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Crocodile was being a little bitch. At least he was doing something interesting this time. His last trick had been a bit of plagiarism, and while Doflamingo was flattered, this was something all of Crocodile’s own. Jumping from warlord to prisoner to the middle of this battle field on the opposite side of him.
He breathes in with force, feels the drawing in of both air and string. Tripwires weren’t the most effective use of his abilities, but he can do it subtly enough to keep people off guard. Trip a few people and watch that moment of vulnerability turn to bloodshed.
He could draw the string to iron, cut people off at the ankle and watch as they crawled desperately, but that wasn’t all that interesting. It was cruelty for cruelties sake and he wasn’t his style. Too distinctive as well. A man tripping on the battlefield was an unfortunate mistake, a man without his feet was a sign that he was in a mood.
Crocodile is still fighting him, but bits of Observation Haki allow him to keep up with the one on one fight while scattering his mind to his strings laid out across the field. Doflamingo took the moment to decide who he was going to target. Marine or pirate, it doesn’t matter, just needs to be interesting.
There. Some fucker who’s day he can make worse, a few allies taking cover near bye while they take a chance to push. That’s not going to happen, a small flick of the wrist around a few pieces of rubble sends the figure to the ground.
It’s a sniper’s trick, something that Rosinante would have known better, rest his brother’s soul. One of their allies breaks cover to drag them back behind the small bit of cover afforded by a ruined battlefield.
A shooter takes the easily available shot, the one attempting to be a hero having their brains blown out. It’s a cruel tactic, one to teach those still around that being kind in a battle field will get you nowhere. Typically you’d shoot the unlucky one trying to push somewhere bloody but not vital, typically the leg so they were more of a sitting duck than just him tripping them up.
He draws away from that section of the field, moving back to his body and the fight with Crocodile. It’s good fun, at least on his end, he has few doubts that Crocodile wouldn’t try to maim him. The pipsqueak in the straw hat is making a large push up the direct middle of the field. Apparently Ace, the man about to be executed, is the kid's brother. As a man who lost a sibling he sympathizes with the young man. He won’t interrupt too much.
Crocodile takes this moment to try and ditch the fight with Doflamingo. How rude. He doesn’t get far, a string slashing through, ineffectual against the sand. He didn’t put any Haki into it, the point was to get the mobster’s attention, not do any actual harm.
Crocodile has taken the bait. It’ll be a bitch to clean out his coat later, filtering out all of that sand. Based on the few times they picked a fight during warlord meetings Doflamingo knows it will be upwards of a week to clean out all of the sand and he’d be tasting it at random for at least a month.
Crocodile has once again given him his full attention so he stops giving him his. There’s a marine girl with a cute hairband. It would make a good gift for Baby 5. He arranges for her to meet an unfortunate end at the blade of a close enough pirate. A small tug puts the gift in his pocket.
A bit of attention brings him back to the main stage. Apparently the Strawhat has managed to get his brother off of the execution platform. If the marines manage to lose this fight then he could just die laughing. He hopes that happens.
The fighting continues. He continues to keep Crocodile occupied. It’s for the man’s own safety really. Despite everything Crocodile still doesn’t know Haki, which is just a bit unbelievable.
Doflamingo respects that Mihawk wandered off early on in this fight, not even challenging Whitebeard like he expected him to. Even keeping Crocodile on him had lost its shine. It feels like it’s drawing to an end anyways. He can sneak off soon if it doesn’t wrap up by the time he finally gets around to leaving.
That doesn’t look to be in the cards. Old man Whitebeard seems to be making a large and loud stand. That takes most of the marine's eyes off of the strawhat and his brother. Akainu and the giant slam each other around, most of the damage on the old man, not that it seems to be doing much to slow him down.
The thing that finally slows Whitebeard down is fatal, what is as far as Doflamingo can tell the destruction of his heart. It’s a moment of awe for all involved, to watch as the living legend fails to collapse even in death. Many are awed by his confirmation of the existence of Roger’s treasure, but like hell Doflamingo cares about that. His inspiration from the pirate king comes from the power of his words, the influence.
The brothers are still making a run for it all the while. Ace still keeps trying to defend his old man, but the younger keeps pulling him back. It keeps them paired in the mad dash even as Akainu tries to bait them into a fight. But the gap is small eventually and he makes his strike.
The brother’s are close to each other. Close enough that the elder can push the younger forward when Akainu makes his strike. Both brothers end up caught in it. It catches the older one mostly, but the younger one isn’t left unharmed, but mostly burns hot enough to melt the skin. The older gets the physical brunt of the punch plus the burn of white hot lava.
Pity. Like he said, he was rooting for them. It’s no use crying over spilled milk or spilled blood so Doflamingo takes this moment to go. Not much interesting to see besides a boy crying over the not yet corpse of his older brother.
But then the prodigal son returns. Doflamingo knew that Law was out and about, especially after he and the strawhat wrecked his auction house, but there were enough wanted posters to put enough images of him in front of his face. It’s different seeing the now man in person. He grew up well, he can at least respect his brother enough for keeping him alive.
