Hello Friends! Here is the chapter!

Warnings at end of chapter

New World, A Certain Slave Market

The metal was cold against my back. I could feel the unforgiving bars press against my body through the thin, white, linen shirt I was wearing. I pulled my knees in closer to my chest and tucked my chin into the shirt.

They gave me this much… at least.

I never did find out whose clothes the crew had given to me when I first came aboard Shanks' ship. I was fairly certain that the floral print pants had belonged to the Captain himself but the shirts never yielded a name. But even still, I was grateful. I was grateful for the kindness they had shown me. The respect, and appreciation as well.

It was a nice little rest while it lasted.

Before the end.

My body shuddered, either from the acceptance of my life soon coming to an end or from the frigid air that blew through the cage, I couldn't be bothered to figure out which. I felt goosebumps raise on my arms as well as my neck. I shuddered again when I couldn't keep myself from touching the now short strands. The slavers had cut my hair to where it just barely reached my chin, it had been almost a decade since my hair had been that short and the reality of that fact would have been unbearable if I had had the energy to care.

Such pretty hair.

I felt my heart clench as my body drew in a sharp breath. Suddenly I couldn't feel the metal cage anymore. Instead I felt rough wooden floor boards. Rough hands. The sound of waves crashing against the side of a ship. Cruel laughter.

That's a good girl.

no.

please no.

A tear ran down my cheek.

BOOM

I was suddenly brought back to reality as the metal underneath me shuddered and a gust of wind tore through the bars of the cage. I felt as my hair tugged against my scalp, and how it didn't brush against my back. I ignored the screams that followed the explosion and pulled my legs tighter to my body.

No. Please. I just want to go home.

Make it stop.

"Help me!" Someone screamed.

"GET OUT HERE AND FACE ME YOU BASTARD!"

Voices from my past joined those surrounding me in the present as my mind was forced into another painful memory. I could hear the cries for help from my classmates just as clear as the slaves I sat next too. My skin grew damp with sweat from fires that had long been put out even as cold air continued to rattle the bars of the cage.

Why can't I escape? Why can't I go home?

I covered my ears with my hands and tried to block out the horrible screams. But no matter how tightly I squeezed my hands to my head I could still hear them.

"Help me!"

"Someone please!"

"Anyone!"

"You can't leave us here!"

"Run he's coming!"

"You have to free us!"

"I just wanted to go home."

Stop it…

I can't help you, I'm sorry…

I'm sorry.

"Addie!" A voice called out over the chaos.

I want to go home…

Hearing my name pulled me from that dark place just long enough for me to pick out two voices I almost recognized through the chaos.

"Come on where the fuck is she?" I heard a voice say.

"I don't know! She should be here! This is where they have all their devil fruit users right?" Another voice responded.

"Yes it is! So where-" The first voice started to speak before cutting themselves off.

I heard as footsteps grew closer to the cage until it sounded like they were right in front of me. I felt a presence outside my cage and I wrapped my arms tighter around my head.

"Addie is that you?"

Roux... of course it's him…

When I didn't respond Roux spoke again. "What did they do to you? Guy I found her, do you have the keys?"

I heard Guy walk over. "I do but are you sure that's her? She doesn't really look like Ads, and she isn't acting like her."

"Just give me the damn keys."

I heard keys clink together and the lock rattle as he unlocked it. As the door creaked open I finally listed my head to look into Roux's face. For once, there was neither a piece of meat or a smile to be seen. Instead his face and demeanor matched his eyes for once.

"Why are you here?" I asked. My throat was dry and it hurt to speak after being quiet for so long.

Roux tried to smile but it was more of a grimace, "You didn't think we would leave you here did you? Let you be sold as a slave?"

"Yes, I did."

Roux's smile fell and I could see what almost looked like understanding in his eyes. He nodded slightly and reached out a hand to me. "Well we aren't so get up."

I looked past him to see Guy standing behind him. It was strange for me to see the normally cheery man looking so grim and… scared?

Why would he be scared?

Or is that what concern looks like?

Another explosion sounded from where the fighting was beginning to die down. Then Roux evidently grew tired of my indifference to life and instead picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I didn't fight him, I didn't have the energy to.

