Chapter 107: … It finds a way.

After Vivi left to get some rest, Rick sat back down. He didn’t know what to do with the situation at hand. He knew Vivi and should have expected her reaction yet he stupidly hope it wouldn’t go the way it did.

“Well… At least I’m still in one piece.”

There was nothing he could do for now but wait, so he decided to occupy his time by watching the system. He mainly checked the devil fruit window, trying to find, maybe, a fruit or two that could be useful for the R.A. While every fruit has its usefulness if one thinks hard about it, he found nothing that could really help. Not for fighting nor for spying.

He tried the normal window and tried to find something little Lynda and Hancock would like after meeting Kaza and their daughter but didn’t find anything either. He would have, has his head and heart been in it but both were focused on different things. First Vivi and Kaza and his eldest daughter. Since he couldn’t deal with Vivi, he closed the system and focused on the second problem.

What could he say? How should he present himself to an almost teenage girl? How to defuse Kaza for being married and engaged? Not mentioning the existence of another daughter? When he came into this world he had two objectives. Get rid of the celestial dragon and fuck as many characters as he could. Making them his. And while the first takes time - sure he could go back to Marie Geoise and slaughter every world noble, but nothing would change for the world, the people needed to do it themselves to create real change in the right direction- the latter wasn’t going as well as expected. What was simple was actually quite complexe. Why? Because feelings got in the way, he didn’t take that into consideration. Yes he was married to Robin, but he wasn’t supposed to fall madly in love with her. Neither was loving Nami and Hancock. Nor Vivi. That relationship soured because of his choices, because of his actions. At least it seemed that way now. While he knew the women in his life from the manga, the real them, while quite similar, were… not different but… more… authentic? Deep? He didn’t have a term to express it. He was brought out of his thoughts by Vivi.

“Did you spend the last five hours looking at that wall?” she asked a few feet away from the side.
“What’s so special about it? A hidden vault?” she joked.
“It’s the wall where I died.” he replied in a monotone voice.

That quieted her. She still couldn’t bring herself to believe the story she heard from the record dial.

“You really did die.” It was a statement but she wanted confirmation.
“I did. It was not fun. I remember the pain, the exhaustion, the people there and my last words to them then nothing.”

She closed the distance between them and sat beside him on the sofa. Rick didn’t pay attention to her, his gaze still fixed on the wall, remembering the moment. While he didn’t purposely look at the wall while he was thinking he wasn’t ready to share his thoughts with her yet. Those thoughts, he would share them with Robin or Nami; Vivi wasn’t as close to him as the two were.

“Who was there, with you?”
“At first? No one. I woke up from my… trance embed into the wall, the house half destroyed. The first one I saw was Grandpa, then Uncle then big sis. Uncle was furious. Was it more for his demolished house or for what I did, I don’t know. I remember, quickly talking about my trance, what it was, how it manifested, when it manifested for the first time…”
“What is this trance you’re talking about?”
“Basically? I’m being controlled by the sea devil.”
“Right.” Vivi answered unimpressed.
“Horns sprout on my heads and wings. You can ask any member of the crew and they'll tell you the exact same things. Maybe not the wings as apparently I only sprouted them during the war, but the horns they are familiar with them. As for the sea devil… well ever heard why people die when they try to eat a second devil fruit?”
“The myth says that the devil contained in each fruit fights each other and destroys the body of the person.”
“Well it’s bullshit. The truth of the matter is each devil fruit contains a part of the sea devil’s soul.”
“Soul? Really?”
“It’s scientifically proven. Brook, our musician, is one of them. Big mom another. Anyway The body is like a container, it contains an individual soul and can contain the part of the sea devil’s in a devil fruit. But it’s too weak to hold more. That’s why people die.”
“And yet you’re alive.”
“That’s because I’m the unexpected result of an abandoned project. Creating artificial humans that could hold the power of one fruit or more.”
“Again, do you really expect…”

She was cut off when Rick produced from his overcoat files about it. The same files he studied to understand what he actually was. It was a simple task to make her believe he had them on him the whole time, a simple movement of the hand while the system was open and the files were in his pocket.

“Do you always have them on you?”
“Read and I’ll answer you.”

She took the files from his hands and began to read. While she didn’t quite understand all what was in them she understood that Rick was telling the truth.

