RIAEVANS: You are very welcome.
A lot of stuff happens in this very long chapter, good and bad. I'm masochistic. I have 2 400 page stories to edit, both in the 140,000's word count. And instead of being smart and editing them, I write more, just piling more editing on myself. And I also have another 150 pages to edit on a story I've already started posting. -_- I'm stupid. Anyways, enjoy~
Whitebeard held his bisento for the first time in awhile, ready to fight to protect his sons against the strong ones in the marines. He honestly did not believe the vice-admirals were there to avenge Smoker. The marines were not like the Whitebeards: they did not care about their subordinates or colleagues as the pirate crew did.
The commanders had all of their weapons ready, standing at the railing, while the weaker fighters were spaced further around the deck. The commanders could hold their own against vice-admirals, which was why it was hard to find replacements for them. They had to be immensely strong.
The problem with fighting higher-ups in the marines was that they were skilled in haki, able to injure Marco, their strongest fighter. "Don't let any of them get inside the ship. They are here for a different reason than to avenge Smoker."
"Aye!" the crew shouted, weapons out and ready to defend their ship and crew. Marco was in phoenix form, perched on the lowest yardarm.
"I want the commanders to fight the vice-admirals, and team up if necessary. The rest of you, keep the lower ranking marines out of your commanders' ways! I'll take the strongest of them. Haruta, can you see who the vice-admirals are?" Whitebeard asked. He looked to his son, who could see those on deck on the ship easily.
"Momonga, Dalmatian, Onigumo, Vergo, and Strawberry," Haruta listed. "Shit! Aokiji is here!" the commander shouted. "There are also quite a bit of lower ranking marine fodder."
"I'll take Aokiji with the help of Marco and Jozu. You two are skilled at haki and his ice won't damage either of you. The rest, team up in your usual pairs and take whichever vice admiral comes at you. We all know they are not here for us, they want the boys. It looks like the marines made a call before their deaths after all."
The marine ship was there quickly, and everyone began their respective fights. Since there were five vice-admirals, each one got two or three commanders to fight. Aokiji clearly was assigned the strongest of the crew, Whitebeard, Marco and Diamond Jozu. the ice would go straight through Marco, and Jozu would deflect it when in diamond form.
Aokiji was by far the most difficult, while Vergo's strong armament haki was giving trouble to the sword users, who had their blades coated in haki. There were few close combat commanders on the crew, most using guns, swords or other weapons. Namur was using his fishman karate against Onigumo, with Vista using his sword covered in haki against them.
They weren't called commanders for nothing. The vice-admirals were having a lot of difficulty, while Aokiji went after the strongest of them. As usual, the man spoke while fighting, not even out of breath. Whitebeard's bisento was coated in haki, breaking through the ice easily, while Marco went in to claw at the man with haki covered feet. Jozu used haki on his already strong fists, doubled in power from both his diamond ability and the armament haki.
"We do not wish for the only decent admiral to die. Why are you here?" Whitebeard asked, not out of breath either. Aokiji had a hard time defending against three of the strongest on the crew.
"We're not here to take your heads if that's what you think. We're here for three children that were taken out of our custody," Aokiji said, shocking the three who he was fighting. Whitebeard's haki was unleashed as he was angrier than he had ever felt in his life. They had had no idea the World Government was behind the boys' situation.
Whitebeards growled, and swung his bisento at Aokiji, using the force of his power enough to break him to pieces but not strong enough to damage the ship or his sons. "How could you do those things to children? Did you know what the men at that place were doing to them?" Whitebeard wasn't surprised that the marines didn't care. But Luffy had killed tons of marines before, he'd said so himself.
"That hurt," the admiral complained. "We only need one of them. The other two are not necessary. That kid is our property, and we're taking him back."
"You'll never take Luffy away from us!" Marco shouted, going for Aokiji's eyes. Then, everyone on the deck froze as blood was sprayed against all of the marines, and all across the deck. The marines froze, even the vice-admirals, when the remains of a marine were spattered all over the deck and across many marines.
Luffy had come out, in full monster mode, dripping blood. He'd killed someone for the first time in many weeks. And it wasn't the last he would do.
-x-
While the boys were in the cupboards, trapped inside and being silent, they heard fighting and shouts coming from outside, echoing down the halls even though the door was closed. Thatch was standing at the entrance of the kitchen, both swords out.
The three couldn't see what was happening, but could tell someone had made it into the galley, someone they didn't welcome. They heard weapons clash, and shouting of profanity from Thatch. But then more marines flooded in, and it was too much for Thatch to handle. None of the boys wanted anything bad to happen to Thatch, and Ace kicked open the cupboard door, jumping out, followed by both of his brothers. Thatch was severely outnumbered, and Ace, Luffy and Sabo joined the fight. Sabo's jitte was on the far side of the kitchen, where marines were.
Luffy turned into full monster mode, and shot out his arm, snatching the jitte and handing it to Sabo. Luffy didn't hesitate to kill this time, even though he felt sick with the blood splattering everywhere from his slashing marines open across their guts or throats. He tried not to think about it, but there was a difference he felt.
He didn't like this. He didn't feel satisfied killing anyone. He wasn't happy, he didn't want to. Only months ago, Luffy wouldn't have batted an eye with killing, and would often feel satisfied. Knowing that wasn't how he felt now, he was killing, but only because he had to to protect his brothers.