Why are they here? Why would they come for me? Did they all come for me or just these two?

The ground rushed past my eyes and Roux ran out of the auction house, trampling anyone in his path. I heard Guy throw the keys to one of the screaming slaves still caged but he didn't stop, he kept running after us. After that it was only a matter of time that we made it out of the auction house and Roux kept running across the island. I only looked back once to see the building on fire and the ground littered with bodies.

Roux finally set me down when we reached the docks. I looked up and saw not only the Brattahlid looming over us, but the entirety of the Red Hair pirates as well. The crew were all rushing around the deck and readying her to set sail. I felt my knees lock up as I watched the flag wave in the lazy seaside breeze. Guy jogged past me as he got to work helping his crew.

I shouldn't be here…

I'm too weak to be here…

I took a small step back, but before I could turn and run Roux put a firm hand on my shoulder and pushed me forward. I looked back towards the ship and saw Shanks staring down at me from the deck of his ship.

Oh right, he probably wants something…

There's no other reason for him to send his crew to help me…

I should have known better. Been smarter. Been stronger. Been better.

"I need to get the ship underway. But once we're out at sea I'll deal with you." Shanks said before he went back to organizing his crew.

I shakily sat down on a barrel and tried to keep out of the way as the men worked around me.

Once we were finally away from the island and the crew started to calm down I stood on shaking knees in the center of the deck. My palms were damp and I could feel my pulse pounding in my head as the crew slowly took notice of me. I tried to swallow the lump that was growing in my throat but it was pointless. I blinked hard as my eyes began to itch and slowly I raised my eyes from staring at the deck to look up into Shanks' face.

"W-why did you come for me? Why didn't you leave me to die?" I asked as my vision blurred. A quick blink had tears falling down my cheeks.

He stared back into my eyes as he said, "You're our friend."

He said it as if it was obvious, as if it was simple. But it wasn't only him, all around me I could hear the others echoing his statement. I looked around and saw those grizzled, sea hardened men, all of them were dirty from the fight, but even still they were dirty and wounded for me. They came for me for no other reason than they saw me as a friend.

They came for me…

They care about me...

I couldn't stop the sob, or maybe it was a laugh, from escaping my throat as I turned back to Shanks and said, "C-can I please join the crew? Officially? Please. Please let me join. I-I-"

Before I could finish he took a step closer and threw his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into a hug. "I was just waiting for you to ask."

I hugged him back tightly and sobbed against his shoulder. I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder and where I might have once been overwhelmed with feelings of fear and distrust all I could feel was-

Home

The paper on the infirmary bed crinkled underneath me as I tried not to fidget. I had never been in the infirmary before, never had any reason to. But it was a rather standard clinic that wouldn't be out of place in a peaceful village. In keeping with the rest of the ship it was small, but clean and well stocked. Doc picked up a wrap of gauze from the cabinet and walked over towards me.

"Let me see your wrists. Those shackles must have pretty tight to leave you with rashes like that."

I paused in my rubbing at my wrists and held out my right hand. "Aren't you going to threaten me to stop touching them or else?"

"We haven't talked much have we?"

"No? I don't see you around the ship much and I haven't had any need to come down here."

"Right. I try to avoid the idiots upstairs whenever possible. I have to maintain my sanity somehow, I'm sure you understand."

"If you don't like them then why are you here?"

"Who said I didn't like them? No, I like them plenty but I just prefer my own company over their… Rowdyness." He said with an exhausted sigh. "But to circle around to your original question. I'm sure you recognize that I am the medical expert on this crew right? Especially when it comes to injuries?"

"Of course."

"Good. Then I assume you are smart enough to realize that I know more about the human body than you. So if you choose to ignore my advice when it comes to your care then that's your problem. I'd much rather just treat someone for blood loss than fight them over getting stitches. I don't give a damn if you want to lose a leg to infection, I'm just fine with amputations. Got it?"

"So basically I'm free to refuse any treatment I don't want-"

"And don't expect me to cry over the consequences."

"Fair enough." I said with a smirk. "You know it's nice to have a doctor that won't immediately jump to threats if I don't want to take some medicine."

