This has been stuck in my head for some time now, I just had to take some time and write it.
Summary: What if the crew had never found out about Dragon from Garp? What if Luffy was closer to his father then anyone thought? Instead of living with Garp all the time, he lived with Dragon until he was 6, and met Shanks when he was 7. No one but Dragon and Garp knew about Luffy heritage.
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It was a peaceful day on the Thousand Sunny. They had been sailing for little over a week and had yet to see land. Luffy was lying on the deck next to Usopp, both panting heavily after an intense game of tag. Zoro was across from them training, a little ways from him were Robin and Nami lounging in beach chairs while Sanji fawned over them. Chopper was taking stock, seeing what he would need to pick up at their next stop as Franky repaired a hole left over from a fight between Sanji and Zoro, which Luffy ended up in the middle of and got kicked through the floor, and Brook was working on a new song.
Zoro looked over to his captain, shaking his head. Luffy was so energetic and hyper, no wonder he always needed so much-
"Fooooood! Sanjiiiii is it lunch time yet?"
-food. Zoro smirked. Luffy was always so predictable. He turned back to his training and almost fell as a weight slammed itself into his back. "Gah! Luffy! Get off! How many times have I told you not to do that when I'm training?" Zoro reprimanded trying to pry his captain off.
Luffy laughed as his arms and legs stretched, but didn't release his hold on his first mate. "But Zooooorrrooooo, its lunch time! You have to come eat!" Zoro sighed. There was no arguing with his captain when he was like this… or ever for that matter. He walked inside, Luffy chatting aimlessly away in his ear. Everyone was seated at the table, Usopp tinkering with something, Nami looking over her maps, and Robin reading her book. Everyone else was chatting with one another. They looked up when the two entered; Luffy sprung from his place on Zoro's back into his seat and immediately started pilling food in his plate. Zoro took his seat next to his captain more calmly and also started adding food to his plate, making sure to get extra knowing that Luffy was going to try and steal some. Luffy began talking to Nami and Robin about where they were headed.
"You know"-began Robin- "From what I heard on the last island, we are getting close to a spot that the revolutionaries were spotted a few days ago." Everyone stopped what they were doing, Luffy with half a mouthful of food diverted all of his attention at robin the second the word 'revolutionaries' left her mouth. Silence coated the room for a matter of seconds.
"Y-you mean like the actual revolutionaries, the ones with Dragon as their leader?" Nami stuttered. Robin nodded
"Who's Dragon?" Asked Chopper.
"Dragon is the number one enemy of the marines!" Shouted Usopp looking terrified. "He is the strongest man in the whole world! He was here? We need to turn around and wait it out. Maybe l in about a month it will be safer. W- what if they are still here?"
"W-what? Really?" A terrified looking Chopper asked "The strongest?" Usopp nodded.
Everyone was silent for a few moments, thinking this over. "I'm sure that Dragon wouldn't bother with just a bunch of pirates." Nami said "I agree" continued Robin, "As long as we don't confront them, they shouldn't take any interest in us."
Sanji sat down, having cleaned up while they were talking. "We wouldn't have enough supplies to last us if we delayed going to the island. As it is we only have about 2 days' worth left."
At that comment everyone looked at Luffy, expecting a reaction from the captain at the mention of possibly running out of food, but to their surprise, he looked like he was contemplating something, not even listening to what they were saying. "Oi Luffy" his first mate said trying to get his attention. Placing a hand on his shoulder and giving a gentle shake seemed to do the trick. Luffy looked up, and shook his head as if trying to rid himself of a thought. He glanced around at his crew. "You say the revolutionary leader was spotted here a few days ago right?" He got a nod from his navigator and his smile grew. "Well what are we waiting for? Full steam ahead! I want to see Dragon with my own eyes!" He said as he got up and ran out of the room. The rest of the crew looked around at one another in bewilderment.
Franky was the first one to speak "You guys… He is serious isn't he?" Everyone nodded. Nami stood up "That idiot better not get us into trouble with the revolutionaries, they are the strongest group of people in the whole world, for all we know they could crush us with one blow."
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It was the next day that it happened. Usopp was in the crows next, staring out into the ocean thinking about Kaya when he spotted something in the distance.