When Thatch insisted the boys hide again, all of them covered in blood, Luffy refused, and absorbed the body that was most intact. He could be a distraction to the marines, and let the crew have the upper hand even if the marines only looked for a second. He would cause a scene.
When he got out on deck, the first thing he did was destroy the body inside of him and spew it out all over the deck. Some marines were covered in blood and guts and tiny pieces of bone. With the pause, Luffy stabbed multiple marines in vital places.
The high ranking marines, which were battling multiple commanders at a time, didn't seem to be surprised with Luffy's appearance. When he saw Haruta fall, head bleeding and knocked out, Luffy ran forward and pushed the commanders out of the way. His plan was changed. He wasn't going to cause a scene, he'd protect his new family, because that's what they were to him.
Ace, Sabo and Thatch came out, beating the smaller, still shocked and blood covered marines. Ace burned men to ashes, them screaming as they were on fire. It was a gruesome fight. Luffy was yelled at for pushing aside Kingdew and taking on Momonga, who had a sword covered in haki. Luffy was unafraid, as haki didn't injure him in this form.
The vice-admiral slashed at Luffy, but instead of being hurt, Luffy sucked in the sword and clamped his body down on it, spitting fragments of it into Momonga's face, getting it in his eyes, before he absorbed him and spit his remains all over the place as well. It was the distraction the pirates needed, taking the upper hand.
Luffy trusted the commanders to make it, and there were four that weren't distracted one bit. The man Whitebeard, Marco and Jozu were fighting. None of them had looked up at Luffy's arrival, focused only on each other. Luffy would not interfere with that fight.
He absorbed Haruta's unconscious body and ran to the open door into the ship and released him in there, now covered in saliva. Luffy than started to fight with his brothers, protecting them when needed and assisting when wanted.
By the time the fight was over, there were tons of dead bodies littered around the ship, mostly marines, and many severely injured pirates. They might die, but they weren't yet. Aokiji was not killed. After it was clear that they were losing, he took the remainder of his men that were alive, only including two vice-admirals, as three of them had been killed and tossed over the side of the ship so there weren't even any bodies to collect, Aojiki lead them back on the ship to retreat.
Marco didn't allow this, and tore their sails to pieces. He carried Ace over, who set the ship on fire on the mast and cabin, before Marco carried him back. They would all die or be stranded. The pirates had fought more violently than ever before, aiming to kill all of the marines after hearing they were responsible for the abuse and brainwashing of Luffy and the captivity of his brothers.
Once the deck was quiet, Luffy changed into human form, curled into a ball, and started to sob, soaked in blood.
-x-
Ace, Sabo and Marco ran to the boy, holding him while Marco rubbed his back as the boy sobbed. His hands were shaking when he looked at them. Marco looked to Namur. "Luffy, Namur is gonna wash the blood off, okay?" Luffy didn't respond, but his brothers nodded. Namur used his fishman karate to bring the water up out of the sea and dump it onto Luffy, washing the blood staining his skin and hair away. All there was left was the bloody clothes.
Ace carried Luffy inside immediately, so he didn't have to see the blood and bodies all around the deck. Marco was sore in some places, and Pops had a few small cuts, Jozu was unharmed, but Haruta was still unconscious, Izo had a bloody arm and Rayuko's precious weapon had been broken. The other commanders were tired and most were covered in bruises. It had not been an easy fight, but their desire to make the marines pay had helped dull the pain they felt while fighting.
Marco and Pops directed the clean up of the deck, dumping bodies over the side of the ship, and scrubbing away the blood with gloves. It took four hours of cleaning before the deck was clean again, though some of the ropes had blood stains. There was nothing they could do about those at the moment.
The infirmary was full to the brim with pirates, some waiting on chairs or the floor as the more severely injured pirates were taken care of first. Curiel was working as well. There were three dead pirates, all three from the third division. They would be burned out at sea as soon as they could have a ceremony. Their bodies would be washed of blood before then. It hurt the captain to see his sons' dead bodies. It was the worst feeling for any parent to have their children die before them.
Everyone had leftover anger, that the marines were behind it the whole time. And now they'd be after the boys, though they had no photos of any of the three, thankfully. But, it was only safe for them to stay on the ship now. It was not how Whitebeard wanted them to have to stay.
Marco eventually left to find Luffy crying in the bathhouse, sitting in the water as his brothers washed him thoroughly and scrubbed the blood out of his fingernails and hair. The bathwater was pink, as both older brothers had blood on them as well. The water would need to be cleaned and tub scrubbed and disinfected, but Marco didn't care about that at the moment.
The man walked to the tub and sat down. "Luffy, you saved many of the pirates on this ship," he said slowly and emphatically.
"But I-I killed," he sniffled.
"So did everyone else," Marco pointed out. "The majority of the dead marines were not from you.
"I made the galley dirty. There wer-were bad g-guys in there an-and I killed them," Luffy whispered through his tears.
"So did we," Sabo said. "And Thatch, too." Luffy just continued to cry. Marco frowned sympathetically.
Marco put his hand on Luffy's trembling shoulder. "Those men all deserved to die. They were behind your past life. We didn't think the marines were involved, and we didn't ask why, but you just took revenge on some of the people who hurt and imprisoned you."
