Chapter two! First two chapters right off the bat!

Chapter II – Memento

"I knew that'd kick you guys into gear!"

"Shut up!" The entire hideout yelled back. Dolt just laughed as he grabbed a small bowl of food that had somehow escaped Luffy's stomach -Dogra had likely saved it for him. Luffy was currently passed out on the floor, stomach distended to frankly unnatural proportions.

Dolt just stepped over him, leaving the building full of half-hearted glares that lacked any real heat, and took a seat on the steps.

"So, you were the one that told him to eat everything in the vicinity."

"Hmm?" Dolt glanced over his shoulder to see Magra standing in the doorway, "I don't know what you're talking about." He stuck a wad of rice in his mouth.

Magra shook his head and sat beside him, "You're lucky there was anything left. He ate all the meat we had before he fell asleep."

Dolt rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle, "Well, it's fine, isn't it? Haven't seen him that excited in a while."

Magra smiled, "I don't think anyone is actually complaining either."

Dolt finished off his small portion and set the bowl down beside him. He looked out into the forest, imagining what it would be like if Dadan were to come stomping up to the hideout right now, two children in hand, yelling at them all to get off their asses and get some work done—

Magra placed a hand on his shoulder, "Don't beat yourself up over this."

Dolt shrugged him off and leaned back on the steps, "Look at us! Toughest bandits this side of East Blue, holed up in our mountain. We've all gone soft up here! The world's a dangerous place! That's the life of a bandit, here one day, gone the next…"

He trailed off and swallowed.

"I was right there, Magra," Dolt whispered. "Right there. I saw all of them –I saw Dadan go down, I saw Ace get buried under that damn ship, I saw Sabo fall into the water… but I couldn't do anything. Was there anything I could have done…?"

"Lingering on the what if's won't do you any good, Dolt," Magra said. "We don't know everything. I know that if there was something else that could have been done, you would have done it. All we can do now is move on."

"I know that…" Dolt sighed. "It's just going to take time, I guess. It's too quiet around here."

"Hopefully a little less so, when that one's back to his old self," Magra gestured back to the hideout, and Dolt couldn't help but grin a bit.

"That kid's amazing, you know. Wish I could bounce back like him."

"You're stronger than you look."

Dolt hummed at that but didn't reply.

Then the sound of heavy footsteps, unmistakably irritated, turned their attention back to the door.

Jorda held his shotgun over one shoulder, an eye twitching as he spotted Dolt, "All right, you, let's go. It's your fault the food's gone, so you've got to go hunting too."

"Aww, and you're gracious enough to help me!" Dolt grinned.

Jorda kicked him in the back and stomped off, "Come on, you bastard."

"Ow, ow, ow, you didn't have to do that…"

Magra huffed as the two of them wandered off into the forest. He had a feeling Dolt would be just fine.

"Reggie!"

The bandit was -quite rudely, in his opinion -knocked into wakefulness by a shoe.

Reggie groaned and clutched his head before rolling over, "What? Sun's still up. Not my watch yet."

"Have you seen the kid? I've gotta check his burns," Lack asked.

Reggie cracked an eye open and frowned, "I dunno. Been asleep. Thought he was with Ido an' them."

Lack sighed, snatching his shoe back, "Ido took some of the guys to scout out the Terminal earlier."

"Then he's with Dolt."

"Dolt's out hunting with Jorda again. We still haven't restocked from the other day."

Reggie sat up, dread in his stomach, "…Magra? Dogra?"

Lack's face didn't change, but Reggie thought that if he could frown anymore, he would have, "They went down to Fusha today."

Reggie winced, sighed and rolled out of his hammock, "All right, I'm up."

"About time."

"This is why I said we should've snagged those short-distance transponder snails a while ago," Reggie grumbled as he grabbed his knives and kicked on his sandals, "We wouldn't have this problem if you guys'd just listen to me…"

"Quit your complaining and come on. I'm staying here in case he comes back with Dolt and Jorda, you go down to the Terminal. They said they'd be taking the cliff path. Who knows how we missed the kid."

"Well, he has been running around Goa for a while without getting caught…" Reggie thought, hand on his chin, "We might could turn him into a bandit, yet."

Lack kicked him in the backside, "Fat chance. Now get outta here."

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Reggie left the hideout with a yawn, despite the worry in his stomach. He would find the kid and head back in no time -and then he'd shove the first half of his watch onto Lack for his trouble.

