(Super Long A/N): Hi guys! I know that a lot of you have been looking forward to this chapter, so I hope I delivered decently. I'm not totally sure if this is what you were expecting or wanting...because I had basically no idea how to write this. This fic is actually kind of an eye opener to me. It's helping me realize just how many plot holes and loose ends I tend to leave in things, and it's forcing me to think about how a certain character thinks, not just what I think. Unsurprisingly, this is not easy, which is a big part of why I made the last two chapters tie in a few new characters to tide things over. It's easy to gloss over it and say "they had a really helpful talk about all of this the night before," and call it dealt with. However, that's not what I would want to read, or what any of you probably want to read either. So it has taken me awhile to figure out how to play out Shanks and Ace in this. Hopefully I've done it some justice.

Also, because a couple of people asked about it, storyline. I'm not going to give away too much yet-what's the point in that, you need to read it for yourselves!-but I will give a general idea of where I think the story is going in the future. This fic will detail the ASL bros, with a few recurring guest kiddos added, Until probably a year or so before they are going to set sail for themselves. During this time they are going to meet people, fuck up timelines, and save some people that you might or might not expect to appear. Some of the other characters, when they appear, will be VERY OOC. I'm doing that because in my universe, some things have or haven't happened to change their worldviews. (Most of these people will be characters who were a bit more minor in cannon, the core crew and such will remain roughly the same.) Also, there will be a lot more oddball and maybe obscure tie-ins to future characters.

Someone asked why I made Zoro's mom who she was. One, based on cannon, Zoro has a kind of fear/respect surrounding very strong-willed women. I personally like to think that that could have come from a very strong-willed mother, who instilled that kind of response in him as a child. Two, I've watched (too many) OP theory videos on youtube, and one of the ones I watched concerned Zoro's father(still unknown) being from Wano, and or a member of Roger's crew. I liked that theory, but since that whole theory was too complex for me to easily work with without a lot of research, I modified it by making it his mother (my OC) who was from Wano. (His dad here is also another OC of mine, and I honestly don't know if I'll bother to flesh him out. I don't think it matters much to the storyline so I probably won't.) Three, I made this story originally as a kind of character study for Shanks, and I haven't abandoned that(even if I'm not doing a good job of it). So I wanted to explore some of his past on the Oro Jackson. Since so little is currently known about that crew, and the time period in generally(at least to me, though I might just be living under a rock) I decided to have fun with it, and add in some characters to my liking. He and Buggy argued a lot, and had a sort of frenemies relationship. I liked the idea of him having another semi-close age mate that would be like a sibling.

Another thing to address: I might consider a sequel, depending on how I wrap things up with this one. There will be a few more chapters that are in the same time range, then it will start skipping between years a bit more. I don't intend to make this an outrageously long fic. If I make a sequel, it will be less of an ongoing story, and more of a collection of one-shots in the same universe, further down the line. Those one shots will be a few comedic inserts, a few dramatic encounters, and this universe's take on some of my favorite highlights from various islands.

Okay, really long author's note over. Enjoy!

Chapter Seven

Shanks pov: The heavy door to my cabin swung shut with a low thud. I glanced out the porthole briefly. The sun is up, but it's not quite out of sunrise. He's early.

Ace's signature footsteps echoed quietly in the room as he crossed to the circular table in the corner-where Benn always reads the morning paper. Over the past few weeks, Benn and I (and probably most of the other guys)had begun to recognize that each of the boys had particular quirks about them, making them distinctive even when they are quiet. Not that quiet is a very common thing with these three, but it does happen.

For instance, their walking patterns are easy to differentiate even without looking at them. Luffy walks with energy-shifting his weight sporadically, hopping, skipping, and skidding frequently, causing his flip flops to scritch against the floorboards. Sabo walks with grace-something I highly doubt that he notices. If he did, he would likely try to cover it up, as it is a tell-tale sign of someone born into a higher status. He walks heel-toe, clacking the toes of his boots gently as he goes-when he isn't sprinting down the halls and cackling like a little maniac. Ace is quite different from them both. He generally hates wearing shoes of any sort, and will only do so if we land at a port(because he will get kicked out of some establishments if he doesn't wear them) or in the dining hall (because Terry insisted that it isn't sanitary, and therefore everyone must wear shoes in the galley unless signed off by Kincaid for a medical reason). When he does wear shoes, he prefers large, heavy boots that thunk with every step (and are probably at least a size too big). While Luffy and Sabo walk like kids, chaotic, uncaring, and snapping twigs and crunching rocks wherever they go, Ace does not. He makes a point of walking quietly (despite the occasional clunky boots). He avoids twigs and rocks on paths, and walks in a careful, cautious manner. Like making too much noise will attract something unpleasant.

