Never let it be said that Theodosia Deveraux was a coward.

Sure, she didn't run headlong into confrontation or start fist fights over dropped pens. In fact, she had little to no temper at all.

Was she jealous when the girl at the bar practically seated herself in Law's lap? A little, yes. Did she call this perfect stranger a whore or make some snide remark about blonde sluts? No! Because she wasn't a total bitch! Or a hypocrite!

Teddy had done exactly what Jen had done that night, more than once. She was a girl who knew what she wanted, and up until she found herself longing for a bullshit, cheese fest romance with a pirate she had gone for what she wanted with only enough hesitance to make sure the dude was single.

So when Jen started talking in Law's ear something low and soft Teddy didn't grab her by her hair and fling her down into the floor.

She reserved that for the girl with the green hair that had snuck up behind Law and Jen and put a knife between their throats. The music in the bar didn't scratch to a stop the way it did in movies, and guys did not crowd around in a circle chanting about cat fights. She saw Shachi grab Penguin(who was oblivious to the imminent smackdown getting ready to go off behind him) by the jacket. A patron she didn't know scrambled out of the way, hand over his crotch. He knew how these fights went.

Teddy leaned back on the table, giving the stranger long enough to pick herself up off the floor while our young heroine pulled out her dangly earrings and pressed them into Bepo's palm.

"I don't know what this bitch is about," she told her captain. Jen didn't volunteer any information. She didn't need to. The knife hadn't really been going for her.

An elbow driving into Teddy's side distracted her from her conversation. Teddy stumbled back before she caught her balance. She turned in time to see the other woman sprint at her with the knife drawn.

Her blood pounding in her ears Teddy grabbed the lady by the wrist, twisted it until she she heard the bone crack and the woman scream.

Jen leapt from her place on the captains lap with a shout of fury and threw herself at Teddy, who danced out of the way. Literally, she did a one person wave to wiggle from the impact point. Jen went tumbling across a table of drinks.

She lifted her blonde head, now dark and saturated with cheap beer, and bared her strangely sharp teeth at Teddy.

"You!" She snarled. "If you had just left, or looked the other way we would be done with this already! We would have a hundred million beri's and a captains head!"

Teddy's pulse slowed. Her blood stopped beating incessantly in her ears, the rushing fading away. In its place ice slithered into her veins, a cold that gripped her from the inside out. Consciously she knew that there was no way these two ammature assassins would have been able to take Law down. That didn't stop her stomach from lurching at the idea of him being killed.

"As if," Teddy snorted. Jens accomplice staggered to her feet, using her Good hand to smash a bottle on the counter and hold it like a weapon. "That was stupid," Teddy said idly. That shit only worked in the movies.

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Peggy reminded her that she was in an anime.

Teddy ignored this mini-twin of hers and once again caught the green haired woman's attack. This time she hooked her fingers lightly around her wrist, stepped on the outside of her body, and drove her palm against the woman's elbow. With a snap that was a little too familiar to Teddy the arm bent the exact wrong way. Someone in the crowd wretched.

Jen shrieked with her rage and threw herself at Teddy, so low to the ground that the photographer actually leap frogged off of her back to land on the other side. They came together in a grappling match.

The only reason girls pull hair in fights was to bring faces closer for hockey punches, Teddy was no different. Jens skull bounced on the table. Teddy pulled back far enough to drive her knee in between Jens legs.

With a pained wheeze that sounded suspiciously like a brick being dropped on a frog Jen fell to the ground, her eyes rolling into her head. For good measure, Teddy kicked her head one more time.

Leaving the women to wallow in their own failure Teddy picked her way across the floor, minding the broken glass under her boots. She came to a strop in front of the table, ignoring the cackling of Kikoku, and held out her hand expectantly towards Bepo.

The mink obediently returned her earrings. Teddy hummed her discontentment. Something was missing. Something… her gaze wandered to Law, who hadn't moved an inch and looked far too amused for her tastes.

"I think," she said abruptly, "I want another piercing. "

Then, she walked away to get just that, studiously ignoring the eyes that bore holes in the back of her head.

As soon as she was out of the bar that the rest of the Heart Pirates were in she turned and thumped her skull into the wall, a low whine building up in her throat. This was so… so stupid!

