Disclaimer: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece, I own none but my OCs and the plot.
"That man…" Sabo whispered before turning to glance at Ace.
"He's bad," Ace confirmed, "But we still need to be sure,", then, as one, everyone's heads turned to Luffy.
Luffy frowned at looked at his feet, "He's… bad," Luffy hesitated, "But why would the good old man keep him with him if he's bad?".
Zoro looked at Luffy, "Maybe they don't know?".
"No," Usopp bit his fingernails, "They don't know, but he's managed to stay their friend for a very long time judging at how they easily talk with each other," Usopp breathed out, "I don't like it,".
Luffy frowned, "Can't they see?"
Ace looked at his little brother, "See what?"
Luffy gestured wildly, "Even Zoro and Usopp could see!" Luffy ignored Usopp's indignant shout of 'Oi', and continued, "That man is bad!".
Sabo nodded, "But how do we tell them?"
"That's just the thing," everyone's eyes turned to Zoro, "We can't,"
"Why not?" Usopp argued, "They would believe us! Right?"
Zoro closed his eyes and huddled his swords closer to him, keeping 3 arms on the hilt of Wado for comfort, "What makes you think they'll believe us, over someone who they sailed with for so long?"
Usopp bit his lip and looked down.
"No need to get so down, Usopp!" Luffy smiled, "Let's just beat him up and be done with—OW!"
"ARE YOU STUPID OR SOMETHING?!"
Sabo let out a heavy breath and sat down next to Ace.
"We'll be thrown off this ship, and I rather like the Whitebeards, no?"
Ace frowned, "But we need to get rid of him!"
"And we also need to stay away from the Marines and apparently, Cipher Pol, too, so tough luck," Sabo said sarcastically.
Ace frowned even deeper after that revelation.
"How about…" Sabo spoke up "We subtly keep an eye on him, always travel in pairs, and never catch yourself alone with him. That guy… he's dangerous,"
A solemn blanket fell over the 5.
"Welp!" Usopp got up and made a show of dusting himself off, "First thing we need to find out is who is the most trustworthy, no?"
Ace smiled, "We already know that the roasted duck is trustworthy,"
Sabo grinned, "So is the Fishman Commander,"
Zoro hummed, "The Cook, too,"
Usopp put his fingers under his chin and made an exaggerated thinking pose, "The old man is also pretty nice, considering your… Grandpa actually gave us to him with full trust,"
Luffy shivered with excitement, "Not-Lady is also nice!"
They all shared a smile with each other before launching themselves out of the rafters and into the galley, which was crowded with hungry pirates.
THUMP!
Everyone stopped to look at them. Usopp began squirming under the stares, though, not for the reason anyone would think. He was trying to look through the crowd to find Teach.
Once locking his sights on the target, he tapped Sabo's shoulder.
"What?" the blond whispered.
"Teach is to the right of the galley," Usopp responded, just as quiet.
Sabo stiffened, and just barely inclined his head to find Teach when—
"Okay, everyone! Stop the staring, we're here to eat!" Thatch spoke while clanging together a pot and a pan.
As if a switch had been flipped, everyone went back to their cluttered conversations as they were before, only a few sparing glances at the 5 kids.
The ASLZU made their way to Marco the Phoenix, while Usopp kept a keen eye on Teach. The fat man seemed to be joyously joking around with his brothers like everyone else there.
It just felt wrong.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Marco asked, shocking Usopp out of his musings.
"Uhhh… I'm… seeing the galley! Of course, I'm seeing the galley, HAHA!" Usopp's eyes went from fearful, to a touch of thoughtful, and then haughty. After spending 1 year in the Facility, he learned to hide his emotions, and swap them out for something different.
He knew that it wouldn't take much for him to learn how to lie, considering that at this point, his life depends on it.
When Usopp saw Luffy for the first time, he was completely confused.
How can someone who lived at the Facility for 3 years be so… happy?
Then, the longer he heard the kid his age talk, the more his happiness became contagious. With him, Usopp remembered more of the happy moments he had in his life. He remembered his mother, he remembered his village, he remembered his first friend—Kaya.
But Kaya could never give him the same happiness and wholesome emotions that Luffy gave him. It made him feel… like a human again. Not like a piece of meat to be mutated and poisoned for lethal force.
As a result, he couldn't help but smile around him. There was one thing he knew for sure, though. He's going to follow Monkey D. Luffy till he's either dead, or just can't anymore.
Usopp knew that Zoro would do it even more, though. That one was loyal to a fault. Usopp wondered if it came from his Asura blood, or something else…
That's why, he didn't feel a thing akin to regret when he lied through his teeth, right in Marco's face about what he was doing in the galley.
He became keenly aware that he was alone with Marco, in the crowded galley, but was 100% sure that Luffy and the rest were watching him like hawks, and a part of him basked in the attention and care he was so deprived of in the Facility.
