-The First Day-

It's dark. That was what Amelie thought as the lift came to a gradual stop at her floor, her escorts pulling on her chains to get her moving. So this was Eternal Hell; the place where monsters were left to rot, hidden away from the rest of the world. There was little light to see by, but it was enough to make out the shadows of bodies behind the iron gates, the white stripes of their uniforms standing out against the darkness. Their eyes were fixed on the new arrival, everyone moving towards the front of their cages to get a better look at their new neighbour, and the entire place erupted once they realised it was a woman.
There were a few vulgar comments thrown her way as she was guided passed the floor's inhabitants, the sight of a female all too rare in this place, especially one on their side. The shouts seemed to be coming from all around, as if she was surrounded by lecherous monkeys, but the further in she went the fewer the numbers and the quieter it became until she was stopped before a cell with only two occupants. They didn't speak a word but simply watched as she was shown inside and her hands and feet were chained to the wall behind her. The guards who had escorted her left without sparing her a second glance, leaving her to her fate, and now she could feel the eyes of her new companions upon her making her uncomfortably aware of how exposed she was. Even in the dim light Amelie could see the pink of her skin glowing bright against the dark of her clothes and she prayed that her new roommates either wouldn't notice or were polite enough not to make any remarks about it. She had suffered through the "baptism" with gritted teeth, not wanting to give the jailers the satisfaction of hearing her scream, but she could feel the tears rising from her chest and didn't trust that she could keep her voice steady enough to brush the experience off as nothing. She had to remain strong until the end if she was to face the world with a smile on her face. She would not let them break her.

"They didn't put you in the uniform either."
Amelie started at the sound of someone speaking to her and pulled away from the sight of her skin to see the young, dark-haired man on the wall adjacent to hers looking at her, his defeated eyes still filled with tiny flecks of warmth. He was wearing a simple pair of black shorts, his torso left bare but for the red beads hanging round his neck, and she noted that the other prisoner was also without uniform. It was obvious that the three of them were special cases, not meant to be inside long enough to waste a uniform on, but she wasn't going to let herself dwell on such dark thoughts.
"Probably realised I'd look too good in it for it to be a punishment." She forced out her reply with a smirk, trying to suppress the sudden, violent wave of tears bubbling up inside of her. They might have put her back in her own, dirty, ragged clothes, but Amelie didn't want to think about what had been taken away from her. She could feel the emptiness of her pockets and she knew that it was gone. They had taken from her the only item she had ever held dear and she would probably never see it again, not that she had need for it in prison. Here it would only serve to remind her of what she could never have.
The dark-haired man didn't saying anything in response, but Amelie thought she saw a ghost of a smile on his lips. Perhaps if this had been under different circumstances he would have laughed and come back with something witty or sarcastic, but he knew that they both shared the same fate and he couldn't bring himself to do more than smile. How sad, Amelie thought. How sad to see so strong a man look so utterly defeated.
"So they finally caught you, Pirate Assassin." The prisoner chained to the opposite wall, a giant Fishman with piercing eyes, was the one who spoke next. He was watching her with caution as if she might attack at any second despite the shackles round her wrists and ankles.
"I'm flattered that the great 'Sea Knight' Jinbe would know of a lowly assassin such as myself," Amelie responded in a mockingly humble tone, her lips curving into a smile as she fought another wave of tears. If she wasn't careful, this place was going to swallow her whole.
"So you're Pirate Assassin Amelie."
"The one and only," she said, still smiling. "It seems that I am more famous than I thought if both the Sea Knight and Fire Fist Ace have heard of me." Of course, Amelie knew that with a bounty and reputation such as hers it would have been more strange if they hadn't heard of her; there was a reason she was down in the darkest depths of Impel Down, but she wasn't one to let that go to her head. Even with her bounty, she knew that the two with whom she now shared a cell were even more famous than she, so much so that she could never come close to comparing.
"It is wise to know your enemies, Miss Amelie, and you are the kind I hate the most," Jinbe said.
"Why? Because I kill from the shadows?"
"Because you kill without reason."
"Orders from my Captain are reason enough for me."
"And before that?"
Amelie paused, the smile falling from her face as she held the gaze of the Sea Knight, his eyes still staring at her with such hostility as if he knew everything she'd done. But there was no way that was possible unless - unless he had been there. His eyes gave nothing away, they just continued to watch her, almost waiting for her to admit her crimes, but she would not be taken in. She wouldn't let this shake her. So what if he knew? There was nothing to do about it now since she had already been arrested.
"It seems my past isn't as well hidden as I thought. I don't think I've ever met anyone on this big ol' sea who knew of me before my pirate days."
"You're part of the Peg Leg Pirates, right?" Ace spoke up, raising his head to properly look at her. It seemed, she realised with relief, that he didn't know. To him, her story began with the Peg Legs and that was how it should be, although that story was fast coming to an end.
"Have been for five years," she replied, forcing herself to meet his eyes, ignoring the sting of her own as the tears began forcing their way up. Her skin was still on fire, her pockets were still empty, and it seemed that she was still as worthless as she had been since the day she was born, everything her Captain had given her lost the moment she was caught. Up until that day that the Captain had taken her in, Amelie had been surviving simply because she hadn't wanted to give those that wished her dead the satisfaction of seeing the end of her life; she had survived because she was too stubborn to die. But the Captain had given her a purpose and, for the first time in her life, she had felt useful. Now that was all gone.