The water around Ace burst into steam, but he was in water and unable to activate all of his power. Marco was seething as well, but hid it behind an exterior look of calm. "The marines will never get you again."
Then he sighed. "We are all sad that you did not join us voluntarily, but now you're forced to for your own safety. We're sorry," the phoenix said sincerely. The boys didn't look bothered one bit, and Marco wondered if they were still in shock or just didn't care.
"I wanted to stay anyways," Luffy confessed. Ace and Sabo didn't react, but Marco could see the discomfort on their faces. Either with what Luffy said or with the whole situation about them needing to stay. "But I won't stay without Ace and Sabo."
Marco didn't know what to say for about a full minutes as the boys scrubbed he blood off of each other. "If you truly don't want to stay, I'm sure we could set you up at a protected island under our crew. You have the choice to leave, no one will make you stay. But, maybe wait to leave until you're all a little stronger and guaranteed to survive marines or possibly bounty hunters after you."
Ace and Sabo nodded, while Luffy just stared at the pink bathwater, a blank look on his face. Clearly lost in thought, and Marco hoped they weren't bad ones. "Thanks, Marco. We'll see you later," Ace said softly. Marco left the room, walked down the hall a bit, and then punched a hole into the wall. He cursed softly. Why was he damaging the ship out of anger lately? He'd never done it before now. Well, when he was younger he'd bash through walls, but he was in his forties now, he knew better.
He took a few deep breaths and leaned his head back. What could they do now? The last thing they all wanted to do was force the boys to stay. As much as they wanted to keep the three, never would they take away their freedom.
But now, knowing the marines were behind it and knew they who the boys were, it was dangerous for them to be anywhere. And, if they dropped the boys off at an island, no doubt would the marines spin it so the boys were evil monsters, maybe still toting the whole "demon devil fruit" bullshit. They could easily make the public afraid of the boys, Luffy especially. If they'd gotten any photos of Luffy slaughtering the marines, never would anyone be comfortable around him, no matter how sweet or kind he is.
To be honest, none of them had thought the marines were behind it, but should they really be surprised? The World Government supported slavery, murder and killing innocent people on whims. Is testing on children anything they shouldn't have assumed? And everyone knew the marines thought their own men were fodder, but why would they sic Luffy on their own people? It didn't make sense to Marco.
The least the pirates could do for the three was give them freedom, if they wished, after they were strong enough to defend themselves. Luffy was well on his way, as long as he stayed away from water and alcohol. Ace was showing progress and potential, as was Sabo. Some day, maybe sooner than they would like, the boys would be able to live by themselves. But the Whitebeards didn't want that.
Marco left the hall, glancing back at the hole in the wall with embarrassment, and went to find Pops. He found him in the captain's quarters, downing bottles of alcohol in his couch, looking angry. Marco knew he was angry at the situation and marines. The damn World Government had almost ruined Luffy completely, could have killed the brothers on a whim if Luffy wouldn't retaliate.
"Pops, I talked to the boys. They're taking a bath to wash all of the blood off. None of them were fond of being forced to stay. I told them that we could drop them off on a protected island once we train them to be strong enough. I'm sorry I said it without your permission," Marco said sincerely. Pops drank the last of the current bottle of sake and sighed.
"That was the right thing to say, as it is the truth. If they truly don't want to stay, I don't want to force them," the captain said. "Why couldn't the marines have revealed this after they joined? Screw them," Pops said angrily, popping open the lid of another bottle. It was very hard for him to get drunk, but he was still drinking a lot. Marco didn't dream of scolding him about it, not now.
Marco sat on the arm of the big chair. "Luffy said he wanted to stay anyway, but would not hesitate to leave if his brothers chose to not join," he explained. "It's a mess, and I think the whole ordeal might have really messed up Luffy. He was sobbing his eyes out. When will the marines stop hurting him?"
Whitebeard rubbed Marco's back, sensing the man reaching his breaking point. You could only be strong for so long. "Probably not until they have Luffy in their custody. Now that Luffy has his own independence, it wouldn't matter if Ace and Sabo were killed off. The boy would hate being with the marines regardless. Luffy is strong, but still suffering from trauma, and having to do this today probably messed with his head. After all, he'd decided, with conviction, that he wasn't going to kill anymore. And then he slaughtered dozens of people in the most gruesome way, doused in blood by the end," Whitebeard said sadly.
"We can protect them," Marco said, though the conviction in his voice was weak. "Or at least, teach them to protect themselves," he added when Whitebeard sighed.
"That, we can do. It's a messy situation that's just become messier. We should have killed Aokiji, he probably got away even if he was the only one," the captain lamented. Marco shook his head in disagreement.
"Having you kill one of the admirals would have sent the government after us. The only ones they really care about are the admirals and a handful of the more seasoned vice-admirals. We killed three of them, but it would not be as big a deal if we'd offed Aokiji as well. We did the best we could, and Luffy's help, though the end result is not ideal, was what changed the tide of the battle," Marco explained. Whitebeard nodded in agreement. Killing Aokiji would have been bad. Very bad.
"We did the best we could at the time," Whitebeard amended.
-x-
After the bath, the brothers retired to the Special Room Marco gave them, or allowed them to use, to go someplace and be isolated. Luffy was asleep in Ace's arms, tired after the bath and emotionally exhausted after what had happened. They passed injured pirates, and Sabo waved off concern for Luffy.
