All right. This fic has been working on my mind for a while now. I needed to write some fantasy/Sci-Fi stuff or I was going to go mad, so I started to work on my options. AU One Piece won, hands down.
Everybody knows the disclaimer, right? Everyone knows whom One Piece and related items belong to. If you find any mistakes at all, please tell me! Suggestions for the story are quite welcome, too.
If anyone is wondering, there might be some shonen-ai later on in the fic, and it is rated PG-13 for language and violence.
Any questions? If so, drop one in a review!
--Des
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-Kismet-
Prologue: 7hT-t, the Destined One
It is said that his past, as well as the choices he makes at the present time determines a man's destiny, and that life is sacred. What is fate and what is sanctity if everything is dependent on reason and probability in existence? Can one really learn to love if they know reason as the only truth? For love, fate and sacred things have no code, no molecular structure and they run by their own diction...
"... There. It is done..." The man put in the last code and shut the lid on the machine, smirking almost wickedly as he surveyed the small body in the plasma tank. Soon, his work would be finished and he would be rewarded.
"Do you really understand what will happen when you do this?" The bearded man rolled his eyes and let a frustrated sigh loose. It was his colleague, the one who disapproved of project 7hT-t.
"... No, but that is the reason I am doing this, correct? To better understand this thing we call life I must complete my assignment."
"I still think it isn't fair. You don't just create life from a test-tube! Even if you get the body to work, it will never have a soul!" The man's eyes flashed behind his shock of red hair.
"... Really, I thought you would be more sensible about this, you should know that the brain determines all personality! Now, then..." He moved to pull the lever that would start the machine that would create the boy 7hT-t.
"No. You can't do this, Higuma. I won't let you!" He was shoved away from the control lever by a surprisingly strong arm.
Higuma smiled wickedly again, and his eyes were alight with malice. "The way you speak Shanks, I should've known! You are a spy for those filthy, barbaric Mages! I am ashamed I didn't figure it out sooner..." For a moment, he stayed deceivingly calm and still, and then he pulled the taser from his belt and held it at the man's neck. "You Mages cannot stop Sir Crocodile! His word is absolute law here! Magic can be cracked by pure knowledge."
Shanks just laughed. "You may have knowledge, but you haven't got much wisdom."
"And not much peripheral vision, either," a voice half-chuckled behind Higuma. Stars burst before his eyes, and pain shot through the back of his head. The bearded man's body fell limply to the ground. "Eh, Shanks?"
"Thanks, Ben, but where are Lucky Roux and Yasopp?" He absently rubbed the spot that the taser had been jabbed.
"I'm over here, and Yasopp's got our backs. Shall we trash the place?" A heavy-set man came from an adjacent corridor into the lab; his Fireshooter was aimed at the tank. Shanks nodded to his accomplices, and just as they were about to smash both the research books on 7hT-t as well as the project itself, there was the sound of metal scraping against metal, then the click and whirr of a machine starting up. Higuma's laughter echoed through the lab, his hand on the flipped lever.
"You can't stop it now! Nothing can stop it now!" He cried, his eyes filled now with joyful madness.
The tank in which the body hung limply began to glow; Shanks, Ben and Lucky Roux were all far too shocked to do anything about it. Electricity webbed through the plasma and across the body of the boy, and encoded inscriptions flew across the screen mounted near the top of the tank.
Then, the controls lit on fire and Higuma spat a few choice obscenities before trying to douse the fire. Shanks punched him out of the way, thinking about letting the machine destroy itself. Crackling bolts of energy began to shoot not only within the tank, but outside of it too, and Ben ended up having to duck a couple of times. The machine obviously strained yet did not burst. The electric bolts changed from white to a strange flickering bluish color, and most bizarre of all was the fact that a haunting, almost musical wail was being produced by the gears of the machine as they spun out of control.
"Shoot it, just shoot it!" Shanks yelled at Lucky over the noise. The command was followed, and the glass of the plasma tank shattered as a flaming led bullet smashed into it. Slippery water-like substance spilled over the floor, and the spies were careful to avoid it, as there was still a hazard of electrocution.
"No! You have ruined it! All of the work on 7hT-t was wasted! Damn you Mages!" Higuma's mad gaze was tainted with uncontrolled fury. He rushed at Shanks, who immediately retaliated, almost casually.
"Need some help, there?" Ben asked, crossing his arms and taking in the fight.
"Nah, I've got it!" He said as he weaved through a couple of punches. He quickly returned them to Higuma, and the fight continued.
