Tales
Title: Tales
Rating: T
Fandom: One Piece
Summary: Sir Crocodile isn't as ruthless as they say. He doesn't only care about himself. In fact, he cares about his adoptive family. This is the tale of Crocodile and his family. [Rewrite of The Tale of Crocodile and Alligator] [Rewrite of the Tales Universe]
August 1486
Cratón/Crocodile: 7 years old
Alistair/Alligator: 1 month old
Buildings were on fire. Corpses littered the streets. Children were wailing.
A guard pulled a woman through all the chaos. The woman carried her younger child in her free arm, her older son running by her side. "W-Wait!" The woman stuttered. "What's going on? We need to help those people!"
"There's no time!" The guard responded. "We need to get you three away from here! We need to get you guys to the shore! I have a boat prepared and ready to set sail,"
"Won't Galen punish you for making us leave without him?" The woman asked worriedly. "He'll kill you!"
"You and I both know that the bastard king doesn't give a shit about you or the kids," The guard said as the sandy beach and ocean were in his sights.
"But he's still the boys' father!" The woman defended.
The guard stopped and looked directly into the woman's eyes. "Catarina, listen to yourself! You're justifying that Galen should stay with you and the kids just because he's related by blood? He beats you and Cratón! In a few years he'll start beating Alistair too!"
"Mother, I don't want Galen to come with us," Cratón said quietly. "I don't want him to hurt us or Alistair!"
Rushing them to the beach and onto the boat, the guard noticed a presence approaching. "Cadeyrn? Why aren't you boarding too?" Catarina asked.
Cadeyrn took out several small shards of soul stones. "Catarina, protect the kids,"
Catarina was confused and looked to where Cadeyrn was focused on. "Zaire?"
A woman with long, dark purple, wavy hair and pale eyes stood at where the edge of the beach. "I'm the new ruler of Disparia. Bow to me, Cadeyrn,"
"I will not bow to you," Cadeyrn refused. "Galen was a bad enough ruler—"
"Then why are you not happy that I decided to take over?" Zaire interrupted. "I'm getting rid of Galen in front of the entire kingdom. Shouldn't you be grateful for my heroism?"
"Heroism?" Cadeyrn snorted. "You're no hero. I know you're true personality, Zaire. You're hungry for power. You waited for Galen to make a bad reputation for himself so that you would look like a saint to everyone. With time, you'll befall the same fate as him. Your true personality will eventually shine,"
"Mother, is Auntie Zaire coming with us?" Cratón asked, confused as to what Cadeyrn and Zaire were talking about.
"Cadeyrn, what are you planning to do?" Catarina noticed Cadeyrn's outstretched hand face them. "Cadeyrn!"
"Take care of the boys," Cadeyrn's hand glowed and the soul stones began to dissolve as he used psychokinesis to push the boat far from the shore.
"CADEYRN!"
XXX
"Mother, I'm hungry," Cratón spoke up after a few minutes of drifting silently.
Catarina passed Alistair to Cratón and started to dig through the bags that were on the boat. She took out an apple and handed it to Cratón. "Here," 'We've never been out of Disparia before. Is it possible for the three of us to survive?' She shook her head furiously. 'No, I can't let my sons die! I need to ensure their survival! First I should ration the food and water for as many days as possible. It's not like the sea is endless, right? We'll eventually reach land,'
"Why did Cadeyrn send us away?" Cratón questioned. "I thought he was coming with us,"
"Don't say his name," Catarina gently shushed him. "We can't let anyone know where we're from. Dispari only live in Disparia. The other people may try to harm us,"
"Alistair's claws, teeth, and tail are still visible," Cratón pointed to his baby brother. "He's too young to learn to retract them,"
Catarina ran a hand through her younger son's hair while holding a large piece of soul stone. The soul stone dissolved as Alistair's appearance resembled that of a normal human. Catarina fell backwards and Cratón barely caught Alistair. "I-I'm just tired," Catarina stuttered. 'I most likely took some of my lifespan off too. It was a difficult skill to use and takes a large amount of soul stone and stamina,' "I sealed Alistair's Dispari abilities. We need to do our best to blend in which means unless it's a life or death situation, you and I can't use our abilities either,"
Cratón nodded in understanding. "Okay Mother,"
"We also need new names," Catarina put a finger to her chin and had a thoughtful expression. "How about you be Crocodile and Alistair be Alligator?"
"Crocodile and Alligator?" Cratón tilted his head to the side, confused. "Because of our soul animals?"
"Yes and because I know that you'll both be powerful like those two predators," Catarina added. She looked back in the direction of where Disparia was. "Cratón, promise me…" Her voice was softer. "Promise me that if something were to happen to me, if I were to die, that you would protect your little brother,"
"I'll protect both you and Alistair!" Cratón declared. "So don't worry about dying, Mother!"
Catarina smiled and brought both of her sons into a hug. "I know you will…" 'We barely know anything about the outside world. The only knowledge we have were from the books we had read. Will we be treated well or shunned as outcasts?' Her hug tightened. 'I don't know about those things but what I do know is that we can never go back to Disparia. We will never go back to Galen's abuse. Cadeyrn…I hope that you're alright. I don't know why Zaire is attacking Disparia nor do I know where she got her forces from, but if she's against Cadeyrn then she must be an enemy. Cadeyrn has done nothing but protect us,'
Disparia will play a role in future chapters. According to the One Piece Timeline, Roger was executed in the year 1500 and the timeline post time skip is the year 1524.
I thought that The Tale of Crocodile and Alligator was a bit rushed and I'm going to change some things when I add them to this storyline.
Dispari Species Profile: fav DOT me SLASH dcp26ol