They laid him on the couch and both older brothers took the carpeted floor. "Did you know he wanted to stay?" Ace asked quietly, even though they both knew Luffy would be deeply asleep.
"I mean, I think we both assumed. Even though things have affected him mostly, he still wants to stay. The whole Teach incident, Whiskey's misstep, and now him having to kill when he made so much effort to not anymore. It's not the Whitebeards' fault that the marines came after us. They did their best to protect us, but it was just too much for everyone. Luffy's involvement saved many of the pirates' lives," Sabo explained. He was staring at his hands.
"The decision is now on us, then," Ace summed up. "Stay, or leave." He turned to his blonde brother, and asked, "What do you want?"
Sabo didn't reply for a minute, warring with the logical side of his brain and the emotional. On one hand, staying with the Whitebeards was safer than going off on their own, and it made Luffy feel more people cared about him other than praising him for going on missions. The emotional side of him was at war as well. Between the bad things that had happened, and the change in Luffy since being welcomed on the ship.
"I think they have done a lot of good things for us and Luffy especially. I think the good outweighs the bad by now. No one forced Luffy to take part in the battle. From the start, they tried to hide us. It just... didn't work out too well…" Sabo petered off. Ace agreed, looking back at their little brother.
Ace sighed and laid on his back on the fluffy carpet, thinking. "What should we do, then?" he finally sighed. "Let's try not to think of this as 'we're staying for safety'. Do we want to stay?" Ace questioned quietly. Sabo was silent, too. "C'mon, don't you always know what to say?"
Sabo gave him a quick glare. "I'm not perfect, Ace. I'm only smarter when it comes to literary and technical skills." Ace huffed, and asked him the question again. "I don't know, okay? Part of me wants to stay, but part of me doesn't want to be chained down here, y'know?"
The boys were quiet for a moment, waiting for the other to start talking again. When neither of them did, Ace stepped up. "We're only twelve. Luffy's eight. We wouldn't be setting out for another five years anyways, even if we hadn't been taken by Lu. We don't have to get the tattoos, we can leave whenever we want to. Besides, we'll grow stronger here, won't we? Marco said so."
Sabo was nodding. "Then, if we do want to stay for good, then we can. And the marines won't be after us as easily if we stay, right?" Ace nodded in agreement. "Do we tell Luffy we plan on possibly leaving when we get older?"
"Yeah, we can't lie to him," the oldest said in a definitive voice. "We'll wait for him to wake up." There was no problem and Luffy slept peacefully, most likely because he just took a bath. They hoped so much that he wouldn't get nightmares. He hadn't been needing the bath for a couple days, they didn't want to go back to it right away. But they also didn't want to be skewered in their sleep.
Luffy had gained a lot more control since then, so they could trust his powers more in his sleep. They would always trust Luffy, even if they didn't in the first place. So many things had changed in two years it was crazy.
Three hours later, Ace and Sabo playing with an old pack of cards they found in the end table drawer Luffy woke up. He immediately curled into a ball on the couch on his side, hiding his face in his knees. The movement was what alerted his brothers that he was finally awake.
"Hey, Lu," Sabo said quietly. Luffy nodded, but didn't show his face. Instead of brining up the battle and massacre, Sabo decided to get to the point. Not to pity Luffy, as he would hate that, but to tell him what he and Ace had decided on. "We have both been talking about the choice to stay or leave." This woke him up completely and he sat up straight, not knowing what answer to expect.
Ace spoke up. "We've decided to join, but will not promise on staying the rest of our lives. Just until we're all old enough to set out on our own. So, we'll be here at least 5 more years, depending on how strong we are."
Luffy's face lit up just barely. "For many years?" Luffy asked, just to be clear. When they nodded, he sighed out. "When are we gonna tell them?"
Sabo and Ace shared a glance. "Not until morale is raised after the battle. Don't we want them to know we're staying not just for safety from the marines, even though that is a slight part of it?" the blonde brother replied. Luffy nodded in agreement. He smiled slightly. Things might get better once they officially join.
The rest of the day, everyone were sad. Three of the crew had died after all. Their bodies were cleaned up and they were sent out to sea on rafts, to have Izo use a bow and arrow to shoot arrows that were on fire to burn the rafts as they drifted away. It was a sad occasion, and the three felt like they were trespassing.
After the funeral, dessert was served out on deck, a celebration of the life of their passed brothers. They'd just had something to mourn their deaths, and now they had to do something to celebrate their lives.
No one had talked to Luffy about the fight besides Marco. They were giving Luffy space, which was appreciated. The boys wanted to forget it ever happened. That night, everyone took a risk and did not give Luffy a second bath that day so he'd sleep soundly. They had trust that Luffy had control. He didn't, but he didn't hurt anyone either.
A large group of faceless marines surrounded Luffy, all brandishing weapons. Luffy didn't want to kill anyone ever again, not if he could help it, so he shied away, wanting them to be gone. Wishing they would leave him and his brothers alone, who weren't there, thankfully. Luffy didn't need to protect them.
Luffy felt smaller and smaller as they walked closer to him. Soon, he disappeared completely, still able to see things around him, but he was so small no one noticed him, and he slipped to safety between the floorboards, away from his enemies he didn't want to harm. No one was there that he needed to protect, and he was not afraid of running away to not have to kill.