She wasn't like this, she didn't get all flustered and nervous or hesitate to make her feelings known. Life was short and she was young and pretty so why the hell was she wasting her time with Law acting like this. If it was anyone else she would have already asked for a date.

But this wasn't anyone else and she knew exactly why she hadn't done any of those things.

She didn't want him to get hurt.

Her own heart; it had been broken before. Cut out. Stomped on. Scarred. She hadn't let that stop her from moving on. She wasn't afraid of the pain that came when blood was squeezed through devastation. She knew she would live past it.

The thing was- he hadn't invited her to join the crew. She was just a tagalong with a debt to be paid to them. She was pretty sure Law enjoyed her company. Positive, in fact.

The thing was- He wasn't the type the mince words. So knowing that he liked her, maybe not enough to go out or screw around (literally) but enough to keep her around and spend time answering her questions as best as he could.

The thing was - he was a hurt person with more scars than she had ever had, angry and willing to burn the world to ashes if it meant getting vengeance for Rocinante or protect his crew. He was cruel, sadistic and he didn't care what happened to innocent people as long as he got what he wanted and for some fucking reason that didn't bother Teddy nearly as much as it should have.

The thing was that Trafalgar D. Water Law did not love as easily or as free as she did but when he loved he did so with all of his heart.

And she, she was Teddy, who did not belong there in the first place. She had a home to go back to, a family that was out there and while she was content to believe that the tides would bring them together as they had once brought Ophelia to their father she knew she would return to them one day.

And what then? Would they disappear into the sunset? Would they go back to the bridge she had driven them off of? Back to the woods in Iowa? Back to their dads?

Teddy groaned and slumped against the wall.

When did life get so complicated?


Ace had no problem dangling his feet over the water, kicking at the waves from where they sat on a rather decrepit old dock. Angie was significantly less comfortable, and she could actually swim. More than just swim, but still.

"You're not worried about falling in?" she had to ask. Their 'talk' had been postponed by the dine-n-dash, and an episode of narcolepsy that almost gave Angie an aneurysm. Now they sat close to Striker, Ace's little cano, with the dawn light spilling across their shoulders.

"Mmm? The waters only a few feet deep, I could stand up."

"But you have a devil fruit, right?" she frowned at him. She could feel it, intensely. The warmth that floated around him and wrapped around her heart like a soft ribbon. She would have expected fire to hurt more.

Ace cocked his head at her, gunmetal grey eyes meeting her pale ocean blue. She was pinned to a stop, stuck in his gaze. Violet morning light lit up the shadows on his face, the smattering of freckles-

Crap, he was cute.

"How d'you know that?"

Oh. Oh. That was why he was looking at her like that. Because she had said something stupid and reckless. She hadn't been thinking. Crap. Whoops. What did she do? Lie? No, no, she sucked at that.

Didn't she?

She couldn't remember. Her face was getting hot.

"I can see the future."

Did she say that? His eyes were wider, so yes, yes she did. She did just tell a person who was practically a stranger that she could see the future.

"A future," she amended quickly. "Just one timeline. And not that far ahead, either. Have you travelled to Alabasta yet?"

Ace shook his head.

"Then yeah, only a little bit in the future. Maybe, not even a year. Probably more like six month? I don't know."

"Is that how you know where I'll find Teach?"

Was that what they were discussing? Angie nodded quickly at him.

"Is that why the villagers look at you funny?"

All at once the periwinkle light was too bright, it's luminescence faded from a dream of freckle faced boys and a fantasy world to the present. Where Angie sat on an unstable dock, the ocean lapping up towards her bare feet. The world returned to a sharp focus and Angie stared at Ace's eyes, startled. She hadn't thought he was paying that much attention to her.

Abruptly, her lap was very interesting. She folded her hands in it, the red neckerchief clasped tightly between her fingers. She didn't even know why she was still holding it.

"That's… no. They have no idea that I know future things. "

Ace watched her, politely waiting to see if she went on.

She did. With a flick of her wrist the wave coming in jumped, leaping into a water spout. It shook where it was, eager for her bidding. Her stomach flittered with a pleasantness she forced herself to believe was sickness, excitement soured with fear.

"Oh." Ace said. Angie let the water drop. A grin spread across Aces wide mouth. "That's amazing!"

