author's note: emotions. emotions everywhere. Thank you to everyone who favourited and reviewed! Writing this story again has been such a comfort to me. I had a few hiccups because I primarily write everything in limited omniscient present tense these days, but I think I've cleaned everything up. In the future I'll tweak the beginning chapters for clarity and refining, but I'm currently working on a rewrite, a new One Piece story, and said chapters exist on an old laptop that I'm not able to strip down right now. Laptops really don't like me.

I'm going camping for the week, so we'll see how much writing I'm able to produce. My goal is to update at least once a week! It's going to be a pretty long fic, and I'd like to make some headway in it.

Pleasant reading!

"Way to go, captain!"

"The way you swindled that crook? Crafty, crafty. An aplomb deception, sir!"

"Shut up."

Smoker rolled his eyes, barking at his men to get back to work without bothering to remove the cigars from his mouth. He watched as Tashigi emerged from the hull, carrying an empty silver tray. Everything from her pacing to her expression seemed vacant, as if the lively officer had left her jubilance below.

"Did you miss the kitchens?" Smoker asked, indicating the tray.

Her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings, glancing around herself as if the top of the deck had only just materialized around her. "Oh, sorry, sir! I zoned out there."

"Figures," he said.

"There's, uhm… there's a really impressive sword I was analyzing at the museum in Chantara. Good properties… could probably still work off the display, even."

If there was one thing Tashigi wasn't, it was a liar. Smoker tried not to glare, thinking if his officer wanted to be angry at him for imprisoning her friend, that was her business. So long as she didn't follow in Rill's footsteps and toe the line of betrayal, he wouldn't bother with it. Not like he ever shied away from sharing his feelings.

"I also ensured the prisoner was placed in the cells."

Smoker couldn't stop himself from prying further. "Which one?"

"The one… furthest from her," Tashigi replied.

He didn't tell her anything beyond nodding his head, but the news relieved him anyway.

"I… I spoke with Rill," Tashigi continued, but this was where Smoker finally trained his cold stare on the skittish subordinate. Tashigi stiffened as straight as a mast pole while he waited, refusing to make this topic any easier for her.

"She's not… she's not a criminal, sir. I didn't know she was Monkey D. Luffy's brother, but she… I mean, what could she have done? We traced through all of the records of the transponder snails that were on that ship and no unauthorized signals were made."

"She could have had her own," Smoker said.

Tashigi swallowed and took a moment to adjust her glasses on her nose. "Maybe. We don't… have any proof of that."

"Tashigi, just spit it out!"

She winced as he bellowed at her but the words rushed out of her immediately. "Sir, I think you're making a big mistake treating Rill as a criminal when she's quite the opposite. She helped saved us during the Sea King attack. According to Hypher, she's the most brilliant student in her school—she even won the Celestial Scholarship at the age of fifteen. That's—that's remarkable, sir."

"And not in any way related to her harbouring information on Straw Hat."

Tashigi balanced the serving tray on her hip, shaking out her hair. "No, but… jail seems too extreme because of a secret. And her grandfather is The Fist… wouldn't that mean… that means he's Straw Hat's grandfather. And no one arrested him."

When Smoker rose to his feet, the lingering officers suddenly made themselves busy, searching for the edges of the ship that gave them the most distance away from their captain. Smoker kept eye contact with Tashigi but controlled his voice to be no more than firm.

"We're headed for Alabasta, and if we're right on our target, we'll find Straw Hat there. So long as we get him, I'll consider the matter with that damn girl settled."

Tashigi's shoulders relaxed at once. Her spirit seemed to brighten as she smiled, then nodded. "Yes, captain. Thank you, captain!"

She was halfway down the steps to join her fellow officers when Smoker called out one last time.

"Tashigi?"

She stopped mid-stride, glancing back over her shoulder.

"I haven't submitted the report. For now, she's only detained, and so long as I don't have to escalate that… it's not going to affect her record. Just keep that to yourself."

Lying paid off for him—he deceived Mr. 11 into confessing about a secret organization that all but pointed them in the direction of Alabasta. He was going to bring Straw Hat in and leave one less pirate on the waters. He would continue to lie, so long as the merits were in sight.

And none of that made it easier, thinking about Rill in the cells below.

