A/N: I hope that you are all doing well, and that you enjoy this chapter!

(ALSO, Last night I posted a one-shot about Ebony's first meeting with Bellamy in transgredi: outtakes if that's something that you would be interested in.)

Ace and Sabo were still travelling together, at least until they made land (and then they would split, with Sabo heading back towards Alabasta to pick up the two remaining Outliers and Ace to continue his hunt for Blackbeard), when they spotted a vessel up in front of them, well in the midst of what seemed to be a rather extravagant party.

The two of them were going to continue onwards, only that they heard mention of their little brothers name.

"Should we go and check it out?"

Ace was eager, but Sabo was the ever cautious one.

"Really? You want to go and see what they're doing?"

Ace nodded, excited at the prospect of having a bit of a break before rushing off to find the traitor. (A small voice in his head, one that alternated between sounding like Marco, Sabo and Ebony, kept warning him that it was a terrible idea and that he should just go back to the Moby Dick.)

The two anchored their shared boat, before making the short distance to stand atop the other ship, much to the surprise of the crew aboard.

"You know, if you want to speak with Luffy,"

"Well, we know where you can probably find him."

The two of them, despite their many years apart, were still able to speak one after the other in a way that many people had once thought of them as twins.

The clown, a very familiar man to Ace, shouted at them.

"Who the blazes are you two?"

"Ah, our apologies for crashing your party."

Ace bowed his head, followed by Sabo who mimicked the action.

"THAT DOESN'T TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!"

Buggy's face was quite comical, anger and slight mirth in equal measures. Mirth the Ace couldn't quite understand, maybe it had something to do with the fact that his persona was that of a clown? And clowns we're always happy?

He really wasn't sure.

"Captain... check out his back! He's a Whitebeard!"

One of Buggy's more nervous crew member shouted, before fainting dead away.

"Has that ever happened before?"

Sabo was curious to hear if people fainting at the sight of the Whitebeard insignia was a common occurrence.

Ace shook his head, "Not really, no. I mean screaming, fleeing in terror, peeing their pants. Not many fainters."

His brother let out a laugh. One that would have been charming, if there wasn't a particular edge to it that only Ace could hear.

They were still relearning how to act around each other, after all. Ten years apart was still a fairly long time, especially for developing children.

"Here's our chance! We capture Fire Fist and then our reputations will skyrocket!"

Ace couldn't help but snort at the idea of being captured. It was unlikely to happen, especially near the supposedly weakest Blue of them all. (He said supposedly since there were plenty strong people who came from it, but for some reason it wasn't ever really acknowledged.)

Buggy, however, disagreed with what they were suggesting.

"NO!" The clown pirate was gearing up for a lecture, a look on his face that was all too familiar when one knew Marco.

"First rule of piracy. Never. Ever. Harass a member of the Whitebeard Pirates! The old man would kill us all!"

Ace grinned, "You know Oyaji?"

Sabo who had been fairly quiet up until then, had wondered down to the tables of food.

"Ace? Do you want a plate?"

Ace waved his hand, "Yeah, get me whatever. Double of it."

The Buggy Pirates stared at the two brothers in shock, the casual manner in which they conducted themselves aboard what was most likely an enemy ship baffled them.

Wandering over to Sabo, Ace couldn't help but want to confuse and baffle further.

"Isn't this meant to be a party?"

The crew was in a bit of shock, Usopp had fainted into Merry's very strong arms almost immediately. So much chatter followed after that Merry, who had placed Usopp on a chair after catching him, had stood up on top of the table and whistled through her fingers. This helped to silence each member of the crew, even Luffy.

"Please, just sit down. Merry will explain everything."

Once everyone had calmed down, each sitting down with a steaming hot cup of tea. Sanji had attempted to boil the kettle on the stove, but he kept getting distracted by Merry sitting at the table, swinging her legs and grinning at him, so I took over.

(The tea probably wasn't as good as whatever Sanji had been able to make, but it was going to have to be good enough for now.)

Merry was revelling in the fact that she was able to hug each and everyone of the crew, laughing the entire time as she did so.

"How?"

Was the simple question each and everyone of the crew was asking.

"Do you want to explain?"

Merry nodded her curly haired head, "I can do it!"

"Alright then, take it away kid."

She snorted, poking her tongue out at me. "I'm older than you are!"

"No, you're really not."

"Yes I am!"

"I was born in '96, you were born in what? '97? '98?"

Merry turned away from me, sulking. "'98."

"Exactly."

The crew was watching this back and forth in silence, very confused as to what was going on.

"'96? '98?"

