Chapter Text
The past two years had been a strange time for the Heart Pirates. Penguin had been so relieved that they had managed to reunite with Law a month after Marineford and find out how he had been officially declared as a Warlord. Law hadn't been allowed to leave Marineford (the new one in the New World) for six months, and was ordered to make daily reports when he had been allowed to leave afterwards. The Rocky Port incident had gotten them into a fair bit of trouble sadly, but Law handed over one hundred pirate hearts in order to ease that tension out, and stayed in Marineford for another six months. It had been such a pain in the ass, but at least it meant Law got to spend time with Rosinante, Kuzan and Sengoku. Rosinante was a great guy, and now that Sengoku was retired, he was pretty good too. Kuzan however had gotten a bit more cranky now as the Fleet Admiral.
Not that Penguin entirely blamed him.
Akainu had a lot of followers of Absolute Justice, who were pretty pissed that Lazy Justice had 'taken over', but there wasn't much they could do about it after Portgas D. Rouge had planted her swords in Akainu's face when he tried to murder Monkey D. Luffy. A tragedy, really.
Penguin knocked on the door to Law's room, where he was once again on the snail, looking annoyed.
“Ice-ya, these daily reports are getting tedious at best,” Law complained. “I don't have much to report today other than sailing on the sea, which is what I did yesterday, and the day before that. The only interesting thing is that we made land, but that's about it.”
“Well we both know what your contract says,” Kuzan sighed. “If you don't follow it to the letter, you're going to get into trouble with the World Government, have your title as a Warlord revoked, and then we'll be back to hunting you down again.”
Penguin sat the coffee down and frowned when he caught sight of more snow on his jacket. Penguin brushed it off.
“Don't put snow on my floor,” Law complained.
“Snow?” Kuzan asked.
“We're somewhere frozen right now,” Law said. “I'm not entirely sure what island it is, but-”
“Captain!” Shachi screeched. “A samurai is attacking us!”
“A samurai?”
“And now I've got to go,” Law said. “What the fuck is a samurai doing on a frozen island?”
“Be careful, Law,” Kuzan said.
“I'll be fine,” Law reassured, then hung up. He grabbed his coffee on the way, along with his jacket. Penguin followed after his heels.
“This island is insane, Bepo said the skies were different,” Penguin said.
“Different how?” Law frowned.
“The skies are split in half, one looks like it's hot in temperature, while the other cold,” Penguin explained as they left the Polar Tang.
Huh, there really was a samurai attacking them. Ikkaku just stabbed him from behind.
“A woman stabbed me?!” the samurai cried. “How shameful!”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, you shithead!” Shachi snarled.
Law raised his hand. “Room.”
He then proceeded to cut the man to pieces and send his body parts across the island.
“What a weirdo,” Penguin complained.
“It's too cold, Captain!” Shachi whined.
“Yeah, why couldn't we go to a resort?” Ikkaku huffed. “We're no longer wanted criminals after all. We should be able to go somewhere nice where I can have a spa day.”
“Yeah!” Shachi agreed.
“I didn't think it was that cold. I thought it was kinda nice here. It reminds me of North Blue,” Bepo said.
“You're a polar bear!” Shachi yelled. “Of course you'd be fine!”
“I'm sorry.” Bepo hung his head.
“Too weak willed!” Penguin and Shachi yelled.
Law smirked. “Bepo, you wanted to check out why this island was so strange, right?”
“That's why we're here?” Shachi groaned. “Can't we just leave this as a mystery island and go somewhere nice?”
“There's a large building in all that snow,” Jean Bart said, his brow furrowed. “It looks like a factory.”
“Maybe it's warm in there!” Shachi crossed his arms, shivering.
Law sighed. “Yeah, my coffee froze over.”
That was a shame.
“Why did you bring it out with you anyway?” Penguin raised a brow.
“I really wanted some coffee...”
“Let's go raid the factory then,” Ikkaku said. “Maybe we'll get lucky.”
They, in fact, did not get lucky.
.::.
“How did this end with you fighting Vice Admiral Smoker?” Ikkaku groaned.
“I don't know. I just wanted coffee!” Law yelled.
“I'm just here for Straw Hat!” Smoker snapped.
“Fuck off then!” Shachi screamed. “Law swapped some them about and they ran off!”
“Why did you swap them?” Penguin asked.
“...Revenge...”
“For two years ago?!” Shachi cried.
“Every time I see them more marines get involved!” Law complained.
“He's got a point...” Penguin admitted.
“If you don't want them getting in your way anymore, then let me arrest them,” Smoker growled. “You know how much trouble you'll be in for going against me, Trafalgar. You're a Warlord, that status protects you from being sent straight to Mariejois, but if Aokiji catches on that your being disobedient he'll have you recaptured again and sent there for good this time.”
Law rolled his eyes. “Your problem is that you don't know how much the Straw Hats have grown over the last two years. They wouldn't have come back unless they made a lot of progress, not after Straw Hat lost his older brother to Blackbeard then Mariejois.”
“Your crew was the one who rescued Straw Hat when he was dying!” Smoker snapped.
“We were held hostage by Marco the Phoenix,” Shachi lied.