There were several things Rill wanted to tell Smoker, now that he was no longer boring down on her with a look trapped between disappointment and hostile. Her guilt knotted her. Smoker's closure of them left her in a labyrinth built of towering regret—and maybe she deserved it, maybe she could explain it away, but there was no mapped exit. Rill needed him to know that she was no one's bait and no one's damsel. She didn't have time for this confuddled vortex when she had a career to start, research to follow, discoveries to be made. All she had right now was a bucket, a bench, and an annoyingly apologetic Nora who delivered her pills three times a day and smuggled in pens and paper for her to script a letter to her grandfather to explain her current condition.

Tashigi came by with her meals. Hypher no longer existed in her world—she hadn't seen him since the night she threw all her progress away.

But so far, she was only drafting threats of what she would do to Smoker if he didn't let her out of the cell. They were unfeasible and pointedly dramatic to the point of cartoonish, but she felt better the craftier they got. Her current favourite was roping him to an anchor and shoving him off the side of the ship. If he apologized quick enough, she'd even dive in after him and pull him back up.

On one hand, Smoker's anger was justified. She had willfully lied to him—deceived him even—about her family. If he didn't like the fact that she was related to Luffy, he definitely wouldn't enjoy that her family branch had replanted Ace alongside them. And her dad? Smoker's head would start sprouting algae bushes if he ever got close to that secret. Very few people in the world knew the identity of her parents. If her university ever learned the truth, it wasn't expulsion she had to fear.

Smoker berated her for only taking from him, a clear reminder of how much she had asked for, knowing he would say yes. This alone kept her from hating him. She liked Smoker, before he locked her away and stripped her of her rights. While she lacked the basic ability to confess such feelings, she thought she showed that in other ways: staying overnight in his bed, bantering with him in the only ways she knew how to flirt, admiring his intellect when only her own typically impressed her.

Smoker bought her a dinghy and came back for her on a misty cove. He had parked the ship so her crew could dive and collect samples from a reef. He had told her professors to get bent on her behalf, when they first caught glimpses of the riddling disease pushing her further away from rationality.

When she looked up, Smoker had materialized in front of the bars, a small basin of water and a cloth hugging the bowl's edge sitting in his hand.

"Yes?" Rill asked, half expecting him to dump it on her.

He said nothing at first, the smoke oozing from his cigars lazily crawling toward the ceiling. She was trying to study him, figure out his temperament, but his mood appeared fine, as if this was a cordial visit.

"They shouldn't have thrown you into the wall. Can't stop thinking about it," he said. With a quick motion from his free hand, he opened the cell and stepped in, handing the basin of water over. She tucked it onto her lap, studying it before resuming her study of him.

"It's fine. I only cut my tongue. After having my stomach sliced open and nearly dying in a fiery yet watery grave, my tolerance for pain is getting better."

"It's not fine," he countered. His eyes made her uncomfortably conscious of the fact that she hadn't bathed in two days. It didn't seem to matter which direction their conversation steered toward; they were always on the brink of an argument.

"Smoker…"

"I'm not gonna let you get hurt. No matter how pissed I am. Your safety is still gonna matter, and your brother will have a trial. He'll likely see the execution stand, but that's what happens when you turn to a life of privacy."

The basin lept from her hands and crashed into his bare chest, drenching him as the bowl fell and cracked on the wooden planks. She had sprung to her feet, her shoe crunching down on the porcelain remnants.

"Don't," she warned him, knowing she had no means to threaten him, silly or serious, but feeling everything inside of her taut, readying for a reason to spring.

He didn't seem fazed at all.

"There's a good chance we may have located Straw Hat."

Now it was him studying her, gauging her response and all she could offer was a trembling lip and balled fists.

"Good for you. Are they going to give you a medal? Maybe you'll get your name on a shiny plaque. I have a lot of those too; maybe you can pawn some off me if it's so thrilling to you," Rill practically snarled at him.

"Shut up," he said, but there was no retaliating growl. "I'm not doing this for a damn prize. I'm not doing this for any reason but to annihilate a threat. You said it yourself: your brother is a menace and if he isn't squashed now—"

"You're not squashing anyone!" Rill yelled. This damn man and his infuriating ability to worm under her skin and play parasite with her emotions. "What exactly is going to happen? Hm? You're going to wrap me up in a bow and leave me in the middle of the street? Give me a front row view to an ass-kicking I'm beginning to believe you whole-heartedly deserve? I'd really hate to see that happen to you."

"I think you'd survive," Smoker said.

"I would, but it'd be a shame to your ass. I was rather fond of it before you locked me up in here."

"Yeah? Here's a tip for the next guy you rope into your shit: don't fucking lie to him."