She startled, drawing away from him when he leaned in, his eyes shining.

"It's- huh?"

"I didn't know there was a devil fruit that could control water," he added. He held out his hand, which combusted. Angie's breath caught. She cleared her throat.

"There, there isn't. I haven't eaten a devil fruit. I was born this way. My mom- I don't know why. But that's why they stare at me. They're nice," she said quickly, "they give me work and probably more money that what it's worth. I'm usually just a glorified garden hose. "

"That's good," Ace leaned back on his hand, turning the flaming one over in front of him. "Their fear doesn't get the better of them. "

Fear.

That was it. The thing she had been trying not see. The thing that she's been stuffing out of her brain ever since she got here. That was the one thing she missed about Buggy.

He wasn't afraid of her, even though he was a coward and he should have been. She had the power to drown him with a thought. Angie licked her lips.

"Yeah," she agreed, drawing her knees to her chest.

"Ah, shit. I wasn't trying to upset you. I'm sorry."

Angie shook her head. "No, no, it's not your fault. I just-"

She stopped. Ace probably didn't want to hear all of her shit. He just wanted to know where Blackbeard would be so he could fight him. Not that she remembered the island it happened on. Had they even said? All she remembered was that he'd almost got into a fight with Luffy on… that one island before Skypeia.

"You just?" Ace prompted politely.

"I just, I don't belong here. I don't think I belong anywhere in this world. I'm… lost. I don't know where my family is. I don't even know if their alive or-"

They were. They were. Of course they were, her sisters were strong. Stronger than her, stronger than anyone she had ever met. Angie forced some measure of certainty into her. They were alive. They were alive and out there.

Ace was silent for a long moment.

"You know, I don't know where my brother is," he said suddenly. "I haven't seen him in about three years."

Angie shifted to look at him better. A soft wind blew, pushing up the brim of Ace's cowboy hat.

"He's always getting into trouble. Crazy kid. He get's eaten by everything," Ace made a face that got Angie laughing.

"He'll be eaten by a snake pretty soon," she said off handedly. "On a sky island."

"Seriously?" Ace looked exasperated. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Angie covered her mouth with her hand, hiding a giggle. "Because Luffy is reckless and accident prone?" She offered.

Ace nodded sagely.

"You'll see him soon. In Alabasta. Unless you hang out in Drum Kingdom long enough to see him to over throw the government."

Ace stared at her. Then let out a deep sigh.

"That. Sounds like something he would do. Yeah."

Angie nodded, smiling fondly. Luffy was cute, he had always been her favorite character. And now he was real. Not that Angie would ever meet him.

"I won't find Teach there, will I?" Ace asked.

"Ah, no. Let me see…. He's not in Drum, not in Alabasta. Luffy crossed paths with him on, uh. Jerma? That's not the right name. Bellamy is there? Luffy goes there after he leaves Alabasta." She stopped talking.

Ace's face had gone grim, pale and drawn into tight lines. His eyes bored straight into her. Piercing her soul.

"You're sure it was Teach?" he pressed. Angie frowned, thinking back. She hadn't gotten very far. She had only just started when they got in the crash.

"Bad teeth, weird laugh, like's cherry pies?"

"That's the one."

"Then yeah, he was there," she nodded her confirmation.

"I see," Ace nodded to himself and stood, brushing his shorts off. He held out a hand for Angie. When she took it a spark shot through her arm, all the way to her shoulder. She tried to keep breathing.

Now that Ace knew where to find Teach, this would be the last she saw of him.

"Why don't you come sail with me for a while?"

… or not.


If Peggy had to stay behind on the ship when they got to the Drum Kingdom, she was going to kill someone. For real. She was beyond sick of having to lay around all day and now here she was, sitting on the deck of the ship waiting for everyone else to come back from their little island adventure with the bounty hunters, staring at the seas while she tried to do more than ten push ups without fainting. She would not miss her chance to meet Chopper for the first time on his home turf. No fucking way.

As soon as Luffy had fulfilled his contract with Laboon and Tom had scrambled off to the Red Line, uninterested in piracy, they had set sail with their new companions. Captives, rather. Both of which had sprung a trap on them in Whiskey Peak. Sort of.