He turned his attention back to Marco just in time to hear him sigh in resignation, "Well, you do you, Usopp." Marco paused to look around "I hope that you find the Moby Dick to your liking, and I hope that you can call it home for however long you wish, yoi" Marco gave a lazy smile before walking away.
Usopp hesitantly waved at him and gave a silent nod, not bothering if Marco noticed or not. How can we call this place home, he thought, if that man continues… uuurgh. He shuddered in revulsion and discontinued the thought.
He looked around and scanned the galley with eagle eyes, and zeroed in on Sabo and Luffy. He stalked over to them, just barely avoiding contact with the Whitebeards, when one huge body bumped into him.
Dazed, Usopp shook his head and looked up "I'm s—" the words died in his throat when he realized just who he had bumped into.
Teach.
His eyes widened in fear, and he turned around and scrambled to get away from the fat man. He kept his eyes locked on Luffy and Sabo. They were still in the same spot as before. He ran to them as fast as he could, not minding the amount of people he bumped into, or pushed in the process.
"Hey—! Watch it!"
"Gah! Brat—?!"
"WhooAAaaoh!"
Usopp closed his eyes and barreled through everyone, and within seconds, he made it to Sabo and Luffy. When he looked up into their eyes, he saw foreign emotions, that he could just barely recognize.
Sabo: fear, concern, sympathy, protect
Luffy: rage, protect, protect, protect, concern
Before he could even process the meanings of those emotions, Luffy put Usopp into a protective embrace, effectively sandwiching the long-nose between himself and Sabo.
Sabo subtly moved over to cover Usopp's back, and Usopp wondered, why would he do that?
That's when he noticed the fascinated stares of everyone in the galley, more specifically, from those who recently came back from the recent mission led by Teach.
His mind blanked out and he became numbly aware of the feathery appendages on his back, that fluffed outwards and folded inwards.
Oh. My wings are out.
When Teach stepped forward to try and pacify Sabo, who was now snarling like a feral dog, Usopp was almost 100% sure that he signed his own obituary.
Sabo almost bit Teach with elongated fangs, meant for sucking the blood out of mammals, and he would've, had Teach not retracted his hand in time at the last second.
Luffy gave off a threatening snarl.
"Back. Off."
Usopp saw Sabo freeze up before forcefully relaxing as a blanket of mystery power fell over the galley. Through the corner of his eye, Sabo could see Ace deforming into a wisp of flame, no doubt getting ready to reform at a moment's notice, should they need to fight.
Usopp could see Teach momentarily scowl, before complying with the mystery-powered demand. Within less than 5 seconds of Teach's compliance, Zoro sped over to them, with his hand subtly laid on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji.
Usopp felt Luffy tense against him, before immediately relaxing.
"Are you okay, yoi?" Marco put out a hand with a concerned look etched in his eyes.
Sabo looked away, before retracting his fangs and claws, and then grabbing the hand offered.
o-o
Luffy was alert. The moment he saw Teach, he felt alert. He felt so slimy, and just wrong, wrong, WRONG. He knew he was right, too. He learned to always listen to gut instinct during the tournaments. If you didn't, you could lose a limb, or worse.
That's why Luffy wasn't surprised, whatsoever, when Sabo snarled and snapped his jaws at the fatso.
When he saw the man scowl at his brother for self-defense, he was one step closer to losing control and eating that man for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
He held Usopp closer to his chest, with one arm free for clawing and punching. When he heard footsteps come near, he momentarily tensed, before immediately relaxing the moment that he noticed just whose footsteps those were.
"Are you okay, yoi?" Marco asked.
Luffy saw his blond brother take the roasted duck's hand and get up, looking completely normal now.
"Oi, oi! Are you lot going to eat, or no?!" Thatch called out, effectively drawing away the galley's attention to the chef.
Luffy hid a grin at the sight of the pompadoured cook. He's a nice guy. Luffy nodded, proud of his judgement.
~Time skip~
Luffy sighed happily and laid a hand on his belly, which was now bloated to insane proportions.
I wonder where Ace is… Luffy wondered, looking up at the sky, as the salty sea splashed on his being, while on the figurehead of the Moby.
After they had eaten, Ace mysteriously left without a word. But Luffy wasn't worried. Ace could handle himself! Ace was strong!
"Hey, Luffy—!" A voice cut itself off from behind him. Luffy turned around, and saw Haruta covering Thatch's mouth with a hand, while looking like a deer caught in headlights.
"What?" Luffy asked nonchalantly.
Haruta yelped and wiped his hand on the back of his outfit, while glaring at Thatch. Said cook was grinning like a loon with his tongue stuck out.
"Why'd you have to lick my hand, you moron?!" Haruta fumed.
