Hello Friends! Sorry for missing last week but I feel much better about putting this chapter out having taken the extra time to look it over. I'm still not 100% in love with this chapter but I think it is pretty ok for the most part. I think I just need to finish this arc already XD BUT! In good news the next arc is already about 50% complete and so by the time we finish up this current arc it should be perfect c: But also thanks to my favorite Guest on FFN for editing this chapter! Anyways, onto the chapter!

Warnings at end of chapter.

New World

The wind tousled my long hair as I sat in the window sill with one of my legs dangling out over the water. For the most part the sea was calm, only a few clouds dotted the sky and the winds were rather subdued. The ship was more or less just roaming the sea at this point. We were loosely heading for an island but Shanks and the crew were apparently content to let the Brattahlid sail as she pleased. Given the calm that seemed to surround the ship whenever it was at sea I decided to take a moment to simply enjoy the ocean.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the sea air. For the first time in what must have been months I allowed myself to rest. It wasn't that the crew demanded that I constantly be working rather, that pressure came from myself. In the few months since I had been on board Shanks' ship I found myself being slowly but surely being drawn to the crew. None of them, except Roux and sometimes Guy, went out of their way to talk to me or pretended to be my friend but they also didn't force me to do much of anything. They simply let me… exist. It was nice to not have to worry about expectations or duties for once. I hadn't felt this free in a very, very long time.

Funny how the people who claim to want nothing more than freedom have been the ones placing the most restraints of me but oh well…

What am I going to do now? Where do I go from here? Should I try and jo-

No. Do not go down that path. You know they don't want you to join them. If they did then they would have said something by now. Just be grateful for the time you have on this ship while you have it. Don't get greedy Ariadne.

I sighed and rested my head back on the windowsill, as I looked out over the sea I heard the door to the room open. I turned and watched Andre walk in, he had to duck his head slightly so as not to smack it on the doorframe. As he stood back at his full height I waited for the feeling of dread to fill me at the sight of his hulking frame, and yet… it never did.

"Do you need me to leave?" I asked out of courtesy. While I had been on the ship Andre had never tried to speak to me beyond a few passing courtesies but had also never minded when I would rest in the navigation room. Even though the crew was shockingly subdued while at sea the navigation room was still one of the few places that I was nearly guaranteed to be left alone in.

He gave a half hearted wave and made his way over to the table in the center of the room. "No, you're fine don't worry. Now if you were Guy or Monstar on the other hand…" He laughed.

I smirked as well and said, "They still aren't allowed in here?"

"Monstar can come in when he's with Alden, but not on his own. Monkeys aren't the best when it comes to handling delicate equipment."

"No, I wouldn't think so. Although he is rather tame for a wild animal."

"He is. But he still gets a twitch in his tail from time to time." He smirked and shook his head. "Guy on the other hand is just a walking tornado. I'm amazed that boy can keep his head on straight some days."

"He does seem rather…" I trailed off searching for the proper word to describe my almost friend.

"Obnoxious?"

I laughed. "I was going to say energetic but that works too."

We both laughed for a minute before we trailed off into a comfortable silence. I turned to look back over the sea and watched as the few clouds in the sky darkened ever so slightly.

When exactly did I become content to sit in silence with a near stranger at my back? It almost feels like I've been on this ship, with this crew, for a lifetime. Almost…

After a few minutes Andre pulled me out of my thoughts by saying, "So how are you liking things here? Haven't really gotten a chance to talk much."

"Yeah, I uh- tend to keep to myself." I looked back to him and tried to smile. "But you guys seem like a good crew. You must be really proud to be a member."

Lucky you...

"Are you thinking of joining us?" He asked.

"Joining the crew? No, no of course not." I shook my head and looked down at my hands, worrying a thread out of my borrowed pants.

"Why not? Boss likes you well enough and I doubt the rest of the crew would mind. You're a hard worker and Max says you can hold your own in a fight."

"Thank you. But I'm just not the kind of person who…" I trailed off and sighed again.

"Fits in?" He suggested. "You know that's a trend in our crew. Pretty much all of us were outcasts at some point."

I rolled my eyes and said, "I think that's a trend with all pirate crews. Hence the outlaw nature of piracy."

"I meant we're outcasts from other pirates." He paused and when I didn't respond he said, "You know Shanks was the only Captain willing to take me on. I never wanted to be a pirate and I actually used to work for the World Government for most of my life. But I got into a bit of trouble that ended up in me getting a bounty, but even though I was a criminal no pirate crew would let me join them. I would have been captured or killed if it weren't for Shanks."

"What did you do?" I asked.