"O-Oi! Guys! I think I see something!" he shouted down to the crew. They all gathered to the side of the ship he was pointing to as he took a closer look. "It- It has what looks like black sails and… and a DRAGON!" Usopp shouted as he almost fell out of the crows nest. The crew was also in a similar state of panic.
"It looks like it's changing direction." Sanji stated. And indeed the ship was now facing them, and becoming larger.
"Luffy!" Nami called to the captain who was leaning against the railing, staring intently at the ship with a small frown. "We need to change course, try to out run them. There's no way we can face- "
"No" Luffy interrupted. "Keep our course straight, let them come to us."
"What!?" the crew yelled, surely their captain had a death wish. Zoro stepped forward "Luffy, look, you can't fight them, revolutionaries and pirates don't get along. They are a lot stronger than we are right now, especially their leader, Dragon. He is supposedly the strongest-"
"I know about Dragon." Luffy said, his face serious.
"Well then you know that we can't fight him" said Nami, but Luffy seemed like he wasn't listening, resuming his earlier position. Nami sighed and looked at her fellow crew members, all of which (except Zoro, Sanji and of course Brook) were looking at her with an expression of fear on their face. "Well you heard the captain! But get ready for a battle just in case" 'Not like we stand a chance' She said to herself. She wasn't underestimating Luffy, but this was simply out of his league. She knew she couldn't argue with the captain though.
The ship grew closer, the crew grew tenser, and Luffy grew more excited. He bounced around from person to person, talking about random little things, until the giant ship loomed almost directly over them. He stilled. The crew watched Luffy, curious yet wary as they tried to predict what he would do.
Luffy looked up at the ship, an awed expression on his face. He slowly looked at his first mate. "Zoro, stay here and protect everyone, alright?" Zoro's eyes widened as he realized what his captain was about to do and lunged, but was seconds to late as the boy slingshoted away to the top of the revolutionary ship. "Captains orders" He shouted right before he was out of sight.
"Damn it" Zoro yelled, cursing himself for his slowness.
"Shitty Marimo, you should have stopped him." Sanji growled, worried for the rubber boy but trying not to show it.
"I shouldn't have to do everything around here, ero-cook, you could have stopped him to!" Nami appeared in between them before a fight could start.
"Stop! We need to be prepared to help Luffy, if Dragon really is on that ship, we should be prepared for-" she stopped as the whole boat shook. Everyone froze. Luffy was lying face down on the ground behind Nami, a dazed look on his face and a nasty bump on his head. Nami swallowed thickly. "L-Luffy? What-" A second later, another jolt was felt as a figure landed right behind the captain.
The figure was wearing a long dark green cloak, with a hood covering his face at the moment. He was crouched behind Luffy, before slowly standing, towering over everyone. Nami looked around, searching for protection incase this unknown guy attacked her, she noticed that only her, Robin, Sanji, Zoro, and Franky were left. She could see the others peeking through the window in the kitchen.
The mysterious man glared at her, making her cower in fear at his powerful aura, before he looked around, making eye contact with every person still on the deck. Nami slowly backed up, she noticed even Zoro looked a little paler than usual.
'Who is this man?' he thought 'he must be one of the top commanders sent to get rid of us or something… I have to get to Luffy' Zoro glanced over to his captain, who was lying right in front of the man, still out cold. The man saw Zoro's gaze drift toward Luffy, and stepped forward, almost directly over Luffy. Zoro froze and the man reached down, pulling Luffy off the ground with one hand.
Everyone's attention was now on the man, worried for Luffy. However, the mysterious man did nothing; instead he threw Luffy at Zoro, who caught the boy, wrapping him up in his arms protectively. No harm would come to his captain if he had a say. The man smiled slightly seeing this, before looking around once more and saying in a deep voice "I want every member of this crew on deck. Now."
Nobody moved for a few seconds, until Sanji took a shaky step forward. No one wanted to have a fight with revolutionaries. "Who are you anyway? What do you want?" He said in an almost- commanding voice. The man gazed at Sanji; a surprised expression flickered on his face for a second but was quickly gone.
"Who am I?" The man grinned, looking terrifying. "I am the captain of that ship" he said nodding toward the giant boat. "And what I want is to see just how strong this crew is."