Nami piped up, her voice a little shaken from all the things being thrown at them.

"Ah, the year I was born back where I'm from. If I was born here it would have been 1501? Yeah, 1501. I'm the same age as Kid."

Now I know that I had the rest of the crew a bit confused, as Usopp was the next one to speak.

"Kid?"

I waved my hand, vaguely dismissively. "He's not that important."

Yet.

An awkward silence filled the galley, before Merry started to speak.

"I figured it's probably a good idea to get this over and done with. My name is Going Merry, but you all already call me Merry."

"As in the ship? Our ship?"

Sanji's voice was gentle, as it always seemed to be around children regardless of gender presentation.

"Yes, that's me! I'm the spirit of the ship, a klabautermann if you will. I was brought to life for the love you all have for me!"

At the last comment, Usopp went bright red and Chopper started to do a little dance. Zoro and Nami were looking away from Merry, both looking sheepish, whilst Luffy and Sanji both grinned.

Robin, who had been with us the shortest time, and someone who probably knew more about klabataurmann than I did reached a hand out towards Merry.

"It's nice to meet you, Merry."

"You as well, Robin!"

Merry took Robin's hand in her own, shaking it with slightly more force than what was probably needed if the look on the dark-haired woman's face was an indication. There was a reason for this, as Merry abruptly pulled Robin down to her own eye level.

"Don't ever try to strangle, or maim, or kill another one of the crew again. Got it?"

Embarrassed I covered my eyes, my voice almost a wail.

"Merry! It's in the past!"

Merry dropped Robins hand, a pout on her lips and sulking shoulders. "It better fucking be!"

"Language!"

No one was expecting a foul mouthed child aboard, but we were all (mostly) adults. And pirates at that.

"Any questions?"

Usopp raised his hand, as though he were in school again. (Did any of these people attend formal schooling? I don't ever recall there being school mentioned in the manga. And if that was the case, no wonder the Revolutionaries were on the backburner for the time being. Not nearly enough of the population could foreseeable think about revelling if so much education was kept from them, especially being kept from forming their own opinions.)

"Ah, have you been the one doing repairs to... you?"

Merry nodded, "Yeah, I have been. Truth be told, it's almost a miracle I've made it as far as I have. I'm only a small vessel, I'm not built for the Grand Line. And I definitely won't last when we get into the New World."

This knowledge made everyone sit up in alarm, no one more than Usopp.

"What?"

His voice came out strangled, tears already forming in his eyes.

"Eventually I'll have to leave you all behind, sooner probably since none of you are exactly careful when fighting around me." She glared around the table, stopping briefly on Luffy, who muttered a small apology, before Merry went back to explaining the idea that she'd spoken of earlier.

"But if enough of me survives, maybe even if it's just my figurehead, I'll live on and be able to stick around for all of our adventures!"

"That could work." Robin mused, her words giving hope to everyone else, but especially Usopp.

"I know Kaya gave me to you, Usopp, but I'm only a caravel and I wouldn't survive against bigger warfleets. And me not surviving means that I would be letting you all down, and no ship ever wants to go down with her crew and captain if they can do something about it."

Merry's words were final, and seemingly getting through to the ever stubborn sharpshooter. He would be the one we would all have to convince, he had the most connections to Merry after all.

I had a question for her, one that she knew, but she allowed me to verbalise it for all the crew to hear.

"From what I know, you wouldn't have manifested as early as you did. Is it...?"

I hadn't even finished the question before she answered, "Yep! It's because of what you know! And how much you loved me!"

Now it was me blushing like there was no tomorrow.

"Merry!"

She pouted, before grinning. "What? It's true and you know it!"

There was no more time for questions, as Merry's eyes went slightly unfocused.

"Incoming call!"

"Whose it for, Merry?"

"Shishishishi! It's for you, Ebony!"

Sure enough, the snail started to sound its signature noise. I don't think I would ever tire of the noise, to be perfectly honest, it had been my ringtone since the age of sixteen after all. Weird in a way that I would associate that particular noise, a noise from this world, with home.

"Crow here, what can I do for you?"

I could see Chopper whisper the word crow, clearly wondering why I hadn't answered with my own name.

"Hey Ebony!"

Ace was on the other end of the line, causing Luffy to brighten immensely.

"HEY ACE!"

The unfortunate circumstance of sitting right next to the rubber captain as he was shouting was that you could feel your eardrums crying out for mercy.

"Captain! Please! You'll deafen me!"

Luffy's pout was almost adorable, but his eyes showed that he was not at all repentant. I don't know how I had forgotten how much of a little shit Monkey D. Luffy could be.

