The Change: Anonymous asked: AU where Danni became a bounty hunter instead

Genre: Angst/Friendship/Family

Warning(s): endangerment of a minor (partially); slaughtering of humans; gore; skewed morality; predator/hunter mannerisms; emotional suppression; vague child neglect

Note(s): prompt came from tumblr; i read the ask and Danni latched on and wouldn't let go so this was the result; its much darker than the other ones so far, so be warned please.

xx

Blurry eyes stared down at the blood soaked hand trembling against the bathroom sink, and a choked back sob broke the still air. Danni's grip on the sink tightened and the porcelain creaked in protest. She had to leave. She couldn't stay on this godforsaken island anymore. Two years stuck here coughing up blood and just waiting to die.

She couldn't take it anymore.

Danni didn't bother cleaning up the blood in the sink or the bloody handprint as she left the bathroom of the small house she shared with Roan. The preteen barely remembered to slip on a pair of sandals before leaving the house and making her way through the back alleys of the town in the direction of the south shore.

If she remembered correctly, there was a merchant ship heading for Loguetown tomorrow morning. She was sure she had enough money stashed away in her mother's house to pay the captain to let her on the ship until then, especially if she promised to do some chores. If not, she could always steal some from Roan before she left. She loved the man like a brother, but they weren't blood and ever since his grandfather died, leaving him completely alone, he hadn't been all there anymore. He really wasn't equipped to deal with a deathly ill child.

The dark haired girl stumbled through the door of the small house nestled in the forest along the south shore of the island, leaving a faint handprint on the door as she did. Her body felt heavy and her vision was still a bit blurry, but she shoved it all away into the corner of her mind, where all of her other ugly feelings were. She took in her childhood home with blank eyes and couldn't even bring up a slip of emotion towards it.

Shaking her head slowly, she made her way to her mother's old room where she had kept her stash of money (her pirate funds, a childish voice echoed in the back of her mind). The room was as untouched as it had been since her mother had died five years ago, layers of dust permeating the air. Danni ignored it though and bee lined for the closet, leaving deep footprints behind.

She nudged the door open slowly, coughing harshly when it made the dust swirl violently in the air. She ignored the blood dripping from the corner of her mouth and bent down so she could reach the box tucked away beneath her mother's covered wedding dress. As she was bending down, however, another harsh fit of coughing wracked her body making her fall forward and slam into the closet wall.

There was a sharp click and through her teary vision Danni realized the wall had split, revealing a hidden cache. Inside of the cache was a long length of coiled metal links of some kind with a sort of over sized spear head on the end. With trembling and blood stained fingers, Danni grasped the weapon and pulled it out, gasping when the chains pooled like water around her and in her hands.

With it came the sudden click of two puzzle pieces fitting together seamlessly.

xx

Danni quickly scrambled up the wall of one of the buildings in Loguetown, rolling over the edge onto the roof, just in time to duck out of sight of the group of three men racing by. She peeked over the edge carefully, watching the bustling street below warily. The merchant ship she'd left her home island on had not been kind. It had been a waking nightmare the whole voyage to Loguetown, where she had to hide herself in dark corners of the ship and smuggle food from the kitchens when she got hungry.

She had only been caught once by one of the sailors that had less than innocent intentions towards the preteen, and she had a still healing wound running from her shoulder, across her collarbone and ending near the top of her bust, to show for the fight that had resulted.

The girl was about to leave the roof, when strong arms wrapped around her from behind, a large hand covering her mouth to stop her scream. "Don' scream, chicky," a growling voice murmured in her ear as the arms hauled her back and away from the edge of the roof. Danni struggled violently, clawing at the arms around her and flailing her legs to try and kick her attacker in some way. "Oy, oy, calm yerself, luv. Those three 'ad more comin'. Yah would've been caught if yuh'd gone down jus' then."

Danni felt herself calming down the more the man talked, something in his voice soothing her frazzled nerves. The man slowly released his hold on the small girl when he felt her stop her violent struggling. The slip of a girl had caught both his, and his captain's eyes at the dock of Loguetown when she had practically flown off one of the merchant ship's docked, a wild look in her eyes. When a group of men had come charging off the ship after her, his captain's attention had been completely captured, and the man had ordered him to make sure the girl wasn't caught.

The moment the arms released her completely, Danni spun around and crouched low to the ground eyeing the much larger man warily. He was extremely large in both height and muscle, and had a wild mane of dark dreads cascading down his back. His skin was close to black and made his golden eyes pop completely, especially with their animalistic characteristics. He reminded her of a lion.

He sat back on his haunches, watching the girl calmly. Her wild, golden colored eyes were watching him with a haunted wariness that had the normally quiet beast in the back of his mind, rearing back with rage. "Name's Dejen, luv," he rumbled lowly, an almost purr like quality to it. "Can yah tell me where yer headin'?"

