Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, those honors are Eiichiro Oda's.

Ace moved silently through the rafters, just barely touching the wood. It had been three days since the Marineford Incident, and things were silent on the ship for a while. He took this as a perfect opportunity to spy on Teach, so he discarded his clothes, turned into the invisible form, which he smartly dubbed 'candleflame' and ran across the rafters at Mach 2.

Honestly, he thought, It's pure luck that I haven't burned the ship down yet.

To the 3 brothers, it was common knowledge that the flame itself wasn't as hot as the space around it. After all, that's where most of the heat is expelled. How they figured that out? Yeah, well, they wanted to forget that, but the knowledge was good to know.

Now, what happens when the hottest part of a flame meets something flammable? Nothing good, that's what, Ace snorted, jumping down onto solid ground, smack dab in the middle of Teach's room.

Hopefully he won't be coming inside anytime soon, Ace prowled around the room and solidified his feet, so as to not burn anything. He knew that this had a risk of being found out, but it's not like he had a choice. He was too slow to move around in Candleflame without burning anything.

And if he did, Teach would immediately know it was him. The fatso seemed to be a little more cautious these days, always checking out his surroundings before washing his hands, or doing other things. Credit to him, he's smart.

Too smart, Ace grimaced and then carefully opened one of the drawers near his desk. A Devil Fruit Encyclopedia? What…

Ace lifted the heavy book up with one arm and stared at it confusedly. Why would he need a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia… Ace frowned, and carefully put the book down back into the same place he left it, noting down to check that later when Teach was out on a mission.

I think this will be enough information, Ace smiled and geared up for takeoff, before something caught his eye, and the tension around him dissipated into smoke. "What…"

Ace grabbed a planner and thumbed through the pages continuously, before he stopped at one page whose date had been underlined thoroughly.

"CHANGE MONIKER TO BLACKBEARD"

Clearly, he doesn't seem to like originality, a small dark corner of Ace's mind snarked, Ace ignored that small part, and wondered, Why does he need to change his name to Blackbeard? So much so, that he will underline the day that he'll do it?

Ace shut the planner and shoved it back into where he found it, before rocketing off into the rafters once more. Whatever it is, it could be important.

He bounded across the ship silently at supersonic speeds, before stopping in the room that was given to him and his brothers. He shifted into a solid form and began shoving his clothes onto his body.

Blackbeard… he frowned, before walking off in Haruta's general direction.

o-o

Luffy grunted and threw another punch towards his opponent, before nimbly rolling out of the way from an overhead slice. He spun around and delivered an axe kick to his opponent's shoulder, before the hilt of the sword he was using jabbed him in the stomach.

"Oof!" he staggered backwards as the wind got knocked out of him, and in his moment of inattentiveness, the green-haired opponent struck, pinning the scarred preteen to the ground with a sword sinking into the wooden deck next to his head.

Luffy took one look at the sword and then into Zoro's eyes before conceding, "I yield,"

Zoro emotionlessly got up and pulled Wado out of the deck before sheathing her. After a few moments of silence, he asked, "Why do you go easy on me?" he tried to hide his hurt undertone.

"Why do you go easy on me?" Luffy retorted, brushing off the dust from his shirt, and instinctively running his fingers through his hair; he used to do that to get dust out of the long locks after a fight was over back in the colosseum.

"I go easy on you because you go easy on me," Zoro returned.

Luffy grimaced, "I go easy on you because if I don't, you will die,"

Zoro showed his indignance, "Do you think so low of me that I will die should you go hard on me?"

Luffy blankly looked into Zoro's silver-grey eyes reflecting his own obsidian orbs, "I will eat you alive, Zoro," he said simply, "If I let loose on you, I will eat you alive," Luffy stressed, before walking away.

"It's not that I think you're weak, it's just that I am afraid," Luffy turned his head sideways, and a somber smile showed on his face.

Zoro looked down for a moment before meeting his captain's eyes, "Then, I will become strong enough so that you don't have to worry captain. I will be someone who deserves to be called your first mate, Pirate King," he said with conviction flowing through his words like a rushing river.

Luffy smiled, "Okay, then!"

o-o

Sabo was strolling through the top deck, keeping his heightened hearing activated just in case anyone was to come near him. He was feeling especially paranoid today, I wonder why… Sabo was cut off from his musings, when he heard heavy, slow footsteps walking near him.

Sabo turned around and tipped the rim of his hat forward to shadow his eyes a bit. He could always see better in the darkness. He never knew why, though.

He resisted the urge to run when he saw just who was approaching him.