Five years ago…

"Hey Captain. The fellas say there's a rat down in the cargo hold. Do you want me to go sort it out?"
"No. I'll take care of it."

Amelie clutched at the blood stained rag on her leg trying desperately to stop the bleeding, but to no avail. She reached out for the shirt of the body beside her, tearing another long strip that she tied around her thigh. She had removed the bullet from the wound, but that would mean nothing if she couldn't stop herself from bleeding to death, and those damn pirates hadn't helped any. If they had just turned around and pretended not to see she would have had herself fixed up and been gone by the time they reached the next island, but they just wouldn't leave. Now they were dead and she had only made her injury even worse by overexerting herself. She could feel her head growing lighter with every passing second and just when she felt close to passing out the door began to open and Amelie knew she was in trouble. This time they'd be here for her.

Romance T. Gilly stood in the doorway of the cargo hold not quite believing what he was seeing. Sitting at the back of the room, a gunshot wound in her leg and surrounded by the dead bodies of three of his men, was a young girl who could have been no older than 15, her entire body covered in blood. As he advanced towards her she simply watched him, a dagger held in her hand, her eyes those of an animal eyeing its enemy, though he could see that they were gradually losing focus. Despite this it seemed that she was still prepared to fight. This girl was either very brave, or very stupid. Either way, he liked the confidence in her eyes and, judging from the bodies around her, he knew that the dagger in her hand was more than just a toy; this girl knew how to kill and knew how to kill efficiently. Perhaps he could use someone like that on his crew.
"What's yer name kid?"
She continued to watch him, her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she tightened the grip on her dagger. "Amelie."
"What do ya say t' becomin' a pirate, Amelie?"
A pirate? Amelie had heard stories of the pirates that sailed the seas, living as they chose, travelling the world over in search of fame, fortune, and adventure. It wasn't the comfortable family life she had longed for, but it offered her the freedom she dreamed of and if it meant she could be of some use to someone then she wasn't about to turn it down.