Right now, the almost silent padding of bare, calloused feet on wood is audible to me through the shuffling of papers on my desk as I tidy up my paperwork.

When all of the necessary logs were put away, I turned around to face him.

Ace was nervous. He didn't openly fidget or bounce in place like his brothers often did, instead when the kid got nervous he zoned out-or appeared to anyway. If he's anything like Rouge then he's probably thinking a million miles a minute about something. She quite often did that, nervous or not (though it definitely became more noticable the more on-edge she was).

He was staring at one spot on the table, arms folded, and one finger tracing the wood grain absently. His eyes were unfocused, shoulders tense, and feet tucked under him with his toes to the floor from his perch at the edge of the seat. One foot faced towards me, the other was angled back slightly, and to the side towards the door. Conscious of an exit, probably ready to bolt at any time.

I made just a little bit more noise than necessary while walking over and pulling the opposite chair out to sit in front of him. By the time I was settled he was back to the present.

"Sorry for keeping you back, I know you probably wanted to explore the port with your brothers." I started. No sense in freaking the kid out first thing.

He shrugged kind of noncommittally, and shifted his eyes between me and the table briefly before settling on the table. "S'ok, I know you wanted to talk to me about something."

I raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah? How'd you know that?"

He shrugged again, "Heard you talking to Benn yesterday. I know he was gonna take Lu and Sabo into the port while you talked to me about something."

Well, I guess we weren't as quiet as I thought we were. That of the kid is way more perceptive than we gave him credit for. Oops. "Do you know what that something is?"

He bit his lip slightly before quickly disengaging the action. So he knows that that's a tell. Interesting. "You didn't say it yesterday."

"I'm sensing a "but" here." I said, somewhat dryly.

He shifted minutely, "You want to ask me about the stuff me and Lu were rambling about when we got hurt right?"

I nodded, "What you said specifically. Want to tell me about that?"

"Tell you about what exactly? I was saying a lot of things." He tried to sidestep the question.

I gave him a stern look that clearly said that I would take no such bullshit, "I mean, why you thought that you didn't deserve to be alive."

Ace didn't answer what hadn't really been a question as much as a statement."

I sighed, and continued in a much gentler tone "Why?"

He didn't move his eyes from the table while he spoke, "Because I don't."

"I am going to have to disagree with you there, but we'll get to that later. I mean why do you think that." I pushed, keeping my tone level.

He looked up at me with this dead sort of look, and it made my blood boil quietly in my veins because I knew that someone else had put it there, and that was not fucking okay. "Because I killed my mom."

The pause that hung in the air was stifling. My brain short-circuited for a moment. "Excuse me?"

He shifted a little, and then took in a deep breath, "My mom extended the pregnancy a lot longer than it should have been, because if I had been born earlier then the marines would have figured out who my blood father was and killed me. She died right after."

Oh-oh, wait that means-oh shit. I was suddenly very glad for my many years of bullshitting experience teaching me a good poker face, because if not I'm sure my thoughts would have shown on my face very clearly. He's Rouge's kid. Rouge was Roger's girlfriend (very little known, and the two of them were pretty private about it, so even most of the crew didn't know. I only found out because Mavaella told me. To this day I don't think that Buggy knows.) so...he's captain's kid too? Damn, no wonder he said it was problematic. His parents are the two most wanted people of their generation. The only person who might top their shit-list is Dragon, but even he only pissed off the Government and Nobles. Rouge and Captain pissed off everybody. I took a deep breath, and spoke slowly as my brain tried to re-route to the original issue, "So wait, you're telling me….that that whole issue started because your mother was amazing enough to intentionally extend a pregnancy, which was a dangerous thing to do, in order to protect you."

"I killed her." His voice was completely flat.

Oh no. No no no no. Fuck no. "Ace, you did not kill your mother. You are not responsible for her decisions." I said seriously.

His face twisted into a protest that I cut off.

"No, listen to me Ace. You did not kill your mother. Yes she probably died due to the extended pregnancy, but you did not kill her. She made the decision, knowing that it could harm or potentially kill her, to extend her pregnancy past the point which would be safe or logical." My voice was hard as I said this, and Ace seemed to shrink a little bit under my words. I softened, and quieted my voice considerably. "Your mother, by any chance was her name Rouge?"

The kid's head snapped up so quickly it was almost as alarming as his expression of shocked terror.

"Relax, you didn't say anything to give it away. If you don't want me to tell anyone I won't. Benn doesn't even know right now. You reminded me of her a few times, that's all." I soothed.