"Hey, little guy," the man crouched down, pitching forward to balance out all the extra chub on his belly, "How are you liking it on the Moby Dick?" the man smiled widely, showing all of his missing teeth.

Sabo took a step back and fought the urge to bolt as the man stepped a bit forward in response, his smile, somehow widening at Sabo's reaction.

"Come on, why don't you tell Uncle Teach how you like it?" he held out a big, meaty hand, which Sabo eyed dubiously.

"First of all," Sabo praised himself for not stuttering, "You are not my 'Uncle Teach'" I won't be living too long, will I? A small dark corner of his head whispered resignedly, "Second of all, don't treat me like a dog, because I'm not one," Sabo scowled, to hide how he cowered on the inside.

"Ah, that's right," Teach retracted his hand, much to Sabo's relief, before it was dashed once more, "You're a vampire, right?" Teach smiled widely again. Nothing in his demeanor screamed dangerous, and even the smile itself was friendly, but the words didn't match that.

Sabo's heart was beating so fast, in a bout of morbid amusement, he wondered if it would just beat right out of his chest. Sabo couldn't resist the urge to run anymore, and he flipped on his heel and bolted, ignoring the call to come back from the fat man, and the protests of the people he pushed past.

He knows! He… Sabo's eyes widened, and he belatedly tried to stop rocketing forwards, before ultimately crashing through the wall of the Captain's Cabin.

He shakily got up and put his top hat on before smiling sheepishly, "Oops?" he directed towards the bewildered, colossal man sitting down not even two feet away from him.

"GURARARA! It's fine, mind telling me what happened, though?" Whitebeard asked, intrigued.

Sabo thought back to Teach and grimaced, "It was nothing," he turned around and walked away.

Whitebeard hummed, clearly not believing what he just heard from Sabo's mouth, but didn't ask any more.

When Sabo made it to a small, secluded spot on the ship, he curled up into a ball, and began crying on his knees. "He knows…" he sobbed, "He knows…"

Sabo buried his head in between his knees and cried silently, cursing himself for no apparent reason. It didn't seem to strike him just how Teach found out he was a vampire. After all, they're all out to get him, right? They're all out to get him, and his brothers are the only ones he can trust.

"Hey, 'bo, you okay?" Sabo stopped crying, only letting out a small whimper before meeting the concerned eyes of Ace above him.

Unable to hold it back anymore, he glomped onto Ace's leg and began sobbing uncontrollably. "Ace… They're out to get us, Ace! They're out to… mrrphm…" Sabo buried his face into Ace's skin, his last words coming out as a muffle because of that.

Ace was unamused, "Hey, 'bo, the hell do you mean 'they're out to get us'?" he deadpanned while trying to pry the ball of fur from Ace's leg, "And also, would you care to explain how you managed to turn into a werewolf again, without going mental?"

Sabo either did not hear the question, or ignored the entire thing altogether, instead opting to squeeze Ace's leg tighter.

"Look, if you want to glomp someone, glomp Luffy, at least he won't feel the pain of losing blood flow in the legs," Ace said exasperatedly, leaning against the wall, before sliding down.

After a few moments, Sabo seemed to gain some semblance of reality again, and he cleared his throat before speaking, "Teach knows, Ace, he knows," he whispered hoarsely.

"What do you mean?" Ace tilted his head quizzically, that distantly reminded Sabo of sunshine days on Dawn Island.

No. They gone now. No live in past. A scratchy, growling voice whispered in his ear. Sabo jumped and nervously looked around, completely discarding Ace's irritated questioning.

Who are you?

…

No matter how many times Sabo asked, the voice didn't reply, instead staying silent. So silent, that Sabo almost thought that it was a figure of his imagination. Sighing, he looked forward, only to find a shimmering form of a wolf with unnaturally large fangs and bloodthirsty red eyes standing uncomfortably close to his now concerned brother.

"Who are you?!" Sabo began hyperventilating, and he became distantly aware of the starting confusion, then mounting panic erupting in Ace's eyes.

The wolf stayed silent and stood closer to his brother, grazing two of his front fangs against the nape of his neck, and all went silent. Ace froze, his eyes wide, and his back shivering, as a chill made its way down his spine.

The wolf looked into Sabo's eyes, as if taunting him, with those evil orbs, before opening wide and preparing to snap Ace's neck.

Sabo's eyes snapped open wide and in horror, he held out one pale, shaky white hand and yelled, "NO!"

The voice wasn't as loud or as intimidating as his brothers' when they really tried to get people to listen, but it had the same impact nonetheless.