Ace woke up the moment his arm hit the mattress they were sleeping on. It was supposed to be their last night in that room and were going to go back to their previous room, but that was pushed back after what had happened during the battle with Luffy.
When he opened his eyes, the freckled child immediately knew what was wrong. Luffy was missing. He sat up and jerked his body around to look around the room before leaving the bed and hurrying to the bathroom, where he found nobody. He was making a lot of noise, opening and slamming the closet door shut, before going to run for Sabo and get his help to search for their emotionally vulnerable baby brother.
Of course, this woke Marco up, who sat up and blinked sleepily, before seeing Ace run back to the side room frantically. He got up, concerned about what had happened as Ace shook Sabo awake. Marco entered the room and asked what had happened.
Ace was about to tell him Luffy was missing when he noticed something moving under the blankets. Sabo threw the sheets off completely and they all saw a tiny ball of black slime, about the size of a golf ball. Luffy had shrunken down to a tiny ball. He wasn't moving, and Ace picked him up gently, the boy sticking to the blankets.
"Lu, wake up. You're safe," Ace whispered, holding the tiny ball in his warm hands that he was making warm on purpose, but not catching fire. The ball moved around a little bit, making the other three think he'd woken up. When it became heavier, Ace set him down so he reformed and grew to his normal size.
"Hey, how do you feel?" Sabo asked genty, is thumb caressing his hands. The brothers knew that was the new way he was going to cope with nightmares. It was better than destroying the room, but it was also very sad.
"Okay…" Luffy said, not sure what happened.
Ace explained, "You were a tiny little ball. Did you have bad dreams?" Luffy nodded his head, but didn't start crying. "Did you hide instead of fight back?" The two assumed that was what had happened. Luffy hadn't fought back in real life through his dream, but had become as small as possible, much smaller than Ace and Sabo ever knew he could, and probably hid using that size.
"I didn't want to fight, so I got small and fell through the deck someplace safe," he explained. "I hid, I didn't want to kill anyone anymore." He sniffled once, and was taken into a big hug by both brothers. Neither said he wouldn't need to kill again. It wasn't true if marines really were coming after them.
Ace ran his hand through Luffy's fluffy black hair gently. "You're here, with us. Not surrounded by bad people. It was just a dream," Sabo said soothingly. Luffy nodded, wiping his wet eyes and not wanting to cry.
The three paid little attention to Marco, who was watching from the open doorway. "Do you want to go back to sleep?" Sabo questioned. Luffy still looked exhausted, and rarely had more than one nightmare on the same night. He nodded, and instead of laying in the middle of the brothers, he curled into Ace, chest to chest with Ace holding him close.
Marco stayed awake, making sure they were still asleep.
When morning came, Luffy was in normal form. Not that tiny, sad form. Sabo woke both of his brothers since the sun was streaming through the porthole window. The two raven haired children woke up, both sleepy but Luffy not scared. They were glad he didn't have another nightmare.
Next time he saw Wendy, he'd talk about his new nightmare. It was very different than the previous ones, but it was also from a different event than his other nightmares. Now he had more trauma, but he would get better, hopefully, before something else happens. He still had hope, though it had gotten significantly smaller than before.
He knew people would try to convince him he'd done the right thing, and maybe he had, but it still upset him that all of his progress in not killing was erased and he had to start over. He hoped no one on the crew was afraid of him now.
Walking to the galley, no one gave Luffy scared or apprehensive looks, which soothed some of Ace and Sabo's worries. Luffy kept his head down most of the time, scratching absentmindedly at his arms, remembering when they were covered in blood the day before. It felt like it just happened.
Luffy wondered if someone had a devil fruit that could take away memories. If so, he wanted to meet them and have them take away the memories of slaughtering marines all over the ship. When Namur entered the room, looking grumpy with a newspaper in his hand, the brothers knew something bad was in it.
They waited for anyone to bring it up when Whitebeard sat down. The boys were fairly certain he and Marco came in late due to the first mate telling him about Luffy's new coping mechanism to bad dreams. It was a safer one, though more pathetic and Luffy knew it.
But, he wasn't living now to look strong to other people. He used to be forced to, to not give himself a bad name, even if no one lived to say what killed them. The boy was not going to pretend he had no problems, that he was fine. Not only would it be an obvious lie, but he just didn't want to do that.
"What is it, son?" Ace heard Whitebeard say quietly. Luffy and Sabo were sitting just far enough away to not hear. Ace pretended he didn't either.
"They've got a single bounty. There was a camera snail on the ship," Namur said. He pulled out a single piece of paper, and Ace barely saw that it said Wanted on it. He had a feeling he and his brothers now had bounties. And while it had been fun to imagine having a bounty, now it was just scary, not that he would admit it.
Luffy was unaware, while Sabo was watching Ace's reaction to what he could hear but the other two couldn't. Whitebeard and the commanders that could hear looked in the boys' direction, unable to help it. They noticed Ace staring at them, and clearly knew there was no chance of him letting this go. So, the Wanted poster was handed down to the boys.
Ace set it in front of Luffy, who was in the middle. I was a photo that was not clear, but featured all three brothers. Ace was on fire, Luffy was in his huge monster form, and Sabo's face was blocked by a marine's sword. Under the not-so-good photo was "only alive", and a bounty of 200,000,000 berris. It was a lot for a first bounty, and Ace and Sabo couldn't help but be annoyed that they hadn't earned this bounty for anything special. Just who their brother was.