“My god… That’s…” She couldn’t not believe him after what she read.
“Fucked up, I know but that’s beside the point. The point is the sea devil feeds on my negative emotions when they are at their fullest. Before I got fixed…”
“Fixed?”
“Information for later. Before I got fixed he latched onto it and took control. I didn’t even know until after I got control back because of the destruction around me.Apparently the more he took control, the more my body changed, hence the wings before I died.”
“And no one has ever seen you … transformed during your time in the navy?”
“No, It happened for the first time in the last few months during my service.”
“What happened?”
“You happened.”
“Me?!” she said, shocked.
“When I saved you from those kidnappers. I infiltrated their hideout, and god…. It was… They were laughing, partying all the while raping women, treating them like cattle, butchering them as if it was a game, and you were there in the middle of the room, chained to a pole asleep. I heard what they wanted to do to you… I remember being angry, very angry… With my gravity I broke your chains and attracted you towards me. Once you were safely in my arms I… heard a voice, telling me to let it out, let it all out, all my anger. To make them pay. And I did. When I came too, you were still asleep soundly, safe and unharmed, but every corner, every inch of the room was colored in red. Pieces of flesh here and there on the ground, the walls even up to the ceiling. At the time I didn’t know what happened, and I did care, they were dead and most importantly, you were safe. That was all that mattered in that moment. I only understood what happened a decade later when I…transformed again during our fight against Moria.”

He stopped there from his recollection and went quiet. Vivi, seeing he wasn’t going to continue, pushed for more.

“What happened during that fight?”
“Moria hurt Robin.”
“Oh.”
“Nearly killed him and the whole crew. It was Nami who found out that Robin getting hurt was what actually did the trick.”
“Which is?”
“Seeing the people I truly love mistreated. Either verbally or physically.”

That made Vivi think. He transformed for Robin because he loves her, and did the same for her. She couldn’t understand why; she was six at the time and knew him for less than a day. She voiced her thoughts.

“I don’t think that’s the case. You, transforming for people you truly love.”
“Oh, it’s the case. I sprouted horns for Nami when I thought something bad happened to her. I was in control though.” he said with a chuckle before explaining what he found funny to a confused Vivi.
“Nami always felt jealous and inferior because I never transformed for her. Only Robin and you. She was delighted to know she was included in it too.”
“I don’t understand. I… I was only six, we knew each other for less than a day! How could you truly love me?!” she exclaimed, prompting Rick to laugh out loud.
“Vivi, when you know, you know. Though it wasn’t romantic love at the time, I knew I loved you the moment you saved me from that conning merchant. You were so adorable back then! So innocent but at the same time so fierce! So lonely too. I didn’t spend the day with you because I was indebted to you. I did because I enjoyed it, because I enjoyed spending time with you. You were a breath of fresh air in a life of constant violence and blood. I have interacted with kids before, sometimes younger, sometimes older, but none made me feel as alive as you did.”

It was the truth. While he did spend time with her to earn some affections points, he truly did enjoy every single moment spent with her. Vivi for her part didn’t know what to say, she was blushing a bit from the genuine compliment he had made. She was glad Rick was still looking at the wall.

“Let's get back on track.”
“Which is?”
“What happened when you died, what else?!”
“Well, there is the track about when my love for you turned romantic, how about that?”
“Not interested.” she replied quickly, making Rick sigh.
“Well, I remember apologizing for winning…”
“Winning what? Clearly not the fight.”
“Winning our wits battle. I don’t think it has been made public, but that day Blackbeard broke into Impel Down, to recruit pirates for his crew.”
“No, that wasn’t part of the news at the time. There was the part about Ace being the pirate king’s son and Luffy being Dragon, and the part about Whitebeard fleeing, your speech and you fighting and dying.”
“That's because the video feed has been cut. The fact that my speech was seen was because I turned it back on for it, just after I told uncle about what Blackbeard was doing. Uncle didn’t see that coming. Apparently my speech was effective. The fact that I purposely avoided broadcasting what was happening at Impel Down was the cherry on the cake. I created chaos while maintaining order at the same time. Tsuru told me he was pissed but at the same time proud.” he laughed
“What happened next?”
“I… was really tired. I remember falling and grandpa catching me. After that… I don’t know.”
“There is one thing I don’t understand.”
“What is?”
“Why didn’t you run away?”
“To let Whitebeard escape.”
“Yes, but after that? You can fly, you could have easily run away.”
“Because that’s the way I wanted to go.” he replied, and before she could say anything else he spoke again.
“I was dying. Artificial humans… They don’t have a long life. The Type I was? Around twenty years. It’s actually a miracle I reached the venerable age of 28.”
“But… you’re here now. In the same… type of body, are you still dying then?”
“Not anymore. That’s the fixed part I was talking about earlier. Before the war, I came across Vegapunk.
“Vega…”
“Yes, him. He told me I was done for, but the sample he got from me, from my body, helped him in his research. First thing I did when I was… reborn, was to go see him and he fixed me. Now I have the lifespan of any normal human. And before you ask, I don’t know how he did it, he just did and sent me on my way.”

