Sid grabbed what remained of her tattered bandages with her teeth and pulled it off of her hand. The shredded cloth practically fell apart at the touch and its bloodstained bits fluttered to her feet like crumpled petals. She glared at Nathaniel over the top of blackened hand before working on freeing her other hand. Even though his needles had torn through her bandages and made it practically threadbare, it still felt distracting against her skin and she couldn't afford to have her focus go elsewhere.
It was by the skin of her teeth that she was able to block the incessant stream of needles Nathaniel shot out from beneath his chain mail. His power was difficult but not because they couldn't pierce through God's Armor. It was because of the Needle Needle user's blatant disregard for his combat with Sid, choosing to shoot out his needles from his entire body at a complete 360-degree angle, not caring if he hurt friend or foe.
The blood on her bandages did not come from her own veins.
Everyone else had fled the plaza and those who got caught in Nathaniel's storm of needles were finally dragged away to safety by their friends, families, and/or guards and pirates alike.
"Sid! All clear!" Shachi yelled from the rooftop of a nearby building.
"Ah!" Sid shouted while glaring right at Nathaniel, "Leave this bastard to me."
With one final rip to the last inch of the sullied cloth, she loosened her jaw, spitting out any tattered threads lingering on her tongue, and picked up the trident that laid at her feet. Sid's eyes fell on a dirtied teddy bear that lay strewn in broken pieces behind the needle man, "You monster...There were children here."
"Doesn't matter," Nathaniel laughed. His voice was gravelly and hoarse, "One kill. A hundred kills. It's all the same to me as long as I get paid for my work."
The humor never left his lips as Sid charged at him with her trident. She stuck the prongs onto the ground at the last second, using it as a vaulting pole to launch herself at him.
"Needle Needle Deluge!" he shouted. A flood of needles came shooting out of his chest and towards the Shandian. She held her arms up over her face to deter any needles from getting into her eyes while the rest of her God Armor clad skin kept herself from becoming a human pincushion.
Thwack!
She speared him right at the midsection, landing her knees right in his stomach and knocking him to the ground.
Thwack!
She punched him hard across his jaw, knocking away his helmet. It landed with a clatter against the cobblestone and rolled clunkily away from Nathaniel, revealing a face with a crooked nose and a deep scar that ran down one eye, sealing it permanently shut.
"You have no honor," Sid spat.
"Honor doesn't keep the belly full," Nathaniel sneered, increasing the tear in his lips and causing a small stream of blood to come out from it's folds. He grabbed Sid by the shoulders. "Needle Needle SPIKES!"
Sid flinched. No matter how hard her God's Armor was, it was no match for a thousand tightly concentrated needles that pierced out of his hands and into her skin but it only made it that far, stopping right at her bone. However, Nathaniel was merely using that as a way to hold her in place.
"Needle Needle...Monsoon!"
Sid sucked in a breath and ripped herself away from Nathaniel's hold. She flung herself to the side just as a cascade of needles came shooting out from the front of his body. The needles that were previously stuck in her shoulders ripped all the way down one of her arms and over a wing, tearing a few feathers loose and making a shallow cut down the blade of the wing.
Sid exhaled through her nose as if ejecting the pain along with it. A Shandian's wings were always the most sensitive part of their body and there was no training to overcome that weakness. However, she didn't allow herself much time to recover. She rolled over to where she had left her messenger bag. She stuck her hand in the bag and then a beat later got to her feet, which were now adorned with her wavers - Wyper's old ones, to be exact.
"I'm ending this now," she seethed.
"Fine by me," Nathaniel chuckled.
Clank! Clank!
In two swift bounds, the warrior was in front of Nathaniel and she swung her leg up and over her head. She brought it crashing down on his head but he blocked it in time with his two arms. However, as soon as his skin made contact with the skate, he started to wobble on his feet.
"Wha-What is this? Why do I feel weak?!"
Thwack!
Sid didn't answer. Instead, she bore down on her leg, breaking through his weakened stance, and landing her skate right into the crown of his uncovered head. Nathaniel face planted right into the ground and he stayed there even when a small pool of blood began to form beneath his head. SId hooked her foot on his neck and flipped him over. There was an extra angle now to his crooked nose and two streams of blood poured out from his nostrils. She could only see the whites of his eyes and his tongue rolled out from the mouth that was now missing some teeth.
