A/N: I genuinely didn't think that I'd be uploading this that quickly, but here we are! A little shorter than the last chapter, but the next one is going to be a bit longer (and may take longer to actually upload).

This is more of a filler chapter, but it needed to be written to show a little bit more context, and the plot is progressing nicely at this point. I really hope that you all enjoy the little bit at the end of the chapter.

Screams and shouts came barreling out of the castle.

"Why can't we have a nice, normal, quiet goodbye?" Nami sighed.

I laughed, "I don't think we're ever going to have a quiet goodbye, not on this crew."

"That is very true, why did I not realise this earlier?"

A loud bang was followed by a yell, "My doctor's research has already been completed!"

The sound of hooves followed shortly after.

"Well, he's coming."

"I'm being chased!"

"I've finished preparing the lift!" Usopp hadn't heard Chopper, but the reindeer came running at full speed towards us.

"Everyone hop on! We're going now!"

Dr Kureha was chasing after Chopper, her age no barriers in her speed and agility. "Stop!"

"Crap! Everyone! Move it! Move it!" I grabbed Nami and Vivi's wrists and dragged them towards the sled, almost throwing them onto it in my haste to get them and myself aboard. The boys shortly followed, with Usopp helping secure Chopper to the front of the sled and we made our hasty escape.

There was a noise from the castle behind us.

"What was that?"

"Cannons?"

"Not sure."

We made a soft landing between several rows of trees, scrambling off of the sled to look up at the sky.

"That's so beautiful!" Nami said in wonder, and she was right.

I had always wanted to visit Japan or South Korea during Sakura season and unfortunately had never gotten the chance, but this came very close. Hundreds of thousands of Sakura blossoms fell with the snow, creating the illusion of a soft pink snowfall.

"That's incredible." I couldn't keep the awe out of my voice, as Chopper wailed in the background, great big fat tears streaming down his face.

"We'll have a party when we get back to the ship, yeah?"

The Captain turned towards me with a giant grin on his face, "that sounds great!"

I was just happy to get away from this place, too cold.

I could normally forget that this crew was manned by teenagers, right up until the Captain put chopsticks up his nose to make a ridiculous looking face. Usopp and Zoro were in tears of laughter and Chopper looked as though he also wanted to join them, but wasn't entirely sure if that was going to be the correct decision to make.

Quite honestly, he looked a little shell-shocked at the chaos that had preceded his entrance on board to the chaos that was now taking place.

"Chopper! How long are you going to sit there?" Usopp was trying to coax the young reindeer down from his spot of the railing, where he had been alternating between staring in fascination at the scene below him and out at the distance towards Drum.

The chaos allowed me to slip away upstairs to the lookout, where it was quiet enough that I could have a moment of peace to myself. Ten minutes was all I was after, and ten minutes was all I got because ten minutes later Luffy's head popped up beside my own.

"Ebony, did you know that Chopper is a doctor?"

"I had a feeling that he may be, Captain. Thankfully we now have one on board, and they're pretty cool, right?"

"Very! Come down and join us!"

He didn't give me a choice, as his arms and torso came up to join his head and lifted me up. I hung limply, like a rag doll, not used to the sensation of being grabbed like that. He had the good sense to place me gently on the ground, instead of just dropping me, so there was that.

"I was going to be coming down, Captain."

"Shishishishishi, the snail is going off like crazy! I thought you might want to answer it!"

Shit! I had forgotten completely about the den den mushi.

I rushed to grab it, just as it completed its last ring. I had managed to get to it in time.

"Crow here, what's up?"

"Finally! Shit, Ebony, I've been worried!"

I froze, and so did Luffy who had snuck up behind me. We both knew that voice, and it was one that I hadn't heard in a few months. Luffy probably hadn't heard it in even longer.

"Hey, Ace. How are things going?"

Ace had passed through Drum Kingdom a week ago, and he still hadn't been able to get a hold of Ebony. He was way past even slightly worrying now; it almost verged fully-fledged panic. What on earth could she possibly be doing that he wasn't able to get into contact with her?

What could his little brothers crew be doing? Something absolutely crazy? Of course, it was Luffy he was talking about. And Ebony. Those two together on a ship was going to be an interesting combination, with her dry humour and Luffy's own strange sense of humour that changed minute to minute. He hoped that Luffy liked her, he wanted his brother to like the girl that he...

