The Tragedy of the Golden Wolf

Author Notes: Wow, I'm surprised at the positive response I got to the last chapter. I hope I don't disappoint on the continuation!

Disclaimer: I only own Banheart. Everything else belongs to Eiichiro Oda.


7: Sons and Daughters

Suggested Tracks: "Hurt," Johnny Cash; "Prayer of the Refugee (Diaspora)," Rise Against

Marco had put Banheart in the brig, though not handcuffed, and stayed by her frequently. He seemed to have taken her on as a personal project. Her fractures were splinted, and her deeper outer physical wounds bandaged. It was apparent to her, though, that he wasn't acting out of anything that could even be imagined as kindness or concern for her. He'd taken Ace's hat off of her head and hung it on a peg where she could see it. He would come around every other hour, pace in front of her cell, glare down at her, and interrogated her with the same things each time:

"How do you know Ace? What happened to him? What did Blackbeard do? What do you know?"

She never answered. She stared at the wall, she cried silently. She didn't know who her captors were, but she lived in fear of whatever torment they had in store for her. She could hear that awful laughter in her mind. She hated hearing Ace's name, still seeing his face in her mind as tears flooded his eyes and he watched her, raped and raped again. She relived the torment every second, photographic memories of each miserable second and flashbacks of each singular pain stretching out over what felt like centuries when a man even walked past her. When Marco lay eyes on her, she only felt it worse, and she was completely lost for thoughts, only hearing the pounding of blood in her ears. After some time, Marco would give up and start to leave, and she would finally speak; "Please kill me. I don't have enough strength in me to keep living."

"God, girl, I wish you would quit saying that," Marco muttered to himself as he walked away. She shook her head sadly, and silently prayed that next time, next time, he would be frustrated enough and put her out of her misery.

Banheart hadn't slept since Ace had been captured. She was sick the entire day. She felt like she'd been cut apart at the seams and sewn back together with worms under her skin. When the room was dark and she tried to close her eyes, she heard the vicious laughter of drunken Marines, saw their glassy, menacing eyes in the dark, and sometimes even felt them on her back. She was terrified to close her eyes and dream. She simply sat on the ground, staring at the moonlight shifting across the wall through the porthole, inching along through every gradual, eternal minute, every trickling, endless hour. She hadn't eaten, though they brought her three meals a day, and if she even smelled or looked at food for too long, she would become nauseous and retch her own spit. She awoke once with another unknown man over her shoving a needle into her arm. She screamed madly and tried to tear it out, but he'd taped it down firmly so that she couldn't pull out the intravenous needle that was keeping her hydrated. She was too weak to stand, barely able to get to her knees and crawl. She thought that maybe she was dying, just very slowly, and she hated it.

What did she have to live for anyway? She had been completely dishonored, ruined, destroyed in front of her dearest friend. She had devoted herself entirely to him, put her life in his hands, and she'd failed him, lost him. Her family? She had no family to return to, how could her father take her back now? The baby? She hadn't even told Ace. She hadn't told anyone. Who cared for the baby but her? But she had been beaten so badly, thrashed so viciously… how could she know if the baby had even survived?

In a moment of despair, she took her ruined clothes and tied them together with the cell bed sheet into a noose. She attached one end to the bars of the cell and put it around her neck, and leaned back. She felt it begin to tighten, but as soon as her vision began to black, she heard the Marines and saw the Marines and smelled the Marines and Marco cut the bed sheet loose, sending her stumbling forward into the wall.

"We'll have no more of that, eh," he said, and took her sheet away. She tried to perform the same act after ripping a long strip off the bottom of her skirt and tying it around her neck, but the fabric was too weak and tore under gravity.

She tried to bang her head against the wall, pounding her skull against the wood and hoping it would break, but it was futile, and Marco caught her in the act. He threatened to tie her down if she didn't stop, and she, terrified, hid in the corner with nothing left.

Three days had passed since she'd been found, and Banheart, who was slowly regaining her strength, tried to mark each slowly-passing hour, measured by the sun, Ace had been gone with a small prayer that he was alright. She knew, sadly, it was probably futile. Even if a god was listening, what would they do for her? How could she do anything for him now? She didn't even know where he was. The idea came to her suddenly out of the clouds in her mind- the card! She crawled to where her shoes had been left and dug into the left shoe's toe. She knew it was there, she knew it was there…

"What are you doing?" She looked up, with some horror, at Marco. "What do you think you're going to do with that shoe?" She froze, but her index finger found the corner of the folded paper. She withdrew her hand with the paper in hand, and looked into the floor. "Hey, you have something. Give it to me."