Ben shrugged and walked over to the tank, needless to say he was curious as to what became of the boy-like body that was inside. He saw the small form, seemingly limp and lifeless among the shards of glass and torn wires. He felt a pang of guilt even though he knew that the boy was better off dead because he would've lived a life without a soul, being experimented on like a lab-rat. But he had to admit the project looked completely innocent and helpless. His body looked like that of a ten-year-olds' and his pale skin accented with a few shallow cuts that seeped bright red over his fragile-looking body. It was that blood that made Ben realize the boy was alive. He mused at this, thinking A dead thing sure can't bleed. Upon closer inspection, he could see the small body rising and falling with breath that shouldn't have been there. "Shanks! Come here!"
"I'm kind of busy, Ben..." He kicked Higuma to the ground, but received a slash across his leg from a piece of glass the scientist managed to take up swiftly.
Ben turned and motioned Lucky Roux over to see what he had discovered.
"HEY! The security guards are coming, there are too many of them for me to hold off! Are you guys about finished?" It was Yasopp. That moment when Shanks listened to his comrade, Higuma took advantage of the man's distraction and kicked at the glass-cut he had made just before.
Shanks stooped to the ground and held his bleeding leg with one arm, hissing through his teeth in agony. Higuma cackled maniacally and picked up his taser. "You die now spy!" Aiming at Shanks' heart he pulled the trigger...
But another fiery bullet caught him in the arm, and the laser-like projectile flew wide of its original target and hit the redhead's left shoulder instead. Shanks and Higuma both cried out in anguish. Higuma fell on the ground, collapsed from all the pain.
"Thanks, Yassop!" He gasped through clenched teeth. The man gave his commander a thumbs-up before ducking out of the door again to thin out security's numbers, his blonde dread-locks bouncing as he ran out. "Let's get out of here!" He tore a piece of his former colleague's lab-coat to wrap around his wounded shoulder, then another for his leg. He got up to see Ben holding the boy's body, wiping a bit of blood from under one of its eyes. "What are you doing?"
"The kid is alive, sir. He just opened his eyes." Lucky Roux explained. "We can't just leave him here, right?"
Shanks sighed, he could see that his raven-haired companion was resolved to do this. "You know he won't have a soul, Ben, why the hell are you taking him?"
Ben gave him a stony look. "Come here and look into his eyes and tell me that again, Shanks. Do that and then tell me if he has a soul or not." So, Shanks dubiously walked over and took a look at the boy.
"I don't see--" He started, but he could not finish. He had seen the other less successful projects that had been destroyed, and each one of them had had a blank, lifeless stare. This boy not only gazed about with child-like wonder, but he locked eyes with Shanks and smiled. "This... It isn't possible! What happened?"
Ben simply shrugged. "You can't second guess Neptune, right? Now let's go!" Shanks nodded in agreement, then stuck two of his fingers in his mouth and whistled, wincing after he realized they were on his left hand. He held his shoulder and shrugged with his right one.
"I'm going to have to be more careful... Come on, Yasopp; let's get out of here!" He called, and he roughly limped towards the exit, turning his back on the lab forever. The man Yasopp caught up with them, asking about the boy. Shanks explained, and continued walking. His companions followed him, Yasopp and Lucky Roux helping him to walk easier. Ben walked a little bit ahead, carrying the boy and leading the way. They went as swiftly as they could, making their way through the white halls of the lab to the exit that their hovership was closest to.
"What are we going to name him, Shanks?" Yasopp asked.
He shrugged his one unwounded shoulder. "It was Ben's idea to take him, so why doesn't he pick a name?"
Ben looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Let's see... We can't call him 7hT-t, now can we? 7... Looks like a flipped L. And the h looks like a y upside-down... So, how's Luffy?" He looked down at the little boy, who laughed.
"I like that name. I can be Luffy." He said. For a moment, everybody stopped walking, somewhat shocked that he talked. "What?" He asked, giving a quizzical look to each of the four men.
"N-nothing..." Shanks said. "Absolutely nothing, Luffy. I'm Shanks, nice to meet you." They continued walking, speaking with Luffy as if he were a normal child. Shanks and his crew decided to keep the painful truth about the boy's past a secret, unaware that that past was what forever shaped the boy's destiny into something grand, something that would change the very world they lived on.
Someday, he would unite the Mages and the Scientists, as the first ever Emperor Gold Roger had so many years ago.