Here the Bird Sing
Chapter 01: Red, Yellow, Blue
(The One Piece AU nobody asked for, but I'm here to give. Buggy and Shanks aren't the only kids sailing under the Oro Jackson)
Sen took to surprise parenthood like a fish to water. Buggy should have been unsurprised knowing his sister's personality, but still, it did. Her brilliant smile towards Ace is nothing short of a mother proud of her child's accomplishments.
It's a smile that would then be bestowed to three other troublesome kids that Sen also spoiled rotten with the love she is always ready to give to those who need it.
It is a sight that would never fail to warm Buggy's heart, that a good find of treasure could never fulfill.
(Ace is her Firecracker. Luffy is Sunshine. Sabo her Seabreeze. And Law is Moonflower.)
Red and him didn't know what to do in the wake of their Fa—Captain's execution. Buggy knows that if it weren't for Sen, he and Shanks would have probably drifted apart at some point with another stupid argument blown out of proportion. Would have parted ways like how the others – abandoned, they abandoned them – left them adrift after the news of their captain's execution date.
She's the glue that holds them together, while they were her safety net when she became undone by another father figure in her life being selfish and going off to die without any word for them. She has Shanks' heart and sentimentality with Buggy's logic and self-preservation, a perfect blend between them, so it's no surprise that she understands them both so well even without the assistance of those ears of hers. Yellow is the mediator between Blue and Red's clashes, most of the time the voice of reason, the mature one despite being the youngest. He doesn't know how she could still stand them after all these years, always patient and ready to coax them with those amber eyes of her. But still, Sen is younger than them by two years, give or take – because they don't know their birthdays – and it's their job to take care of their sweet and too kind for the world little sister.
(Overcompensating Hawkeyes and Clumsyass Rosinante and Mama's boy fucking Katakuri should really back the fuck off.)
It's a tough job to undertake, Sen is just too flashy, too pretty and too kind for her own good, but Shanks and Buggy makes do. Nobody would ever be worthy of their wonderful angel of a sister. For all the shit and fucked up things she must have heard over the years and even as a child, how she stayed so relatively innocent is beyond Buggy, but he is not at all complaining.
(A buster call on an archipelago because of news of near immortal cannibalistic former humans slowly taking over the land. A little orphaned girl training to fight said monsters under two old men with three older boys, a found family. The girl, the sole survivor of the whole demon extermination propaganda held, nearly becoming a slave because of a disgusting noble taking a shine to a nine year old. It would have been that if the Roger Pirates didn't came to the scene, their Captain and Oden particularly furious beyond belief, everyone echoing their sentiments as they sail away with the little girl crying as she slept in his arms, Marine armada and a Noble's ship burning and sinking to the sea.)
How she stays so kind and loving and warm after all the shit she went through, Buggy would never know. And he hates Roger and his former crew even more for adding to his sister's army of trauma.
(Fuck Roger, fuck his selfishness and fuck the others for leaving them alone scrambling and running for their lives from Marines and enemy pirates alike who hold grudges and seek vengeance on children.)
But one day, as if possessed, she convinced them both to sail towards South, stating that they needed to be there or they would regret it.
(Like the Captain, she can hear the voice of the world, said she's been able to hear them for as long as she could remember, has had numerous conversations that made her look insane in her traditionalist island. Had made her a target and an outsider to people who don't understand.)
And they did regret it, they were too late. Fucking Marines. Fucking dogs of the World Government.
A whole ass Island, a whole generation lost. So many children lost, so many children left orphaned, so many men left widowed because of mere speculations and rumors. Sen cried and cried and wailed, not that Shanks and Buggy were any better. They dug holes after holes, too small for too small bodies. It was sickening and Buggy bitterly thought of the others on how they would take this news.
They counted each one of them and remembered.
(One-hundred and thirty-two little boys and one-hundred and forty-six little girls, sixty-seven women and unborn children, all of them gone, just like that, because of some sniveling nobles fear of the Captain's legacy.)
But in that island, they also happened across a miracle.
A Miss Portgas D. Rouge kind of miracle.
Sen more or less found her, with the help of the voice of the wind, the skies and the seas. They found the fiery woman in a little cabin close to the shore on the other side of the island, surrounded by hibiscus flowers of varying colors and sizes.
To say the least, Miss Rouge is one hell of a woman, how the hell their dumbass Captain landed a score with the woman they would never know, but it's clear that Miss Rouge loved him and love their child growing inside her, going so far to die for him.
For Ace.
They sailed away from Baterilla Island crying, with a baby in Sen's arms and pots of red hibiscus flowers on their sail boat given by the grateful locals.
But now, Ace is in danger, fucking Akainu aiming for dumb kid Luffy and Ace is shielding him with his body.
Fuck no.
(He already had Mr. 3 release the brat from the scaffold, had him retrieved. Why in the flashy fuck did that fiery brat had to go back because of a taunt.)
