One Piece belongs to Eichiiro Oda, Shonen Jump, Toei Animation, and FUNimation Entertainment. I mean no disrespect to the franchise or the author by writing these speculative fics!
Five Different Worlds
eh, I caught AU drabble fever from Aoihand, so here we are!
1. A Liar's Sacrifice
"Miss Kaya, are you sure this alright?" Merry fretted, fussing over his pale and resolute mistress.
"I have to this Merry, for Usopp." Her voice caught at his name, but she refused to cry and continued steadily, "He didn't give his life for me to spend the rest of my life hiding indoors. I want to see the world, to have adventures. Because he- he always wanted…!"
She lost the battle with her tears and buried her face in her hands. Merry hurried over to her side with a handkerchief.
"But it's too dangerous! These are pirates! You can see the world without having to put your life at-"
Merry stopped as he faced the flat of a very long and sharp blade. The swordsman glared sternly at him as the frightened servant backed away from the sobbing girl.
"Who are you to say what she can and can't do?" Zoro asked coldly, "The girl wants to join us, that's fine. If she dies, at least she'll die for the right reason. You have no right to interfere with her decision."
"Please, Mr. Zoro." Kaya pleaded, "There's no need for violence."
"It's alright, Merry." Nami assured him cheerfully, "I promise, we'll take good care of our rich new crewmate!"
"Figures that's the part you care most about." Zoro grunted, sheathing his sword. He was sent crashing violently to the floor after Nami smashed him on the head with her staff.
"Alright guys, let's head on out!" The ever-cheery captain of a brand-new ship and crewmate declared.
2. Mother
Rouge smiled as she heard the boys yelling outside. Looks like they'd gotten into yet another fight!
"Alright boys!" She called, "Dinner~!"
They smashed right through the door like a hurricane, pushing and snarling at one another to be the first to get to the dinner table. She sidestepped them in one move long-tempered by experience. The moment they got to the table laden with food, they wasted no time in beginning to inhale the delicious dishes she'd cooked up. She didn't mind. She'd already eaten more than half of the original meal anyways!
"Ace, stop stabbing your brother with the dinner knife." Rouge said absently, not even looking at the table that had turned into yet another battlefield, "Luffy, you use your rubber powers to steal your brother's food one more time, and it's no meat pie for you! Roger dear, don't think I didn't see you try to smash your own son to the ground."
She smiled privately to herself as they sulkily quieted down. Really, those boys could drive anyone crazy! Well, she wouldn't have it any other way!
3. Out of his shadow
"I grow tired of this."
The cloaked man glared down sternly at the furious and frightened youth that hung over the crashing ocean.
"The more you try to run from your past, the more it'll haunt you to the end of your days. You must come to terms with it, if you ever want to be at peace with yourself."
"Shut the hell up, you son of a-"
A cruel wind caught the Logia and almost tore him from the side of the sheer cliff. He clung ever harder to the rock hanging over the crashing waves and fell silent.
"You are the son of Gol D. Roger. You can't keep denying it."
"Watch me!" The boy shot back defiantly, "I don't owe that bastard a thing!"
"And your mother? She sacrificed her life to keep you alive. She named you Gol D. Ace, not Portgas D. Ace. Why are you so insistent upon shaming her memory?"
"I'm not shaming her!" Ace insisted angrily, tears streaming down his face, whether from the wind or from emotion was impossible to tell, "She shouldn't have died for me! Not for the son of a demon!"
"Son of demon? Does that make you a demon as well? Then why don't you drop, why don't you end it here and now if you hate yourself so much?"
Ace looked down at the crashing sea. Even if he survived the fall, the ocean meant death for a Hammer like him. It would be so easy…
"Why are you so convinced your father was a demon? Because of what ignorant and hateful folk said about him? We are not as the world defines us, we are as we define ourselves. If you die now, you die the rotten son of a dead pirate. You live, you can reclaim your identity and make sure the world knows who you really are."
"And who am I, you bastard? Can you tell me that? If I'm not the son of a demon, what am I?" Ace shouted.
"I can't make that decision for you. You must decide here and now, Portgas D. Ace, son of Portgas D. Rouge, son of Gol D. Roger. If you die here, that's all you'll ever be: a shadow of your father. A remnant of his memory. Nothing more. Do you want that?"
"I…"
"DO YOU WANT THAT, SON OF GOL D. ROGER?"
"NO!!!" Ace howled, echoing the winds around him, "I'm not my father's shadow! I'll make my own way and make people see me for who I am! I AM ACE, NO ONE'S LEGACY, NO ONE'S SON!!"
The winds died down. A small content smile slipped across Dragon's fierce face as he bent down and pulled the shaking teenager up from his place on the precipice. The boy collapsed the moment he hit the wonderfully firm ground and began sobbing like a child.
"Very good." The Revolutionary said quietly, "Welcome to my army…Ace."
4. Comfort in misery
A bison comforting a reindeer was hardly a normal sight. Then again, the two occupants of the dank dark cell were hardly normal themselves. The bison loomed over the weaker reindeer, but licked him gently as the smaller creature as it burrowed miserably into his side.
Both were scarred all over, courtesy of their "noble" king's amusement. The bison still had a bleeding cut over his left brow from the most recent session with the mad, sadistic monarch. He ignored the pain as he concentrated on his companion.
Grooming was a herd behavior, both of their species understood that well. It symbolized empathy, companionship, love. Things the smaller creature had gone without for quite enough time. The bison had finished with his side and now focused on the reindeer's torn ears, carefully cleaning the filth and salty sweat from his delicate appendices.
Hurts. Scared. The younger animal whined at the stinging pain of the soft tongue upon his injured ears.
It's alright. The other soothed. I'm here. I'm here.
The young reindeer nuzzled close to his companion.
Stay with me? Protect me? The lonely outcast begged.
Always. The former Captain of the Guards promised.
5. A lonely grave
Garp knelt before the simple grave stone, placing a bundle cakes and roasted meats gently in front of it.
"It's been five years, but I never forgot." He said quietly, "I know you don't want to hear it from me, but I'll say it anyway."
He paused and bent his face as tears began to collect in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry. I'm ever so sorry for what happened. She shouldn't have…I should've done something. You should know that if I'd known, I'd have killed that bastard myself!"
He wiped away the tears impatiently.
"I don't blame you for what you did. It was stupid, but well, you're chip off the old block when it comes down to it! I'd probably have done much the same."
Garp smiled bitterly.
"We never did get to name him. Would've been a boy, you know. I still think Luffy would have been a nice name. We'll never know. I'd have done right by him, raised him to be strong.
"What you did, boy, it wasn't wrong. I just want you to know that. It's the world that's wrong, I'm beginning to see that. A pregnant woman gets murdered, a husband gets executed for trying to avenge her…all because the sick bastard responsible has 'the blood of the world's creator?' Bah!"
Garp set down his offering and pressed his palms together in respect.
"Goodbye, my son. I will see you soon enough."
The old man got to his feet with a groan and left the lonely grave, high on a bluff in an inhospitable island. The large okama and grim Shichibukai waited for their leader at the base.
"We're off." Garp, former Marine and Hero, Revolutionary and most hunted criminal in the world, stated coldly to his men.
The grave was silent now, left only to the winds.