Yeah, not going there. Not now when there was so much at stake and he didn't even know her own feelings on the matter and wasn't likely to ask her any time soon. Besides, he hadn't told her his darkest secret and she hadn't told him, he didn't think they quite, not trusted, that wasn't the right word. But it would be far too dangerous for the other if others knew that they held something that close to their chests.

He had spoken enough of her back home, maybe Teach had gone after her or Luffy to rile him up. Perhaps Blackbeard had gotten to her?

Nope, he wasn't going there either, that felt worse.

He had to try again, for his own piece of mind if nothing else.

The first time it rang right through, and the second one almost did but it was picked up right at the last moment.

"Crow here, what's up?"

That was Ebony's customary greeting, as she never quite knew who was going to be on the other side and didn't want to chance anything, even her name, falling into the wrong hands. Ace couldn't blame her.

"Finally! Shit, Ebony, I've been worried!" All of his frustration and worry were poured into the single sentence. He didn't mean to, and what he was going to say originally left his thoughts so thoroughly it was if they had never existed in the first place. He was just happy that she had picked up after all this time.

He noticed the quick inhale of breath, and another. Ebony mustnt have been alone; the thought of her being with someone else that wasn't him shot a white hot arrow through his whole body. Jealousy wasn't something that he was used to. He was a pirate and pirates took what they wanted, when they wanted it. But not like that, never like that.

"Hey, Ace. How are things going?"

Don't be jealous, don't be jealous.

"Could be better, did you hear about Thatch?"

'"Shit! Is he okay?"

Ace didn't know if his brother was still alive or not, but he didn't want to think of him in any other manner.

"Last I heard he was still breathing, so that's something."

There was a scramble on the other side, as though someone had tried to take the snail transponder off of Ebony.

"Hold on Captain, give me a moment and then you can speak to him!"

The ugly jealousy that had taken a hold of him receded a fraction; she was with Luffy and he knew damn well that his little brother wasn't interested in anyone at all in that manner. Not yet at least, far too interested in becoming Pirate King and having adventures.

"So, Luffy, huh?"

"Yeah, he's as interesting as you always said he was. Pretty insightful, too."

Ace gave a short laugh, "He's definitely that when he wants to be."

"Not that I'm not happy to hear from you, because I am, but our scheduled call isn't for another month? What's eating at you?"

His little brother wasn't the only insightful personal that he knew, apparently.

It was odd to hear Ace so damn subdued, his normally cheerfully sarcastic exterior was pushed to the back to allow his more serious side to show through (even if only just a fraction).

"I'm hunting Teach down."

Shit! Ace! I could only hope that my warnings about the man could have gotten through to him, and maybe they had, but Ace had to go and chase after the traitor anyway. It wasn't in his nature to let something like that go.

"Fuck."

He laughed without any humour, "That's about right. He's got to have eaten the fruit by now, too. I don't even know what fruit it is."

How could I go about telling him, without revealing exactly how I knew?

"What did it look like? The fruit?"

"I'm pretty sure that it was a light purple, made up of teardrops and green leaves? Like a huge bunch of stupidly shaped grapes."

"Yami-Yami no mi."

I could hear the sharp intake of breath from Ace, "That one is meant to be a myth!"

"Well clearly it isn't and the traitor has gotten a hold of it."

"Damn it!" The anger in Ace's voice was as hot as his fire and something on board smashed from what I was assuming the heat of his flames.

"Breath, okay, Ace. Breath."

Luffy and I could hear Ace forcefully trying to calm himself down, so to distract him iI changed the subject.

"Where are you currently?"

The reply was slow to come, each word being carefully measured so as to make sure he kept his temper.

"I'm currently near Alabasta, should be there in less than a day."

Before I could get a word in, Luffy had grabbed the snail and talked into it.

"Ace! We're going to Alabasta, too!"

Surely he hadn't heard that correctly? His little brother and friend were headed towards the same country that he himself was almost at.

"Really?"

"Yeah! We have a friend who needs to get back home!"

Ebony's voice interrupted, "Don't say too much Captain, these calls can be intercepted. We don't want them to find out what we're doing."

"Oh, yeah! Sorry! Ebony's teaching me how to read, Ace!"

Ace couldn't help but laugh, "Is she? Hand her back the snail, little brother, I want to talk to her."

"But Ace, I wanted to hear about your adventures! How did you meet Ebony? How's the old man treating you? How's Deuce going?"