Buggy is moving but he knows that it would be too late, he ignores his newly collected chum's call for him. Buggy could only focus on him being too far away and too many bodies are in the way. He is now flying across them with only his top half but he knows that he would be too late.
(He should have trained more, he should have been stronger. Now that angry kid would be gone and Sen will be devastated once more. It's going to break her, again.)
"DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH MY—"
Suddenly, Akainu is flying across the field, a familiar aura adding to the cacophony, a familiar aura that is now furious beyond what Buggy felt before. The rabble of dust parts and Buggy is treated to the sight that makes him grin viciously with all his teeth, he has seen that expression before thrice, and it always didn't end well to the person it was aimed to.
Buggy settles back down to his lower half.
"Don't you dare touch my children." The voice is soft and almost sweet, a touch of her will laced to it that made bodies drop around her like flies.
Yellow is here and she is extremely angry.
(Red is coming, and like Yellow, extremely pissed, not that Blue is one to talk, he had been pissed since Ace's announced capture, that he was in the deeper bowels of Impel Down than him.)
"Mom!"
"Mama!"
Both yelled in unison, one in alarm and one in happiness.
"Hello darlings," She doesn't look back, golden eyes focused to the rising Akainu, hold in her sword relaxed.
Sen ignores the pandemonium of varying surprise of her sudden appearance and relation to the two labeled Devil Spawns. The Whitebeards are mostly surprised by her arrival.
"I would love to hug and kiss you both right now but," She takes her eyes off from Akainu to smile kindly to her kids, that alone made the sputtering denials of her motherhood silenced.
"Firecracker, can you take Sunshine away from here, Seabreeze and Moonflower are waiting to treat the both of you."
"But Mo—"
"Don't worry, Mama's going to take care of it."
Right as she says that, Akainu throws himself at her and Sen blocks the punch with the now blackened sheath of her sword. She wasn't even moved from her stance.
"Go!" She kicks the huge Marine right at the knee with an Armament infused sandaled foot. Akainu goes down. "Now!" And dodges the retaliating punch.
Ace doesn't need to be told twice when he just saw his Mother send the Mad Dog flying earlier. Luffy protests to leaving their mother behind.
"Who are you?" Akainu grits out as he stands, letting Sen leap away for distance.
"Didn't you hear?"
The sky darkens as cloud gathers and thunder rumbles, the smell of petrichor and ozone filling the air as lightning comes down from the heaven to strike Sen down causing mass hysteria and disbelief among the crowd, keeping still in a stance that Buggy knows sent many directly to the Flying Dutchman.
Akainu winds back his arm, turning it into an oversized burning magma fist. Buggy feels that he's having a heart attack.
"I'm their Mother."
"Great Eruption!"
Through the confusion, Blackbeard makes his move.
Sen disappears in a flash of light with the speed akin to Kizaru, reappearing in the distance, the roar and the form of a flashy as fuck lightning dragon accompanying her.
"Storm breathing, Seventh form: Flaming Thunder God."
Guns and blades priorly pointed at her fell down into nothing but scraps. The magma attack cut in half and batted away before it could reach its destination, leaving the burning rocks to fall where no fainted marines and pirates are around. Marines and Pirates alike were too stunned to speak as the body of one of the most feared men across the seas fall down, his legs from the knee down remaining rooted to heated cobblestone.
His arms following right after.
(Buggy knows there's no way of regrowing it, Sen's blade is special, made of Seastone and some other mysterious mineral local only to her extinct island. The only remaining nichirin blade that survived the government's purge. It's special in a way that no one else but the blade's owner can use it or whom the blade deem worthy can use it, changing to a specific color to match their first and only master. The World Government weren't able to obtain the secrets of its creation so they eradicated it all together so no one could get their hands on it. Too bad that ship has sailed.)
Meanwhile, Blackbeard's head bounces against scorched grounds, ugly sneer and greedy eyes forever frozen in his face. His huge body soon follows.
Buggy sighs in relief and in exasperation, Sen being largely unknown – through the Roger Pirates collective effort – is now up and gone in flames. There's no way she would continue to become anonymous with this whole shitshow being televised around the world and the number of witnesses across the battlefield. Her declaration as the mother of children to the two most wanted men in the world notwithstanding.
Talk about flashy as fuck criminal debut.
(Sen would panic later on once she sees her wanted poster. But she'll calm down because her children are adults now who could mostly take care of themselves, the only worry is three of them being Ds and one an honorary D by virtue. Buggy and Shanks won't be letting her travel alone for a while as she used to over the past few years following the Sky, the Wind and the Sea's words for a week every month she leaves Dawn Island. They would need to settle their frantic nerves first after the sight of their baby sister facing against an Admiral and joining a war, now painting an obvious glaring target on her back.)
Shanks finally arrives, and everyone's brains jumpstarts.
Queue the pandemonium.