"Luffy! Hello!"

"SABO!"

"Captain, stop it!"

"SHISHISHISHI!"

"What are you up to Ace? Sabo?"

I had to interrupt Luffy's laughter, ears still ringing, as my curiosity knew no bounds as to why Ace was calling me at this time.

"Ah, we're at a party."

Sabo sounded sheepish, but the cheers and sound of music behind them made more sense.

"Where? It sounds like you're both having fun."

"We're on the Big Top! These guys really do know how to throw a great party."

I knew that ship, and I knew the captain. And by the look on Nami, Zoro and Luffy's faces, they also recognised that voice in the background hollaring at his crew to be quiet, since he wanted to hear the conversation.

Oh dear.

"Is that the Crow Queen? Let me talk to her!"

Ace had only rung Ebony on a whim, wanting to know how she felt about her first bounty, not actually realising that Dokeno Buggy and the Crow Queen had known each other, considering the way that the den-den mushi had been unceremoniously ripped from his hands.

"Ebony! It's been a while, don't tell me you finally joined that Captain you were waiting for!"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, before Ebony answered, voice mild.

"Yeah, and I have a feeling you and your crew have already met them."

"What makes you think that?"

Buggy didn't seem as, for lack of a better word, crazy as before. Almost gentle in a way.

"You mentioned that you 'never wanted to deal with that particular type of insanity again' after putting a rookie crew through your Grand Line test."

Ace and Sabo, who was watching with a surprised look on his face, watched as the infamous clown face palmed with a groan.

"Please don't tell me you joined up with Shanks' Anchor?"

Another pause before a sheepish 'yes' was heard.

"Crow Queen! I thought you wanted to lay low! He's the same kind of crazy as..."

Buggy trailed off, but Ebony seemed to know exactly who he was talking about. That made Ace incredibly curious, but it seemed to be a sore topic, so he wouldn't ask.

"Yeah, he is. But you know me, I needed to be apart of the crazy to get shit done."

Buggy let out a disgruntled moan, "Couldn't you have done that the way you were? Or even become a revolutionary?"

Sabo brightened at the idea of Ebony joining the Revolutionaries, and Ace could see that she would have made a very good one. But as much as Ace reckoned she would have done well, there was a structure to the Revolutionaries that may grate if left too long. Sabo did fit in perfectly into the ideal, after all growing up and seeing what he had as both a child of noble birth and a runaway from Grey Terminal.

Luffy's voice interjected, "What does Ebony mean by test?"

Their brothers voice was more serious than either had heard in a long time.

Buggy chuckled, slightly nervously. "It's a thing I've been doing for years, and sometimes some villagers help me out. It's mostly to see if a rookie crew are able to handle the madness that it the Grand Line and thus the New World."

"So, the villagers? They weren't in any danger?"

Ace and Sabo recognised a slight bit of anger in the navigators voice.

"A bit, but nothing that the Doc couldn't fix."

They could hear Luffy grumbling in the background, something about Shanks needing to realise that he was a pirate in his own right now and that he didn't need to be tested anymore.

Ace, having met Shanks, knew that the red-haired man saw Luffy as a kid (quite possibly his own child if Ace was to really think on it), but he kind of had to agree with the man. Luffy really had no idea what he was in for when he finally reached the New World. Buggy's idea wasn't a bad one, in fact his devil fruit was probably one of the first that many a rookie would ever see.

"Buggy, just watch out for an overprotective grandfather."

Fuck. Ace had almost, almost, forgotten Garp. Sabo, too, by the look on his face. (Even through the amnesia, he had never forgotten the echoes of a Fist of Love.)

"I'd almost forgotten that gramps never forgave Shanks for putting the idea of piracy into Lu's head."

Sabo let out a nervous chuckle, looking around as though Garp could come out from behind a cloud at any second.

Ace couldn't help but dryly reply, "I could never forget that. Gramps never once let us forget it."

Buggy let out a swear, "Shit! I'm going to have to lay low for a bit, aren't I?"

Ebony's solemn voice sounded from the other end of the line, "Yeah."

"Sorry for Gramps! We can't do a thing to control him!"

Luffy's voice was almost cheerful, but their was an edge of the same fear that Ace and Sabo shared behind his voice.

"Thanks for the advice Straw-Hat."

"Anytime!"

A pause was instigated for a moment, waves and birdsong being the only thing heard besides some of the crew of the Big Top singing Binks no Sake drunkenly in the background.

"Sabo, what are you doing next?"

His blond brother smiled, even though Ebony wouldn't be able to see it.

"I'm going to visit some friends in Alabasta, it'll be nice to catch up!"