He waved the quill in his hand dismissively and said, "Eh, it's a long story. All I'm saying is to give Shanks a chance. But don't let me try and sway you. Just live your life Addie there's no pressure."

There's always pressure…

I nodded and looked down at my hands again. But before I could get lost in my thoughts yet again, I turned back to him and said, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you, well not you specifically. More everyone but you're here now so-."

"What is it?" He asked cutting off my rambling and not looking up from the map he was drawing.

"Why does everyone on the ship call me Addie?"

"That's your name isn't it?"

"My name is Ariadne. Sure, I have far more nicknames than any person has a right to. But no one's ever called me Addie before."

He shrugged and said, "That's just what your brother always used to call you. So I guess it stuck."

What?

I stopped and stared at him. "What do you mean?"

What the hell is he talking about?

He shrugged again. "It's not like he talked about you all the time or anything. It's just that whenever you came up he-"

"No." I said interrupting him. "You must be mistaken. I don't have a brother. Hell the only siblings I have are sisters and they're both adopted. I was born an only child."

He finally looked up at that and narrowed his eyes at me. "No you have a brother, he's just older than you. I think he's-"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the ship suddenly lurching to the side. I just barely caught myself on the other side of the windowsill to keep from falling off the ship. Looking out the window I saw the few clouds had condensed into a dark, dense blanket across the sky. As I tried to right myself a voice called out from the deck, "All hands on deck we got a storm!"

Andre's head snapped to the door and he quickly started to pick up the instruments he had set out on the table. I sat there gaping like a fish for a few seconds as I tried to decide to stay and demand answers or to answer the call. Before I could decide for myself he shouted, "You heard the man, get going!"

I nodded and rushed out the door and up the single flight of stairs to the deck. As I stepped out onto the deck the door handle was nearly ripped out of my hand by the wind. I was quick to jump out of the way as the heavy door slammed shut behind me.

"What the hell happened?" I shouted as I forced my way through the driving rain and harsh wind. The rest of the crew was already on the deck, frantically working to bring in the sails.

Beckman stood at the wheel with Shanks next to him. As I shouted Shanks laughed. "It's the New World!"

"But it was sunny two seconds ago!"

He laughed louder as thunder crashed and the waves around us grew taller.

"Addie get on the top sail!" Someone shouted as I stood there dumbly looking for a way to help.

Which fucking sail is that? What am I supposed to do? Damn it why am I such a dumbass!

A massive wave crashed on the deck of the ship and we all had to grab on tight to whatever was nearby as we felt the ship tilt farther than it should have. I grabbed onto a nearby railing and felt as my feet slid and nearly lifted off the deck. Then as the Brat leveled out we shared looks of fear as the waves continued to grow larger.

"Addie do something!" Guy shouted.

"What am I supposed to do? I can't-" Thunder crashed.

I looked toward where Guy was standing near the starboard side of the ship and froze when I realized that I couldn't see the sky. Where there should have been churning storm clouds there was now only a looming wall of water. Even as the wave dwarfed our ship it continued to grow larger. But while I stared at what would surely be the death of us all Guy continued to point behind me. I felt myself shake as I slowly turned to look over my shoulder to see the sea churning as it formed a massive whirlpool easily the size of a small island.

So even if we survive the wave, the whirlpool will kill us...

I stood there frozen in fear as I was reminded of the sheer power and indifference of the ocean. It was only Shank's shout that broke me out of my spiraling thoughts.

"I don't care what you do, just do something!" Shanks shouted.

Do? I can't do anything. This is a New World storm. What could I possibly do against that?

The massive wave began to crest and we all stared up in horror as we knew that there was no way the ship could survive being crushed by that much water.

I-I can't…

I can't let them die.

I threw my hands up and summoned every ounce of willpower in my body in an attempt to stop the water. I clenched my eyes shut and heard the wave crash as wood shattered. I felt as water and splintered wood rained down around me as my body shook. I slowly opened my eyes and looked up to see the massive sheet of water that I had managed to stop just a few dozen feet above the deck. The water had destroyed the topsail as well as the tops of the fore and aft masts but the water was still far from reaching the deck.

Holy shit I did it.

I allowed a smile to creep onto my face for a moment before I was quickly reminded of why I only attempted to control the ocean in truly desperate times as the weight of the water settled on my body and my will. I panted and struggled but held the water as it began to flow back into the ocean and away from the ship. Just as I was about to release the rest of the water Beckman yelled to me.

"Good work Ads but keep it up! The bitch isn't done with us yet."

"W-what?" I struggled to say as the water continued to grow heavier.

"The whirlpool is still sucking us in. How long can you hold that?"

I shook my head.

"Do everything you can because you're our only hope now." Shanks said with his face unreadable.

