Whether he was born under the unluckiest star in the universe or had committed some unspeakable crime in a past life and was forced to repent for his sins, he would never know for sure. What the pirate captain did know was that his childhood sucked. Trafalgar Law spent more than a decade aboard the same ship as Donquixote Doflamingo serving as the man's source of entertainment and an emotional plaything, selfishly used for his medical skills and oppressed to the point of questioning his true reason for being alive. Those events repeatedly caused him to lean towards the possibility of just ending his existence since he really didn't have a reason to stick around the world of the living but the doctor had eventually found his drive to breathe. His friends, his crew, the adventure of life and the tides of the sea called to him, willing Law to explore what his time on this planet could show him if he turned to the life of true piracy.

Of course, his escape from the Shichibukai was doomed to fail from the beginning. As soon as Trafalgar had left the madman and found people and things he genuinely cared for they were automatically used against him. Doflamingo now truly had the man under his thumb, threatening Law to follow his absolute command or watch them suffer for his insubordination.

For years he completed secret tasks unbeknownst to his crew, raising his reputation in the underworld to an all-time high in order to keep his friends safe.

But he grew tired of it; tired of fearing his own shadow and tired of the Shichibukai's cruel authority. So Law devised a plan that entailed wiping both Doflamingo off of the map and toppling his entire empire.

The day Law won his war against the man and felt as the burden of the Donquixote family was lifted from his shoulders was one worth more than cheers of happiness and tears of joy; it would be remembered and replayed in his head for as long as he lived. It was a reminder of what he had to look foreword to in the future and that he could never take for granted what he held precious in his life.

~0~

The war in Marineford between Whitebeard and just about every naval officer who could be spared for battle that day would definitely go down in the history books for generations to come with exquisite words depicting the victory of "True Justice" against evil, but what the marines didn't take into account was the resourcefulness of a pirate.

Once born a survivor, always a survivor.

The wounds of being impaled by a molten fist through a person's gut were definitely an accomplishment to patch together, but the driving will of a certain division commander to get back up after healing for nearly two years was nothing to laugh at as well.

Ace stood at a grave sight, grinning endlessly as he stared at his name etched into the stone before him. He couldn't stop reading the words written beneath it, chuckling at the stupid irony of this whole situation.

The only troublesome thing that seemed to transpire from this whole ordeal was the fact that Devil Fruits return to nature and are reincarnated into another piece of fruit when a person dies, regardless if the host is resuscitated or not.

Portgas suddenly laughed out loud, throwing his head back and just taking a moment to enjoy the pure bliss of living, breathing and feeling before being reduced to chuckles as he turned his attention to the stone next to his. The pirate took a few casual steps to the right and stood in front of the gravestone of Edward Newgate, staring in silence a moment but eventually snickering once again. Ace held up the bottle in his hand and popped the top off before tipping the full container sideways and watching as the booze inside ran out of the bottle, trickling to the ground.

"Thanks, Pops." Portgas stated to nothing in particular, hoping the wind would deliver his message safely to the man he was trying to reach.

Just as the last bit of alcohol was about to fall from the bottle, Ace raised it to his lips and drank the rest of it.

"You were the greatest father a guy could ask for."

~0~

If he could regret only one thing in his life it would be leaving his brothers behind without a single explanation or goodbye. Sabo could only imagine the agony Ace and Luffy must have felt if they ever learned of his little fishing boat being blown to smithereens by the Tenryuubito the day he decided to set sail for a life of pirating.

It had been pure luck to have some sort of divine providence on his side that allowed for the blonde to be saved that day. Whether Monkey D. Dragon had been carefully watching the kid's every move the moment he first met him or if the man had been in the right place at the right time Sabo never did find out, but either way the blonde had been saved that day and brought aboard the revolutionary ship.

Several days after the occurrence, the boy had woken to find he was sailing towards the Grand Line and was already too far away from Goa Kingdom to head back on his own. But that wasn't the reason he stayed with the revolution. Sabo saw this as his moment to do something with his life and fight for what was "True Justice" in this world.