Peggy had been told to stay on the ship, and she had, reluctantly, while everyone else went out and partied. Now, she could hear Luffy screaming and something exploding. A lot of things exploding.

Peggy managed a twelfth push up, her newest record, before her elbows shook and gave out under her. She braced for impact, but instead found herself held up by one hand on each shoulder. She blinked a couple of time and sat back on her knees, looking for her savior. She found, instead, a pair of slender arms protruding from the ship.

The fingers were long and delicate, but calloused around the nails, part of the palm and on one pointer. Gun hands. Peggy reached to take one hand in hers. She half expected them to fall apart into petals, but they stayed solid while she laced their fingers together and inspected where they came out of the wooden deck.

"Wicked," she murmured, tracing the connection. It was then that the limb shivered and fell apart on her fingers.

"Hey, Wait!" She objected, trying to catch a petal in vain. Robin!

Someone giggled from the crows nest. Peggy pretended she hear. She wiped sweat from her brow, suddenly self conscious. She was still frighteningly thin, all of the fat from her body gone and the muscles just starting to return. Her hair had never been much of a priority before, but now she was well aware of exactly how ratty it probably looked from her excessize, her poor pin only ably to do so much. Her shirt, still one of Luffys vests until they reached a town with more shopping (maybe even after that, Namis debts were steep) stuck to her skin where her boobs had been sweating.

In short, the cowgirl looked gross and wasn't straight enough to ignore it when there was a pretty older lady around.

She needed a shower immediately.

But if she showered now, she might miss it when the others showed up and when Robin sorta introduced herself. Maybe. If she wasn't quick.

If she was quick….

Peggy rushed bellow deck. She didn't think she'd ever cleaned herself so thoroughly so fast before. Showers, brushed stuff, deodorized herself and pulled on Luffy' pale blue vest, to offset her eyes, she went rushing back to the galley.

Sanji didn't let other people mess with his kitchen. Peggy respected that. So she didn't do what she wanted to do, she settled for fetching a couple of mugs and brewing a camomile blend Sanji had given her free reign over already, bless his sweetheart.

She came back on deck less than fifteen minutes later, and with no sign of Carue and a few explosions still going off in the city she figured she was safe enough.

Peggy refused to wonder when she started thinking of explosions as safe. Maybe she really was meant to be a Straw Hat pirate. She knew one person who definitely was.

"Excuse me?" she looked around, peering around the steam that wafted through the mugs. The boat rocked softly in the waves but she was steady, her bones heavy and strong. She almost walked right past the woman, she was so silent and still, but something pulled at her. She tasted salt.

Peggy turned and met the clear blue eyes of Nico Robin.

She had to pause to collect herself when she looked her over, briefly. Tight vest, cowboy hat that just goddamn fit on her smooth black hair. Her sharp nose and delicate cheekbones were accompanied by a thin mouth that was twisted with mirth. Her eyes though-

They were so far away. They were the eyes of someone smiling because it was polite to acknowledge the person on the other side of the glass as you passed them on a bus heading to nowhere.

Peggy was struck with the sudden desire to rip the World Government out by its roots, force every Celestial Dragon on their knees and force them to look at the eyes of Nico Robin and see all the pain they had caused to shut her away, for nothing more than wanting to know the truth.

"Hello," her voice was a soft, easy alto and she spoke with rehearsed grace.

"Hey," Peggy ran her tongue over the little bones that stuck out of her mouth and offered a mug to Robin. "You were the one that caught me, yeah?"

They were close enough to the edge of the boat that Peggy could see the water lapping up at the side of the Merry. Robin, long and graceful, was stretched out along the railing despite the dangers the sea held for people like her.

Peggy felt gangling and coltish next to the woman, who took the cup with a sort of fluidity reserved for cats. And pretty women.

"I am," Robin agreed. The smile didn't leave but her eyes were guarded so Peggy made sure that she smiled true.

"Thank you," she said genuinely. "I appreciate it. I'm Pe- erm. Devereux Peggy," she correct herself again. Second time she'd almost made a mistake and now she sounded like a fool or a liar to the woman in front of her. Cursing herself mentally she tried to hide the heat of her cheeks with the cup. And explosion rocked the ground, and water, sending the boat bouncing up.