Vivi was silent, digesting the new huge pile of information he had dumped on her. If she were to be honest she still didn’t digest the ones from five hours earlier. The ones who were really important. Sure now, knowing what she knows, she forgave him for faking his death which actually he didn’t do since he really did die. There was no point for her to be mad at him anymore. Everything else though? She didn’t know what to make of it. It was too much for her. She needed to sort everything out, including her feelings. And she started from there.

“When?” she asked, making him confused.
“When did your love for me turn romantic?”

Rick pondered for a moment if he should play the idiot but quickly decided against it. It would only be a disservice to him to act like that.

“When we met again in Alabasta. I… was stunned, adorable little Vivi was now a beautiful girl on her way to be a woman. Then I saw you laugh, I saw you cry but most of all I saw a determination even greater than in my memories, for your people. I saw how courageous you were when you tried to stop a million rebels by yourself. I saw your conviction, your hope, to fight for something better regardless of what would happen to you. How could I, how could anyone not fall for you after all that?” he replied with a smile.
“Why.. didn’t you say anything?” she asked while looking at her hands resting on her lap, clenching her dress tightly.
“I was 28, you were 16, it wasn’t right.”
“So just because I was underage you didn’t say anything?!” she said incensed.
“No. You had your youth in front of you, you were a princess. Me? A man entering his thirties, hated both by the navy and the pirates, a fugitive that everyone wanted dead. In what world …”
“You could have stayed! You could have lived freely! Every alabastan knew what you did for the kingdom! You are their hero, they wouldn't have cared. They still don’t!”
“But I did. It wasn’t right to me.”
“Then why take me as a hostage?! Nothing changed except that I’m an adult now! The age gap is still the same, I still have my youth, my life in front of me! Why now?!”
“Because I died.”

That quieted her immediately.

“When I was born again it was on our ship. The crew was not there and since I still felt that my end was near I tried to avoid them. Unfortunately they have a tendency to attract trouble I couldn’t not help them. Obviously I got caught. It was only after a severe beating from Robin and a talk that I decided that I was being an idiot.”
“What did she say?”
“That she regretted not having gotten married before I died. She then proposed to me, knowing damn well that I was still on borrowed time, but she didn’t care. She was going to live her life with me as best she could no matter what time I had left. When Vagapunk fixed me, I decided to follow her example. To live my life to the fullest, to be selfish for once and not think about others first. I still have so much difficulty with that but when it came to my feelings for you, it was easy. Any doubt or inhibitions I had went out the window. I wanted you in my life, no matter what, so I went for you. That’s as simple as that.”

She was speechless. His words were genuine and yet again she didn’t quite know what to say.

“I.. I don’t know… Everything, it’s… It’s a lot to take in. Do you know what you’re asking of me? How hard, how difficult is it for me?” she said almost pleadingly.

He raised his right hand and caught her chin. Raising her head and turning it so she could face him, he moved it towards her left cheek.

“I know. I know that saying I have a lot of baggage is an understatement. But I also know that Robin, Nami and Hancock are happier with the situation.”
“It’s easy for Robin and Nami, they are in the crew!”
“True. And I know Hanock wished I was by her and Lynda’s side more but It’s only until Luffy becomes the pirate king.”
“And after that what?”
“Robin and I and possibly Nami, intend to live in O'hara.”
“O’hara was destroyed!”
“And I rebuilt it during my ten years exile.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still the princess of Alabasta and its future ruler!”
“No, but what would change would be O’hara.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t tell anyone, not even Robin but I wish to make O’hara a flying island, able to travel the world. That way I would always be close to you if you decide to stay in Alabasta.”
“You’re completely mad! A flying island!”
“Actually, I’m not. The mayor of Water 7 is currently working on making the island float on water, just like the water train’s tracks do. There are always Vegapunk studies.”
“What studies?”
“Infuse devil abilities into inanimate objects. I already witnessed an elephant sword. Alive. Why couldn’t an island be infused with a devil fruit giving the ability to float or fly? Just with my gravity I could maybe make it float.”
“That’s…”
“Not as impossible as you thought.”
“I… I need to think about it.”
“It’s alright, I understand. It’s not an easy decision.”

He took her hand and put his engagement ring in it then closed it.

“For when you make it.”