"Slow down. The old man is treating me well, it's great onboard. Deuce is fine, I think, he broke up with his boyfriend after it turned out he was an under cover marine. Disappointed the whole crew, actually. If Ebony hasn't told you how we met by the next time I see you, I'll tell you then." It was pretty cool how they met, actually, but every time he brought it up Deuce would give him a funny look as if to say that wasn't actually how it happened, but he was sure that they hadn't met before then. "Put Ebony back on!"

He could hear his brother whine in the background, but he handed Ebony the snail back.

"Good luck teaching Lu how to read, the last time anyone tried was when Sabo was still with us."

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end, and he knew why. He hadn't spoken much to her about Sabo and really only spoke about his lost brother whilst drunk, so this conversation was edging into a slightly unknown territory. (Especially with his brother right next to Ebony on the other side of the transponder.)

"Well, I hope I do him proud, yeah?"

Ace was sure that she would; Sabo probably would have liked her if he was being honest with himself.

"She's doing great, Ace! I can read our names, now!" Luffy interjected in the background, before yanking the snail from Ebony's hand and shouting down the line. "See you in Alabasta Ace! We'll tell you more when we see you!"

And without any warning, Luffy had hung up.

Typical.

Ace didn't notice the large rock seemingly sticking out of the ocean in from of him, causing the small boat he was occupying to tip forward, sending him careening into the ocean. Thankfully he had been wearing a life jacket, but now he was floating aimlessly and his strength being sapped.

He only hoped that there was someone close by.

I couldn't stop the Captain from slamming shut the receiver in time, but I was sure that Ace had said what he needed to say to myself and his brother. I was surprised that he had brought up Sabo, though. Besides, even if he wanted to say more, he knew very well what his little brother was like and knew that I probably wasn't likely to stop him from doing as he pleased.

He went running out of the room, towards the others. I did wonder if he was going to tell the others about our conversation with Ace, but upon following behind the Captain towards the others, he didn't say a word.

"Keeping it a surprise about the Princess, eh? Captain?"

"Definitely! Don't forget, you'll have to tell me how you met Ace later!"

And with a bark of laughter, he followed Usopp's lead and shoved a pair of chopsticks up both of his nostrils.

"Chopper! Come and join us!"

Nami couldn't help but lose her temper, "Would you lot just shut up?"

Upon turning around, she saw that Chopper was now also copying Usopp and Luffy. "Why did you copy them?"

"Let them be kids, Navigator. There's too little time in this world to be worrying about stuff like that." I gestured broadly towards the three youngest, who were giggling like mad.

"Listen up everybody! Let's welcome our new friend!" Usopp gave a great cheers, but no one seemed to be listening, at least initially.

Zoro and Sanji were arguing over who had been drinking too much and from Zoro, 'bring me some damn food!'

"Let's have a toast!"

This time, however, got the reaction desired as we all raising whatever beverage was closest to us in cheers to our doctor.

Chopper burst intoners, with chopsticks still up his nostrils, "This is the first time in my life that I have ever felt this happy!"

I laughed, walking over towards him. "It'll happen a lot more now, mark my words, little deer."

The nickname slipped out, but Chopper didn't seem to notice it so I didn't take it back. I think most fans of One Piece have a soft spot for Chopper, and I couldn't deny that I was one of them.

After that, the celebration ran well into the evening with Usopp having almost go overboard, drunk. Luckily either Luffy hadn't been drinking, or alcohol just really didn't affect him, but he reached out and grabbed him before he could find himself going over the rails. Usopp went to bed shortly afterwards.

He was going to have one heck of a hangover in the morning.

Chopper soon followed, as did Nami.

Luffy was doing his utmost to stay wide awake, slurring something about his next earring lesson, and leaning inwards towards Zoro.

"Tomorrow, I'll teach you more okay Captain?"

He nodded, his head lolling towards Zoro further, his rubber-ness

"Come one, Captain. Let's get you to bed." Zoro put an arm underneath Luffy's legs and the other around his shoulders, hoisting our Captain up, with his head drooping to the left. "You still good to keep watch?"

I waved Zoro off, "I'll be fine, just get him to bed. Nami is meant to be relieving me shortly anyway, so I'll be good."

He nodded and carried the now lightly snoring seventeen-year-old towards the men's cabin.

It was shortly after seven that I woke, only four hours after I had managed to get to sleep.

No big deal, I was used to working with less. Not good for my health at all, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. All nighters pulled at uni by my friends and I had resulted in less sleep had, after all.