Peggy moved to catch Robin around her shoulders without a thought, sending her mug crashing to shatter on the deck. She found herself a few inches from a woman whose smile had disappeared. More arms had come out of Peggy's own back to wrap a hand around her throat threateningly.

"Um," she said eloquently, and wished fervently for her twin. Teddy was always in control, Teddy know how to flirt with people and never hesitated for anyone or anything. She would have given anything to hear her say, 'Here's what you do.' right then.

"You were trying to catch me," Robin realized. Her eyes were wider, crystal blue a touch more prominent. Peggy nodded quickly.

"You ate a devil fruit right?" they were so close, Peggy wished viciously she had brushed her teeth when she was getting cleaned up. Robin smelled like smoke and cinnamon and dust long undisturbed. "I can swim, but you can't. And I really can't- I'm not strong enough to swim with someone else."

"Who are you?" Robin asked. Those pale blue eyes searched hers for something. Blue. Blue like a robins egg. Peggy gently smoothed her hands down Robin's sleeves, drawing away. The hands holding her throat loosened. She was afraid. Robin wouldn't be able to break her neck.

"I'm Peggy," she said again. "Margarita, people call me Peggy. "

Luffy landed on the ship a scant foot away from the women. Peggy's hair fluttered sideways, her sparkling clip barely keeping it out of her eyes.

Then, all hell broke loose on the Merry.


Wilhelmina Deveraux sat on the ground, staring blankly ahead of her with the sort of shock that only came to people who had not only seen the unimaginable, they had done the unthinkable.

Blood dripped down Garp's fine white suite, still in place despite the fact that they were working out in the hot ocean sun. Will had slathered herself with so much sunblock she could have been a ghost with how white she'd become. No skin cancer for her, thank you very much. She was very much the opposite of the Vice Admiral, who looked down at the four gashes on his chest with more curiosity than surprise.

Will, contrarily, felt like a floor had fallen out from under her.

There was no way that she, the least aggressive of her five sisters, had actually managed to land a hit on one of the strongest men in the world, let alone one deep enough to make him bleed, and all while she stood before his without a single scratch on her steel blackened skin. Her knees tried to shake but she held it together with the same imaginary strings she had used before, holding tight to her hardened skin.

"How…?"

"You've been holding back," Garp said. He touched the blood, letting it drip off of his finger tips when he drew them away. "The more of you that's covered, the faster and stronger you are. If you cover your whole body, you'd been hard pressed to beat by most pirates."

Will touched her cheek, the soft clink of metal on metal sounding when her long nails touched the shield that had crept its way up her jaw in her distraction. She shook her head violently and shoved the darkness away from her face, down. Down past her collar, off of her chest and legs until it was receding into her hands once more.

"No. No way. I'm not letting it it go that far," she argued swiftly. "It's bad, you don't understand."

Garp slammed his fist down on her head. Instinct alone summoned protection to the parts of her body that hit the ground so hard.

Will looked up at him from the cracked wood on deck, fighting hard against the steel the slithered across her skin.

"How stupid are you?" Garp demanded, looking down at her. It made her want to curl into a ball. How could a little disappointment from a guy who wasn't even her dad do that? "When you're in a fight you need every advantage you have. You can't be holding back for some frivolous reason or you and the people under you will die!"

Vanished was the eccentric, but good humored man who she had been training under on the way to Marine Ford. Gone was the man who's biggest test was to see if she could stick her arm in a wood chipper and still be okay.

In his place loomed a force to be reckoned with, and Will abruptly understood why he was a commander.

The people under you will die!

She did not voice the morbid thought, the awful question of 'how many have you lost?'. She wasn't so foolish. She wasn't so cruel. Will bowed her head.

"It's dangerous," she said again. The words bubbled forth from her mouth, "This power- I have to keep it in check. It's not Haki, it's not something that I put over myself. It's something that I have to pull off of myself and if I don't then all I am is instinct and instinct- instinct isn't always good. Sir."

Garp kept looking at her. She could feel the weight of his gaze, heavy on the crown of her head. She curled her hands into fists.

She knew her power. She knew her legacy. She knew her truth.

She accepted that it was a part of her, but it was not a part she would let be in control. Never.

"Fine then," Garp said. She looked up in time to see him pull out a sleeve of crackers. "We'll just train your instincts then."