Disclaimer: One Piece does not belong to me, and it never will.
Warnings: Language, reference to violence/slavery. Child abuse in the form of Garp.

A/N: I hate writing the brothers as children, but it worked out as a prologue. I guess. Don't hate on me; it had to be done. I had to speculate on this in some crazy, stupid, insane way that would make things scary and gross. But that's for the first chapter, right? Not the prologue.

Prologue's are innocent, for me, at least. But who knows? Maybe it really isn't all that innocent. I dunno, it's innocent compared to what I've got planned. P:

And, enjoy.

When the Sun Goes Down
Prologue
Darkness

It was quiet when he fled, fled into the woods, fists clenched tight until his knuckles turned white, and his fingers red. Behind him, the sun sunk lower, staining the sky in bloody reds, and soft oranges. The yellow disk itself was swallowed up by the trees and rough mountains hiding the blue sky. He, himself, ran towards the darkening sky, and he felt—to his horror—tears streaming down his face, and burning his cheeks. Looking back, it had been a stupid, dumb reason to get upset, because he could have easily prevented it if only—if only—he hadn't gotten mad at Luffy for the ignorant, stupid shit that came out of that innocent, but blunt kid. But he couldn't help it, he had gotten mad, he had told a five-year-old get to fuck off, and he had turned tail and fled when that same kid stared back, dumbstruck.

He didn't know why he ran, but he had; ignored the cries of those moronic mountain bandits, and fled into the woods.

His face was hot, and his breath was harsh and short as he skidded to a halt, shoes tearing up the dark green grass, leaving dirt and worms and little white roots exposed in its wake.

Finally, Ace took a look around and found that he couldn't recognize where exactly he was in the woods, seeing only tall, ominous trees, and a creeping darkness making it impossible to see too far infront of his face. Tense and alert, the eight-year-old sat in a tangle of tree roots, forehead resting on his knees as he hugged himself. He wasn't scared—he wasn't even the slightest bit worried, because he knew, that when the sun shone in the sky again he would find his way back to the bandits' hideout, and he would, despite himself, apologize to his little brother, and that he would be forgiven.

Still, he struggled to stay calm as darkness limited his vision to a twelve-foot radius around his spot in the tangled, rough roots.

From sound alone, he could tell that somewhere up in the canopy, there was a snake moving around, and that there were birds shifting and settling down for the night; unaware of the threat. There was something large in the distance, but Ace could hear it eating—the snap and crunch of bones clear and crisp—so he wasn't in danger from whatever that happened to be. Even so, he was on edge and shaking ever so, his heart beating and fluttering in strange, jittery bursts inside his chests, and his blood was rushing through his veins.

Forehead throbbing, veins pulsing in his wrists, he squeezed his eyes shut and willed the feeling of anticipation—leaden in his arms—to go away, go away, goawaygoawayGOAWAY!

And as he willed it to leave, it grew stronger and pulsed heavily, making his heart do a funny tumble-stutter-thump in his chest, and something made him look up to the tree branches weaving and hiding the sky except for little broken pieces. His heart quickened and his blood roared, his chest felt hot and his throat clenched, and he began to sweat as he stared up at the inky blackness—little white dots making up the stars in the heavens. Something, something—maybe it was instinct, maybe it was simple, pure chance—made him squint and search for something with his gray eyes, and he found it.

Ace found the moon, swollen and white—so, so, so white—peeking through the leaves, and his heart stopped.

It restarted but a moment later, and pain stretched out, and coursed through his veins. It was hot, like fire, and was running, running, rushing, coursing throughought his body, followed by a cold, liquid sensation the put out the fire. Several, aching, stretched out minutes passed as he sat, face screwed up in pain, and after what felt like an eternity of tortuous pain, everything ended and it felt as though nothing had happened. The only thing remaining from the sudden rush and hurt, was a strange soreness in his limbs.

Ace sat, mulling over what had just happened in curiousity and panic, the first, comprehensible thing that came out of his wonderings was—would that happen again?