He reached the start of the long cliffside path, leading around Goa and to the remains of the Terminal. It wasn't smoldering anymore at least.

"Yeah, that's a wonderful plan…"

"What is?"

Reggie flinched, nearly jumped out of his own skin, and looked down to see the object of his search looking up at him curiously.

"Damnit, kid—" Reggie started, prepared to drag the kid back to hideout and toss him at Lack. What stopped him, however, was the subdued frown on the boy's face.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked instead.

Luffy harrumphed in that way only children could, and crossed his arms, "I asked you a question first!"

Reggie's eye twitched, "I was just thinking how great it would be to drag you back to the hideout so I could get back to my nap. Unless you can give me some reason not to do that."

Luffy looked away, pouting, and Reggie was near the edge of his patience when he finally answered.

"I gotta go get something."

Reggie glanced down the path, "What could you possibly need from over there?"

"Ace's pipe."

"His what?"

"His pipe!" Luffy yelled, waving his arms, "We used them to fight with! We had Sabo's at the treehouse, and mine got broken, but Ace's is still out there!"

Reggie let that wash over him and made the mistake of looking into the eyes of a wide-eyed child on a mission. There wasn't even any guarantee the thing Luffy wanted would even have survived the fire, intact even less so. Besides, Lack would kill him for getting sidetracked on some mission when the Terminal was probably still dangerous…

"And this? This is a bad idea."

"What is –hey! Put me down! Where are we going!?"

Reggie picked the kid up by his shirt and started walking down the path.

"To Gray Terminal. Now shut up before I change my mind."

Luffy fell quiet, and Reggie glanced at him.

He was met by a blinding smile, "You're not that bad after all! Thanks, Rutabaga!"

"Rutabaga?" Reggie honestly didn't know what to feel about that. "It's Reggie!"

Luffy just laughed and reached up to swing from his arm like the monkey he was.

Reggie guessed he could bear with holding him for a while longer.

Reggie honestly hoped he wouldn't have to return to the Terminal within the year. Much less within a month.

It hadn't been long at all –but the trash was once again piling up, the scavengers and homeless and criminals once again roaming the makeshift hills. The only difference was the layer of soot that caked the ground and stirred with every step he took. They hadn't passed by Ido and the others on the way there, which meant they were probably still scouting out the area.

Not that there was much to see. No one was watching the place, not anymore. The Celestial Dragon had left almost as soon as he'd arrived. Goa could care less what happened to their dump when it wasn't up for scrutiny.

Luffy had stopped laughing when they'd gotten close enough to see the smog. The shore where the remains of Bluejam's ship resided was on the other side of the terminal, and Reggie was starting to wonder how wise this expedition was.

He looked down at the kid, still hanging from his arm -which was starting to get very tired -but at least no longer swinging. Luffy looked around the terminal with a frown, and it took Reggie a moment to realize what kind of emotion was on his face.

Luffy was unsure. Not exactly scared -Reggie had seen the kid scared, weeks ago in the hideout when they'd all been hoping in blissful ignorance.

This was hesitance. Something barrel-right-ahead Monkey D. Luffy had never actually shown before.

Reggie, honestly, thought it was fairly normal to feel uneasy about return ingredients to this hellhole, after everything that had happened.

"Let's find Ido first, yeah?"

Luffy hummed and let go. A plume of dust poofed from his landing, getting soot on the bandages around his legs. The kid pinned him with blazing eyes.

"How do we get to the ocean?"

Reggie's lips thinned. Damn it, coming down here was one thing. Moving around by himself and without the guys at his back and the kid in tow? Even he was nervous of all the greedy eyes on them. He and Luffy weren't exactly a shining example of cleanliness, but they were the only ones not covered in two inches of black dust -and that made them targets. Confident in his skills as he was, Reggie didn't want to end up in a fight today.

Despite all of that…

Reggie groaned, "You're just going to run off at the first opportunity if we don't go right now, aren't you?"

Luffy's expression became even more determined.

Luffy hadn't ever really liked Gray Terminal.

They found all kinds of interesting things there, sure. But it smelled funny, the people weren't really that interesting, and most of all Luffy couldn't see the sky past the haze overhead or the ocean past the big mountains of trash.

Luffy had always liked it best where his brothers where. Sabo had always liked it best in their treehouse. Ace had always liked it best where he could see the sky.

Luffy's pipe was broken, and Sabo's was in the treehouse, but Ace's was still down here somewhere.

Ace wouldn't like staying in this place.