"No, it's mine," she whispered, clutching it to her chest.

"Show it to me," Marco demanded coolly. Nervously, she unfolded her hand, and realized, with a gasp, that the corner of the card was being eaten away by an invisible flame. "A Biblicard, eh?" Marco thought for a moment. "Alright, put it somewhere safe and put your shoes on." Banheart, though surprised, shoved it back into her shoe. "I imagine you're not much danger, but I'm still going to have to cuff you so you don't run off." Marco took a pair of handcuffs off the wall, and entered her cell with them in hand. She backed away in terror, fearful of what he was going to do to her, but he had calm eyes and a commanding, though benign presence. "Your wrists?" She obediently offered her wrists in front of her, and he tightened the cuffs around her thin forearms. "Come on, then. We're going for a walk." Marco pulled her up to her feet by the chain of the cuffs. Her knees shook as she was forced to stand, but as Marco began to lead her on, she had to walk behind him.

As they passed through the halls, other men looked at her. Banheart shivered in their gaze, tears running from her eyes in her worry. What was going to happen to her now? It was then that she realized something- one of the men had a red cross and crescent tattooed on his upper arm. He was a Whitebeard pirate! She took a look around at the other men, and realized they all had the same mark somewhere on their bodies. She forced herself to jog alongside Marco, and caught a glimpse of the tattoo under his shirt. Whitebeard pirates, all of them! She instantly felt a mountain of fear press onto her heart. No wonder they were asking about Ace. What would they do to her?

Marco led her to a door to the outside deck, and she could see the sunshine through the cracks. Another man, with massive muscles and a fierce face, opened the door from the other side, and he and Marco shook hands. "This her?" Joss looked at Banheart.

"Yeah. She's not much to look at, but she's looking a hell of a lot better than she was before." Marco pulled her up as she began to slouch. "Let's hope Pops doesn't knock what little life she has left out of her."

Pops. That was what Ace had called…

Marco and Joss led her through the door to the outside, and there, on his chair, with a barrel of sake by his side and tubes and machines hooked to his arms and nose, was Whitebeard. Banheart managed to look at him for all of three seconds, just enough to register the crescent mustache and his massive size, before passing out.

"Pops, this is her," Marco announced as he dragged Banheart's limp body forward. Whitebeard's nurses gasped as they saw her. "I'm pretty sure you scared her, eh." Joss took a mug of water from a nearby barrel and splashed it on her face. She sputtered and opened her eyes again, and managed not to look directly at him, instead staring at his feet. Her eyes traveled around the area. There were no other men on the deck; it seemed eerily empty. Marco lifted her back to her feet. "Ace's hat and boat were in her possession. This is the weapon we claimed from her." He handed the pistol to Joss, who brought it up to Whitebeard so he could inspect it. "Marine issue. Our best guess is that she's somehow related to the Marines."

"Marine issue indeed," Whitebeard muttered, and he examined the gun. "With one bullet, jammed in the chamber, water-damaged. No blanks. This gun isn't a threat."

"She won't explain anything. Alright, girl, this is your last chance." Marco nudged her towards Whitebeard, and she fell to her knees without his support. "Tell us what happened!"

Banheart's gaze shot between Joss, Marco, Whitebeard's feet, Marco, Joss, Marco, Whitebeard leaning forward. She choked on a whimper as he leaned close to make his eyes meet hers. She looked at his face, aloof and stern with harsh, powerful eyes and was chilled to the bone. She finally managed to squeak, "I can't!" Her whole body seemed to buckle from the weight of her head, and she slumped to the ground. Sobs came, uncontrollable ones that wracked her entire body. "I'm begging you, please! Do what that impotent gun couldn't and kill me! Give me another weapon, I'll do it myself! I do not want to live another miserable second!"

