

Barely an hour passed before the ship she was on swayed, jolting her awake with a cry. "What the hell?!" she yelled to herself. The redhead stood up, but her strength failed her and she only fell down. But she wouldn't be defeated, especially by her own flesh and bone! By the time she stood fully, her breath was only coming in short pants. Two sets of hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway, and Nadeen pushed herself to the bars of her cell. "Hey, what's going on?!"

The footsteps paused before coming closer. When they came into view, she barely kept from gaping. The first one to catch her attention was the polar bear. At first, she thought her eyes were deceiving her. The bear stood taller than her on her tiptoes, and walked on two legs like a human. He wore an orange jumpsuit that had a circular symbol on the chest, though she couldn't see it. He had beady black eyes that blinked at her in intelligent curiosity, and tilted his head to the side in a way that made her inner child squeal in delight. She knew he was a real bear too, not just a zoan user or a man in a suit. She didn't know how she knew it, but she could sense it.

The other one was an actual man. He wore a jumpsuit like the polar bear, but his was white and baggier. More of a boiler suit, actually, than a jumpsuit. She couldn't see much of his features in the darkness, but she saw enough of his hat to wonder about his fashion sense. It was mostly a dark gray in color, but the bill that shadowed over his face was a bright white. There was a red puffball on top of his head, and the word PENGUIN was printed onto it. It was the penguin-capped one to speak first. "Wow, you don't look too good..." Nadeen raised an eyebrow at him, and he seemed to come to the conclusion that his words might have been taken the wrong way. "N-not that you aren't pretty, of course! I mean, even with all the bruises and cuts on your face and body, you're still quite gorgeous!"

Nadeen decided to not mention his awkward compliment and instead said, "As much as that warms my heart, it doesn't answer my question. Who are you guys? Did you attack the ship? And can you let me out?"

The bear nodded his head enthusiastically. "I'm Bepo, this is Penguin!" He clapped his companion on the back and accidentally smashed this 'Penguin' man into the wall. "Our captain and crewmates are topside, fighting the marines as we speak. Captain told Penguin and I to search the ship for supplies before we sink it. We can free you, but then we really do need to hurry up. Captain only gave us ten minutes, and Captain doesn't like to be kept waiting!"

Penguin rolled his shoulders back and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yikes, that hurt... You should learn to control your strength, Bepo!" The polar bear suddenly got a black cloud over his head and sulked, mumbling an apology. Nadeen blinked while Penguin just sighed at the bear's sudden depression before turning back to the main conversation. "Anyway, what's your name? We can get you out, but then we still need to find food and medical supplies."

The prisoner nodded in understanding and stuck out a hand between the bars, or as well as she could with still being hand-cuffed. "Nadeen. I can show you where the infirmary is, but that's about it. They don't exactly give prisoners the grand tour. The only reason I know where they keep their doctor shit is because I was in too bad of a condition when they first brought me in. And we'll also need to get these off." She rattled her handcuffs for emphasis. "I can't help you guys fight your way out with seastone attached to me."

The two males exchanged unreadable looks and nodded. Penguin stepped back from the bars while Bepo stepped forward. In an impressive show of strength, he bent the bars into a small diamond sort of shape. It was just big enough for Nadeem to slide herself through. She didn't let herself relish the freedom, though; there was always the possibility of marines recapturing her, or these men- pirates, if she understood Bepo's talking of a captain- would take her hostage to get away. Of course, there's also the very real probability of the marines shooting all of them dead even if they did take her hostage.

All of these thoughts wandered at their own leisure through her head as she led Penguin and Bepo further through the ship. By the time she pulled herself from her thoughts, they'd already stopped. Penguin and Bepo were going through the cabinets and pulling out crates of things. To Nadeen's delight, she even found a fruit basket which she devoured with the kind of animalistic decorum that she'd lacked these past few weeks. Penguin and Bepo stopped what they were doing and watched her with wide-eyed shock. "... What the hell were these damn bastards feeding you?" Penguin asked in astonishment. "I've never seen anyone that desperate to eat fruit. Meat, hell yeah, but not fruit."

Nadeen stopped her feeding frenzy to give the pirates a sheepish smile, her eyes closed so she couldn't see their expressions. "Well, actually, they haven't really been feeding me. Only a slice of bread and half-a-cup of water each day." Their jaws dropped as much as gravity and physics would allow, and Nadeen chewed her bite of apple a little more slowly. "Hey, while we're here, do you think we could look for a scalpel or a paperclip or something to pick the lock?" She raised her arms to remind them, once again, of her limitations.

Bepo blinked his beady little eyes and questioned, "Why? Wouldn't the keys be better?" He pointed to a ring of keys that Nadeen had completely missed, causing her to face-palm herself as best she could. Bepo once again got the black cloud of depression. "Sorry!"

