Steel Heart

The Cries When A Family's Loved One Dies

Donquixote Rosinante was at his last breath. The pure snow around his mangled body was stained scarlet. Scarlet blood. His blood. Just as he felt himself slipping away, he clenched his fist tight. 'No! If I die, then... The spell I put on Law will be broken... And everyone will hear him scream. Vixie... Beetrice.'

His brother loomed over him like a sinister and demonic presence. "Hm? What have you got there, little brother?" As Doflamingo leaned down and reached for the source of his attention, Rosinante curled his fist tighter around it. "N- no!" Doflamingo snarled, snatching it away. The ten foot monster held up a glinting steel chain with a heart shaped pendant at the end. He brought it closer to see an engraving across the heart. "For my little girl," he read aloud, shocked and dumbfounded by this revelation.

"Corazon, y- you!" The younger brother hacked violently. Blood spilled past his lips. "Y- you'll n- never find them o- or L- Law. Never... Never..." Doflamingo kicked his mangled body one more time before storming off to escape the approaching navy ships. Rosinante heard a clunk of a treasure box, casing him to crack his signature smile. 'Law, you're free now. There's nothing left to hold you down. Nothing to stop you. My girls... I'm so sorry.' No one ever heard the young boy cry out in agony and anguish over the sound of bombs in the distance.

"Admiral Sengoku, an executive of the Donquixote family has just been killed! I'll send you a photo." The dark haired man's eyes widened with shock and disbelief. He dropped his pen as the photo printed. Tears welled up in his aging eyes. 'No! This can't be!' Sengoku fought the coming waves of grief in vain. ' You told me you weren't on that island! Why? Why must you die tonight?' underlings turned their heads when the admiral began sobbing in grief. "Bring the body to headquarters," he sobbed in the radio. "I'll tell his family."

"Mommy, there's an old man at the door." A little blonde girl shook a young woman awake. "Hm? Just a minute sweetie." The child tugged her mother's hand. "C'mon, mom! He says he knows daddy!" The woman quickly jumped out of bed, pulling on her green coat. She rushed to the cracked open door. She opened it completely, her smile fading. "Oh, Fleet Admiral. What can I do for you?" Her green eyes flitted down to what he held in his hands. "Vixie, I'm so sorry for your loss." Vixie put a hand over her mouth in realization at what he was holding so tightly, falling to her knees. Sengoku held Rosinante's blood stained black coat.

"Why? Oh, God, why didn't you stop him?" "He was helping save the life of a little boy." Vixie choked back the tears threatening to spill. "Who did this to him?" Sengoku sighed solemnly. "His older brother... Shot him to death." Vixie wailed in pain at the loss of her beloved husband. Sengoku put the coat in her hands. Beetrice tilted her head in confusion. "Mommy?" "J- just go back to bed, sweetheart."

Vixie stayed up all night washing her husband's blood stains from his coat, crying her eyes out. And Beetrice never understood why. She never knew exactly who her father was.

Doflamingo sat in his chair, deep in thought. 'My little brother has a daughter. And he never told me.' His eyes were trained on the pendant. 'Hmph. Useless trinket.' He stood up, leaving his room. "Baby 5!" The dark headed twelve year old stopped what she was doing, staring up at the monstrous man. "Yes, young master?" He was wearing his signature wide grin. "I have an gift for you." The blonde man leaned down, holding out the pendant to her. Baby 5's indigo eyes lit up in sheer excitement. "Oh, thank you, young master! Its so pretty." Too bad the girl remained ignorant of how Doflamingo had attained the "gift."