Luckily, though, Luffy wasn't exposed. He hadn't turned into human form once during the fight, which was very good. "It has our names, but the faces are hard to see," Ace said as enthusiastically as he could. "Says we're on the Whitebeard crew."
"Which is a good thing. It will deter many pirates or bounty hunters to go after you as long as you're here," Izo commented lightly. The three boys nodded, before turning the paper over and laying it back on the table so they couldn't see the front of it, and went back to their food, eating even less enthusiastically than before.
Training that day was not very lively. Luffy was moping, not even trying today. As much as Izo tried to get him motivated, Luffy just hid his face in his knees. When Izo finally got it that Luffy would not be doing anything today, he got Thatch to bring him something to eat or drink. Thatch agreed immediately and made the depressed boy a chocolate milkshake.
"I heard about your dream last night," Thatch said. Luffy tensed, but didn't reply, drinking the milkshake slowly. "I think that it a more normal coping mechanism, to try and hide. Some of our brothers had lived as slaves before joining the ship. It's not the same, but their coping when having flashbacks or nightmares were to curl up into balls to try and protect themselves. You did that, only you shrunk very small. And you didn't hurt your brothers or the room. That's good, right?"
Luffy slowly nodded, but was no more cheerful than before. He mainly watched his brothers fight after he got his face of out his knees.
Sabo tried his best, but was distracted, as was Ace. Sabo was getting hit over and over, but was glad Vista didn't go easy on him, making him have to pay attention so he wasn't injured. Ace was lethargic as Marco hit him over and over.
And the phoenix wasn't having it. "You're barely trying Ace!" he shouted irritably. "You want to be free don't you? How will you be free if you can't even muster up the will to fight?" Ace glared at him. "Aren't you angry at the marines? At the world? They did horrible things to Luffy, your baby brother! Don't you want to do payback? Don't you want them to regret ever messing with you three? Don't you want to protect Luffy, who is stronger than you are?! His big brother should be able to protect him!"
Everyone on deck knew he didn't mean these things, but was trying to get Ace to fight back. "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!" Ace shot back, shoulders flaming in anger at Marco's words, and the truth of them.
"Then make me shut up! I won't be quiet or stop talking unless you make me! You're acting weak right now! Do you want to be weak? Do you want to have zero motivation to even try?!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Ace blew up, lighting himself on fire.
"Is that the best you can do? Light on fire with no control?!" Whitebeard was clearly about to step in, not liking the things his son was saying.
"SHUT UP!" Ace roared and a huge plume of fire rushed towards Marco, lighting the deck on fire until barrels of water were tossed on it. Marco was unharmed, and grinning. Ace looked shocked.
"Looks like anger is fuel for your fire, Ace," Marco said with a grin, walking over and patting him on the shoulder. Ace was still surprised. "Wanna name your first attack move?" Ace thought for a moment, before giving a small smile.
"Fire fist," he said, as he his hand had been in a fist when the fire erupted. With Ace's sudden progress, he felt motivated, but they moved to back of the deck, where there were less people and not so close to the masts and aiming out to the sea at the railing. He was actually practicing by himself, stewing in anger about everything.
He couldn't always use anger, but it sure was good for training. He couldn't see, but Sabo had lost the distraction, wanting to make as much progress as Ace suddenly had, and knew practice made perfect, and that was what he needed.
The only brother still not motivated was Luffy, though he was proud of Ace and Sabo. Pirates tried to motivate Luffy, but they wanted to be gentle with him. No one would do what Marco had done for Ace. Luffy, at least since coming there, was much more sensitive than Ace. When put down, he grew sad instead of angry. The brothers knew many could not believe that he'd ever killed when he got angry or upset.
Eventually, Whitebeard called Luffy over, and had him sit on his shoulder like Marco had. He had not so good balance on his shoulder, so he stuck himself with his power to the shoulder of his captain's coat. The captain didn't say anything about it.
The man didn't wait for Luffy to say anything before he started telling the boy stories of their adventures over the decades that he was a pirate, even starting at the beginning of his pirate career on the Rocks Pirates, which he rarely spoke of. Only to a few of his commanders. Pirates had distanced themselves from Luffy and stayed that way when he sat with Whitebeard. Luffy, thankfully, knew it wasn't that they were afraid of him, but still respecting his wish to be given space by those he didn't know well.
"I thought Big Mom and Kaido were bad?" Luffy questioned, earning a smile from Whitebeard for him being distracted.
"Oh they were a nightmare to work with. We only stayed together for five years before we were defeated and then disbanded. We were the strongest crew of our time. It was nothing like my crew now. We weren't friends, more like we just had to work together. I don't miss those days. I haven't spoken to anyone from that crew in a long time. I'm much happier here," Whitebeard explained.
"What about the other emperors? Aren't there four?" the young boy asked.
"There are. Red-hair Shanks is the newest emperor. He's the only one of us who is the size of the average human," the captain said with a hearty laugh. "He's got spunk, and he's young compared to the other emperors. Shanks can be a pain in the ass, though. He's not very mature for his age, but he sometimes comes here to share sake and catch up on things."