Penguin groaned dramatically and said, "Stop apologizing!", even as he took the ring of keys. "We don't even know if the key to her cuffs are on here. Why would a doctor have something to unlock a prisoner?" He was cut off at the thud of her bindings falling off. The very first key he tried worked. The two pirates blinked at the handcuffs on the ground while Nadeen took a deep breath, already feeling the effects of being freed from seastone. "... Huh... Guess it's my turn to apologize, huh Bepo?"

The woman gave a predatorial smile. Combined with her haggard appearance, the expression appeared quite feral. A lesser man and bear would have quivered, but they were far too used to their captain's menacing smiles to bother much with hers. Her hair and clothes seemed to stir in a nonexistent breeze. "If you boys are done, let's go hunt some marines!"

SECTION BREAK BECAUSE IT WON'T
LET ME USE HYPHENS TO SEPARATE

Law chopped another marine to bits. He was covered in blood, but none of it was his own. Everywhere he turned, there seemed to be another marine after his head, another opponent to slaughter, another idiot to challenge him. Really, they'd been in the Grand Line for only a few short weeks and he'd already made himself a reputation. 'Surgeon of Death', they called him. The pirate captain felt a thrill every time he thought about it.

But this was getting tiresome, and he was quite reluctant to admit his own movements were starting to slow down. His crewmates were fighting beside him, as always, and yet he alone was unharmed. Shachi was already slumping down beside him. On hindsight, it probably hadn't been a good idea to separate him and Penguin. They always seemed to do better when they had each other to compete with. Law took great precautions to not examine the dynamics of their relationship too closely, lest he traumatize himself. Which would be ironic, considering all of the things he's already done...

'Dammit, Trafalgar, stop distracting yourself!' he growled mentally, ducking below a sword before dismembering the arm attached to it. He was sprayed with another splash of blood, and paused for a precious moment to wipe his face clean with his hoodie's sleeve. "Dammit, where the hell are Penguin and Bepo? I sent them off close to a half-an-hour ago, and they're still down below!" Below the frustrated tone, there was concern. Had they been attacked? Were they dying now, suffering and in pain, while he berated their lateness? He'd never forgive himself if he sent two of his oldest and closest friends into a trap.

A crewmate of his stumbled next to him, and Law glanced over to see who it was. He could barely see the pale skin through the amount of blood on him, but the braided blond hair and dark green eyes were able to identify him as Derek, a usually competent fighter and one of his best. The fact that he had a slash in his side that he subconsciously noted would need stitches didn't help his worry. "Captain, as much as I don't want to say this, I'm not sure this was such a great idea."

Law snorted and brought his nodachi in a full circle, chopping distant marines into bloodless little bits. That was one of the things he wished was different about his devil fruit; he had an almost unhealthy fondness of watching the blood of his enemies spill. "You don't say, Mister Derek?" Even with the battle wearing down on him, he kept his voice calm and slightly amused. If his crew knew even he was having problems keeping up... Well, let's just say the shit would hit the fan. "And here I thought we were having a grand ol' time."

Derek flashed his captain a look that spoke volumes of what he thought of his mental state. Law just gave a sadistic smile that looked even creepier with the blood on his face. Another wave of marines ran towards them and Law got himself ready when something happened that he hadn't anticipated. The marines all stopped suddenly and made jerkish motions with their limbs. They all started floating tail-end up, like they had hooks caught onto their navels.

The Heart Pirates all looked to their captain to see if he was doing this, but for once Trafalgar Law was as clueless as his crew. Strangely enough, though, the marines seemed to have a pretty good idea on what was happening. The ones not caught in the air were visibly shivering and meeting each other's fearful gazes. One marine gave a whisper that seemed to travel through the air like the loudest yell, "She's escaped... The Demon Gale has escaped..."

"Captain!" Law snapped his head to the side at the familiar voice of his first mate. In a rare moment of true confusion, he blinked. He'd sent two down and three come up. How did that work? Well, he obviously KNEW how it worked, but where had the third one come from? The Dark Doctor took a moment to study the new arrival, and the first things he took note of came almost subconsciously from his medical teachings.

She was almost nauseatingly malnourished. Her cheeks and eyes were sunken in and her arms, held up towards the marines, whereas thin and brittle as sticks. There was no muscle or fat to them, or the rest of her. Her shirt, which would normally be form-fitting, hung off her frame like a rag. Her dark ginger hair is cut close to her scalp, but the jagged look said it wasn't a voluntary cut. Multiple bruising and lacerations littered her body, and she looked like the effort of holding her hand up to keep the marines floating was enough to make her collapse.

Despite her haggard looking appearance, it was her eyes that quickly caught his interest. Not the color, though the dark shade of blue was quite lovely. She had fire in her, determination and pride that spoke volumes of just how much a pain in the ass she was going to become. And yet Law found himself to be slightly impressed. Even though she showed clear signs of captivity, she wasn't hiding. She was up here, ready to fight.