A sigh of relief could be heard from all members of the Straw-Hat crew, "That's great! Say hello to Lem for me! And tell Pia to see if there's some nice jewellery around the shops and that I won't forget to check them out myself!"

That was a coded message if Ace had ever heard one, and Sabo was only privy to a few details if the questioning in his eyes was to go by.

"Will do!"

"Ace, what are you doing?"

He knew that this was going to come up, and he knew that ebony knew how stubborn he was. Nothing was likely to change his mind.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Portgas D. Ace! Please don't tell me your still after him! Don't! Go back to the Moby!"

Ace clenched his fists, knowing that his friend was worried. But he couldn't. He wouldn't let Teach's betrayal go unanswered. He went to retort when he saw Buggy's face go white underneath all the clown makeup.

"Portgas D. Ace? Rouge! Your mother was Roulette Rouge?!"

Ace froze. He knew very few people who knew his mother, and not one of them had ever mentioned that she had an epitaph that probably belonged to a pirate.

Not a single person.

Doke no Buggy was many things.

A former apprentice of the Pirate King. A man who never, if he cold help it, wanted to go back to the craziness that was the New World. A man whose captain, whose everything-but-blood father, had been taken from him and his brother far too soon. Whose once crew had all but abandoned him and his brother after their captain's demise.

He was also a rather big fan of a certain pirate captain by the name of Roulette Rouge, and happened to be one of the very few who actually knew her full name.

She had seemingly disappeared from all record a bit over twenty-two years ago. It was as though she had just vanished from existence. And a whole generation at Baterilla alongside her, because surely she had died there when the massacre had taken place. She would never have allowed it to stand, she would have fought to her dying breath, always having a soft spot for children. Unless she had been physically unable to.

And now he could probably see why.

His captain was particularly fond of her, had loved her and had wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Maybe one day have a family. Now that he was looking closer at Fire-Fist Ace, he could see both Roger and Rouge in him. Lucky for Ace, he looked more like Rouge than Buggy's captain. If any of Roger's enemies got a hold of him, he probably wouldn't be alive today.

Which really did beg the question, why on earth did the son of Roulette Rouge and the Pirate King call Monkey D. Garp gramps? Had his captain entrusted the life of his only biological child to his supposed worst frenemy?

Buggy was removed from his musings as Ace spoke up, shock on his face.

"You knew my mother?"

Had Garp not told him what his mother was like? Had he never said that she was a fierce pirate in her own rights, and had more than once thrown Roger overboard whenever they had met up?

"I did, and she was an incredibly pirate. Honestly, I learnt so many knife skills just from watching her."

(Some of those knife skills he had shown to Ebony, but he had no idea if she had ever used them.)

Watching the young man in front of him, who by all rights, if the world had been a kinder place, would have been a younger brother to him and Shanks.

"Can you tell me more about her?"

"Sure thing."

Rouge as a pirate was always a theory that had been around, but for it to be a reality? That was something I hadn't even thought of.

I was happy for Ace, finally hearing about the woman that he loved so desperately. I did feel though as if I was intruding on something that I really shouldn't be hearing, so I piped up.

"I'm really sorry to be interrupting this Ace, but I think you probably want to hear more about your mum without everyone listening in."

The snail jumped, as though both Ace and Buggy had forgotten that it was still connected.

"Oh! Thank you Ebony, I think that might be a good idea."

Ace sounded almost unlike himself, but that could be very easily explained away by what the topic of conversation was.

"WE'LL TALK LATER, ACE!"

Luffy went to hang up, but I stopped him, wanting to say something else before the call ended.

"I'm happy for you, Ace! Your mum sounded like an incredible pirate! Oh, and Buggy! Keep an eye out for Garp would you?!"

And then I hung up before either man could get the last word in.

"Roulette Rouge? She sounded like a big shot."

Zoro commented, grinning at the name.

"She probably was, but I can guarantee that there will be almost no record left of her. Which sucks, because I'd love to get my hands on a bounty poster just to give it to Ace."

Chopper, innocent as he was tilted his head in question.

"Why would there be no record left of her, especially if she was famous a pirate as you and Buggy say?"

I gave him a sad smile, but it was Luffy who answered.

"That's a secret, sorry Chopper."

"One of those secrets?"

Usopp put particular emphasis on 'those', to which both Luffy and I nodded at.

As that part of the conversation was put to rest, Nami rounded on me.

"You know the Clown?"

"Yeah, I do."

"How?"