Luffy walked on, following the bandit through the trash. He felt fidgety, here. He felt like he'd turn a corner and there'd be heat and fire. Which really didn't make sense, because he also knew there'd be no fire. The fire was over.

But the mystery feeling didn't care that he knew there wouldn't be a fire. It just kept reminding him there had been a fire. Luffy kept seeing licks of flames in the corners of his vision, kept smelling the soot around him, kept imagining a darker sky, and Ace-

He shook his head. Ace wouldn't like this place.

Luffy caught the scent of salt water, and started running.

"Hey- Luffy! Wait!" The bandit -and what did he say his name was again? Ruddy? Robbie? -called after him, but Luffy was already halfway up one of the trash heaps, pulling himself up until he reached the top, and could see the other side.

The air wasn't as bad here, but the water, the beach -it was still tainted black, sand gray instead of white, water dark and murky instead of clear and welcoming, like it was supposed to be. Luffy gulped, looking down the length of the beach -and there, to his right. Splintered, collapsed planks and a fine sheen of undisturbed ashes. He could hear the pained creaks and groans of the remaining wood as the waves pushed and pulled.

Luffy frowned and shook his head. Ace would hate it here.

The sound of a piece of tin clanking pulled his eyes away, and he blinked when he saw the bandit pull himself to the top of the mound and make a lot of noise on his way.

"Damnit- kid- why can't you- just stay- still!" The bandit finally pulled himself up beside Luffy, who blinked at him. Then he smiled and laughed.

This bandit was really funny. He was helping him, too, and Luffy didn't like mountain bandits, but these guys were turning out to be not that bad. Dolt was fun and Lack was a cool doctor and they let him eat meat, so Luffy thought they might even be good guys. It made sense, really. There were pirates like Shanks, then the guys like Bluejam who called themselves pirates. Which meant there were bandits like those guys that attacked him and bandits that weren't bad too.

The bandit pouted, "C'mon, kid, I'm far enough in the hole with Lack for not bringing you back when I found you. Don't laugh at me on top of it."

Luffy laughed some more, then hopped to his feet. The trash under him creaked but held, and he pointed down below them, "That's where Ace's pipe is, right?"

The bandit had a weird look on his face and frowned, but nodded, "Yeah, that's the old ship- Luffy, wait up!"

Luffy hopped down the trash heap, laughing again at the sound of the bandit scrambling after him and making a mess, and landed at the bottom with another puff of soot. He frowned and sneezed.

This stuff really clogged his nose, too.

When he made it to the ship, he looked and looked and looked. He kept looking even when the bandit caught back up and watched him wander around the place, then started looking too. He looked even after his arms and legs were black with the ashes around them, sifting through the sand and the mess of wood, ignoring the splinters he got because-

Because…

He wanted Ace to be somewhere he would like. Not here, buried under Bluejam's ship.

"Luffy," the bandit called to him, "we should head back. Wandering the terminal after dark is dangerous."

Luffy looked up at him. Then he looked down at the piece of wood he was trying to move by himself.

"No."

"Luffy-"

"No!" Luffy told him. "I don't wanna. Not yet. Not until I find it."

He started pulling at the wood again. The bandit sighed.

"Luffy, I know this is important to you, but we should head back soon. We didn't tell anyone else where we were going, and they'll start to worry."

"No. I've gotta find it."

"We can come back tomorrow if you want-"

Luffy gave up on the wood and turned to face the guy -Re… Re… Reg- Reggie! That was his name -to face Reggie. He was tired and hungry and the places he got splinters hurt and his burns were itching and he felt like the claw marks he got from the bear were making his arm heavier-

"I can't, Reggie!" He said, and Reggie blinked. "I have to find Ace's pipe, I can't leave it here, or- or- I don't wanna come back here again! I don't like this place, and Ace really wouldn't like it, so I just wanna get his pipe so I can take it back and- and- put it somewhere he would like!"

He sniffled, realized his cheeks were wet, and wiped at his face angrily. He was tired of crying. He didn't want to cry. He wanted to get Ace's pipe and bring it back and leave it on the cliff by the sea, up high and where he can hear the ocean, because that was where Ace liked it best.

He turned around and went back to pulling at the piece of blackened wood. He had to find it.

He tugged once, twice -and then the weight of the wood suddenly disappeared as he pulled it over his head.

Luffy blinked and looked up. Reggie was standing there, holding the piece with him.

"Okay, Luffy," Reggie said. "We'll find it."