Somehow Luffy has snuck past Nami, in the middle of the night and either had knowingly eaten all of the rations that would have lasted us up until Alabasta, or he had sleep-eaten. Again. (It wasn't the first time that he had done it, and it probably wouldn't be the last). However, judging by the look of guilt on his face, he had knowingly eaten all of our food as a late night/early morning snack. Just because he could.

"Resistance is futile, Captain." Santi grabbed Luffy by his chin and gently turned his face to the side. "You have a terrible poker face."

Letting go, Sanji gasped in mock surprise. "What's that on your mouth?"

"Crap! Leftovers!"

Before Sanji could take out his frustration on the Captain alone, I noticed a tail of crumbs towards where Usopp, Chopper and Carue were fishing.

"Sanji, I think he had accomplices."

As Sanji started to rant towards the others, Nami looked down from her post and sighed.

"At least they're doing something to replenish what they ate."

"The Captain is probably going to help." Turning to Luffy, I pointedly gestured towards the lone fishing rod left on deck. "Aren't you?"

Luffy paled, nodding so quickly that his head became a blur of black hair and straw.

I hadn't realised that sounded like a threat until much later, when Vivi had gathered us all to talk and explain to us the situation that we were know dragging ourselves into.

(Luffy, meanwhile, was furiously trying to catch fish with his bare hands, forgoing the fishing rod in his haste. Ebony sounded so much like a disapproving Makino in that moment and that was literally the last thing on this planet that Luffy wanted to hear; Makino was scary when she was disappointed or angry with you, Luffy and Shanks would know. And yes, he may play at being oblivious and naive, but he knew damn well what Shanks and Makino got up to behind closed doors. He wasn't stupid!)

"How is Crocodile considered the Hero of Alabasta?" Nami was confused, and I had to admit I was too.

"He's part of the Shichibukai." Vivi stated like it meant something, it did but the others didn't know what.

I explained before the Princess could, "They're pirates that work for the government, either pursuing other pirates for their treasure or helping the marines crush other pirates in the name of 'justice'."

I said the last word in quotation marks; most of what the marines and the government did couldn't be considered justice if they could still ignore the slavery happening that was 'illegal' but not if you had enough money or were a Celestial Dragon.

"That's right, and it doesn't matter that they're pirates, the gratitude of the people doesn't change." Vivi entwined her hands together, "After all, their town's attackers are driven away."

"Ah, so the people wouldn't even dream that their supposed hero is actually trying to take over their country." Sanji was sitting on a crate, a lit cigarette in between his fingers having left Usopp, Carue and Chopper in a neat pile a short distance away.

"I'm going to kick his ass!" Luffy pounded one of his fists into his other hand.

Vivi couldn't help but giggle, a sound that was rough from disuse and had a little touch of hysteria in it. "First we have to stop the rebellion, Luffy. If we can drive Baroque Works out of my homeland, my country will be saved."

"What is Baroque Works, anyway?" Usopp had put his hand up like a school child to ask the question. "Miss this and Mr that?"

Come to think of it, nearly everyone here (apart from myself) would have been still in high school (thereabouts) back home. I would have probably been done with my undergraduate degree. The thought of that made me sad, something I had been hoping for my life was taken away from me, but I could let myself dwell on what could have been and focus on the now.

"It's a fairly simple system, with Crocodile at the top as Mr.0, and fourteen agents underneath him that take orders directly from him."

Fourteen? There were thirteen originally, in the manga and the anime? I could feel a cold chill run down my spine.

Vivi had continued on, meaning I had missed a large portion of the conversation. "Most of them have devil fruit powers, but don't act unless there's some really important business. Frontier agents are below them, commanding the basic units and raising funds for the company around the entrance to the Grand Line. That's Baroque Works in a nutshell."

"I've just got to kick Crocodiles ass!" Luffy cheered, whilst Sanji scoffed.

"You didn't hear a word she just said, did you?"

"I think he heard her pretty well, actually." They all turned to me in disbelief at actually agreeing with Luffy. "Baroque Works isn't like other organisations that have a structure that includes an heir, if Crocodile is defeated then the organisation itself will fall apart. Unless the agents are incredibly loyal to the man, they'll go their separate ways."

Vivi gave me a strange look, bordering on suspicion. "How do you know that?"

"They wanted me to join up at one point, I declined, but they kept sending invitations up until they abruptly stopped about six months ago."