Rill sighed. "Is part of the reason you're so pissed off because you think I used you for sex? To get what I wanted from you?"

Smoker's eyes pinched closed as a humourless laugh pushed the smoke into rapid, crawling plumes. "Hardly," he said. "I'm pissed off for the damn reasons I listed before: you hid the fact that Straw Hat's your brother."

It hurt more than she wanted it to, more than she was willing to admit in the throes of her anger. She knelt to the floor and recovered the broken pieces of the basin, setting them near the door of the cell so she wouldn't sleep on them later. The cloth she kept fisted in her left hand.

The memories of all her requests to bathe only made her nauseated. There was no humour left between them. No room for anything but unforgiving malice.

"It's a good tip," she finally said. She returned to the bench, her back leaning into the ship wall; her eyes closed, just to avoid them tearing up if she accidentally glanced at him.

When they opened again, Smoker was gone.

Dear Grandpa,

Hope you are well and remembering your manners. Please don't drink tea after it's just boiled—you're going to burn a hole in your esophagus someday. I'm sorry if I haven't received any of your letters. Our ship capsized after an unfortunate attack at sea. No one was killed, but most of our possessions were lost.

I'll be returning to Marie Geoise soon. Have you heard about Luffy? It seems he's made it to the Grand Line now. You may see him sooner than you see me. But for his peace of mind, I hope you don't.

I love you. All is well.

Sincerely,

Monkey D. Rill

Riddle

Rill folded the letter and left it on the empty silver tray that had served her breakfast, knowing Nora or Tashigi would likely read it but having decided in the night that she wasn't going to have her grandpa involve himself in her battles. As frustrated as she was, it was her struggle alone. Pestering ol' Gramps to come and bully Smoker out of his punishment would probably erase any lingering respect buried deep, deep down in the black pit of the captain's mercy.

If Smoker wanted to orchestrate an elaborate reunion for her and Luffy, Rill wouldn't pass up a chance to see her younger brother for the first time in years. And if Smoker really did manage to capture him, then Rill would finally give him a proper reason to see to her arrest.

An off-pitched, wobbly whistle interrupted the flow of her thoughts. She tried to stop her teeth from grinding in irritation, but the impulse was too strong. She gave him twenty more seconds before finally buckling.

"Is there a reason you feel the need to be as annoying as possible?" she asked. He hadn't pulled this stunt during the night, but she wasn't in the mood for his off-key serenade this morning when Tashigi hadn't even brought her a coffee.

The whistler stopped.

"Someone's bitter that her boyfriend locked her up!" her fellow prisoner called out.

He's not wrong, was her first thought.

"Not my boyfriend," Rill said instead. "You should work on active listening."

The shifting of chains alerted her to the fact that her fellow prisoner was shackled, while she was not. The corners of her mouth lifted, albeit involuntarily.

"Listen to this," the prisoner said, his words lifting with glee, "that hound's days are numbered. He's entering our turf, and when he does, if you're nice to me, I might let you out of here!"

Ah, so he was the spark that had reignited Smoker's hunt. Still, if he gave up information to Smoker, he couldn't be a concerning threat. She had only managed to lie to Smoker a few weeks before her entire life fell apart, and she considered her skillset higher than most.

"Thanks for the offer, but it doesn't interest me."

"You say that now, but you'll wise up, missy. Just wait until we reach the des-"

A crash sounded from above and the ship swerved back, tossing her against the ship wall. Rill clutched the back of her head, stars and flashing lights stealing half of her vision as she looked around the cell. They were too low on the ship for any portholes, even glass ones.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" the prisoner shouted from his cell, but Rill already knew.

She reached for the cell door, wishing then that she had let Sabo or Ace teach her the art of picking a lock. It required a finesse Luffy would never obtain in a few centuries of life, and she had turned her nose up at it, thinking she would never find herself in need of freedom from a locked door or shackles.

"Ha ha," she muttered under her breath, gripping the Seastone bars as the ship swerved again, this time managing to maintain her balance. If she survived this attack, she would let Ace know how stupid and wrong she was. Sabo would chide her too, if he could.

"Th-th-they can't just leave us h-here, can they?" the prisoner squeaked.

"I don't think so," Rill said. "They're preoccupied. I don't suppose you know how to pick a lock?"

