Lara's POV;

Lia was sitting in my lap, her hands resting on our main mast and her back leaned into my chest. This is one of her most liked and comforting position to sit in and would hopefully lessen the strain of holding the ship up for a prolonged time.

We don't know how long it will take us to fall back down to the Grand Line. A free fall would have been quick, but we all know that Lia wouldn't be able to slow a free-falling ship completely. We also know that the makeshift parachutes would not be able to hold a multi-ton ship.

“I'm ready”, announced Lia after taking one last deep calming breath. I nodded to Jonny and Yosaku, who lifted the anchor, and then our ship began to move forward.

Over the rim of the cloud that is holding us back from falling over ten thousand meters down into a death by hitting the water with less than even remotely safely speed.

“Are we dead yet?”, asked Jonny with closed eyes.

“No you moron, Lia is holding the whole ship in the air”, answered Nojiko with a hit to the back of Jonny's head.

The ship was now almost completely over the rim and wasn't showing any signs of falling down. Lia's strength training is showing great results.

“It's now completely in the air, I'm gonna start and increase the weight again”, pressed Lia out. A second later the ship made a short lurch downwards and those who were standing had to stumble if they didn't fall down.

Jo's high pitched squeal was funny, but I sadly can only tease him once we are down on the safer sea. “Goddammit that scared me”, grumbled the pale doctor.

Lia smiled thinly, amused by the discomfort he was feeling. I patted her head and looked up at the half dozen sails that were now blown out and forming a crude view of balloons. They were all holding and I think we were drifting downwards.

“How hard is it and how heavy is the ship?”, I asked with concern, not stopping my petting for even a second.

“Bearable, for now. I the sails take off some weight. I also think we are falling with a speed of 10 meters per second. We will land in under half an hour”, answered Lia. “I think I can hold for that long, but only if we just drift down. I can't adjust our position as well”, she added with an afterthought.

“That's okay, we can land wherever we want the ship can sail even in the calm belt”, I reassured her and remained silent after that. There was no need for me to distract her.

It was silent for a long moment, the crew was warily looking over the railing, I was petting Lia's head and Lia was concentrating on keeping us alive.

None of the crew was speaking a single word, careful to not distract Lia. It kept that way for most of the time of our descent. Over ten minutes later came the first spoken sentence.

“I can see an island. It's on our left side”, informed Nojiko the rest of us in a low tone. We were still too high to fall without any stop.

Lia was also showing the strains from her constant use of her Devil Fruit. She was sweating heavily and her breathing was slightly ragged. I stroked her cheek in concern and got a reassuring smile in return.

She would be fine for a few more minutes. And with the island nearby we are also almost guaranteed to survive.

“There are half a dozen ships coming from the islands, their course is directed towards us,” warned Nojiko. So someone on the island must have seen our descent. Not unsurprising, but Lia won't be able to help us in escaping if they turn hostile. It would be my turn again.

“We will only need five minutes at this speed”, noted Jo, “They should take a little longer to reach us,” he added.

Said five minutes later we touched down into the sea and Lia let out a very deep breath. She then turned her head around, gave me a small kiss and smiled tiredly. “I'm exhausted, can you take care of the rest?”

I nodded, giving her a kiss of my own and waited until she has walked inside the ship to turn around, now facing the small fleet of ships that was heading towards us.

Most were of similar size to the Shadow, but two were clearly warships. Maybe we don't have to fight us out of another confrontation, but I wasn't having any hope. Not because it wasn't likely, but because I did want to fight.

“Fiara, man the three barrel cannon, aim at their lead warship. Jonny, Yosaku you two will take care of our normal cannons. Noa and Jo will help with the sails. Nojiko will take care of our ruder and I will stop them from shooting at us.

Maybe they aren't here to kill us”, I ordered quickly and the crew scoffed. They always wanted to kill us.