Zoro spoke up at that moment, "They wanted me at one point, too."

There weren't any more suspicious glances towards the two of us from Vivi after that.

"Wait, of the final plan of Crocodile's and Baroque Works is to take over Alabasta, won't that mean that all of the 'Officer Agents' will be in one place?" Nami couldn't help but grin.

"Sure does sound like it, doesn't it?"

I couldn't help but to return the grin, "Well he's going to have a fight on his hands that's for damn sure."

(Even as I said this, I couldn't help but be worried about the fourteenth agent; who could it be? The only thing that I could be certain of was that they had to be an Outlier; there was no other explanation otherwise.)

We sat in silence for a moment, before Luffy jumped to his feet and dragged me to mine.

"Reading lesson, Ebony! Let's get to it! And tell me how you met Ace, too!"

I laughed, trying to think less on the agent whom I had no knowledge about to counter.

"Sure thing, Captain!"

Sabo had made up his mind; he wasn't going to call Ebony until he had reached Alabasta and from there they could make plans to meet up. That seemed fairly reasonable to him, and he was sure that she wouldn't mind either. (At least he hoped that she wouldn't mind, it honestly wasn't like he was expecting to come across anyone he knew whilst out here.)

He could imagine himself as a pirate, now that he was out on the open seas, the freedom it allowed, despite the marines scouting about. Then again, he hadn't really known anything other than being a revolutionary, despite his memories slowly coming back to him. The amnesia hadn't been an issue, all he knew is that he wanted to help people and knew that the World Government didn't seem to be doing jack shit about it; pandering to the smallest whims of the World Nobles and the marines were the attack dogs.

Looking over his log pose, he could see that he was going slightly off course, as a large rock and an overturned boat could be seen ahead of him.

"What poor sod did that happen to?"

This wasn't said too loudly, but a cough could be heard over the water.

"This poor sod!"

Sabo startled, that voice was vaguely familiar. Older, deeper and slurring heavily, but still familiar.

Cautiously, Sabo manoeuvred his boat closer to the voice. "Are you okay?"

A groan was the only answer, as Sabo inched ever closer.

Hanging onto the side of the boat with all of their strength, wearing a fluorescent life-jacket, was a soaking wet Portgas D. Ace.

Suddenly all Sabo could see were glaring black eyes, a flashback lay over the almost unconscious man he had dragged from the water. He knew this man, this boy. He was a lot older than he remembered, more freckles and he semi-permanent scowl that had been present on his face as a child was absent now. (Though, Sabo mused, that could be due to the fact that he could probably drop into complete unconsciousness any moment now.)

"Ace?"

He had to get his brother out of the water. Now. (With his devil fruit, even Ace's ridiculous strength would be failing by now.)

"Ace!" Sabo pulled the boat up alongside and pulled his now unconscious brother out of the water.

"Ace! Wake up! Wake up, dammit!"

Sabo had no choice but to start compressions on his brother.

He had just found him again, he wasn't losing him now.

As Ace came to, he found himself on a boat. He could have sworn that he had been hanging onto his own boat, gradually losing strength. (Thank god for the life jacket that Marco had insisted he wear whilst out by himself, he definitely wouldn't have been alive if not for that.)

"Thank god! You're awake!"

Ace turned to the source of the voice and did a double check. The man who had rescued him was blond, hair falling in waves and framing his face, the left side covered in burn scars. A familiar top hat, with blue goggles discarded as he came to sit beside Ace.

"S-s-sabo?!"

He managed to get out before succumbing to a coughing fit, water coming out of his lungs.

"Easy, there."

The man started to pat him on the back, hard, dislodging even more water from his lungs.

"Sabo?"

"Yes?"

"Sabo!"

A sheepish grin, tinged with sadness came across his brothers face.

"Hello again, Ace. I'm so sorry it took so long to come back, but I'm glad it was here and I'm glad it was now."

Ace just stared at his brother, his brother was alive! He couldn't believe it! How? Why did he not come forward sooner?

"Sabo?"

He couldn't seem to say much else, but in all honesty, his thoughts were only about his brother, flesh and blood in front of him.

"I have a story to tell you, big brother."

(Ace couldn't help but laugh, in a far distant past Sabo would never have admitted that Ace was the oldest and Ace himself couldn't help but feel a gladness, a giddiness that he was officially the oldest brother.)

A/N: I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!