Luffy smiled at him, "Thanks, Reggie!"

Reggie huffed and moved the wood aside, "Don't thank me yet! Lack's going to have both our heads when we get back, and that's after we somehow manage to get through Dogra!"

Luffy laughed at that, because yeah, some of the bandits could be really funny about things like that.

Together they started digging through the collapsed ship once more, until the sun started to set, an orange blanket falling over them.

Then a gleam of orange flickered in the corner of his eye. He thought it was the fire again, at first, but-

But it was warmer. It felt more real and warm and he turned and ran and started sifting through the black sand and… and found a length of pipe.

He pulled it up and checked the top to be sure-

And smiled widely when he found the 'A' scratched into the top piece.

"Hi, Ace," he whispered, then jumped up and waved the pipe around, "Reggie! I found it!

Reggie looked up from where he'd been digging in the sand himself, and flopped backwards in relief, "Thank the stars."

Luffy laughed, and decided he liked Reggie.

"Hurry up, would ya?" Sabo yelled into the hideout. He sighed when he saw the two had made no progress in their little dispute.

Ace was holding one end of a pipe, Luffy the other, and they glared at each other without blinking, and Sabo wondered how long they would actually stand there if left alone, given how stubborn the two were.

"This is my pipe, Luffy, let go!"

"No way! It's mine! Yours had that dent in it!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Sabo sighed, "Guys, does this really matter?"

He took a step back when both turned their glares on him, "Of course it does!"

He laughed nervously, casting about for an idea, "Well, um…"

They turned away from him and glared at each other again, and Sabo sighed.

His stomach growled. Which prompted both of theirs to growl.

He got an idea.

"Then, look, how about I let Ace use mine-" he held his pipe out to Ace, who took the end of it with a confused look, "Luffy, you can use the unclaimed one, and I'll take the one you both think is yours. Whoever can land the last blow on today's dinner gets this one, sound fair?"

Ace scrunched up his face and Luffy pursed his lips in that sour-face he made when he thought.

"But, but…" Luffy stuttered out, "How will we remember whose pipe is whose?"

Sabo blinked, then snapped his fingers with a grin, "Hang on! Ace, can I see my pipe back for a minute?"

Ace handed it back, and Sabo reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchknife he'd found in the terminal -he was surprised it had gone unclaimed so long, with how sharp it was, even if it was kind of hard to open it -and went to scratching.

A minute later, he blew on the engraving and turned to show the other two the 'S' he'd applied, "There! After we decide which one you'll keep, I'll put the first letter of your name on it! That way we won't get them mixed up."

Ace grinned, "Hey, that's a good idea!"

"Yeah!" Luffy tossed Sabo the pipe they'd been fighting over and snatched up the other one, and Sabo handed his to Ace, "Now let's goooo!"

He jumped down the trap door, his words growing faint as he fell to the ground.

"Luffy! Wait up!"

Sabo laughed and jumped out after Ace, sliding down the ladder and chasing after their younger brother.

Luffy smiled the whole time.

"What the hell were you thinking!? Jorda and Dolt came back alone and then Ido came back and did you really think it was a good idea to just wander around the terminal all on your own right now-!?"

Reggie yawned and scratched the back of his head. He was tired, sweaty, pretty sure he was seeing through a layer of gray thanks to all the soot he'd gotten in his eyes today. Lack screaming at the top of his lungs as he looked at both him and a still-grinning Luffy was really just washing over him than actually registering.

The kid had found the pipe right as the sun had started to go down, right at the edge of the water, half-buried in the sand and behind a couple of wood planks. A miracle, really, but the way the kid had lit up and ran to him and nearly bashed his head in with the damn thing made it really hard to regret anything he'd done today.

"Are you even listening to me!?"

He refocused on Lack, "Not really. You worry too much."

"Yeah!" Luffy piped in, still grinning, "We're back now!" Then he sniffed the air and wandered inside, "Hey, did you guys bring any meat back? I'm hungry!"

"You don't get to eat until you clean up and let me change your bandages!"

"Awwwww!"

Reggie grinned and turned to the bath-house over to the side. Might as well clean up, himself.

He cast a glance toward the forest, where he knew a metal pipe was planted near the edge of one of Colubo's many cliffside slopes, facing the wide open sea.

Yeah, he didn't regret it one bit.

There ya go! More sads. Probably more sads to come. Just... try not to expect fast updates from now on hahaha... ha...

-Dragon