Read my story, Unexpected Emergencies, first if you want to understand anything. Otherwise, this'll be incredibly confusing for you.

Marco's Reaction – Luffy: Age 8

Marco's reaction to how Luffy ran off after bandits attacked him in Ch. 7.

Thatch was a pain in the ass. End of discussion. Not only was the 4th Division Commander causing havoc in the food market, scaring away all the owners, but he was also suppose to be back on the ship, not walking around as if he wasn't in any sort of trouble what-so-ever. Besides, Marco doubted that Fossa and his division would be happy to see the man after the . . . incident regarding let shoes and whatnot.

So, Marco did the direct approach by grabbing Thatch's ear and dragging him over to an alley to politely give him one of the biggest scolding's he's ever going to receive. The division commander had flailed and whined the whole way, trying to struggle out of Marco's steel grasp. "Marco! Ouch, Marco, that's my ear! Lemme go! It was an accident, I swear! Come on, buddy!"

"Thatch," Marco dropped him, watching as he fell to the floor with a thud, cradling his injured ear. "You have ten seconds to explain why the hell you aren't on that ship and instead scaring all the people in the market place?"

"They're all weanies," Thatch replied evenly, standing up and brushing his white outfit off, frowning a bit when he noticed a mud stain in it. "Besides, I had this really weird felling . . . " The man trailed off, looking Marco in the eyes. "I was looking for you."

Everyone knows that Thatch's instincts were spot on, even Marco. So when Thatch is out looking for Marco, complaining that he had this weird feeling, Marco knows it's something serious. Whitebeards have been trained to always expect the worst but sometimes that worst manages to sneak up on them and it's disastrous.

"Why?"

"I don't know yet," He shook his head. "I got a headache around an hour ago and then started feeling antsy about twenty minutes ago so I hopped off the ship and came looking for you." Thatch let out a sigh, covering his face with one of his hands. "I looked around the island a bit and even talked to the locals, but there wasn't anything weird other than the small group of bandits that supposedly live up on the top of the mountain."

"Bandits?" Marco hated bandits, they were always trying to act tougher than they really were and honestly, Marco hasn't met a single bandit that was strong enough to be more than a plaything. "Bastards."

Thatch nodded. "Apparently this group is." He started to fidget, his hands going everywhere at once. He was nervous; Marco could tell. "They'll come down every once in a while and kidnap kids, either selling them to slavery or take them for themselves."

"Why hasn't anyone gone up there and helped them?" Marco asked, his fist clenching in anger. This was a job for the marines, why aren't they here, helping them yet?

"Marines don't care," Thatch sighed, flicking a stray piece of hair. "That's what the villagers said. No one in their village is strong enough to go up against them, either. They're living under a tyrannical rule."

Running his hand through his hair, Marco shook his head. "Not like we can do anything about it. It's their problem, they have to find the courage to deal with it."

Thatch rolled his eyes. "I forgot how cruel you could be." He teased, some of his color coming back to his face. "Honestly, with Luffy around, you're just a huge softie."

Luffy.

Marco eyes widened as he thought about the child that he had left behind in the bar, all alone minus those rather shady men that Marco didn't seem to notice in his fit of anger. Did you really leave Luffy there, alone? "Shit! We're leaving."

Grabbing Thatch's arm, Marco practically drug the 4th division commander the whole way back to the bar, not stopping even when Thatch pulled away, yelling out things that Marco didn't care to understand.

What was he thinking?

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." He chastised himself, shaking his head repeatedly. What if the people there were the bandits? If they so much as looked at Luffy funny, he was going to go up to all of them and kill them. Anyone who messes with Luffy would be considered a threat and would be . . .exterminated.

"Marco!" Thatch's yell snapped him out if his thoughts are he threw open the door to the bar. Thatch ran up behind him, quietly noting down the blonde's fury. "Marco, what're you doing?"

Marco ignored him, looking around the bar for his charge.

Luffy wasn't there.

Only a few men on the ground, groaning while the others looked rather pissed off. The poor owner was curled in a ball underneath a table as if he didn't want to be caught in the crossfire. Marco almost felt bad for the mad.

Almost.

Behind him, Thatch whistled, surveying the damage. "Hey, quite the bar-fight, eh?"

Once again, Marco ignored him. Instead, he marched over to one of the men that was still standing (and a little bit drunk) and snarled, "Where is he?"

The man glared at him, trying to slam Marco's head with a beer bottle. "I ain't got no idea who you're talkin' bout." Marco caught the beer bottle with his other hand and shattered in into pieces. "Lemme go you bastard."

"Let my men go," Another voice snarled, a sword coming out of nowhere, trying to slash him in two. "You wanna deal with my men? You can 'n deal with me first."