The marines' version of the word was so far corrupted and lost that it was apparent even to a child. Dragon had told the boy of his ambition; to create a world everyone could find solace in and as it is now, the planet is nothing but crooked politicians and money-hungry nobles controlling the flow of society.

The very thought of living in a world so sickening and repulsive made the blonde's stomach churn, but the prospect of changing it for the better was what kept Sabo going.

~0~

He always dreamt of big adventures and far-off places filled with nothing but excitement and thrilling journeys, but what Luffy had never really taken into account was who he would spend those experiences with. He always figured he'd find a handful of friends and sail around the world looking for treasure as a pirate captain, but what he never even considered was what kind of impact these people could have on him. Luffy never thought about what friendship truly was when he first set out to the sea and the emotional bond shared between him and the people he met, nor did he take into account how intense and deeply rooted those experiences could get. But then again, no one really knows who they're going to laugh with, who they're going to argue with, joke with, fight for or cry for. No one can ever have enough insight to figure all of that out which is why emotional events are usually taken hard like a kick to the teeth. Luffy always figured there was some kind of unperceivable attachment binding him to just about every other person on this planet, but even that ideology was horribly vague at best.

When Straw Hat had to cope with the death of both of his big brothers these thoughts finally came to light. Friendship was rewarding beyond any doubt but it also brought pain and agony. However, if the pirate learned anything from that statement it was that the painful feeling a person gets when they lose a friend gages how much that lost person meant and if those feelings are strong enough to manifest themselves then the experience was worth it.

Luffy missed his brothers with all of his heart but at the same time he was able to accept that every memory of them was another treasure added to his collection.

But after all of that, one thing that never really hit home with the future pirate king was "family". To Monkey D. Luffy that word just meant a really strong friendship with other people so when he learned one day that he shared a father with another, the saying of "blood relation" never really sunk beneath the first layer of his understanding capabilities.

And let's just recognize that the number of layers an idea has to go through in Luffy's mind before something finally sinks into his thick skull and is completely understood is very long.

Through his adventures on Dressrosa fighting alongside Trafalgar Law, Luffy had been informed by the man he was trying to defeat, Doflamingo, that although he and the pirate doctor were seven years apart their father was Monkey D. Dragon. But Straw Hat hadn't even taken a moment to compute that information; he just accepted it and moved on. However, when the fight was over and he told his crew about the news they immediately got into a frenzy and put ideas into the future pirate king's head about how he should perceive this new event. Luffy pondered those ideas for a few moments, flipping them around in his head and analyzing as best as his mind could about what it takes to be family when he came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter. Even before it was announced that they had the same father, Law was still his friend and that's all that Luffy needed to know.

If they had the same blood running through their veins, so be it. If they got along and helped each other out of dangerous situations, so be it.

~0~

AN: well RoXaS707 it seems i CAN write more for this story xD im pretty sure it's not what anyone was expecting but i decided that if im going to attempt to keep this fanfic as canon as possible then these 4 cannot meet again until sometime in the future. i didnt specify when, just sometime after the punk hazard arc.

and yes, these theories are what allow me to sleep at night ;A; Law has a few quirks and personality traits that are similar to Luffy's (getting mad when eustass kidd wants to take care of the marines outside of the auction house himself, sitting the same in the cage when captured by caesar, not to mention how Law can actually tolerate Luffy without strangling him) so i imagine them as half brothers.
back in the flashback about Luffy and Ace's childhood after Sabo's boat gets blown up we see Dragon heading onto his ship and his crew members are frenzied over something about their leader being hurt and having a lot of wounds but we never see what and Dragon looks fine a few panels later so maybe he had Sabo in his arms...? maybe im an overly-attached fangirl...? (let's go with both options ;D)
my theory on Ace is just hopeful wishing though ;~; even if Eiichiro Oda himself came up to me, grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently yelling "ACE IS DEAD. GET OVER IT YOU CRAZY FANGIRL." i would still live my life blissfully thinking he'll come back.

~( ; u;)~ MOCK ME IF YOU WISH, because your ridicule is probably right and might actually make me choose to do my homework instead writing a gazillion fanfics