Sid looked down at the drops of blood trickling down her arm and dripping from her index finger. "Tsk."
"Sid!"
She looked up at a nearby rooftop where Shachi and Penguin stood with their arms waving wildly in the air.
"Come on! We're done here. Let's go back to the ship!" Penguin shouted.
"What about the wounded?" Sid yelled.
"Don't worry about them. They have doctors tending to them now," Shachi said, "Come on before someone calls for more backup or something!"
"But I need to find-"
Kaboom!
The sudden explosion off in the distance put a stop to the conversation. Smoke and flames billowed out of the crumbling rock where the fortress once stood. Sid gaped at the destruction but then her mouth snapped shut when she saw the hint of a familiar white cloud moving up into the sky, under the guise of the smoke, with a man on her back. A man with a long sword resting on his shoulder and a fur white cap on his head.
"BOO!" Sid roared.
Law kept a wet cloth pressed against his nose and mouth and peered through the smoke in squinted eyes as the sky sheep navigated him out of the fortress ruins and up the mountain. At his side, he held the treasured Devil Fruit Tree that was covered in a larger damp cloth for its protection and to stop others from realizing that it was in Law's possession.
As soon as they were out of the smoke cloud, he looked at the map King Sadal had drawn for him and pointed towards the east. "Head towards that cliff with the bushes," he instructed the sky sheep, "The first factory should be right over the ridge behind it."
"Boo!"
As they raced up the mountain, their path was suddenly cut off by a narrow stream of clouds that formed in front of them like a fluffy, milky rainbow.
"What the-?" Law murmurred as Boo jerked back in surprise. The pirate's eyes followed the cloud formation and he saw a faded pink seashell hurtling down at the very front of the trail.
"BOO!" Sid roared as she charged up the Milky Road on her wavers and skidded right in front of her sheep. She pointed her trident right at Law's face, as he continued to stare at the Cloud Dial. "You okay, Boo? Did he hurt you?"
Boo's head shook as tears came to his eyes. "Boo...?"
"Don't look so surprised to see me, Boo," Sid said exasperatedly, "I told you I'll always come for you. Oy! You! Law! Look at me!"
"Sid-ya..." Law said slowly. His eyes shifted to her and one corner of his lips turned upwards, "I thought I told you to wait for me at the ship."
"You told your crew that. Your orders don't apply to me," she said and her fingers gripped her trident even more, "And you really think I'd leave Boo with you after you took him from me without warning?! He must've been terrified!"
Law shrugged. "He was thundering at first but...he got over it pretty well."
"Thundering?!" Sid jumped up from the Milky Road and thrusted her trident. Law easily dodged the prongs and caught her weapon. He yanked her towards him. She had to let go of her trident and brace her hands against his shoulders to keep herself from smashing into him. Boo was expanded to the max but there was still was barely any room left for her to stand on. She was on the tips of her toes and holding onto Law to keep her balance. However, this surprising turn of events didn't quell the warrior's rage.
Thwack!
Law's head snapped back against the impact of her head butt. With one hand on her trident and the other on the Devil Tree, he was completley left wide open.
"Gahhh," he groaned. For a second, all he could see was a blinding flash of light. When the pain subsided and his senses returned, he raised his head to glare at her. "What do you think-"
He stopped when he saw her pained and wet eyes. The sadness underneath it made him realize that the backlash of her vicious strike wasn't the cause of her tears.
"If he's thundering, it means he's terrified. Nothing scares Boo more than being abducted. I can't...I can't let that happen again," she said. The fingers that dug into his shoulders started to loosen but she didn't pull away. "Please...Please don't just take him like that again. I'm begging you. It's not good for him and it'll only reopen old wounds."
"This has happened before...I'm not the first to take him away," Law concluded with a raise of his eyebrow.
"Sky sheeps are rare creatures even up in the sky islands," Sid said and her head lowered, "And an adult sky sheep is too powerful for anyone to capture. That's why the hunters...they always target the babies. That's how I found him. In a sky hunter's trap...just a small, helpless lamb. All alone...And...it wasn't just that time either...A lot of people have tried to take him away from me."