"Quiet!" Whitebeard ordered sharply. The floor seemed to shake, and Banheart managed to suppress her whimpers. "Marco, take off her handcuffs. She's no danger to anybody but herself." Marco obliged, and Whitebeard took a pistol from somewhere on his belt, put it on the ground, and slid it towards her. She picked it up, gazing thankfully at him. His eyes were clear and sober as he watched her. She pressed it to her forehead, cocked it, and gripped the handle tight. "Wait." She paused and cautiously looked up at Whitebeard. "Foolish child. That's not how you do it." He picked up a jug of sake and took a big guzzle. "If you put it through your forehead like that, you're liable just to sever the connection between your frontal and temporal lobes, which could leave you alive but damaged beyond repair. If you want a surefire kill shot, put the barrel to the base of your skull, tilted slightly up. If you aim it right, that'll hit the medulla oblongata and instantly shut down all of your basic functional systems, including your heart and lungs. You won't even have time to feel it."

Banheart felt a slight chill, but put the gun to the back of her head as he had instructed. Whitebeard coughed, and she froze. "Before you do that, though, you owe me a favor. See, I do you a favor, you do me one." She looked back up at him, but didn't lower the pistol. He seemed to gaze down at her like a judge in the courtroom- both benign and extremely dangerous in the same instance. "Let's start with your name. What's your name?"

"Wolfe Banheart, Lord Whitebeard," she whispered. Her finger twitched on the trigger- why hadn't she lied? He seemed unaffected. He spoke very evenly and slowly, and though his presence still made the air feel hot, she felt more warmth than terror.

"A good start. Now, be honest- how long did you know Ace?"

"Three and a half months, maybe a little less," she mumbled. It had been so easy to lie before, but under Whitebeard's gaze, the truth kept taking control of her tongue, no matter how hard she tried to spit out a lie.

"What was your connection to him?"

"I was a traveling companion. Nothing more." She swallowed hard. "I'm nothing."

"Were you involved in Ace's arrest?" She quickly shook her head. "Did you witness Ace's arrest?" She nodded. "Alright, what happened? Tell me as much as you can."

"I-I would never hurt him," she started fearfully. Her arm fell to her side, too weak to hold the heavy pistol up. "He said he was looking for a man- he called him Marshall D. Teach, Blackbeard- and he found that man! And he told me, wait here, he told me, stay here where it's safe, stay in the water, and he said he was going to kick the shit out of that man!" The words were spilling out, beyond her control. "He went to that man, and they started to fight, but there was this terrible black nothingness that ate everything and then spat it back out again in ruins, and then his men… they ran from him… and they took my money and one of them wanted to see my chest and I did not want to show him, but then, there was this big black hole and this big ball of fire and Ace and Blackbeard pushed them up against one another and… Ace fell." She stopped, whimpering and trying to control her tears and her tongue. "And he gave him to the Marines. I tried to help him, Lord Whitebeard, I did."

"Is that so? What did you do?" Whitebeard asked serenely. He seemed to exude all of the cool and calm that she was losing as she kept talking.

"I… I got on the ship… and I found him… he was in a cage… but, the Marines… they were drunk… crazy! They…. they… they…!" She swallowed her vomit, dropped the gun, and folded her hands over her lower stomach as the cramps came again. She could feel the pain again just thinking about it. Her eyes darted the area, and in her sweat and panic, she saw a wastebasket. She darted for it and emptied the water in her stomach into it. The nurses gasped, and one of them rushed to her side. Whitebeard somberly shook his head.

"Sweetheart, are you okay?" The nurse asked gently. Banheart shook her head. Marco kept a straight face as he took Banheart by the back of her shirt and pulled her back in front of Whitebeard. She dragged the trashcan with her, almost sure she'd need it again.

"I'm sorry, Pops, she does that a lot. Come on, Wolfe, tell him the rest. What did the Marines do?"

"You don't have to answer that question," Whitebeard rumbled coldly, but Banheart's lower lip wiggled. She couldn't stop her mind from rushing back to that terrible moment nor her mouth from reliving it.

"Stupid dirty pirate slut," she babbled, tears rushing from her eyes. "Come here, whore, quit resisting!" She flopped onto her front and started banging her head against the floor. Marco seized her to try and control her convulsions, but she kept screaming. "Kick me again and I'll break your legs!" She pounded her fist into the wood over and over and wailed aloud. "I swear to god, you'll never fuck a pirate again! We're the best damn things on this ocean. Hold still bitch! No, please, god, no!"

"Stop," Whitebeard interrupted sharply, and Banheart, panting, retched into the wastebasket again. Marco backed away from her.