Luffy was interested in learning about the world, since he was isolated from it for so long. Ace and Sabo knew much more things than Luffy. "So you're friends?"
"Hmm, I wouldn't say friends. Maybe acquaintances. We're friendly with one another but not friends," the man explained.
"Who do you think is the strongest in the world? Is it you? Commanders said it was you," Luffy wondered. Whitebeard thought for a long moment.
"I would no longer consider myself as the strongest in the world. In my hayday, yes. My fruit is the most destructive, but I am not necessarily the strongest. I would have to give that title to Monkey D. Garp and Gol D. Roger when he was still alive. Both of them defeated a crew that had three emperors in it. That would make them incredibly strong, and they don't even have devil fruits! I do think it depends on what you define as "strong". Physically, devil fruit wise, or the more fearsome?
"The government has given me the title as "the strongest man in the world". I did not proclaim myself as such, but gladly take it as a compliment." Then he laughed, shaking Luffy on his shoulder though he didn't fall thanks to the stick.
Luffy smiled lightly, completely distracted by the conversation and not thinking of sad things that he was before. He watched Sabo fight while the two were silent, Luffy trying to come up with more distracting questions.
"How are you feeling, Luffy?" Whitebeard suddenly asked. "We have not talked much about it, but I know Marco talks to you very often." When Luffy was quiet, Whitebeard added, "If you do not wish to talk about it, then I will not force you. Just because you are on my ship does not mean that I take your free will away from you."
This seemed to make Luffy more comfortable. "I'm sad about learning the marines did it cause they're a big thing and hunting me and Ace and Sabo is dangerous. I wanted to stay, even though bad things keep happening, but I'm worried Ace and Sabo will not want to stay, or feel forced to stay. But, I won't stay if they don't want to," Luffy said honestly.
"We would very much like you to stay, too. We are also very angry and upset about the marines being behind it because we do not want you to force yourselves to stay because of safety reasons," Whitebeard replied, just as honestly. Luffy frowned, looking down at his hands.
"I don't know how to make them want to stay," Luffy said quietly. Whitebeard gave a sigh.
"I do not want you to try to convince them to stay, only for them to change their minds and regret it later. I want you three to be happy here. For you to feel as good as you can after everything that has happened," the captain explained. "Why don't we talk to your brothers about this, and I will make it clear that we don't want to force you to stay, and will not try? Sabo looks like he needs a break, as does Ace since there's no more sounds of fire."
"Kay," Luffy said and unstick himself from the captain's shoulder, running off to get Ace and Sabo.
The three returned to Whitebeard, who was smiling warmly at the boys. "What is it?" Sabo asked. He was sweating after the amount of exertion he was putting into his fighting, and Ace looked exhausted. The three sat down when the captain asked them to.
"I'd like to be straightforward about your wanting to stay or leave the ship," Whitebeard said, getting right to the point. There would be no tiptoeing around on the subject. "Luffy has told me he wishes to stay, but will leave if you two choose to."
Ace and Sabo weren't angry about Luffy telling the captain this. "We were actually gonna talk to Luffy about it this morning, but got sidetracked after waking up," Sabo said. Ace nodded in agreement. "We, me and Ace, decided that we will stay here for now. At least until our time is to set out and be pirates of our own. We may change our mind, but we'll be staying here for at least five years."
"We'd like to not have to get the tattoos," Ace added, both boys looking nervous. Luffy looked happy, glad they'd be staying for at least a couple years.
"That is perfectly fine. We welcome you, for however long you'd like to stay," Whitebeard grinned, beaming like the sun. "While you are here, we will make you strong enough to form your own crew and set off, able to depend on yourselves and one another."
Luffy then asked, "Do we call you Pops, too?" They couldn't make out the tone of Luffy's voice, or his feelings on the matter.
"Only if you'd like. Though, I won't hesitate to call you my sons. It's been hard enough to censor myself for these past months," the captain laughed. Those who heard the news cheered, though not too loudly to startle Luffy.
A few of the commanders came over and were grinning. Marco especially. Even though it might not be permanent, the boys were staying. "Seeing as you are now part of our crew and family, do you swear to stay until you are ready to set out?"
Luffy looked to Ace and Sabo, who nodded solemnly, like they were serious, not that tey were upset their were shackled here, which they weren't. "Great! We are having a party tonight in your honor. No alcohol." Some of the pirates booed about that, but Marco shut them down immediately.
"Are you three comfortable sharing the reason we restrict the alcohol now that we are your new family?" Whitebeard asked after asking them to come nearer to him. Luffy nodded, as did his brothers though they were a bit more reluctant. "Good, we will make the announcement at dinner tonight. After that, we will have a party."
The three nodded. Training was over that day as Sabo and Ace were exhausted. No one made Luffy train even after he was in a better mood. No one wanted to ruin it. When the three heard they were arriving at an island in a couple days, they were both glad and sad to hear the shipwrights could get the correct supplies to fix up the rest of the second division room.
They had grown so used to sleeping in Marco's space, which still felt safe. Even though they were now part of the crew, and everyone seemed really happy, it still felt more reassuring to stay in Marco's room. They knew it was kind of stupid, but it didn't change how they felt about it.
Marco, like most times, seemed to be able to read the boys' minds. "You may still stay in my space until things get a bit better. And remember, Luffy, you have an appointment with Wendy today," Marco reminded him. They had forgotten about it after the announcement and decision, but Wendy hated canceling sessions. The youngest nodded.