I stared at Shanks across the deck as I felt the ship descend further under the waves.

When the ship finally surfaced into an air pocket I couldn't stop my body from collapsing. I fell to my hands and knees and panted while my arms violently shook from the strain they had been under.

Fuck.

"Where are we?" I heard someone ask but didn't lift my head to see who.

"I don't know but we need to check on the ship before anything else happens." Beckman said. "Addie you alright over there?"

I coughed again before holding up a shaky thumbs up. As I kneeled there panting I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Shanks standing over me.

"You did good. Thank you." He said before walking away to check on the rest of the crew.

"Alright is everyone alive?" He called out.

There were scattered, half hearted responses from around the deck as the rest of the crew made themselves known.

"Good." Shanks said. "Andre where are we?"

"I got no idea Boss. This place isn't on any map and I didn't think that there were any underwater caves in this area." He said.

Looking up I saw that while it was extremely dark we were clearly in some sort of cave structure.

Well I know we sank a few thousand meters but where are we? We weren't anywhere near the Red Line were we?

Yasopp stepped up and raised up a pistol. He fired a flare and said, "Well might as well see how big of a cave we're working with."

The flare soared into the air for only a second before exploding against the roof of the cave.

"My guess is it's less than 100 meters tall. Guess it's a good thing the top sail snapped off, might not have fit in here otherwise."

I bit my lip as I felt shame tighten my stomach. "I-I'm sorry. I've never tried to control that much water before. I-"

"What the hell are you apologizing for? We'd all be dead if it weren't for you." Yasopp said as he continued to look around the cave. I looked around and saw a few of the others nodding along with his statement.

Max walked over from where he had been looking at the mast and said, "No kidding, I knew you were strong since we fought those Marines but damn. I'm just glad you're on our side."

I shrugged. "It's really nothing special. We aren't that deep down, only a few thousand meters."

"You can tell?"

"Not exactly, but I can usually feel how the ocean water moves and differences in pressure so I can tell if things are around or how deep down we are."

"Well that'll come in handy." Max said with a smile.

Rand interrupted then and said, "Yeah sure the girl isn't useless, but what are we going to do about the ship? The top sail snapped off and the main mast is cracked all the way through. Unless we replace it we won't be going anywhere even if we do get out of here."

"Do we have enough lumber to fix it?" Shanks asked

Max shook his head and spoke up before Rand could, "Lumber alone won't fix this Boss. We need a shipyard and more hands to help. I can patch her up but this isn't looking good."

"Right. Addie can you get us out of here?"

I tried not to fidget as I said, "I think so. I've never done anything like this before and I-"

"Not right this second. But you can get us out of here eventually right?"

"Yes." I said with a nod.

I have to.

"Alright let's get to work and see what we can do in the mean-"

"What is that thing?" Roux said suddenly, cutting off the various conversations happening around the deck. He walked over to the railing where I saw a tiny shape hanging off the other side of the ship.

As Roux walked over to the creature it lifted itself up to peek over the railing and I saw a pair of big eyes staring back at us.

Is that a kid?

"Well hi there little one. What brings you here?" Roux asked as he smiled down at the small creature.

They tilted their head before jumping to stand on the railing. Once they were more in the light of the deck lanterns I could see that they were indeed a small fishman child with dark grey skin and what appeared to be bioluminescent stripes on their skin.

"You making a new friend over there Roux?" Shanks asked, walking over to him. "See if there are any adults around, we could use a hand here."

Just as Roux went to take a bite of his piece of mutton (how the hell did he hold onto that thing all the way down here?) the child smiled and their tongue lashed out and ripped the meat out of his hand, swallowing it whole. The child laughed before jumping over the side of the ship and splashing down into the water below.

"H-he just stole my meat! He- no!" Roux sputtered before turning to me and shouting, "ADDIE GO GET IT BACK!"

"What? What do you want me to do? The kid ate it!" I shouted.

Does he expect me to rip it out of the kid's stomach or something?

Shanks ran to the railing and looked down into the water as he shouted, "I don't care about the meat but we need help so go catch that kid Addie!"

I struggled not to roll my eyes and I ran and jumped overboard after the fishman child.

I changed my body into water as I dove in and began to swim down. As I swam through the pitch black water I tried to reach out with my Haki to find the child but I couldn't.

Damn it I thought so… Observation has always been a weakness of mine but to not be able to use it at all? I guess I really am weaker than I thought.

Before I could start to dwell on that thought I swam further down for a bit and instead resorted to using my fruit to search the water. I didn't sense the child anywhere in the area but I did find that the cavern we were in was massive and incredibly deep. We were in what appeared to be a small part of a larger cave system that spanned miles as well as countless other offshoots. I could tell that the cave we were in now led into a larger room but as I tried to focus on that I felt multiple creatures swimming straight for me.