“Yeah, it wasn't like we were going to tell him 'no',” Penguin said.
“I literally heard you tell him to take Straw Hat to your ship!” Smoker bristled.
“You need to clean your ears,” Shachi insisted. “We never said that.”
“Liars!”
Law smirked. “Should I check out your hearing, Smoker-ya? I'm a doctor after all.”
“Shut it, Trafalgar!”
“GAAAAAHHHHH!”
Law paused, then cursed and ducked beneath Smoker's jitte. “Why are Clione and Bepo screaming? Where did they go?”
“Inside!” Shachi yelped, scrambling from the door as Clione and Bepo came charging out, tears in their eyes.
“They have frozen dead people in there!” Clione sobbed. “It so gross!”
“We have organs aboard our ship and that is what freaks you out?” Penguin groaned.
“I'm sorry.” Bepo deflated.
“And where exactly did Ikkaku and Uni go?” Law complained. “Jeez, you guys need to stop rushing off!”
“They went the other way past the creepy dead bodies!” Clinoe wailed.
Law groaned.
“Well, Trafalgar?” Smoker smirked. “Going to keep fighting me?”
“No, I'm just going to swap out your heart instead.”
“What-”
.::.
Okay, Penguin had to admit, the base was creepy. No wonder the Straw Hats and the kids had been screaming hysterically. If Penguin didn't live with Law, he would think the dead bodies in ice were terrifying too. Bepo and Clione were clinging to each other, or well, Clione was clinging to Bepo's back, while Bepo tried to cower beneath him. Shachi was poking at the ice thoughtfully.
“Wonder how long these guys have been here for?” Shachi mused.
“Who knows?” Penguin shrugged. “I'm more worried that we're on Punk Hazard. Shouldn't we all be poisoned right about now by that deadly gas?”
“It looks like something else is happening instead,” Law said, tilting his head when Ikkaku and Uni finally returned to them, Ikkaku holding a bunch of files.
“We swiped them,” she said cheerfully, handing them over.
Law began to read through them and couldn't help but chuckle.
“Interesting. Caesar Clown is here, and he's a subordinate of Joker.” Law grinned sharply.
“Uh oh,” Shachi groaned. “Doflamingo is involved in this?”
“What are you plotting, Law?” Jean Bart raised a brow.
“Doflamingo needs to be dealt with sooner or later, otherwise I'll be his prisoner soon enough. He wants me for both my abilities as a witch head, and for my devil fruit,” Law said. “We all know in New World you either have to join a powerful ally, or become powerful and take the fight to them. So how about we ally with Straw Hat-ya and use Caesar to take down Doflamingo and bring Kaido's wrath upon him?”
“You thought of that way too fast.” Ikkaku shook her head.
“It's just a rough idea for now to be honest,” Law admitted. “And I'm worried about all of you. If Doflamingo gets a hold of any of you and uses you against me, I'd have no choice but to obey him-”
“Don't even start.” Penguin scowled, jabbing him in the chest with his finger. “We're not leaving you alone, especially not with the Straw Hats.”
“We grew up during our teens in Luffy's company too,” Shachi said. “And we all know what he's like. He'll do whatever he wants, no matter the consequences. Hell, we've been in their company only a few times, and it's almost gotten you taken from us forever!”
“I-” Law tried.
“We lost you for a month,” Ikkaku said, her face dark. “After Marineford. We didn't know if we would ever see you again, Law, and that was all because of the Straw Hat's actions back in Sabaody.”
Law grimaced. “I choose to go with him to Impel Down.”
“Which you spent half the time unconscious and suffering from a witch fever,” Ikkaku said sharply, her eyes burning. “You could have died down there, and none of would have known what happened to you.”
“And when we finally saw you again in Marineford, Kuzan took you from us while you were healing Luffy, because he tried to go back for Ace instead of continuing to run,” Penguin said softly, not looking at him.
“And we could only watch helplessly as Kuzan froze you.” Shachi's fists clenched.
“Cora-san said you were unconscious for three weeks after that...” Bepo said, lowering his head.
“So don't ask us to leave you again,” Penguin said sharply. “We won't. I like Luffy, he's always been a good kid, but I can't trust him with our safety after all the reckless crap he's done. Ally with him all you want, Law, but we'll be there to make sure you return to the Polar Tang safely afterwards.”
Law didn't know what to say to any of that. He had known they had all been upset, especially after a month apart, but Law had to admit, he didn't know it was this bad.
“I don't want to lose any of you...” Law said weakly. “Not after what happened in Flevance... I don't know if I could take it...”
“And we can't take losing you,” Ikkaku said mournfully. “That month without you was hell for us. So please, never make us go through that again.”
“You're our friend, Law, mine, Bepo's and Shachi's oldest friend,” Penguin said. “You've saved us all from horrible situations in the past, because you're strong, so let us be strong for you too.”
Law sighed, defeated. Everyone was staring so determinedly at him, and Law knew he would have a mutiny on his hands if he kept protesting their help. He'd actually be held hostage by his own crew.
Law sighed and smiled. “Alright, you all win.”
Of course the dorks all started cheering at that.