"They made Ace watch!" She wailed despondently. "They all made Ace watch! I kept saying no, and they made him watch!" She pushed the wastebasket away and collapsed onto her front.

"Girlie, please," Joss started, moving towards her, but Marco stopped him. In her fit, she sat upright, eyes wide and painfully red.

"And they branded me like an animal. Look!" She slid her skirt up her thigh to show the Marine symbol burned into it. "So no pirate would ever touch me. Just to mock him. He told me he loved me!" She pressed her head in her palms. "They gave me a gun, they left me on that island to die, and I want to! Do you still think I'm a goddamned Marine?" She glared at Whitebeard, whose expression was somber and even. "Ace was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I lost him! I'm useless… I am nothing anymore! I can't live with it…" She grabbed the gun, pointed it to her chest, and put her finger on the trigger.

"It will do you no good, child," Whitebeard murmured seriously before she could pull it. "Who would give you, in your hysterics, a ready weapon?" Banheart froze for a second, and opened the chamber. It wasn't loaded. Whitebeard groaned softly as he sat up and dug into his jacket for something. She shivered and whimpered, dropping the useless gun. He pulled out a big stack of envelopes, and looked through them. "Let me see here… This one." Whitebeard selected one, and pulled the letter from it. "'Dear Pops,' blah, blah, blah… Here. 'Also, thought you should know. Met a girl. Great girl. Can't wait to introduce her to you. Not a pirate, but will make her your daughter yet!' Would that girl Ace wrote me about be you, Banheart?" Whitebeard, Marco, and Joss all looked down at her, as she tried to wipe her eyes.

"I don't know, sir," she whispered.

"Was he with other women while he was in Alabasta?" Whitebeard pointed to the Nanohana postmark on the envelope.

"N-no, sir, none I know of, sir. He… was with me." She hung her head. Whitebeard considered this.

"Marco, you said she hasn't been able to eat or hold anything down," Whitebeard said, looking at him. Marco nodded.

"She can barely keep spit in her mouth, eh. You've seen it."

"Sit upright, lass, let me see your face. Marco, help her." Marco stepped forward to help her from her slump, and she managed to sit on her knees, arms limp at her sides. Whitebeard looked her over. "Girl, you are in a family way," he finally stated after some thought. Her eyes widened at the accusation. Both Marco and Joss looked down at her with surprise, then back at their father. He pointed at her lower stomach, at the swell stretching her tattoo. "If she hasn't eaten or drank anything in more than two days, she wouldn't look bloated like that. She's still got a shape. You're expecting."

"I think I am, or I was, sir," she confessed sadly.

"No, I'm all but certain you are. Tell me, my girl," Whitebeard started with a devious grin. "Are you making a grandpa out of me?"

"I'm sorry, sir," she started to sob, feeling her heart race. She began to feel sick all over again, but there was nothing left for her to retch out. "I didn't mean to, and I just couldn't bring myself to kill it! Ace told me he should never have been conceived! He would never have wanted me to conceive his child!" She covered her face in shame and tried to hide her tears. "Just give me a rope, a pistol, a blade, anything! Let me end this! Lord Whitebeard, I'm sorry I did this to your son!"

"Hush now," Whitebeard ordered, shaking his head as he stood up. His nurses tried to stop him, but he pulled the IVs and tubes from his arms, chest, and nose and walked towards her. "You, never apologize for that." He moved her wastebasket aside and got down on his knees so he could embrace her. Banheart didn't know what to think, confused as he wrapped his arms around her, and finally let herself cry against his bare chest. He patted her back with a heavy hand. "There's a girl. Shh." She sobbed again, and he rubbed her head. "You are clean of sin, and very lucky. I am very glad we found you, and I thank the Fates that that gun jammed! You are going to be the mother of my grandchild! Whether or not you're a pirate, I call you my daughter!"

She cried like a lonely wolf as Whitebeard held her, her tears running off of her cheeks onto his skin. Even her own father had never held or comforted her like this, and she never would have let him.

"Poor kid," Joss muttered, rubbing his forehead. "She's definitely picked up an attitude from Ace, though."

"Pops, if we'd known, we would've been more gentle on her," Marco insisted quietly.