A sensation of guilt was starting to creep up on Law but the pirate pushed it back with sheer will power. After all, he was used to keeping that emotion at bay. His whole existence was riddled with guilt and he knew he had to push it aside in order to keep a clear head. In order to atone for his guilt, he had to ignore it and focus on his goal.
"I took him because I thought I might need him for an escape route," Law said gruffly, "It was a spur of the moment decision. I didn't mean him any harm."
"It's fine. You didn't know about his past trauma," Sid sighed. She sat back on her heels, balancing in a low squat whie still on her toes and she folded her arms across her chest. "If I thought you had any malicious intent, you wouldn't have caught my trident so easily. I would've come at you for real."
"I believe that," Law said. His eyes trailed down one of her arms and it stopped at her unbandaged hands. "Oy. You better cover your hands or else you'll get an infection."
"It's fine. I rubbed a special salve on it," Sid said and she flipped her hand over so that he could see the palm, which was still reddened and raw but it also had a slight, glittery sheen to it. "I'm guessing you're not familiar with cloud catci?"
"Cloud...cacti?" Law repeated, "No. I'm not."
"It's like aloe vera but the juices are more milky and they stick to your skin a lot stronger too. My salve is mostly made up of cloud catci so it'll act as a protective barrier until I wash it," she said and then she sighed, "I used up the last of my salve so I'm going to have to rely on Blue Sea plants moving forward...Which...I'm guessing you know a thing or two about?"
Law smirked. "What gave you that idea?"
"You inspected my patients. You noticed my burns and Clione told me he was the chief medical assistant and the head of the medical team...which means he would only answer to the captain...and that's you...and if Clione is only a medical assistant that would make you the doctor."
"That is correct. I'm a surgeon, to be exact."
"A surgeon?"
Law nodded. "I specialize in cutting people open. I ate the Op-Op Fruit so I can turn anything into my own operating room."
"The Op-Op Fruit...So that's your power," Sid said and then she gave a pointed look at the draped object at Law's side, "Don't tell me that's the king...You cut him up?"
The grin on Law's face came out of genuine amusement. "No. This is payment from him, actually."
"For what?" Sid asked.
"For getting rid of the newspaper," he said, "Which is what Boo and I were going to do before you interrupted. Would you like to help, Sid-ya?"
Sid sucked in a breath. "So the king has nothing to do with whatever it is the newspaper is trying to do?"
"I'll explain everything later after we've destroyed the newspaper factories," Law said.
"We?"
"Ah...We. I'll ask you again, Sid-ya, would you like to help?"
"Would this help the farmer?" Sid asked.
"Yes," Law said, "However, I cannot say that it would be the wisest decision economically speaking for this kingdom."
"What does 'economically speaking' mea-"
Law snorted. "I'll rephrase. If we take out the newspaper, it would preserve the farmers' way of life...for the time being. So...would you help me? Actually...Here's a more important question..." Law held out her trident for her to take. "Do you trust me, Sid-ya?"
Sid pondered the question, giving it as much gravitas and weight as he implied in his tone and expression. He wanted a clear-cut answer and she wanted to give that to him.
She couldn't tell what he was thinking or how his mind worked. That was for sure. He also wasn't going to help her figure that out. That was pretty clear too. Whatever mentality he had...Whatever he was trying to accomplish for being here...For being a pirate...It was all left in the dark for Sid and he had no intention of shedding any light on it. She knew practically nothing about who this man was for her to trust him.
However, what she had gathered so far, she liked, more or less. He valued the lives and well-being of his crew members and the feeling was more than mutual. Even if he wasn't one to show affection, his crew members did with unhesitating loyalty. He was not only a well-respected leader but a smart one too. He did not do anything that was unnecessary and acted in the most efficient and direct manner. Even though he kept his cards close to his chest, Sid's intuition told her that at least he would never lie about his hand.
"You know what?...I think I do," Sid admitted as she took her trident. She grinned at him and then back flipped away from him and on the Milky Road, "As long as our goals are the same, at least."