Shit not good. I can't see or sense anything down here. I should get back to the others. I don't know what all is down here and they might try and go for the ship.

I swam back to the ship and leapt on board. As I landed Beckman asked, "Find the kid?"

"No, but there was something down there. I don't know what though."

"Is it dangerous?"

"I don't know. My Haki isn't working right." I said feeling my stomach drop in shame.

Damn it. I'm supposed to be useful…

Yasopp opened his mouth to say something but stopped when two creatures shot out of the water and landed on the deck.

The two fishmen landed heavy on the deck and when they stood I saw that they were nearly as tall as Andre and like the child we saw earlier, had dark grey skin with a few bioluminescent stripes. But unlike the child one of them had a dangler sticking out of their forehead.

Are they angler fish fishmen? I didn't think that there were any…

"What are you doing here?" The Angler fishman asked in a high pitched voice, while also bearing their sharp teeth.

Shanks stepped in front of the rest of us and said, "We don't mean to disturb you. We were caught in a storm and our ship got caught in a whirlpool."

"And you survived that how? You have no gills or fins." The fishman said while staring down the crew.

Shanks glanced at me over his shoulder. I stepped up and said, "I ate the Water-Water fruit."

The angler fishman's forehead bobber jerked in agitation and she said, "I do not see how eating anything would save your vessel."

"You don't know what a devil fruit is?"

She narrowed her eyes and I continued. "Well it gave me the ability to control water, and the ocean is water so I can control it."

"No." She said, shaking her head. "Umi obeys no one. None can force her to obey."

"I'm special." I said.

The woman's eyes narrowed further but she nodded, glanced at the other fishman with her and said, "Perhaps you are. We have never seen your kind before. What kind of fishmen are you?"

"We aren't fishmen. We're human." Shanks said.

"Hu-man. We have never seen your kind before. In fact you are the first outsiders to come to this place in centuries."

"You've never seen human's before?"

"My people have lived here since before living memory and have never ventured outside our home."

"Why not?"

"The stone tells-"

As she spoke the other fishman with her hissed as spines rose on the back of his head and said, "Fellini! Do not tell them of the stone! They are outsiders!"

The angler fishman hissed back and said, "Exactly Gillian! They know of the outside world they can help us!"

"I do not like this."

"I know, but we have no choice." Fellini turned to us and said, "I do not know where you have come from but if you are not of our pod then you must know of the world beyond Umi."

"What do you need to know?" Shanks asked as he shared a glance with Yasopp who shrugged.

"Our people have been here since before we can remember. Those who could read the great stone have long since died and we now only have the memory of what it once said. But even still our people refuse to leave this place. As we have been down here for countless generations our resources are being depleted. If we do not find more we will be forced to choose between abandoning what our ancestors left to us or dying. I fear my people will not survive this choice."

Shanks shrugged and said, "That's a rough deal but I don't see what you want us to do about it. We're pirates, not researchers."

"But you can help us can't you?" She asked.

Why do we need to be the ones to help them? Why can't they just deal with their own problems? Who cares what their ancestors wanted, they're dead.

"You still haven't told us what you want, but possibly. Either way we'll need something in return."

Fellini nodded and pointedly ignored Shanks' first question. "Yes of course, what do you require?"

"I doubt you have many trees down here or shipwrights but our ship was damaged on the way down here. If you can find a way to help us patch her up then we'll see what we can do to help you with your situation."

"You are right we have no tr-eees you speak of but we have many skilled laborers. I am certain that we will be able to repair your vessel."

"Great! Where the hell are we supposed to go? And what the fuck do you want us to do?"

"Our home lies just beyond this tunnel." Fellini said, once again avoiding any mention of what she actually wanted. "Gillian, go on ahead and tell the elders that outsiders have arrived to help us. But do not let Werdna know of this."

Gillian grumbled and glared at us before jumping into the water and swimming away. Once he was gone Fellini turned to me and said, "If you can truly bend Umi to your will then you will need to do so in order for you to be welcomed into our home."

"Is that a fancy way of asking me to make a current that will move the ship?" I asked.

"Correct."

"Well alright then. Guess we should get moving."

Even if I don't like this. This lady doesn't sit right with me. I never even knew there were other underwater islands besides Fishman Island and if anyone would know about one then it should have been me…

Warnings: Standard Ari angst through out the chapter. Mild peril for a bit but nothing too extreme in this chapter.

Yay! Another chapter down! Be sure to let me know what you think and where I can improve :) Thanks again for reading!