Then, something dawned on him that he hadn't realized before, was that his heart had stopped beating, if only for a minute, and that thought terrfied him.

"—e?"

Sitting up and suddenly aware, and he murmured to himself, "Did I just—?"

"—ce!"

It was Luffy, he noticed dumbly as he heard his little brother's voice ring out in the darkness, attracting god-knows-what.

"Ace!"

Luffy was staring at him, eyes wide and bright, an idiotic smile stretching across his face, clutching his precious straw hat to his chest as he spotted his older brother leaning against the tree. Then he ran forward, arms outstretched, precious hat forgotten momentarily as it fluttered to the grass softly, and his face smacked into Ace's chest, causing him to wheeze. The younger buried his face into Ace's shirt, and cried out, "I'm sow'y, Ace! You're... not mad, anymore, are you?"

He noticed that Luffy had been crying; clean streaks of skin stood out against the usual filthiness, and he shook his head fiercely in reply, "No, I'm not mad."

"Whu.. why was Ace mad?" was the simple question that left him with a crinkled forehead as tried to remember what—just exactly what he had been mad at.

In the end he shrugged, and returned the hug loosely, "Don't remember."

"...I'm lost," Luffy admitted, dumbly, as pulled away from the hug, and picked up his hat. He swung around and faced his brother, and asked, "D'you know the way?"

"When the sun's up," he patted the ground next to him, "We hafta wait."

"B-but, I don't like t-the dark," Luffy sputtered out, taking a sit next to Ace, and scooting closer, "N-not a-anymore."

Luffy didn't say why, but Ace knew, and scowled before pulling the brat closer, "You're not alone."

Closeness didn't help his younger brother, who shivered and clenched his precious hat tightly, staring around wildly, as if half expecting the entire forest to burst into flames. He would shift, uncomfortably, and scoot closer and closer to Ace, until he was practically glued to his side. By the time the silence got to Ace, Luffy was in his lap, settled into his brother's lap, breathing heavily as he stared out into the dark forest. Frowning, Ace tried to come up with something to pass the time, and decided finally, with a story.

"I'm gonna tell you a story," he said firmly, resting his chin in Luffy's dark, fluffy hair.

"Wha' kinda story?"

"A story kind of story, idiot," Ace remarked, "So shut up and listen."

"O-ookay."

"In a place really far away—" He started off, recalling the story he had heard while sneaking around the village, it was a foggy memory at best, but he could always make up bits and pieces since it was just a story, "—there lived two brothers on their very own island. Every day they would wake up as the sun rose, and head out to the shore where they would catch fish and other creatures to eat. They would drink sea water, and boil it so that there wasn't any salt, and they would spend the rest of the day exploring the island they lived in, and playing. They played and played and played, until the sun went down, and the moon came up."

Luffy stared up at him in rapt fascination at the paradise described, as he continued, "But one day, on a ship, a bunch of bad men came. The brothers fought them, but the older one got hurt, and the men kidnapped his younger brother. By the full moon, the older brother promised he wouldn't rest until he found his little brother and brought him back to the island. He made a little boat out of the trees on the island and set sail. He didn't make it far—" Luffy gasped appropriately, "—because there was a horrible storm. His boat was destroyed, and he fell into the sea. He didn't come up at first."

"He stayed in the ocean, thinking that he had failed—that he would never, ever, ever see his little brother again, but then he remembered his promise, and came to the surface to find the storm had passed. Fueled by this sudden good luck, he swam in the direction of the setting sun, and eventually found himself on an island full of people. These people ignored his questions and stories about swimming across the ocean in search of his brother, and they laughed at him."

"Meanwhile, his little brother was trapped on the ship of the men, and they were headed unawares into a sea of monsters. Only a handful of men, including the little brother, survived the resulting battle—and it was a weary return to the island of the men, where the little brother was sold as a slave."

Overhead, the sky had turned a faint pink-ish color, and Luffy was half asleep in his lap, "And the older brother still searches, even to this day, for his little brother."

"Wha' were their names?" Luffy asked sleepily, fighting to keep his head up and awake.