The stacks of supplies toppled to the floor; the path that led to their cells now completely buried under broken crates spilling weapons and rations. Rill didn't fear Smoker abandoning her to her death, but she wanted more than ever to see that creature for herself, see if it possessed the same properties of the kraken she faced a week ago. She even tried listening to the shouts trickling in from above, but there was too much commotion to discern any content.

Until the explosions started.

As the ship continued to pivot and dive, the stacks dissolved, freeing more light to spill into their corner of the room. She could even see the stairway at the far end of the ship, and at long last saw officers racing down the stairs.

"HEY, YOU TWO!" Rill called out. "IS IT THE SAME AS LAST TIME?"

"NOT A CHANCE!" one of them replied. "THIS ONE IS BIGGER!"

She didn't bother distracting them with an annoying plea to let her out, but it didn't stop her fellow prisoner from screaming demands in her stead. The soldiers gathered up guns and ammunition, and Rill sighed a breath of relief that no explosives had been stored with them.

The prisoner started moaning once they were left alone again. "Mr. 0 won't get the chance to take my head if it sinks to the bottom of the ocean!"

"That's a fair point," Rill agreed.

Soon the swerving stop, then the explosions followed, and the commotion above came to an end. Nothing had broken through the bottom of the ship nor the sides. The main deck might be a disaster, the mast poles could be greeting the ocean floor below, but they were still afloat and largely intact. Rill sank to the floor, bracing herself in case she went flying again.

In a matter of minutes, she heard footsteps charging down the stairs and watched as Tashigi, flanked by a few soldiers, came through the doorway. "Rill? Mr. 11? You're both alright?"

"HARDLY!" roared Mr. 11.

Rill decided not to mention the possibility of a mild concussion and add to her host of problems. "All is well," she called back.

"Thank goodness! We're about three hours away from Alabasta. It was… another Sea King… er, kraken. Rill, it was just like that monster from before. Only this time…"

Rill rose to her feet, sliding her thin arms through the Seastone bars. "Yes?" she encouraged.

She couldn't see Tashigi's face clearly, but her voice wobbled with worry. "Captain Smoker managed to recover a piece of it, before it sank. The scientists have it now, but I thought you would want to know."

Every pause keeping her at bay suddenly unfurled into motion. She couldn't stop from smiling, the idea that they finally had something they could examine, that could explain the anomaly of these creatures—or confirm once and for all that Rill was correct. Tashigi wasn't wrong, Rill did want to know—and what she wanted to know now, more than anything else, was how she was going to recover a piece of that sample to examine under her own tests.

"Any luck out there?"

If there was any sort of thing like that, the sun had likely evaporated it. Ace fanned his cowboy hat across his face, squinting up at the blinding orb, noting a few giant birds flying overhead. His freckles would be black by the end of this leg of the trip.

"Eh, luck is for suckers. I follow my gut—much more reliable than any luck."

The voice over the transponder snail erupted into low laughter. Ace grinned as he watched the snail chuckle on the window ledge of his hotel room. "Gotta say, the hunger is what's getting me down. I've gone almost two days without a meal. My legs are lookin' better than drumsticks."

"We can stick a few pegs on you. Dine away."

"Thanks, Marco. Might cost me all my fortune over here. I picked the worst place to stop. Droughts and markup make for a sore wallet."

"You know you can still come home. We can put this matter to rest, catch him when he starts his shit again. It doesn't have to lie on your shoulders," Marco said.

Ace was smiling, despite the iron that poured from him. "It does, actually. But thanks. I'll get back to you as soon as this matter is put to rest."

Every time they encouraged him to turn back and head home, it only strengthened his resolve. And he needed that. He needed the iron to buckle under his fire—he needed fuel, purpose, to catch the traitor. No corner on this planet would keep Teach safe from him. Nothing would deter Ace, not Luffy nor Rill. Until the matter was put to rest by him, Ace had only one objective.

"Maybe check in with Pops sooner than later," Marco said.

"Why would I do that when he has you buggin' me all the time?"

"Because one of these days, he's going to try and track you down himself."

"That's why you're there, Marco." Ace grinned down at the fat snail. "To keep him from following in my stupid footsteps, right?"

The line was quiet for a moment. Ace sipped from his B10 bottle of water, looking back into the sparse hotel room and groaning as his stomach roared back at him. He couldn't wait any longer.

"Just get here as fast as you can," Marco said at last.

"That's the goal," Ace agreed. "Anyway, signing off. No peg legs today. I'll check in soon."

The line went silent and Ace moved the snail to his bed. He whistled as he strolled out of the room, the door locking as it closed behind him.