"Hey if you'd rather let a wound get infected instead of keeping it wrapped then that's your problem. But then I'll just leave you to Shanks and he'll chew you out for not taking care of your health."

I laughed lightly at that. "Fair enough. So what are you doing on this crew?"

He sighed again as he moved onto my left wrist. "Shanks is a persistent bastard."

I smiled fondly. "That he is. How'd he catch you?"

"I met the dipshit back when we were kids and he 'decided' I was going to join his crew when he formed it. He came to my island every year for nearly a decade, and every time he would ask me to join him."

"And you finally did?"

"Only after he showed up on my doorstep bleeding out and missing an arm."

"Interesting." I said but paused when something else occurred to me. "But wait, if you didn't join the crew until 10 years after the crew was founded then who was the doctor on board before that? Shanks doesn't seem like the type of Captain to just sail around without one."

Doc nodded and said, "Because he's not. I might have the title of doctor on the ship right now, and sure I take care of the infirmary but Shanks is the expert when it comes to diseases. If you need to be stitched up you come to me but if you catch a bug then Shanks will take care of it. As far as I know he hasn't met an illness he couldn't handle."

"Shanks is a doctor? Seriously?"

"Try not to sound so surprised. He might act like a drunken idiot but he's a lot smarter than most people think."

"I didn't mean it like that, I just didn't think he would have the patience for studying."

"Well he's a man of many talents. Also just so you know, we don't usually go around telling people about that."

"Then why tell me?"

"You're crew."

"Even you think so? You- you want me to join?"

"You saved all of our lives, Ariadne. That isn't the kind of favor I'm in the habit of forgetting. I haven't talked to you all that much but you seem like a good kid. And Boss likes you, so that's good enough for me."

I smiled. "Thank you."

"Yup." He finished tying off the bandage. "Don't get those wet for a few days."

"You do realize what my devil fruit is right?"

"You do realize I didn't stutter, right?"

Well damn.

I smiled and gave a mock salute. "Yes sir, doc sir. Wait what's your real name? Everyone just calls you doc."

"And that's what you'll be calling me as well. Now get out, I need to clean before the meeting tonight."

"What meeting?" I asked.

Doc raised an eyebrow and said, "To hold the vote to see if you can actually join the crew?"

"But I thought- Shanks said…"

"You need his approval, sure, but if the crew doesn't want you to join then you won't. Shanks is our captain, not our dictator. The crew gets final say over who joins and who doesn't."

"Right." I said as he pushed me through the infirmary door and I started walking down the hallway.

The crew holds a vote for new members? Seriously? I've never even heard of a crew doing that before. But then again there might be a reason as to why the crew is as small as it is…

Wow, and I actually got my hopes up didn't I? There's no way-

I stopped walking and shook my head.

No. The entire crew came to rescue me. They wouldn't have done that if only Shanks wanted me to join. Besides when I asked to join no one looked too upset. And Doc just said that he already considers me a member. So maybe this time things will actually work out…

Maybe…

"Alright settle down, it's time to get to the meeting already." Beckamn said and was promptly ignored by the majority of the people at my table.

The entire crew had piled into the galley and had split up between the two tables. I sat on the far side of one of them in between Guy and Alden, as usual, while Max and Andre sat on the opposite side of us. Everyone was sitting and picking over the snacks that Roux had set out with the exception of Beckman who was standing in between the two tables, and Rand who was leaning against the wall at the back of the room.

Yasopp rolled his eyes and shouted, "That means shut up you dipshits!"

"There is no need for name calling Mr. Yasopp." Alden said.

"You know what you little shit? You-"

Bekman sighed and turned to Shanks who was smiling, "Why do we have so many toddlers on the crew again?"

Shanks laughed loudly before saying, "Alright guys that's enough."

At the Captain's voice everyone began to quiet down until Beckman finally started speaking again.

"Right so we are possibly getting a new member which means we need to go over the charter again." Beckman said.

My brow furrowed as the entire crew groaned and rolled their eyes. I leaned over to Alden and whispered, "What is he talking about? I thought you were just voting on if I could join or not?"

He leaned towards me as well and said, "We are but we also go over all of the crew roles, regulations, compensations, and things like that."

"So before we get into personnel we have to go over the other rules and things." Beckman said, calling our attention to him again.