I pondered on what I could say to that for a moment. Should I mention how I'd met the man, wallowing in his own guilt and booze at the bar on the anniversary of Gol D Roger's execution? And how I'd had to coax the man away from the bottle, and the sea stone dagger I'd once injured springy boy with? How he kept himself underestimated for a reason, and how extensive his information network was?

So that's the one I went with, "You know how I did a bit of information gathering back at the bar?"

Zoro scoffed, "A bit? What do you call a lot, then?"

Nami ignored the swordsman, "Yes? But how does that connect with Buggy?"

"I'm getting to that," I sighed, wording this was simple but I had no idea if any of them would believe that Buggy was actually a very good spymaster.

Merry, who had been silent throughout the whole thing, giggled at my thoughts. Shush, I want to tell them. Merry pouted at me for spoiling her fun.

"He's got a pretty extensive information network under his belt, so many, and I mean so damn many people owe him favours and he really loves cashing them in."

Luffy was curious, "Do you owe him a favour?"

I went to answer, but Merry beat me to it.

"Nah, he owes her one!"

As the crew took that in, Sanji spoke up for the first time.

"You know he almost executed Luffy, right?"

"That I do know. Honestly the man is a little messed up, but I really can't blame him, he's been through and seen a lot of shit. I do think that was another test, but I know that he wouldn't kill the Captain. Especially since Shanks is incredibly fond of him."

Fond was an understatement.

"He's not a completely terrible guy, he's a pirate!"

That evening was quiet, all had gone to bed except for myself and the captain.

Luffy had wanted to talk to me about something once we had finished his reading lesson. He had been improving steadily, but when we reached Alabasta we had taken a break since it was getting to be a bit too much all at once.

Tonight I was introducing Luffy to something that was most definitely not for beginners, but it was about the ocean and he seemed to be fascinated by it.

"...As one who sits ashore and longs perchance to visit dolphin-coral in deep seas,"

"What does perchance mean?"

"Ah... its means that something has happened by chance, or sometimes it means perhaps."

"Why not just say that?"

"Authors, especially poets, like to use fancy words and terms to show off, not always, but it does seem to be the case. Sometimes it's due to the time in which they wrote, language is ever evolving Captain."

Luffy gave a frown, "People should just come out and say what they mean!"

I couldn't help but laugh, "They should, but people don't. Not everyone is as straightforward about things as you are."

"Well they should be."

The two of us sat in silence, listening to the sound of the ocean far below us, and the sea birds and sky fish around us in the clouds. It was strange enough to be living now permanently on the ocean, but being up here in the sky was one thing that I was trying so incredibly hard not to think about.

So many things in this world of One Piece made me want to nope out of the situation, but none more so than being up in the ocean of clouds. I did not enjoy this. The clouds were pretty and all, but at least the ocean made sense. (It probably didn't help that the only things that I could really remember from this arc in the manga was Enel, the Poneglyph and the gold. A majority of the things that would come to pass I only had vague recollections of. It may be nice going in slightly blind to be honest.)

"What do you think of Robin?"

Luffy was living up to his nature, the question coming out of the blue. Or maybe not, considering the look he had given me earlier when Robin had come out of the cabins.

"I like her, but you're not asking about that are you?"

He grinned, "Nope! I like her too, but I don't trust her."

He and Zoro were of the same mind then. Those two, despite the short amount of time they'd known each other shared pretty much a singular brain cell,

"I don't entirely either. I mean, I know a fair amount of what she's gone through, her being hunted for the vast majority of her life, but that only tells me exactly that. She could be a different person under all that."

"Maybe?" Luffy sighed, almost melancholic, probably thinking of another who had been hunted since childhood.

"I think Merry's keeping on eye on her, so is Zoro."

I laughed, "I don't think anything can happen on this ship without Merry knowing about it."

Luffy agreed if the smile on his face was any indication, but it dimmed without notice.

"Do you think we can save Merry? Or at least some of her?"

I nodded, "I think we can. Honestly Luffy, this crew is so full of dreamers that I reckon we could do anything we put our minds to."

I really needed to believe that, else how would Ace be saved from the fate that he seemed so keen on bringing about?

If Merry could be saved, then I had hope that so could Ace.

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

This chapter has a fair number of my own head canons in it, which was the Rouge was a pirate and Garp erased all of her bounties so that they wouldn't go after a pregnant woman or her child. Also yeah, Merry awoke earlier due to Ebony knowing that she would eventually wake up. Also Buggy is such an underrated character, he's honestly one of my favourites and you'll probably see that throughout the story. The poem that's mentioned is one by John Keats entitled To Homer.

Please leave a comment, a favourite if you haven't already. Stay safe everyone!