Dolfamingo decides to stick around and see if he can’t drag the wayward son home by the threads of his jacket. A better present for Baby, though she’ll still get the bow no matter what.
The approach is not a walk in the park. That sniper that’s his first mate is a killer shot. Observation Haki or something like that, keeping a perfect line of protective fire as Law drags souls to the rest of his crew for medical attention. The brothers are in that heep, so perhaps there’s some hope for them left.
Doflamingo decides to get a better look at that sniper, using a bit of observation to learn about him. The records say that it’s Law’s dad, but fat chance of that. He’s not stupid, he knows Law does not have one of those, the only family he has alive is those of the Donquixote crew, same as him.
In the next few moments Doflamingo feels very, very stupid. Rat bastard. There is his beloved, dead brother not looking him in the eye, but down the scopes of a rifle. His brother's face changed, a nose broken enough for it to stop setting right, bluish black hair, his brother’s face changed after he shot him dead. The group runs fast after they’ve hooked the brothers back with the rest of the crew. Out runs Aokiji’s Ice Age, out runs him for sure.
Doflamingo has seen a ghost. He’ll see him dead a second time.
Everything is covered in blood, fitting for a surgical suit, but not beneficial. Ace is too weak in this moment for him being a Logia to matter much, Luffy and his status as a Paramicia much the same. That’s good, it means Law doesn’t need to be everywhere at once, he can just focus on the one in the more critical condition at the moment: Ace.
(It was just him, just him and Cora. He had no idea what he was doing. But Cora-san needed to live. He needed to.)
Ikkaku starts on drainage, giving him a visual of the exact damage in Ace’s trunk cavity. Bottom lobe of the left lung is mostly gone, a torn open stomach rapidly leaking acid into the rest of the cavity and a perforated bowel that could lead to sepsis. Sepsis was a problem for people who lived past initial trauma, so that is below the priority of the stomach which is causing problems now.
(He’s not sure what to treat first. Cora’s bleeding so much. It’s everywhere. They don’t have any blood or platelets, what if he bleeds out?)
They have plenty of blood, he makes the crew donate every other month, as often as is healthy. They buy some in ports sometimes as well, many civilians happy to sit for an hour for a thousand berri and a cookie. Bepo is a universal donor so he starts with bags he donated. Luffy’s blood type is known so they pair him with the proper, less universal bags.
(He ends up using salt water. It’s not a good idea, but he remembers that when his dad explained what saline was to him, it was a salt and water mixture. Cora is a devil fruit user, it strains and sedates him in ways that aren’t good, but it’s the only replacement Law can think of.)
He rooms the stomach out of the cavity. It’ll stop the bleeding and leakage. Ikkaku is right behind him with more suction to clean out the space. This is the part they can’t afford to lose. The damage to the lung is survivable, would probably fuck up the fire Logia’s stamina, but survivable. Worst case scenario for the bowel was a colostomy bag, which would presumably take him out of the fight, but would keep him alive.
(He’s not fully sure how to use his new devil fruit, he still feels it sitting poorly on his stomach, trying to climb back out of his gut, or maybe that’s just the nerves. He just keeps cutting with this small knife and watches as it pushes through the bloody chunks of Cora. He’s not sure what he’s doing but he has to keep this bastard alive.)
Things stabilize after the stomach and bowel are sutured closed. The lower lobe of the lung is unsalvageable, but that’s something Law doesn’t do more than shrug at. The hard part is closing. There’s not much skin left to cover everything, what’s left on the edges is too fragile to be closed easily. The solution is to wait. If, when Law is confident in his skills, Ace wakes up and takes his logia form it will scar over in ways that aren’t fully explainable by science.
(The sutures are the most difficult, but are also the only part Law already knows how to do by heart. One of the crates on the ship they snuck out on is supplies meant to go to a tailor. He needs it more.)
He switches to Luffy after stabilizing the older brother. Ace took the brunt of the blow, it more glanced off of Luffy than anything else. It’s a series of abrasions to get to healthy skin and then a moist gauze wrap under the bandages to keep everything clean.
(He rips up some cloth from a box to make bandages. It probably isn’t sterile. Infections are for people who live.)
Luffy’s blood is ninety percent adrenaline, if he was at anything close to functioning he would be developing an arrhythmia, perhaps the young pirate already has. Long term effects will be disastrous, but at the moment things are really good.
(Things are bad. It’s been hours and Cora hasn’t woken up. He’s breathing, his pulse is steady, but he’s still out cold.)
He checks everyone's vitals one last time. Ace’s oxygen and blood pressure are low but stable, Luffy’s is in the regular range for someone in heavy exercise which is just another sign of how much adrenaline is in his system. He’ll go into shock when it clears, but that will be a hurdle for a later time.
Ace, only son of Gol D Roger, lives. Monkey D Luffy lives.
(Donquixote Rosinante, shot by his brother, lives.)