"The captain… D-Dragon?" Nami said shrinking back in fear. 'Surely we are doomed.' he though 'And it's all that idiots fault.'
Everyone on the ship, except for Dragon himself, Zoro and Luffy, backed further away. Zoro didn't move. He didn't want to be seen as weak, especially while Luffy was out of commission. Dragon's eyes slid to Zoro. "You're the first mate, correct? You would die for your captain?"
"Yes" no hesitation.
A small smile flashed across Dragons face for a split second before he frowned. "Now… I thought I said-" A Wave of power poured out of him in a small burst, almost knocking the few closest to him off their feet. "-to bring the whole crew out here." At this request, a trembling Usopp and Chopper were pulled out of the kitchen by a neutral looking Brook. Of course you can't tell with Brook since he doesn't have a face (hohohoho). They walked over to Sanji, who stood a little taller, protectively, with Brook coming to stand beside him. Usopp tried to look fearless, but his shaking knees gave him away.
Dragon glanced around once more and nodded. "You would all die for your captain, correct?" They all nodded timidly but surely, knowing that there was nothing they could do should the man decide to attack. Zoro's grip grew a little tighter. Everyone looked to Luffy, who was just seemingly asleep. They sweatdropped. "Believe it or not, "They looked back to Dragon "I did not hurt him. The clumsy fool ran at me yelling his nonsense, all I did was dodge him and he fell right over the side" Dragon looked down and shook his head with, a few of the crew noticed with bewilderment, almost a look of fondness.
"What a crew. He even has a skeleton and a reindeer…" Dragon sighed, and looked up at his own ship. "You know, I don't like pirates very much." He looked at them dangerously, then sighed and turned around, facing away from them. "But like it or not… We're family." The crew was confused. Beyond confused. 'Family? We don't even know this man. We are just pirates and he is the most powerful and in the world.' They all thought. It was that moment when Zoro felt Luffy begin to wake up. Silently, the first mate sat him down on his feet, helping him keep steady while the captain rubbed his eyes sleepily. Opening one, he looked around his crew with a bored expression, but froze as he saw Dragons back.
'Oh no!' thought Nami 'He is going to try to attack him!' but she dared not move.
'He's dead if he attacks!' thought Usopp and Chopper. 'We all are!'
Zoro tried to put a calming hand on Luffy's shoulder as a signal to stay still, but he was shook off. All of this happened in about a second, when Dragon continued his dialog, slowly turning back to face the crew. "Like it or not, we are family because-"
It was at that moment when, despite Zoro's last minute attempt to stop him, Luffy flung himself at Dragon, wrapping his arms and legs around him multiple times, almost immobilizing him. The crew froze in fear, sure that they were dead. Dragon did not move, he became silent. No one dared make a sound or move and inch for a few seconds until-
"Dad!"
Luffy shouted. The crew took a few more seconds to process what their captain had just said, and what it implied.
"WHAT?!" They all yelled out at once. 'No way!' Jaws hit the ground, every single one of them. They could not believe what they were hearing. They stared at Dragon waiting for his reaction. To their surprise, he smiled a small smile and looked down, wrapping what he could move of his arms around the small boy. "Hey Luffy, you have an interesting crew here." Nami fainted; Sanji didn't even react to her falling, still in shock, his cigarette falling out of his mouth. Zoro was frozen on the spot, as were Franky, Brook, and Robin. Usopp and Chopper were still standing, mouths gapping, thinking about how cool their captain was.
"Captain…" Zoro said in a low voice. "This man, Dragon, is your father?" Luffy nodded
"AND YOU NEVER TOLD US?" Both Zoro and Sanji yelled before glaring at each other. Robin stared at her captain in shock, eyes uncharacteristically wide, as the knelt by Nami. Franky too was staring in shock at this new discovery.
Luffy just laughed and unwound himself from his dad, standing next to the man, who looked down at his son. Luffy looked around his crew before throwing his hangs in the air.
"I think this calls -" pause for dramatic effect "-A celebration feast!"
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And there you go. If you review and tell me what other person you want Luffy to meet and in what way, I might write it if it seems cool, so just shoot me a message. It doesn't matter if he has already met the person or not, I can just change how he meets them, and add some drama XD Next Chapter is an alternate way that they could have all met Sabo, any suggestions?