That conditional faith was enough for the Heart Pirate. "Can you destroy a whole building by yourself? Are you familiar with the concept of a foundation or even bricks?"
Sid patted her messenger bag. "Don't you worry about me, Blue Sea Surgeon. I've got a few sky tricks up my sleeve. I used to be a guerilla, you know? I took out entire Blue Sea ships and looted them all by myself."
"A gorilla?" Law mused, appreciating this bit of information, "And here I thought you were just a wild chicken."
"What's a chicken?" Sid asked.
"A type of bird that doesn't fly," Law replied.
"Oh. I see...Well, I do have useless wings so I guess that comparison isn't off," Sid said with a shrug, "So what's the plan?"
"You're willing to take orders from me?" Law asked.
Sid scratched the back of her head. "You know more about the situation than I do and you just said you were on your way to do something so might as well let me in on it."
"What about...in the future?"
"What do you mean?"
"After we are done here...would you like to join my crew?"
Sid twirled her trident in her hands as she grinned. "Naw. I'll pass on being a pirate. I'm just here to collect plants and once I get enough, I'm going back home."
"Even better," Law said. He rested his elbows against his knees and he leaned forward, "How about I hire you as a guerilla on a temporary basis?"
"Huh?"
"I need extra muscle on my crew," Law replied, "We can hold our own when it comes to physicality but that's just for now. As we get further into the Grand Line, it's going to be more difficult. You stay on my ship, collect as many plants as you need and once you're ready, we'll take you back to the sky island. In turn, you help protect my crew and also act as a scout when we arrive at a new island."
"You'll actually take me back to Shandora?" Sid asked, "It's okay for me to not be a permanent member of your crew?"
"To be honest, I'd rather prefer it to be that way," Law said, "It avoids us from having to deal with any form of emotional attachment."
Sid raised an eyebrow. "You're saying you don't want me to fall in love with you."
Her bluntness was no longer a novelty towards the captain. His only reaction was a stern nod. "Yes. I'll admit that is a slight concern of mine. I've had...some complications with a former female crewmember because of that."
"You can't stop someone from falling in love," Sid said.
Now it was Law's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Are you saying you would with me?"
"I'm just saying never say never. I've seen stranger couples happen just within my village. I was even the midwife to a couple of their kids," she said and then she grinned cheekily at him, "I mean, are you saying you don't find me attractive? Not even a little bit?"
"Not in that way. No," Law replied without hesitation and Sid took a step back in surprise.
"Wow...You're no fun."
"This isn't about fun," Law said, "I am not here to play around. I am a pirate for a reason."
"And what reason is that?" Sid asked.
"That's none of your business," Law replied.
"It is if I am to work for you," Sid said.
"You only need to help keep my crew alive. That is all. That, your room and board, and how to get back to your sky island are the only thing you need to concern yourself with."
"No. Not good enough," Sid said and she planted a hand on her hip, "You asked me if I trusted you and you said that was an important question so if you actually want me to trust you, you'll need to tell me what your goal is. What's the end game? Is it the One Piece?"
"You know about that?" Law asked.
"It was mentioned to me by another pirate captain," Sid replied, "Someone who is definitely more fun than you."
Law chuckled. "Then go join his crew then."
"I already told you, I don't want to be a pirate. You do, however, so let's get back to the point. Why are you a pirate? What do you want, Law? Tell me and I'll decide whether or not we have a deal."
"What do I want...?" Law murmured.
"If you're asking me to trust you then you're going to have to trust me too," Sid said, "So tell me."
Law looked down at his hands. He clenched his fist, watching the black letters on his fingers flex together, "I want to kill a certain man."
"I see," Sid said, "And...and you can only do that if you are a pirate?"
"As of right now...Yes."
"And...and you want me to protect the crew from him?"
Law couldn't help but smile at her clever conjecture. "Ah. If need be."
"So he's powerful..."
"In more ways than one."
"What's his name?"
"Ah...Now that, I cannot tell you," Law said, "My trust can only go so far."
"Likewise," Sid replied but then she stuck out her hand, "But you told me what you wanted to do and that's enough for me. I'll be your guerilla...Temporarily, of course."
Law stood up to the edge of Boo and he took her hand, giving it a firm shake. "Of course."