Then he brought her down onto his lap and started patting her. After everything that happened she was tired. While she was upstairs she had tried to rest with no success, but the patting was effective. She quickly fell asleep clutching the ring in her hand.

~~~~

They passed the time they had catching up with each other’s lives, how she had fared since his departure from Alabasta two years ago and the crew’s adventure. She internally laughed at the face Rick made when she talked about her father and his multiple ledgers of suitors for her.

When a knock on the door was heard, they knew their time together was over. Rick signaled her to go open it but as she passed him he caught her by the arm gently and turned her around then kissed her. It was brief but intense. When she separated, she couldn’t look at him and instead looked down, her head resting on his chest along her hands. Then without a word, she pulled away and went back on her way towards the door and once she reached it opened it.

“Princess Nefertari.” said Garp as greetings.
“He’s waiting for you inside, I suppose I have to wait for you to take me back to Marie Geoise?”

The Vice-Admiral simply nodded and entered the house, closing the door behind him. He went to the living room and saw Rick sitting on the sofa, hot tea and cookies on the table in front of him.

“Ballsy of you to choose this place for a meeting.” said Garp trying to break the ice with little effect.

Sighing the old mad sad down opposing the man he had raised.

“You know what I want to know.” began Rick.
“Yes.”
“Why! Why didn’t you tell me back then?!”
“I… You were a pirate who a few days earlier declared war on the world government, used a buster call to destroy the island of justice and then destroyed the buster call. It wouldn’t…”
“Keep your bullshit for someone who will believe it grandpa. WHY?!”
“Eri is…”
“Eri? That’s her name?”
“Erica…. Erica is her name, but for her security everyone knows her as Eri.”
“She named her after me?” asked a bewildered Rick.
“Of course she did. She’s completely nuts about you. Did you really expect anything else?”
“... No. But go on, why?”
“Eri is… She looks just like Kaza, but inside… inside she’s just like you.  Her sense of right and wrong, her sense of justice… it’s so strong in her. Everytime I look at her I see you.”
“That doesn’t explain anything.”
“Dragon, Luffy, Ace, you. I fucked up royally raising you. I didn’t want for her to turn out like any of you did. I wanted for her to grow up right and I couldn’t have you influence her.”
“I would never have pushed her towards piracy.”
“No, you wouldn’t have but…”
“The celestial dragons…”
“Yes. He’s still alive by the way. A member of CP0 caught him before he crashed on the ground.”
“Too bad.”
“...”
“... Does she… Does she know about me?”
“That you’re her father? No, she doesn’t.”
“What did Kaza tell her when she asked who her father was?”
“She told her how great you were. Strong, smart, diligent with a strong sense of justice and most of all, selfless and kind hearted. That you were lost at sea and that’s why she retired from the navy.”
“...”
“...”
“How is she? What does she like? Is she a sword fighter like Kaza? She probably is, knowing her mother.” he said chuckling.
“She is. She’s a curious child and likes to read anything and everything. She took your height, barely 12 and she’s already 5”5.” replied Garp laughing too.
“She wants to be a marine.” the old man announced.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Yes, there is nothing wrong with being a marine.”
“And yet you left.”
“I left a corrupted institution, which, when I’m done with it, will not be corrupted anymore.” Rick replied with a frown.
“You can’t take the whole word, You can’t change something established 800 years ago.”
“Watch me.”
“...”
“...”
“How is Kaza?”
“Well. Believe it or not, time and motherhood did wonders for her, even more beautiful than before.”
“I believe it and it’s good that she's well.”
“...”
“...”
“She didn’t take it well, you know?”
“My death?”
“Yes. It… broke her. She blamed me of course, rightfully I might add, and if it wasn't for Eri I don’t think she would have been able to pull herself back up.”
“...”
“...”
“Where are they? And don’t sell me some bullshit. I have the right to know my daughter, just as much as she has the right to know me.”
“... East Blue. Foosha village.”
“Of course… How did I not think of it? The place where you raised Ace and Luffy.”

Rick stood up and Garp did the same. As the former was about to leave, the later caught him in a bear hug.
“I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Me too.”

Garp let him go and as Rick was about to leave by the window Garp spoke.

“I’m sorry I let you down. That I didn’t tell you about those assholes.”
“Dragon, Ace, Luffy, me… You didn’t let a single one down. The only one you let down grandpa… is you. By the way... You have another great-granddaughter, her name is Lynda and she’s almost two.”

Rick quickly made his escape laughing at Garp’s scream.

~~~~~

“Are you ready Princess?” asked the Vice-Admiral.
“I am. Is everything alright?
“I’m fine, thank you for asking.”
“With how loud you shouted I doubt that’s the case.” she teased him.
“I.. I’m sorry about that. Rick is…”
“Rick is Rick; always playing with people's nerves.” she chuckled.
“I see you’re well acquainted with the animal.”
“I am, it’s a long story.”
“I would love to hear it if you don’t mind.”
“If you keep it to yourself, not at all. It’s a long one though.”
“Fortunately, with the travel we got time and you have my word I won’t tell a soul.”
“Then lead the way, Vice-Admiral.”

She followed him in silence, a smile on her face and her left hand in her right. If one would look closely they would have been able to see the sun reflect between her finger on the jewel on her left hand.