"I understand, son." Whitebeard kept Banheart close to him, and she closed her eyes, feeling no fear for the first time in three days. "The best thing we can do now is take care of her. I personally will protect her." He looked down at the small woman he cradled. "Did Ace know he was going to be a father?"

"N-no, I was too scared, I couldn't bring myself to tell him," she mumbled. "I was so afraid he would abandon me. It was just a stupid mistake. I should have tried to prevent it-"

"Hush with that. I know that Ace would have been overjoyed to be a father, and if he wasn't, I would beat the goddamn joy into him. My sons and daughters know that family is the most important thing to me, and he would take care of you because you would be his family. I think that we need to let him know he's going to be a father." Banheart looked up at him in bewilderment.

"H-how?"

"You leave that to me." He smiled warmly at her. "And Banheart, I assure you I will champion his rescue with all of my resources; every single man who calls himself my ally will work to save their imprisoned brother. You don't need to worry about a single thing." He finally released her from his hug, and backed up to take a look down at her again, his firm hands gripping her arms and back. "Tell me, when is the blessed event?"

"I'm… I'm probably going to have the baby in six or seven months, if that's what you mean, if I am still expecting," she stammered quietly. Whitebeard smiled proudly, kneeling down in front of her again.

"Alright. Ace will be back with you before then." He kissed her forehead in the same brief, gentle way Ace had. Without Whitebeard supporting her, she slumped back to the ground on her knees, without even the strength to look back up. "Marco, Joss, you realize the significance of this?"

"Sure do, Pops," Joss nodded.

"She's our sister, and we've got to keep her safe," Marco affirmed.

"Exactly so." Whitebeard returned to his seat and medical equipment, and his nurses quickly hooked him back up. "Joss, I want the ship that picked Ace up found, you hear me? I want you to leave first thing tomorrow to find them, and I want you to imprison every single man on it and bring them to me. I am going to deal with the wrongs they have done my children personally." His gaze was fierce, his smirk wicked. "Nobody hurts any of my sons unless they deliberately desire a painful death, right?"

Joss chuckled deviously. "I'll start chasing 'em immediately. First thing we can do to help Ace, right?"

"That's right, son," Whitebeard affirmed. Banheart, limp on the ground, felt a little bit of vindication. "Now, as for our new sister specifically… The name Wolfe Banheart should not be spoken in public places, nor should anybody outside of our crew know that Ace had a lover, let alone a child on the way. Marco, keep somebody with her until you're certain she's overcome her hysterics. I will not see her come within six feet of an unattended weapon. The men should know she is our sister and our guest, and it is our duty to keep her safe until Ace is here to keep her safe himself." Whitebeard smiled warmly down at Banheart. "As for you, little lady, feel free to come speak to me anytime. In fact, I'd like to see you fairly often. Take in some fresh air with the other men! They'll surely love your company. You, as one of my daughters, are welcome to see me at any hour." He handed her a tissue, and she picked her head up and wiped her tears.

"Thank you so much… Father!" She managed a smile, and Whitebeard chuckled.

"'Atta girl. It's very easy to see why Ace likes you when you smile. Try to smile more. As long as I can stand, I'll never let a thing happen to you."


End Notes: I hope everyone is pleased with where things are going now!

Time for something I call "Fun with Honorifics!" In Japan, very rarely is "you" used by itself, but instead the individual's given name and a specific honorific. The different honorifics denote status in relation between the speaker and the addressed party… okay, most of you probably get it, but let's go through a few characters and the different honorifics our heroine uses for them!

Banheart- Though unknown parties address her as Banheart-san, being somewhat tomboyish and most insistent that she is not a child among her peers, she would reject the familiar feminine honorific "-chan" in favor of "-kun." Older individuals (men, especially, including Whitebeard) use "-chan" anyway.

Ace- Yobisute. She calls him "Ace-san" at first, calls him "-kun" at his insistence. After initiating their relationship, both drop the honorific completely. The lack of an honorific is called yobisute, and it is only used between close family members and lovers/married couples. (This is actually one of the biggest mistakes made by tourists in Japan! Using yobisute with an unknown party is highly offensive. When in doubt, go with "-san.")

Whitebeard- "Shirohige-dono" at first and when referring to him to others. "Dono" is an older term, essentially meaning "Lord." When she begins to call him father, she uses "Chichi-ue," meaning "honorable father." She will later shift to the more informal "Tou-san."

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