"Why'd you have to cover my mouth, you imbecile?" Thatch playfully returned.
Luffy just stared at the exchange with blank eyes, before a grin broke out on his face, and he dissolved into giggles.
Thatch and Haruta stopped their playful banter to look at the kid on the figurehead. "Hey, kid," Thatch started quietly "Want to prank Marco?"
Luffy wheezed, "You mean the roasted duck?"
Haruta blankly looked at Luffy for a moment before dissolving into identical giggles.
"Roasted duck?! Oh, dear Oda! I'm never letting Marco hear the end of this! Heeheeheehee!" Haruta pounded the flat surface of the figurehead.
Thatch was visibly trying not to burst into laughter, and quite visibly, failing. "Roasted… duck… HA!" he snorted, his face turning red from the pressure of trying not to laugh.
Once they all stopped their giggles, Thatch continued, "Yeah, we want to prank the roasted duck, well and good,"
Luffy stuck his pointer and thumb finger in a sideways 'L' shape under his chin and made a show of thinking.
"I've got an idea," he said after a while.
He got up, and whispered into Haruta's ear. Through the course of the conversation, Haruta's face morphed from confusion, to satisfaction, to grinning like a demon.
Haruta turned to Thatch, who was now equal parts confused and curious, and beckoned for him to bend down, before he whispered in his ear.
Thatch's face went through more or less the same morphs that Haruta's face went through, before it settled on grinning like a loon.
Haruta rubbed her hands together and began slowly laughing, "Jiihahaha…"
Thatch looked at her awkwardly, "Why are you copying how Shiki laughs?"
"SHUT UP! HIS LAUGH IS EVIL, OKAY?!"
Luffy just settled for his usual grin.
o…o
Somewhere in Marineford, Sengoku felt a sense of foreboding…
o…o
Ace floated around the rafters in a barely visible form. The only way anyone could sense him being that the air rippled around his form, not unlike the appearance of the space above a flame.
Luffy may have trusted the Whitebeards, but Ace sure didn't. Well, he did, but when he realized that they kept someone like Teach around, that shook some of the trust he had with them. He doubted that Whitebeard would believe him if he told the Captain that Teach was bad, so he chose not to try.
There was no way he'd impair his brother's survival on this ship because of his mistake.
That's why he's spying on Teach, right now. Ace floated around Teach's room, making the barest of noises, and heating up the room ever so little every time he came close to something he could use, but then realizing that it's useless.
The room is too blank, he decided after a while, much to suspicious, it looks like no one even lives here…
It was true; the room was empty, save for a mattress on the floor, a desk, a candle lighting it, and a few cabinets here and there. The mattress was white, and everything else was brown. It looked extremely boring.
Ace looked at the desk, contemplating whether or not to open its drawers. On one hand, he knew that the knowledge he would gain would be beneficial, but if Teach somehow finds out that someone dug into his stuff…
Ace winced, yeah, not happening. And that's not even counting if he doesn't find anything helpful there to begin with! Ace scoured the room a little longer to find anything blackmail-worthy, or good enough to use, before he felt fatigue.
My time is running out, can't stay in invisible form for long…
Fate must have been laughing at Ace in that moment, because he could hear heavy footsteps coming closer to the room. Teach…?
"Zehahahaha!"
The blood drained from Ace's nonexistent face, Teach, he confirmed. Ace grunted and hid next to the desk.
Please don't be coming here to sleep, please don't be coming here to sleep! He prayed to whatever gods or goddesses that were out there.
"Ahhh…" Teach let out after he closed the door to his room "Room, sweet room," he gave a disgusting smile and unlocked his desk-drawer.
"There are 5 new brats on the ship," Ace tensed "One of them seemed afraid of me…"
Ace crouched down, ready to bolt into the rafters.
"Change of plans, then," Teach gave a sinister grin, "I can't kill Whitebeard in kids' presences. Especially if they know who I am,"
A fatso, that's who you are, a small part of Ace wanted to snark. The rest of Ace was reeling in shock from Teach's master plan.
Kill… Whitebeard…? Ace thought numbly, just barely holding onto his invisible form. He launched himself into the rafters, making a slight sound that caused Teach to jump and look around frantically. Ace paid no mind to that and ran through the rafters.
I need to tell Luffy.
o…o
Sabo was confused. When he saw Namur, he was confused. He shrugged it off, though, thinking that Namur was just a weird-looking human, but when said Division Commander spent 30 whole minutes under the sea, Sabo began doubting that claim.
"Who are you?" Sabo asked.
"What do you mean?" Namur raised an eyebrow.
"'What'. I mean 'What are you'?" Sabo clarified, as the pressure on the deck subtly increased. Heads turned towards the interaction, with interest.