"Bold words for an idiot," Marco said, dropping the man that he was holding. The man just scurried behind his savior, whispering thank you's and graveling at the man's feet like some type of dog. "Are you sure you want to fight me? I only asked a question."

"And what might that question be?" The boss unsheathed his sword, as did Thatch just incase things got ugly. "You were threating my men, so you better have a good answer if you want to keep your pathetic life."

Ohh, Marco was going to enjoy knocking this guy off of his pedestal. "I asked—Where is he? Where is Luffy?"

"We ain't know no Luffy," The boss narrowed his eyes. "You're accusing us of somethin'?"

"You're bandits, are you not?" Marco asked, watching as they all nodded their head proudly. "Are you live in the mountains, right?" They nodded again. "Seems like you've been causing trouble. Now, I'm going to ask again. What did you do to my seven-year-old brother?"

A spark of realization flashed in the man's eyes and apparently this man had a death wish. "Pftt. That kid? That's who you're getting' worked up over?" He grinned at his men. "We were just havin' some fun with 'em. Thought we could take him up to the mountains and have even more fun. Kid had a pretty good body for a brat." Marco held in a snarl at the intentions, watching as the man's smile dropped. "But then he had to get all worked up and stared screamin' stuff about being a pirate and bein' free. Bunch of bullshit. Brat got away, though. Right through the back door. He injured some of—"

Marco never let the man finish his sentence, snapping his neck and killing the man almost instantly. "You should've never even looked at the kid." Marco snarled, letting the man fall to the ground with a dull thump.

There were cries out outrage as the other bandits picked up their weapons and charged. Marco didn't even move, letting Thatch take care of these. There was no doubt that Thatch wanted them dead as much as he did.

It took another minute at most until all the bugs were killed. Thatch sheathed his sword, an angry frown on his face. "Come on, Marco. We should try and find him before he get's himself lost."

"He's probably already lost," Marco said, feeling the rush of adrenaline slowly exiting his system, leaving him tired and rather nervous. Thatch chuckled dryly, walking straight out of the bar, leaving the poor bartender to clean up the bodies.

"Then let's go find him before he does something stupid, eh?"

"Probably already did that, too."

Was one day of peace too much to ask for?

"Luffy!" Thatch cried out as the spotted the boy almost an hour later. Said boy looked up, looking around for the person that called his name. When he spotted Marco and Thatch, the boy practically lit up and ran towards them at full speed. "Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Luffy practically clung to Marco leg, murmuring things that neither commander understood. Marco bent down and scooped the boy up so he was safely on his chest. Luffy shifted around a bit until he could look up at Marco. "'M sorry." Tears were forming at the corners of his eyes. "I broke our promise. There were these really men guys and they had swords and they were going to—"

"Hey," Marco cut him off. "Luffy, it's okay. You did good, you know that?" Luffy blinked at him, whipping the tears out of his eyes. "We'd rather have you leave then go with those men. You're okay now. You're safe. We won't let them hurt you."

Thatch coughed something that sounded suspiciously like, "Softie" in his fist, grinning at Marco with an unreadable expression.

Marco shot a glare at the man, hoisting Luffy onto his shoulders so the child could see the town without having to worry about bandits. Choosing to mute out Thatch's words, Marco grinned a bit. "So, Luffy. Do you find anything cool?"

The boy hummed. "I got a new nakama!"

"Did you?" Marco knew how much it meant for Luffy to meet a new friend, though he was surprised that the boy didn't drag whomever it was back with him.

"Yeah," Luffy was practically glowing by now. "Her name's Robin. She's really pretty! And smart," The boy giggled. "She was all alone so I went up and said hi. She was really lonely."

"Was she, now?"

"Yup!" Luffy wrapped his arms around Marco head, burring his face into the soft, blonde hair. "She helped me find my way back to town and stuff. I asked her to come with me, but she said no because she had a dream and stuff. Thought we did make a promise."

"Oh?" Thatch decided to join in on the conversation. "And what might that promise be this time?"

Luffy thought about it for a second. "Well, she said that when I was older I had to come and find her and then she'd join us!" He thought about what he said for a second. "I think Ace would really like her. They're a lot alike except Ace isn't as smart." He grinned, not knowing that he was insulting his brother.

Somewhere back on the Moby Dick, Ace sneezed, looking rather annoyed.

Marshal D. Teach laughed. "Seems like someone's been talkin' bout you, Commander Ace!"

Ace rolled his eyes, his voice full of sarcasm. "Wonderful."

And there. Done. I know a lot of you wanted to know what happened after the fact, right? Well, here's that story that ya'll were hoping for. Any ideas would be great ^^; And these chapters will be shorter than UE's chapters since this is usually only one scene at a time.