"Can we please break out some booze if we have to go through this?" Guy whined from where he was sitting.

Beckman smirked, "Alright fine we'll start there. No drinking while at sea unless decided by a unanimous vote. Rule breakers will be punished by the crew. Who agrees?"

"Aye." The crew lazily called out.

"Everyone gets a say in current matters. Everyone gets an equal share of provisions. Everyone gets an equal share of treasure. Keep your weapons and selves fit for a fight. Everyone must maintain an approximately even level of combat strength. Rule breakers are to be punished by the crew. Who agrees?"

"Aye."

"Theft from another crew member or dereliction of duty will result in death or marooning. Who agrees?"

"Aye."

"Anyone who loses a limb, sit down Shanks, will be paid 2,000,000 beris. Loss of an eye, ear, or hand is 1,000,000. Who agrees?"

"Aye." Everyone said but Doc.

"Can we have hands be a little higher up? Losing a hand is a bigger deal than an ear." Doc said.

Beckman nodded. "What should it be?"

"Can it be 1,500,000? Just in the middle?"

"Alright, who agrees with that change?"

"Aye."

"Ok and last up, fights will be settled on shore and attacking another crew member will result in death or marooning. Who agrees?"

"Aye."

"Alright we changed something so all of you need to sign the new charter." Beckman said as he handed the piece of paper he had been writing on to Yasopp. "Right, now who wants to nominate themselves for the role of Captain?"

Wait what?

When no one spoke up Beckman continued, "Who votes to keep Shanks as Captain?"

"Aye." Yet another bored, unanimous agreement.

I leaned over to Alden again, "You seriously vote on who gets to be captain?"

"Of course. Shanks is only our leader because we choose him to be. While there is no other man I would sail under I still respect the fact that he offers the position to any who think they would be better suited to it."

"Quartermaster?" Beckman waited again. "Come on none of you bastards want to let me have a break?"

"Well I sure as shit don't want any more responsibility for these idiots." Doc said.

"You and me both." Gunther said as they clanked their mugs together.

"Alright, fine. Who votes to leave me here?"

Everyone agreed once again. Once that was handled Shanks stood. "Alright now that that is handled we can get to why we're actually here. Addie you want to join the crew right?"

Oh right… This is why we're doing this…

"I- um- yes I do." I said.

"Great." He nodded. "So does anyone have a problem with her joining?"

Andre was the first to speak up from his spot at the table. "I have a few concerns." He started, standing up. "While I have no problems with you inherently miss Ariadne. I think we need to seriously consider whether or not we want to bring a Devil Fruit user onto the crew. We've been quite deliberate in avoiding them up to this point, so do we want to change that?"

Shanks responded. "I don't have a problem with Addie joining because she can swim. The problem with all other fruit users is that if they fall overboard it's a huge mess to make sure they don't die. They can be a liability in battle. But if Addie falls overboard then that would probably be in our favor."

"Yeah but we won't be the strongest crew without any fruit users anymore." Yasopp said.

"Oh shut up old man! Addie can destroy an entire fleet in seconds!" Guy shouted.

I blushed. "Well I don't know about an entire fleet-"

"Shut it Ads I'm defending you." He said.

"Alright Guy, settle down." A voice came from the back of the room. "Are we seriously discussing this Boss?"

Rand pushed off of the wall he had been leaning on and started slowly walking towards the center of the room. As he walked I noticed that everyone had their eyes on him. Some seemed to be waiting for him to continue and others rolled their eyes.

"Are we actually considering letting her join? Come on now friends, Guy, Captain. Let's be realistic."

"You don't want her to join?" Shanks asked. "Why not? She's smart, strong, hard working, and she's saved all of our asses."

Rand put up his hands and backed down slightly. "I'm not saying that she's useless. I know she has her… talents. But no matter how many tricks she can pull, that doesn't change the facts."

"What facts?"

"She's a woman."

"And?"

"And that makes her weaker than the rest of us." He said. "Sure she may seem powerful now but our crew is getting stronger everyday and she just plain won't be able to keep up. Women are weaker than men, it's just a fact of life."

Shanks' eyes narrowed and he said, "And the fact that she can control the ocean on a whim means nothing?"

"It's a nice party trick and it can come in handy in a pinch, sure. But she'll never be able to keep up in a hand to hand fight. Sure, she can swim which is nice but she isn't immune to sea stone. She's still just as much of a weakness as any other devil fruit user would be. More so actually, given her physical weaknesses as well. We've already had to save her skin once."

"Addie you got anything to say against that?" Shanks asked.

Before I could reply however Gunther spoke up. "No. Ariadne has done enough to prove her worth. She has shown that she is more than good enough to join this crew and anything she says in response to this fool's yammering would be pointless. Sure her bein a woman and a fruit user are things to consider but she is more than good enough to join this crew. All of you have made up your minds already so let's get this over with so I don't have to listen to this dipshit any longer."

Beckman nodded before speaking, "Alright, is anyone opposed to Ariadne joining as a full member of the crew?"

Rand immediately raised his hand and I looked down as Guy hesitantly raised his as well.

Guy… And here I thought we were friends. Oh well, I should have known better…

"And who wants her to join?"

"Obviously she's joining! You don't have a damn clue what the fuck you're talking about Rand! Shut your mouth before I come over there and shut it for you!" Alden shouted suddenly.

I looked up and saw Rand simmering with rage, Guy with his head down turned. But more interesting than that was Alden still red in the face after shouting and everyone else nodding in agreement with him.

"Well." Shanks said with a smile. "Welcome to the crew Ariande."

"T-thanks, Captain."

Warnings:

Addie is being her depressed and mildly suicidal self in the first scene of this chapter.
Also there are memories of being sexually assaulted as well as mild ptsd flashbacks. Nothing graphic but they are there. All of these things are in the first section so if you feel these topics may be distressing then please skip to the first page break and read on from there.

Welp it took a good 34 chapters but, MY SWEET BABY GIRL GOT HER HUG! I AM SO PROUD OF HER! Ugh I wrote this months ago and I am so happy that we are finally here. I have been waiting literal YEARS for Ariadne to reach this point and I am just so happy. Should I be this proud of a fictional character? Like I'm not proud in the way that "oh yes I am such a brilliant wirter" or any of that bullshit I am just so proud of Ari as a person? Like I put my baby girl through so much shit and she is finally starting to find her happy ending. She finally found her people and I kinda wanna cry T^T

Real world note! So the "Age of Piracy" is no where near my focus in school but I do find it fascinating and so I tried to do a little light research to see how real life crews operated. Apparently (and please please please fact check me, again this is not my focus) pirate crews would write out charters and vote on the roles of Captain and Quartermaster before setting sail. Those charters would not only include rules for the voyage but also workers comp in the event that anyone got injured. I made up the charter for the Red Hairs by comparing and contrasting a few (highly altered I'm sure) real world charters that we have recovered. But also apparently those voted on roles, particularly of Captain, would be kind of constantly at risk if they made a mistake. The Captain served at the pleasure of the crew, not the other way around.

When I was coming up with how I wanted to structure the Red Hair bois I tried to compare and contrast an older generation crew like the Whitebeards (and what little we know about Roger's crew) and a young, new crew like the Strawhats. Because Luffy is said to be similar to Roger by a lot of people I figured that the Roger pirates must have operated some what like the Strawhats. Then I looked into how an environment would impact someone going on to form their own crew, in particular where that Captain may have failed. I make no secret of reading a lot of fanfiction and I think sterden (over on AO3) is pretty close to how the end of the Roger pirates may have gone. I don't think that Shanks could have been raised on that ship and watched his Captain whither away without some negative effects. Hence why I chose to make Shanks an almost doctor. Go watch episodes 968 and 969 and tell me that that sweet little ginger boy wouldn't have done everything in his power to try and help Roger get better. Then look at how he reacted to Roger disbanding the crew. He was crushed. Shanks would never want to go through that again, even if he was the Captain, he wouldn't want his crew to go through that. So while Doc (no he doesn't have a real name and stop asking Shanks!) doesn't care if someone is reckless with their health Shanks won't put up with that. He loves his people and won't let them hurt themselves, or get sick.

Anyways, enough rambling! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks again for reading!