Or maybe not. The longer she held up the marines, the more her body shook until she was sagging against Bepo and the paler her skin became. When she called to the pirates, her voice rasped with the strain. "I can't hold them up much longer, you guys. Shall I send them overboard, or would you like to kill them yourselves?"

Law's answer was quick. He didn't have the energy to deal with them himself. "Overboard, if you'd please, Miss." With a grunt and a wave of her arm, the screaming marines were blasted over the edge of the deck. The moment the last guy was gone, her legs collapsed and Bepo caught her. With an entire third of their men gone, the marines quickly lost steam. It didn't take too much longer to defeat them with the added fresh assistance of the kung-fu polar bear and one of the head mechanics.

The captain took stock of his crewmates first. Aside from Derek's side, there weren't any serious injuries. He instructed him to put on pressure to stop the bleeding and went to check on the woman. Bepo and Penguin hadn't left her side the entire time, protecting her from any marines that tried to get at her. The scene he found entertained him greatly. Penguin and the woman were bantering back and forth, slight smiles on their faces, while Bepo sat to the side with his classic depression cloud over his face. He listened for a little bit to get the gist of the situation.

The woman, it seemed, had mentioned that Bepo did well for a bear. That had caused the cloud. When she'd apologized, Penguin had mentioned that he did this often. Now it seemed that the mechanic was telling stories about Bepo's sensitivity, causing even further depression. Law interrupted by clearing his throat, and Penguin immediately cut off his sentence to salute at his captain. Bepo stood as well, though his salute was less enthusiastic. The woman couldn't really stand, though she gave it a good effort. She got up on her feet before falling back. "Um... I'd stand and salute too, but..." She shrugged instead of finishing, smiling sheepishly.

Law waved his hand to the other two, letting them relax their stances, and crouched next to her. "I'd like to ask some question, miss, if that's alright with you." Not like she got a choice, but it was only polite to ask. She raised an eyebrow at him, like she knew that she didn't have a choice, but nodded anyway. "First question, miss. What's your name?"

She took a long moment before answering. Why, Law wasn't sure of. Maybe she really didn't remember her name. Some people have been in slavery or captivity for so long that they lose any memory of it. It would explain her appearance, at the least. The woman finally sighed and said, "Nadeen. Just Nadeen. You have about as much of an idea of my last name as I do."

The pirate captain gave a frown at the lack of information, but let it pass. He'd find out eventually if she was lying, and the consequences wouldn't be pretty. He felt the need to tell her this and did so. "If you're lying, Miss Nadeen, then I will find out. And you won't enjoy what comes after." She gave him another smile, but didn't answer. Law continued with his next question. "Second. Why were you with my crewmates?"

Nadeen didn't take as long to answer this time. Just long enough to think over her words. "I offered my help in finding supplies and they let me out of my cell. There are medical supplies and food supplies just beyond those stairs, since that's what they said you needed the most." Law followed her line of view and saw an open door with stairs leading below.

He nodded in understanding before turning to her. Then he just crouched there, looking at her. This was the patience/pressure test. If she got squirmy waiting for him to speak, she wouldn't be of any interest. He'd heal her and she'd be on her way. And if she took the initiative and asked her own question, he'd answer like a gentleman. But she didn't do either. She just sat there and stared back at him. For five whole minutes, they watched each other. He could tell the rest of his crew was getting antsy, but she sat perfectly still. Law felt a smirk curl onto his mouth and he suddenly stood back up, turning to his men. "Men, fetch the supplies and get ready to sink the ship. Derek, Shachi, bring Miss Nadeen to the infirmary. I'll fix you up before I look after her."

Derek and Shachi came over and introduced themselves. Shachi, being the less-hurt one, picked Nadeen up in his arms. She looked for a moment like she would protest, that same look of defiant pride from before across her face. But then she sighed and relaxed in Shachi's arms. 'Probably realized her situation.' Law thought, amused. As the two were walking away, however, she suddenly stretched herself to see over his shoulder and called, "Hey, you never told me your name!"

It wasn't every day that Law met someone who didn't know who he was, and the idea brought him satisfaction that he could traumatize a new person. "Trafalgar Law, Miss Nadeen."

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped a little in shock. Law took great pleasure in the look before she repeated back, "Wait, Trafalgar Law? Surgeon of Death? The Dark Doctor? That Trafalgar Law?" At his nod, she groaned loudly and smacked her forehead against Shachi's shoulder. The mechanics were far enough away not that he could only just hear afterwards, "Great, I owe my life to a sadistic psychopath..."

Law chuckled to himself. Life with the Heart Pirates was about to get interesting. Very interesting indeed.

WORDS: 3759

PAGES: 7

Me: So, I've been obsessed with Law lately. Whenever I get obsessed with something, I start fanfictions for it. And this is the end product. I hope you liked it! If not, tell me what I can do to make it better. I make no promises as to when I'm going to update again.