Ace frowned, "Don't remember."

"How 'bout..." but he had fallen asleep while he was talking.

Smiling fondly, he pulled Luffy onto his back, and piggybacked him back to the bandit's hideout, thinking nothing of the strange pain he had felt.

It took only an hour, and by that time the sun was overhead, brightening everything up, and he could recognize familiar places. There were footsteps in the dirt, grass torn up from where he stepped down a little too hard, and certain trees that had been marked with charcoal that grew more numerous as they got closer to the hideout. Luffy was drooling on the crook of his neck, and it took all the patience he had to not bash the kid's head in for doing so—and he made a firm decision that before anything, he had to get more patient.

And more polite, like Makino had said he should be, since politeness required patience.

He wasn't feeling very polite, or very patient, when instead of a half-assed angry shout from Dadan, the greeting upon arrival at the hideout was a punch to the face, and Luffy being kicked—he went flying into a tree, while Ace found himself face first in the dirt. Such a greeting, coupled by a boisterous, loud voice, shouting out, "Grandpa's here! How 'bout a big, ol' hug?" Meant only one thing: Garp had come for a rare, albiet useless, visit.

Ace was about to spit out his genius remark to that when Luffy, who had woken up and had came running over ready to fight, paled and turned tail, screaming, "Nooo! Not the death hug!"

He watched the resulting scene that consisted of Luffy and Garp running in circles until the old man tripped and slid into a tree with minor interest. His face was carefully bland when Garp turned to him, spat the dirt out of his mouth, and pulled Ace into a bone crushing hug along with Luffy. Freed from the hug but moments later as the old man pulled an envelope out of his pocket, and handed it to Ace—who found that it was addressed to him, in writing he couldn't recognize.

He didn't have a chance to ask what it was about when Garp smacked Luffy for a final time, and declared that that was all he came for, and left.

Upon further inspection, Ace found that the envelope was not a crisp white, but was starting to turn yellow with age. His name was written sloppily, as if in haste, and there was a bloody fingerprint in one corner. There were yellower spots when something—tears?—had dropped in random upon it.

Curious, he broke the seal—red wax, with no significant image pressed in—and pulled out the slip of paper inside. It was older than the envelope.

"'Do not fear the moon,'" he read, squinting as he struggled to read the signature at the bottom, and found he couldn't make it out—it was sloppy and smudged.

He couldn't read the rest, but he had a feeling he didn't want to, and he stared at Luffy, who stared back. Then Luffy killed the mood by asking, "Wazzat mean?"

"Huh?"

"What do those funny things mean?" He asked again, pointing at the sentence, and Ace remembered that Luffy was still learning to read, much less write something besides his name.

The rest of the daylight hours were spent scratching words into the dirt with sticks, and teaching Luffy the proper way to make beetles fight.

Soon enough, dinner had passed, and the sun was setting once again, with Luffy passed out and clinging to Ace's side. Sleep didn't come fast for Ace, in fact, it didn't come at all. He lay there, restless, minutes becoming hours, hours becoming days, until he couldn't take it anymore. He stood up, and made his way outside, and stared around him. It was dark, darker than it had been the other night, but lighter as well.

Because the moon was truly full that night; large and without a trace of darkness marring its perfect roundness.

Ace stared at the moon.

The moon stared back.

His heart stopped.

His heart started up again.

And when he woke up—for surely, he had been asleep after the pain had faded in his fingertips—there was blood in his mouth.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this, and your curiosity has been piqued—and I am sorry, if you read "Survival", I took it down. Because I didn't like where I was headed with it; maybe, sometime in the future, I'll put it up again. Heavily edited and changed, but still, yeah.

I'm sorry about any grammar/punctuation mistakes. I read over it as many times as I could, and picked out all the obvious ones but, some will still have escaped me. Since I really don't care all that much about the finer points of the English language. Especially traditional sentence structure.

If you're smart, you've already realized what Ace inherited. If not, then don't worry about it. You'll find out soon.

Reviews make the world go 'round, so you know.