She shuffled back a couple steps, and growled defensively, "Why do you wanna know?"

Dejen hummed thoughtfully and replied easily, "So me an' the cap can see yah there safely, luv. Don' wan' those bastards catchin' hold of yah."

Her eyes narrowed, and her lip curled back, revealing a baby fang, "Why?"

He narrowed his own eyes in return, but his lips curled up into a friendly smiling, showing off his own, larger fangs, "Me an' the cap, are different, see? We see somethin' that reminds us of 'ome, an' we take care of 'em real good and fam'ly like, hmm? And yah, luv? Very much 'mind us of 'ome."

"Home? Family?" she asked, brow furrowing in confusion as she made an odd chuffing growl like sound of confusion.

Dejen slowly offered her his hand and asked lightly, "Would yah like tah see?" Danni eyed him warily. Home had been when her mom was alive and smiling. When her dad could visit more often without the danger of being found out. Home had vanished when her mom did and her dad stopped coming. Family had been mom and dad, and the crew, and then later Roan and the doctor, but they weren't there anymore and hadn't been that good of family, had they? Mom had died. Dad stopped coming. Doctor had died too. Roan wasn't all there anymore.

Would this home and family be different?

Slowly, she took the big man's hand and hoped for the best.

xx

'The Cap' turned out to be a much smaller man than Dejen, but no less wild in appearance. His hair was a mess of orange-ish red color that had random bits braided, or beaded, or had bits of twine threaded in. His skin was a dusky brown color dotted with dark freckles that reminded her of the constellations her mother used to point out to her in the sky. His eyes, like Dejen's were a golden color, but leaned more towards the auburn side then the yellow Dejen's did.

He greeted her with a large smile (showing off his own pair of fangs), and wide open arms and welcomed her to his ship like it was his greatest pleasure to do so. His ship was of a rather modest size, but had impressive sails and the figurehead was that of a snarling fox.

Danni wasn't completely sure of the men yet, but when the two simply let her explore on her own and just talked to her, she found herself relaxing and liking the two men. Even when the rest of the crew came back from their supply run, she felt safe and welcomed. The men had all greeted her warmly and with curiosity, seamlessly pulling her in.

And so Danni joined the Pack, under the captaincy of Blair.

xx

The years spent with the Pack was like a dream for Danni.

But, like every dream, it comes to an end.

Wide, gold eyes stared down at the carnage that wrecked the beloved ship of her crew. Blood was literally pouring off the sides of the ship and into the sea, while body parts were strewn haphazardly all over the ship. Guts and other organs were spread out in the sea of blood and made a squelching noise as the person responsible for the bloodbath walked across the deck.

Danni could feel blood rising in the back of her throat as horrorpainterrorwhywhYWHYWHY threatened to tear her mind apart. With great effort she shoved all of her emotions away in to the deepest, darkest part of her mind, while allowing her beast to come forward completely for the first time. From her perch in the crow's nest, she watched the pirate responsible for the slaughter of her pack make his way around the ship, eyes following his every move.

Then she struck.

He never saw her coming.

xx

The marines stationed at the base could only stare in muted horror when a young adult covered in blood and other unmentionables stalked into the base dragging an utterly mutilated body behind her. Gold eyes gleamed with a sick sort of satisfaction as she tossed the body at the feet of the marine responsible for handing out bounties turned in. "I'm here for the bounty of The Ripper," a dark and sultry voice purred, dripping with a vindictive pleasure.

Stuttering and absolutely pale, the marine carefully checked the body's face to make sure it was the correct person, barely managing to hold his breakfast in. The eyes had been clawed out viciously, but the face was otherwise unmarred, unlike the rest of his body which was nearly ripped to shreds. "40,000,000 belli is the reward for dead," the marine stuttered nervously, cautiously holding the money out to the blood soaked woman.

The dark haired woman curled her lip, but accepted the payment and left, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind. She would become a Bounty Hunter if being a pirate meant getting her crew slaughtered by others.

So The Hunter was born.

FIN

TricksterThief: welp. originally i was gonna type how she meet's Luffy and co as a Bounty Hunter, but Danni decided she was done. The original plan was that she decides to go after Luffy's bounty, but ends up joining his crew instead. Also, there was supposed to be a scene of Benn freaking out about his wife being dead and his kid being missing for a year.

the timeline for this is Danni gets sick (10), decides to leave (12), her crew travels the grandline for awhile and hits Predator Island (15), then her crew gets slaughtered (19)

Danni's crew actually only briefly travels the Grandline before heading back to the Four Blues; they have no interest in One Piece

and yes the captain and his first mate are members of Danni's family line, but of the Lion and Fox branches c: