Hello Friends! This chapter spiraled out of control so now we get a massive dump of world building. Yay? Somehow this one chapter managed to balloon into 3. So anyways, enjoy!

Warnings at end of chapter

New World

"What even is your bounty Ads?" Andre asked one morning as I joined him and the other early risers in the galley.

I nudged Doc's barely conscious form slightly and sat down across the table from him before saying, "Last I checked it was around 200,000,000 I think."

He nodded. "Nice. I'm sure you already know but with the exception of Guy everyone on the crew broke 500,000,000 a while ago. So you don't have too far to catch up." He said before sliding a mug of coffee across the table towards me.

I picked it up and took a sip before cringing and picking up the jar of sugar on the table. "I assumed but I've never really paid much mind to bounties. There's much better ways to find out information about people."

"Isn't that the truth." He said with a smirk. "But Guy is about 90,000,000, all the officers are pushing 900,000,000 and Boss just hit 1,000,000,000."

I took another sip of my coffee and hummed.

Much better.

"That's not too surprising. I guess I do have some catching up to do. But why is Guy's bounty so low? He's been with you guys for a while."

"Him and Rand joined us about 2 years back. Rand never really let Guy do anything and we stayed out of it because we thought he was just worried about his kid brother but now… well let's just say he never did like being upstaged." Andre said before training off with a shrug.

"You mean he didn't like not getting his way." I said.

Obviously. Men like him never do.

"Yeah. He was always somewhat the odd one out here. He never did settle in like Guy did."

"And now he never will. Sor-"

"So help me Ariadne if you apologize I am going to throw you overboard." He said as he glared at me across the table.

Did he just-

I scoffed and said, "Rude. I'm a devil fruit user, are you trying to kill me?"

"You can swim."

"But it's still rude!" I shouted.

"What's rude?" Yasopp asked as he walked into the galley.

A few other members of the crew wandered in and I scooted over (pushing Doc further along) on the bench to make room for them as Andre caught them up on what we had been talking about.

Once Andre finished Yasopp snorted and turned to me to say, "Then I take it you haven't seen this morning's paper?"

What is that supposed to mean? I haven't done anything newsworthy in a while.

He dropped it on the table and I felt my brow furrow as I picked it up. The bold headline on the front page read "Infamous rookies go their separate ways! The end of the Spade pirates!". I blinked dumbly at the paper until the meaning finally clicked.

No. no no no no no. Please don't tell me he did what I think he did. No, Ace please, you couldn't have. No don't tell me you-

Before I could start to spiral into my thoughts or even read the article Yasopp spoke up again, "Got a new bounty as well."

I looked up in time to see his smirk grow into a full cocky grin. I quirked an eyebrow and turned back to the paper, shaking it slightly to watch two pieces of paper slip free. The first one to fall out read:

Ariadne "The Siren"

Only Alive

500,000,000

I blinked. Read it again. Then blinked again.

"5- that- that can't be right. Why would…" I trailed off as my mind started to spiral.

Why the hell did they think my bounty had to be that high? Not to mention the fact that everyone is going to be coming after me now that they know I joined Shanks. Forming a tiny rookie crew was one thing but joining Shanks is another all together.

"-but what is going on with that picture? Could they seriously not find a more recent one?" Roux's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I looked up at him in confusion to see that he and everyone else gathered was staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"What's with the picture? Is that even you?"

I felt my brow furrow as I looked down at the picture. It was the same one that I had always had, since I was first issued a bounty. It had been taken when I was about 6 years old and in it I was dressed in my Marineford Academy uniform (although that likely wasn't obvious to the average pirate) with my blonde hair tied up into pigtails with blue ribbons. In the picture I was smiling brightly, completely oblivious to the things that would follow that cheerful day.

"It's from when I went to school in Marineford. Not sure why they never changed it though." I said in response to the eyes still staring at me.

"Wait, what?" Doc asked, finally coming out of his drowsy early morning induced coma.

"You didn't know about that? It's never really been much of a secret." I said with a shrug. "But yeah, the Marines used to have this program where kids from Sabaody could go to school in Marineford if they were smart enough. And I was, so I did."

"Don't you think that would have been relevant information a few months ago?"

"I thought everyone knew?"

I told Shanks and I know Beckman knew already. Did they not tell the rest of the crew?

Yasopp smirked again, "Yeah Doc, everyone knew that. Where you been?"

He threw his hands up and said, "Not here I guess. But if all you bastards knew then you should have told me!"

"Eh, it's more fun this way."

"Oh so just fuck me then I guess."

"Nah you're not my type. Bet you're Andre's though."

Andre wrinkled his nose and said, "I don't like blondes!"

"Ok that's just rude. My hair is…"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head fondly as Andre and Doc started to argue over the attractiveness of blonde hair while I turned back to the paper. Moving my own wanted poster aside I picked up the one underneath it. It had fallen face down on the table and as I turned it over I froze as I stared into the bright grey eyes of my former boyfriend, lover, friend, Captain. His picture stared back at me in all his chaotic, charming, perfect, smiling glory. The picture must have been taken during a fight because there were small flames leaping from his hair and soot clinging to his cheeks, his warm, freckled cheeks wrinkled from how wide and carefree his smile was. He looked happy. Like he almost always was, like we used to be.

Ace…

I love you...

I brought my hands up to gently trace the shape of his face but stopped myself just before my fingertips could make contact.

No.

I can't love you anymore. I'm sorry…

My other hand curled into a fist and crumpled the poster.

But I still do…

Always.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts and dropped Ace's poster. I instead picked up the newspaper and stood to walk out of the galley with it. They guys had moved onto another topic that they were no less passionate about and didn't notice as I made my way out of the galley.

The newspaper felt far heavier than it should have in my hand as I walked out onto the deck. The sun was bright despite the still early hour and the wind still playfully tugged at my hair as it always seemed to do while at sea. I ignored both as I made my way to the railing. Once there I leaned my forearms on it and finally started to read the front page.

"Last week the Marines reported a large gathering of Whitebeard's allies in the New World as they 'celebrated' the super rookie 'Fire Fist' Portgas D. Ace officially joining their ranks. While this is certainly a noteworthy development it is not entirely surprising as the Spade pirates were seen attacking an island under Whitebeard's protection nearly seven months ago. Given Whitebeard's affinity for bringing rookies under his flag this move was rather expected. What was not expected however, was the crew that Fire Fist's first mate joined. The pirate by the name of Ariadne-"

The newspaper began to quiver as I felt my body begin to shake with fury, I had to stop reading as rage began to build in me.

Of course.

I crushed the paper in my hands and brought my elbows up to rest on the railing. I pressed my tightly clenched fists to my forehead as I took deep breaths to try and keep myself from screaming.

That idiot. That absolute moron.

My fists quivered with how tightly I was clenching them as I made the mistake of glancing at the paper again. One quick glance at the headline was enough for my resolve to finally snap and with a shriek I rip the paper in half and then into smaller pieces.

How could he be so stupid? What is he thinking?

"What's going on over here?" I heard Shanks' chipper voice call out.

I bit back another scream and let the tiny scraps of paper fall from my hands as I said, "Nothing."

Just walk away Shanks. Walk. Away. I am in no way in the mood to deal with you and I really don't want to cause another scene. Do not speak to me just-

"Uh huh sure. You know it's not bad if your sad about-"

"I'm not sad you idiot I'm pissed! That fucking MORON actually joined Whitebeard!" I whipped my head around to stare at him as my chest heaved with the heavy breaths tearing their way through my throat.

"And?" Shanks asked as he leaned against the railing. Completely unfazed by my shouting.

I scoffed and said, "And he's a moron! Whitebeard is a washed up old piece of shit who is going to get Ace killed! I despise Newgate. I hate that senile old man with every fiber of my being. He has absolutely no right to call himself a pirate let alone a Captain. And he actually has the gall to call himself a father. If it wasn't for that oversized crew of his I'd rip his fucking throat out! And Ace actually joined him!"

I shrieked again and slammed my hands down on the railing, cracking the wood. "I thought he was smarter than that. But no, of course not. Of course Newgate would be able to sway him with his hollow promises of a 'family'. That sack of shit doesn't have the slightest idea of what it means to be a father. But Ace fell for it anyway. He chose that lie over me."

He made his choice abundantly clear long before this Ariadne. So why are you losing your shit like a child? You knew what he would do the second he said he wanted to take on the old fool.

I felt my lips curl in a snarl as hot, angry tears started to pool in my eyes. I roughly scrubbed at my eyes with the heels of my hands and refused to shed a single tear over those fools.

Don't you dare cry you stupid bitch. Don't you-

Shanks didn't say anything more as he walked over and put a hand on my back. I stood up straight at his touch and roughly shoved my hair out of my face. Then I tangled my hand in my hair and held it tightly as I took a deep breath.

This is it.

"I'm done."

"What do you-" He started to say before I continued.

"I am done being a weak little girl. I am Donquixote Ariadne. I have a bounty of 500,000,000 beris. I am the strongest pirate of my generation. I bend the very ocean to my will. I am The Siren, and I will not be the world's plaything any longer. I was born to rule this sea and I will."

Shanks stared into my eyes before nodding and saying, "Well good. I was wondering when you were going to wake up. But before that we got work to do."

All it took was for Shanks to give a sharp whistle as he walked into the deck house and shout "Get your asses up here!" For the crew to all pile into the galley.

Most of them had already been making their ways to the galley, or were already there, but Max and Gunther groaned as they made their ways in. I found myself sitting between Andre and Alden as we all gathered around the two tables. As Shanks stood up to address the crew Monstar climbed off of Alden's shoulders and sat himself down on my lap. I absentmindedly wrapped a loose arm around his stomach and rested my chin on the top of his head.

"Alright guys assemble." Shanks said, trying to get the crew's attention.

"We've been here for like 40 minutes." Roux said.

"Well then assemble better."

"I don't know how to do that."

"Don't be a wise guy Roux."

Max shouted out, "I don't think he's in danger of that!"

"Hey fuck you too Max!" Roux shouted back with a smile. "But what's going on Boss?"

Shanks laughed and said, "Oh can I continue now? You guys get it out of your system?"

I smirked and said, "Well I'm sure I could find a way to start an argument if you would like Captain."

"Nope shut the hell up Ads. Alright, what was I going to say?"

"Do you want me to take over?" Beckman asked.

"No, I got this. It's early, but I got this." Shanks said with a laugh. "Ok so who wants to go pick a fight with an Emperor?"

The crew paused as we all started to grasp the severity of this discussion. We shared looks across the tables as we tried to figure out how serious our Captain was being.

Does he mean-

"Which emperor?" Gunther was the first to ask.

"All of them. But right now probably Whitebeard."

Wait what?

"Why are you trying to get us into a fight with Whitebeard?" Yasopp asked before I could.

Shanks pointed looked to Beckman who stood and said, "The island we're currently sailing towards just lost the protection of the World Government. Which means it's up for grabs."

"And I want it." Shanks finished.

Looking around I met other confused faces and said, "I thought we didn't really have territory?"

So why would we risk getting into a fight with Whitebeard over some random island?

"I don't want to fight over territory until we have a larger fleet of allies. Which is why claiming this island is perfect. The residents will be looking for the protection of a strong pirate and neither Big Mom or Kaido are interested. Whitebeard will probably be looking to claim it but he's nowhere in the area right now. So what do you say boys, you feel like making a real stab at being an Emperor crew?"

He's serious. He actually wants to become an Emperor.

While I realized exactly what Shanks meant Max instead laughed and said, "You just want an excuse to get a crown."

"I do love me a nice hat…" Shanks said with a smirk. "But I think I'm more interested in the power and respect that comes with the title."

Doc was the one to speak up next as he said, "But are we even ready for that? We don't have any allies yet and there's only 12 of us, and that's counting Monstar."

Did he seriously just include the monkey in his crew count?

"I'm confident in our chances, I wouldn't have brought this up if I wasn't. We're all a bunch of burly fucks so I think we could handle ourselves."

I spoke up again as I said, "Wait, if you are aiming to be an Emperor then that would mean that you want to be as strong if not stronger than even Kaido right?"

"That a problem Ads?"

"I don't know. But I do know that article 6 of the crew charter is that everyone must be of roughly equal strength. Are you expecting all of us to be able to take on Kaido one on one?"

Shanks shrugged but his face stayed serious. "Maybe not kill him in a one on one fight, but yes all of you need to be able to hold your own in a fight against him that's for sure. I won't have any crewmates lag behind. If you fall behind you can be left behind and that endangers the entire crew. So we'll all need to get stronger but Ads and Guy you two are going to have to work the hardest to keep up."

I felt a grin grow on my face as I said, "Don't you worry about me Captain. I already told you I was done being weak."

As I said that Alden gave me a thumbs up. Across the room my eyes met Guy's but instead of responding he merely nodded slightly and looked back down at the floorboards.

Roux was the first to break the silence that had fallen over the galley by saying, "Well I don't know about the rest of you but I've always wanted to punch a dragon."

"Hell yeah! This sounds like fun Boss, I'm in." Max said.

"It does sound rather fun, actually." Andre said. I turned to look at him and we shared a smile.

"So you guys want to give it a shot?"

"Hell yeah!" The crew shouted in near unison.

Well I guess that's that. I'm going to need to train even harder. But this time it'll actually mean something.

"Yasopp you see anything?" Beckman called out as the crew ran around the deck, preparing for whatever could be waiting for us.

Yasopp continued to look through his telescope at the island that was billowing smoke in the distance and said, "Rookies, don't recognize the flags but there's at least 3 different ones. Looks pretty messy."

Shanks stepped up to the railing and said, "Raise the red flag."

What?

I froze and turned to look at him. Glancing around I saw a few other members of the crew looking around apprehensively as well.

He can't mean-

"If we are going to become an Emperor crew then we have to show the world what happens when they attack our territory." Shanks said without flinching.

Alden started to sweat as he stammered out, "B-but the red flag captain? Surely that isn't necessary, this isn't even our island yet! I understand when we had to raise it to get Ariadne back but-"

"You heard the Captain! Get it done!" Yasopp shouted, breaking us out of our stuppors. "That island became our territory the second Shanks decided to claim it. That means anyone who attacks it gets no mercy. They attack, we kill them all."

That makes sense but what did Alden mean they raised it to get me back? Did they seriously fly a red flag when I stupidly let myself get captured? How did I miss that?

Max was the first to respond by shouting, "Yes, sir." and running for the deck house to bring out the red flag. He came back out quickly carrying a large piece of bright red canvas. He clapped Guy on the back as he walked past and together the two climbed the rigging to replace the main flag.

Once they were finished, I looked up and saw in the place of our usual black flag was a bright red one with our jolly roger embroidered in solid black in its place.

Black for when you want treasure, red for when you want blood. No pirate would dare fly a red flag unless they mean to destroy their enemy. Not many would have the conviction to own one let alone fly it…

This will be over quickly.

"This island is my island!" Shanks shouted as the last attacking pirate fell.

"So why exactly are we cleaning up the village now?" I asked as I helped Andre clear the bodies of the rookies out of the town square.

"Because Shanks told us to." Andre said simply.

"I mean, yeah, there's that. But why are we bothering? Shouldn't this be the job of the locals?"

"This is our island now. That means we take care of it. Their problems are our problems now."

"Great. And what do we get out of it?"

He shrugged. "Don't know yet. Shanks is working out a deal with the mayor of this place so I'm sure he'll make it worth our time."

"Yeah? How? This island is a shit hole. I mean what could they possibly have to offer us?"

"Apparently this place used to be known for making some of the best whiskey on the Grand Line."

I snorted and said, "Of course it was. And that's the real reason Shanks wanted it isn't it?"

"Obviously." He said with a laugh. "But come on the sooner we get this done the sooner we can go look for some of this island's 'former glory'."

After the fight with what turned out to be an alliance between not 3 but 7 different rookie crews with well over 1,000 pirates between them, our crew had scattered to help the residents pick up the pieces. Shanks and Beckman had gone with the mayor of the island to work out the finer details of us claiming the island while everyone else found a way to help out. Given no one needed a musician or a navigator, Andre and I got stuck with the dirty task of cleaning up the dead bodies that littered the town square. But the longer we worked the more villagers came to help out after being patched up by Doc and their own doctors. So overall despite how grizzly the battle had been the work progressed quite quickly.

Finally after a few hours of work the village was starting to look more like a normal village and less like the scene of a massacre.

Those idiots really should have just run away as soon as we landed. Seriously why did they think they even stood a chance against us?

Andre stretched his arms over his head as we walked back into the square after finishing up our task and said, "Well I think it's about time for a-" He cut him off suddenly as he stared down the street.

I felt my forehead furrow at Andre's sudden shift in demeanor before I turned around to see what had caused it. I scanned the crowd of villagers running around the area and through them I could just barely make out a flash of bright orange.

Is that? No. it couldn't be. They are days away.

No.

But as I tried to convince myself that I hadn't just seen a bright orange hat accented by red beads the crowd thinned around the figure.

Of course it's him…

As I stared at him the crowd quickly receded and I could finally see him in his entirety. He stood with his back to me and looked to be staring into the distance. But I couldn't focus on that. Instead all I could see was the horrific purple monstrosity carved into the skin I used to know so well. The tattoo of his crew's jolly roger was surrounded by smaller tattoos that I could just make out from this distance. But the ones I could see had clear meanings that I had been raised to recognize.

A whale for crossing Reverse Mountain, a turtle for making it through Paradise, a mermaid for Fishman Island, a sparrow for every 5,000 miles sailed… He really became a true pirate didn't he?

Or had he always been one and I just was to blind to see it?

"Do you want me here for this Ariadne?" I heard Andre ask from behind me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I paused and watched as he started to turn around.

Do I want him here? What's even going to happen? Why would he care that I'm here? He was the one who threw me away. He ended whatever idiotic thing we thought we were doing. So what does it matter?

I shrugged in response to Andre's question. But once he fully turned around I saw the very moment his eyes met mine across the blood stained ground. He froze and his gorgeous grey eyes blew wide.

Why is he looking at me like that? Like I mean something to him…

We both know that isn't true. He even said that no one would ever-

No.

He said that no one would ever care for me, but I have my crew. I know that isn't true.

Making up my mind I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. "Give me a minute to talk to him Alden. But don't go far. I doubt Shanks wants me to start a fight with Whitebeard right now and I can't promise that his newest son will survive this."

How silly of me. How could I have forgotten how you betrayed me, Portgas D. Ace?

Warnings

Standard Ariadne issues throughout the chapter, but nothing too vivid.

Soooooooo, yeah I kind of fell down a rabbit hole of pirate history and now we have this. The red flag is a real thing that pirates would use and basically meant "you fuck with us and we will kill everyone." while the standard black flag was more along the lines of "If you surrender we might spare you, basically we just want treasure." So I can see Shanks (or any pirate besides Luffy) using this to try and make a statement that they aren't playing around anymore. It's time to start making progress towards becoming the Emperor we (barely) see in canon and Shanks can't gain the level of respect of stopping a war just by showing up by always sitting on random islands getting drunk. He isn't a blood thirsty murderer, he is protecting what he sees as his and will demand respect he is due. Or at least from random rookies and villagers. I haven't thrown away his personality from canon, I'm just trying to write him more as a pirate and less of a push-over pacifist I see a lot of the time.

Oh yeah, and Ace's tattoos are more like a hybrid of traditional pirates and yakuza tattoos. Cause I find his single back tattoo kinda boring. So I made up some meanings for potential pirate tattoos based on real like (possible) meanings. If anyone is interested I did write a really short drabble about Ace getting his different tattoos.