He blinked several times, "Wait...you knew her?"

I nodded, "Yeah, she was a senior crew member on the same ship as me and Mavaella. Mavaella was her protege actually, Rouge taught her everything she knows about knife fighting and blades. I knew her back when I was a cabin boy on that crew."

Ace blinked again, this time in utter confusion. "Wait, my mom was a pirate?"

I stared at him for a few moments in utter silence. Damn Garp, I was going to kill him. "Ace, your mother was one of the most well-known, and quite honestly feared pirates of her era. She held the title of most wanted woman on the seas for well over a decade until she retired, and at one point she ranked third most wanted person in the world. Only just behind Dragon the Revolutionary and Captain Roger himself. "Red Demon of the Grand Line, Portgas D. Rouge" was easily one of the most hated people I've ever met. She pissed off everyone. No one ever told you about her?" I asked, completely aghast.

Ace stared at me like I had just turned the whole world on its head, completely frozen.

"...Don't tell me….Did Garp plant an image of some sweet, innocent girl taken advantage of by an asshole pirate who left her as a single mother?" I asked incredulously.

Ace slowly nodded.

"...Someone ought to fucking slap him, and that someone should be Tsuru." I said calmly, and more than a little disgusted. "She would absolutely wring his neck if she knew that's what he told you. Rouge was the one that gave her that nasty scar on her chest. Even if the old bat hated her on principle, she would rip Garp a new one for undermining the sheer strength and authority that Rouge had as a fighter."

Ace stared at me, wide-eyed. I could see the gears whirling in his head as he processed this. After a long several minutes, he asked, "Wait...does that mean that my blood father wasn't actually an asshole?"

I inhaled through my nose, Garp is very, very dead. He needs to start ordering a coffin and a memorial service, and probably track down that son of his to make amends if he's ever going to, and he needs to do it before I next see him. "By blood father do you mean Roger?"

Ace nodded.

I stared at him, "Roger was an idiotic, goofball, and utterly ridiculous man with a protective streak as big as the Grand line. I can't speak for his actions against enemies, so in the eyes of other crews and marines he probably was an asshole, but his crew was his family. He called us nakama, and he took care of me, Mavaella, and my fellow cabin-boy Buggy better than any of our own parents had.

"He and Rouge were very private when it came to their relationship-so much so than even some of the crew didn't know that they were dating-but they loved each other. Besides that, if and when he ever stepped out of line, Rouge was more than capable of dealing with him. Everyone on the crew knew that she could bench-press the weight of a small elephant with minimal effort. Bodily throwing one idiotic man overboard would be child's play for her. So no, Captain wasn't an asshole, at least not in the way that Garp seems to have told you."

Ace took in this information with confusion and awe. "So...my crazy strength doesn't make me a monster...it's because I got it from my mom?"

"Whoever told you that you were anything like a monster needs to clean out their eye sockets. I have seen real monsters, both human and otherwise, and you are nothing like them. Also, Rouge would absolutely rampage if she heard someone say that about you. She would have loved that her kid inherited her strength, it was something she was damn proud of." I stated bluntly.

"...Gramps is a really shitty person isn't he?" he muttered, staring at the woodgrain.

I sighed, "Garp isn't a terrible person all around-at least I don't think he is. My bet is that he didn't know how to handle a grandkid-especially after his own son turned rogue-so he tried to use marine techniques instead of parenting skills since that didn't work out well with his son. Unfortunately, that resulted in a lot of terrible situations, which you kids should never have been subjected to. It doesn't at all excuse what he did, but it might explain it. Regardless, if he and I ever cross paths we will be having a little chat about his idea of parenting. Or grand-parenting. Whatever." I blinked, "Wait, how is Garp your grandfather anyway? I know that neither Rouge nor Captain were related to him, and you're not Dragon's son. How did you even end up in his care?"

Ace blinked, and opened his mouth before stopping, "I...don't know. He never told us that. I never really questioned it because I knew him since I was a baby. He might not even be Lu's grandfather either. He definitely isn't Sabo's."

Okay, that leaves a lot of questions. Maybe it's time to have a drink with Mihawk. He always knows the nitty-gritty about the marine higher-ups. He's quiet, but he's an absolute Nosey Parker. I think he has enough dirt on the government to sink them if he had enough care to tell the right people. If anyone would know Garp's dirty laundry, it would be him. "...Okay, when we get to the right places, I'm going to make a point of introducing you to some of the old crew members of the Oro Jackson-at least, the ones I know how to find. If things had gone, well, not the way they did, they would basically be your aunts and uncles." Jeeze, he really needs to meet Rayleigh.

Ace looked at me in baffled wonder, "Okay."