"Why do you ask?" Namur asked suspiciously.
"You spent 30 minutes underwater without losing consciousness and dying. You're not human, and from the looks of things, you're not from where we came from either, so what are you?" Sabo answered back.
The pressure on the deck increased tenfold.
"I am a fishman,"
"Fishman?"
"Fishman,"
"Okay,"
Then Sabo just walked away like it was nobody's business, and the entire deck was left in confusion. Namur in particular was completely out of it.
Okay…? Namur ran over to the retreating blond and grabbed his hand, the hell does he mean, 'Okay'…?
All of a sudden, a frigid cold washed over the deck, and it seemed to be coming from the blue-clad blond.
"Let go of my hand," the statement was quiet but it echoed through the deck as if he was yelling it.
Namur immediately let go of the hand as if it had burned him.
"Sorry," he winced when the blond immediately ignored him and turned back around, "Wait…!"
The blond stopped and turned around, "What?"
"Are you not…" he hesitated "Going to say anything?"
"Say anything? Why would I do that?" Sabo questioned.
"I'm a Fishman!"
"And I care, why? To me, you're just another person on this ship, and to be honest? You're more human than them," a haunted look made its way into Sabo's eyes, and Namur paused and wondered, what could have possibly scarred him so bad?
All of a sudden, the pressure dissipated from the deck, and the air heated up 50 degrees. Sabo's eyes widened and he cursed under his breath. All of a sudden, a ball of fire hurtled through the air, and made impact on Sabo's stomach.
The fire shifted and twisted to make the form of a kid around 14 years old with a face full of freckles and wavy dark brown hair, clutching his head in agony. Sabo got up from his place on the ground and groaned,
"Ace? You sure know how to make an entrance, what time is it?"
As if a switch had been flipped, the now named Ace turned and shook Sabo by his shoulders at supersonic speeds, all while repeating the same question 'Where's Luffy?' like a mantra.
Sabo grabbed Ace's hands and stopped him from shaking his already dazed mind into unconsciousness.
"What? Ace—why are you naked?"
"My clothes burned off,"
Sabo put a hand to his forehead and kneaded a headache, "Okay, why did they burn off?"
Ace frowned and thought for a moment, "Oh, that's because, wait—" he looked around "Get Luffy and I'll tell you, this involves… him,"
In a flash, Sabo's pained face was replaced with a grim, serious expression.
"What time?"
"Tonight,"
"Got it,"
Ace flicked his wrist, and a wave of heat burst out of him, causing everyone to close and cover their eyes, lest they dry up. When their eyes opened again, the 2 brothers were gone.
o-o
On the figurehead, Luffy waved bye to Haruta and Thatch, while stifling some giggles from the plan that they made.
He turned to the sea, and made himself comfortable to watch the sunset, when a burst of heat startled him.
Faster than the eye could see, he got up and got into a fighting position, "Who's there?" he demanded "Show yourself!". When no one showed up, Luffy frowned and activated his mystery power.
Once he did, he dropped his fighting stance and complained—loudly— "Geez, Ace, you don't have to surprise me like that,"
"You were totally scared," Ace laughed, as he shifted into a physical form.
"Why are you showing off your family jewels, Ace?" Luffy asked innocently—obliviously—and Ace just felt like someone stabbed him through the back.
"That doesn't matter right now, Luffy, I've got news," he said desperately, trying to change the subject. Good for him, it worked.
"Huh? What news?"
"Get Zoro and Usopp, and let's meet up in the rafters at night, I've got news on Teach and what he's planning,"
Luffy grimly nodded, and ran over to the mast, where Zoro was sleeping next to Usopp. Though, if one could look harder, they could see that his hand was rested on the hilt of his sword, and he was in an easy position to get up fast and fight.
"Ne, ne, Zoro!"
Zoro peeled open his eyes, "What?"
"Bring Usopp and let's meet up in the rafters, Ace has got news on…" Luffy lowered his voice, "Him…"
Luffy gave a classic D-smile and sped away in a Soru.
Zoro stared at Luffy's afterimage and sighed, "Oi, Usopp, get up, we've got news,"
o…o
"So, what is it?" Usopp drowsily asked.
Ace sucked in a breath, "Teach will kill Whitebeard,"
And just like that, time stopped.
"What?" a voice that was most certainly not theirs whispered.
As one, their heads turned around to the source of the voice, and they saw a pale Thatch halfway in the rafters.
"What?" Thatch's voice gained a desperate tinge to it "Please tell me I heard something wrong…"
He turned to Luffy for comfort, but all he got was a blank expression, and the full force of the situation hit him.
"Oh Oda, Teach is going to kill Oyaji…" Thatch's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he saw no more.
AN: Sorry for not updating sooner! I had a music recital that I had to practice for. I hope that this chapter can sate you, though!