It wasn't until Amelie had been with them for a couple of weeks that she fully started to settle down in her new life, though she still couldn't shake the nightmares that haunted her while she slept. Because of this she spent most of her nights out on the deck staring up at the sky. It was on such a night when the Captain first came to speak to her.
"Can't sleep?"
She heard the clunk of Captain Gilly's wooden leg move across the deck as he came to sit beside her, a tankard in his hand.
"Just needed a bit of fresh her," was her reply, still staring up at the sky. "It's nice and peaceful out here."
"Aye, that it is. I s'pose yer not used t' being around such rowdy people."
"Not really. It's nice, though, even if they do always pick on me. I suppose I should expect that with being the youngest."
"That jus' means they've accepted ya. Yer one o' the crew now."
"One of the crew…" Amelie wasn't sure that the life of a pirate wholly suited her, but it seemed she'd finally found somewhere to belong and that was more than she could ever have hoped for.
"So how old are ya kid?"
"15."
He laughed. She liked that sound. Everyone on the ship was always laughing about something or other and it made her heavy heart feel just that little bit lighter. It was a nice change from what she was used to.
"Is something funny?" She asked, wondering what she'd said to cause this outburst.
"It's nothin'," Captain Gilly replied, still smiling. "I figured that's about how old ya were, but I'd kinda hoped ya just looked young for yer age. Pirates are s'posed t' be fierce and terrifyin', and 15 year old girls don't exactly fill people with fear. I'll be the laughin' stock o' the sea." Though he didn't seem to mind so much. He knew that, in the end, he'd be the one laughing.
"I'll just have to show them that appearances aren't everything."
"Aye. That ya will. That ya will."
They fell into silence, both looking up at the night's sky, the stars twinkling brighter than Amelie had ever seen. She glanced across at the man beside her, wondering if this was what it felt like to have a father. Deep down in her heart she knew that a real father would never ask his daughter to kill for him, but for now she could fool herself into believing they had such a bond. For now she could pretend she had a family who cared.

Present…

"They say you're the reason the Peg Leg Pirates became so famous so suddenly."
"I wouldn't know about that."
"I'm sure there aren't many pirates who can say that their bounty is higher than their Captain's. Anyone would wonder why you stayed with him."
"You flatter me, Ace. I'm only as good as my Captain allowed me to be," Amelie replied. "Although it seems I wasn't good enough."
Ace could hear the smile in her voice as she tried to keep her tone light, but he saw something flash across her face as she spoke. It was only for a second, but there was no mistaking that look in her eyes because it was something that Ace knew all too well. It was a look he'd seen in his own eyes as a child. What he was looking at now, could this have been him if things had been different? He looked down at the pinkness of her skin still glowing through the dimness, knowing she must still be in pain from the "baptism", and he couldn't help but wonder just how much this woman was holding back. He looked over at Jinbe who still had his eyes on her, still watching her with mistrust and hostility. Ace knew of the things she'd done as a pirate. He knew of the fear she instilled in men twice her age at just the mention of her name, but it seemed that even before that Amelie had done some terrible things. Even so, Ace couldn't help the feeling growing inside of him that there was more to this woman than met the eye.

"Hey, Jinbe."
The light never changed down in the deepest depths of Impel Down, but Ace knew it was well into the night outside and most of the prison's inmates were drifting off into a restless sleep, the new occupant in his cell doing the same despite her best efforts to stay awake. He was watching her sleeping face as he spoke, her features twisted in pain as her dreams tormented her.
"Do you really think she's a bad person?"
She was a murderer, that he knew. She had killed hundreds of people in cold blood because of her Captain, but was she really a bad person?
The Fishman was silent for a few moments and Ace knew that he was watching the sleeping Assassin as he was.
"I think society made her what she is," Jinbe eventually replied. He had seen what this girl was capable of first hand and at that time he had feared what she could become if she went by unchecked, but his business had been elsewhere and it was not for Fishmen to meddle in human affairs. Perhaps if he had stepped in then the Pirate Assassin of today wouldn't have existed, but it was too late for what ifs. She was sitting here before him and as he looked upon her face he couldn't help but think of Arlong, the brother he had lost to madness. Arlong had been very much the same; he had only turned out the way he had because of the society in which he had lived. That innocent little boy hadn't started out so bad.
"But no, Ace, I don't think she's a bad person. I think she's just lost."