The boys were glad to keep staying in Marco's room for now. Mostly if there was an emergency with Luffy, he would be there instantly. But, his room was only across the hall from them, so it was a bit ridiculous, but they were doing it for Luffy mostly. He felt safer with a room someone would have to cross through first to get to them.
Ace and Sabo knew they needed to break down the walls of mistrust between them and much of the crew. After all, they were considered family now. Family trusts each other. And the two were willing to start over with Whiskey. They planned to go see her while Luffy was in his appointment. The rooms were side by side so if Luffy needed them, they'd get there in only a few seconds.
An hour later, Luffy sat on the comfy couch, Wendy sitting across from him, always in her chair. "I know you have been having a hard time after the fight. Would you like to talk about it?" Wendy asked softly. Luffy wanted to talk to someone he didn't know as well as his brothers and Marco, and nodded.
"I… decided I didn't want to kill people anymore. I want to be better, good. And then, when the marines came into the galley and I heard Thatch fighting, we broke out of the cupboards and started fighting. I didn't even think of an alternative than to kill them. Usually… so far, I've gone after the legs. But, they were really bad guys that everyone was scared of, so I wanted to help.
"I absorbed a guy and went outside and was as scary as I could be and sprayed blood and guts and stuff all over the deck. I killed a lot of people, and I think I had a panic attack afterwards when I started crying. I don't think anyone noticed that."
Wendy was looking sympathetic, for once not only writing, but looking at him and not her clipboard, which was set in her lap. "Do you feel you have changed back after what you had to do?"
Luffy looked down at his fingers, already knowing the answer. It was the only thing that brought comfort to him about the whole mess. "No. I still wanna be good and not kill. I didn't feel happy or satisfied when i killed them. I was doing it for my friends and brothers, not cause I wanted to.
"I… did feel better after everyone was gone, and I killed some of the important people, but only cause the fight was over and there were only a few dead pirates. I wanted to help the commanders cause I like them the most," Luffy explained, eyes looking at the floor now.
Wendy put her hand on Luffy's shoulder. "If you feel you are still good, but have done a bad thing, then you're like most on this crew. Fighting is fun for most, but the killing isn't what makes it fun. After all, we rarely kill enemy crews. The only reason commander Vista killed those marines was for the safety of those he cared about. Just like you have.
"Do you think Vista is a bad guy?" Luffy shook his head. "Then you are not a bad guy either," the counselor said emphatically. Luffy nodded.
"Would you like to talk about your nightmares? Have you had any recently?" Wendy asked, back in her chair and not leaning forward anymore.
Luffy sighed, and then said, "Not really anymore but last night I did after the whole thing. It was different cause I didn't fight back. It was a bunch of marines all pointing weapons at me. They didn't have any faces, but I didn't want to fight back or kill them. I just got smaller and smaller until I fell through a crack in the floor and away from the bad guys.
"I did that in my sleep, too. Ace and Sabo and Marco woke up and found me in a tiny ball, so small Ace could hold me. I don't remember doing it, but I felt kinda weird afterwards. Like, my head felt fuzzy," Luffy explained. "It's better than hurting my brothers, I'd rather hurt myself than hurt them."
"Would you like to go back to taking baths before bed? To make sure you don't do anything in your sleep?" Luffy looked embarrassed, thinking about the one time he peed the bed. He shook his head, but didn't say anything about wetting the bed. It was just too embarrassing, even if Wendy wouldn't tell anyone else.
"Why don't we end on a happy note? I've heard you and your brothers have officially joined the family. How do you feel about that?" Wendy asked with a warm smile. Luffy smiled for the first time in that session.
"I'm happy. We might not stay for forever, but until we're good enough to be on our own safely. We have a sorta-crappy Wanted poster now, so people might come after us, I don't know. I'm happy I get to stay with Marco and Thatch and White- Pops," Luffy said, testing the word out. He's never had a father, so he didn't know what it was like to have one.
"I'm so glad you're happy, Luffy. It's a very nice thing to see your smile. I sure hope you show one more now that you have a big and loving family to take care and make you happy. It's a long road to recovery, but you have many more people to help you, including me," Wendy said with a smile. "Welcome to the family, Luffy." Luffy beamed again and nodded.
While Luffy was talking with Wendy, the older brothers were standing in front of Whiskey, feeling a bit awkward. She seemed nervous, too, maybe thinking they were going to bite her head off again. They hadn't spoken in weeks. When they were in the infirmary for anything, it was with Tami and they ignored the head nurse.
"Can I help you boys?" she asked, sounding like she was walking on eggshells. Sabo put her out of her misery.
"Since we're joining the crew for a couple years at least, we want to start over. Luffy forgave you for hurting his feelings and calling him psycho, but we've had a hard time with it. But, we want to start over, so we'll put that incident in the past," Sabo explained in a polite voice. Ace was doing his best to seem civil. He really was, he wanted to move on and forgive what had happened. It was just difficult.
"That's great," Whiskey said, sounding sincere but not too optimistic. "I'm so sorry about that meeting. I was acting like I was speaking with only adults. For a moment, I forgot that Luffy was an eight year old. There is no real excuse, but it was an accident, and I'm glad you forgive me," Whiskey replied. "Welcome to the family."