The wolf stopped, the tips of his saber-like fangs just barely touching the skin of his brother's neck. Sabo gulped, and looked away from the terrifying sight, and turned his gaze to the wolf's eyes.

They had a question in them.

Not that sort of curious question, no. Nor one of those knowing questions either. It was a taunt. Just like everything else this wolf seemed to be doing to him. 'Why should I?'

After a few moments of horrified silence from Sabo, the wolf took it as a sign to continue, and continue he did. The fangs were just about to pierce skin, when Luffy came waltzing into the room with the grace of a hippo, and the rage of a berserker.

When he spoke, his voice was quiet, but laced with so much fury and Conqueror's, that it made the wolf shiver.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Luffy put one foot forward, and the wolf quickly retracted his mouth from Ace's neck. Ace let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and looked in awe towards his little brother. When he turned to where the wolf was, however, he was confused. Where did that chill come from? He knew there was something at his neck. He could feel the hot breath of an animal and the scent of blood behind him, but he couldn't see a thing.

"What did you think you were doing?"

To the werewolf-vampire and the Voice of all Things, they saw the wolf cowering in a shaking ball on the ground in the face of pure unadulterated fury.

"Answer me NOW!" Luffy erupted, screaming out to the heavens, his skin dulled into a dead gray, and his sclera turned black, his pupils and irises nowhere to be seen, but in there place, a glowing red orb filled with rage, that promised nothing but destruction for the object of it.

In response, the wolf cowered even more, and placed his head on the ground, and looked up with wide eyes, as if pleading for mercy.

When it became clear that no mercy was to be spared, the wolf frantically bobbed his head up and opened his mouth, "Wait!"

Luffy's fist froze, moments away from completely obliterating the being in front of him, apparition or not.

"You have 10 seconds. Give me a good reason, and maybe I won't blow you to bits," Luffy growled.

Taking this as his cue, the wolf's ears perked up and he began babbling with the grace and dignity of someone who was facing down death itself for the first time.

"Wolf-child, there, he very important. Has my soul inside. Unfortunate has Vampire soul too. Must purge. Needed to make him fear. Vampires don't fear. Have too much dignity. Thought that would make him expel Vampire soul from him. If he fear, then vampire soul un-merge with me, and he become true wolf," he was panting by the end of it.

Luffy raised an eyebrow, "And I care, why? You were going to kill my brother," Luffy said matter-of-factly, cocking his fist back to strike.

"Vampire children kill those they love!" The wolf blurted out, "I trying to protect you! First few years of being vampire, bloodthirst uncontrollable. Feed on whatever near, just kill and eat, and grow strong. That what vampire children do. If he continues with vampire soul, he will kill you, even if he don't want to. Activates on its own, and kills us all, takes over vessel, and Void Century 2 will begin," that last part was slightly sarcastic, but the message got through.

"Wait…" Sabo frowned, "You almost killed Ace… to purge me?"

The wolf let out an irritated growl and waved his head around agitatedly, "How many times I say? I not kill freckles-boy, he your pack-mate. I only scare you, so you purge vampire soul from body,"

"Okay, I have no idea what's going on, CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Ace yelled hysterically, his pupils contracted and his right eye twitched a bit.

Sabo grabbed Ace by the shoulders and looked him in the eye, Never thought I'd be the one doing this, but oh well, "Ace, there's a psychopath wolf—"

"HEY!"

"—and he wants to save you," Sabo breathed, "And Luffy. And everyone else too, now that I think about it,"

"Except for Teach," a new voice butted in.

"Except for Teach," Sabo confirmed before yelping and turning around in the direction of the new voice.

"So… Mind telling me what's going on?" Thatch was crouching on the rafters, eating a chocolate chip cookie as if nothing was wrong with the world.

"Oh yeah, and I brought Usopp and Zoro, too," he said nonchalantly, before swallowing.

As if on cue, Usopp's head popped out, followed by Zoro's. The harpy-child floated to the ground, gracefully, while Zoro just unceremoniously dropped himself down, while landing on his feet.

"So, save us all from who, exactly?" Usopp said after a moment of silence.

Sabo's reply was as grim as Luffy's expression.

"From me,"

o-o

At the same time, a meeting was held in the Captain's Cabin. Thatch was unavailable, so he unfortunately could not attend, so that left Kingdew, Haruta, Marco, Jozu, Vista, Izou, Blamenco, Rakuyo, Namur, Blenheim, Speed Jiru, Atmos, Curiel and Fossa.

They were contemplating to include Teach in this meeting as well, but seeing how Sabo reacted to him, they opted to leave him out.

Whitebeard's expression was solemn, before he spoke, "I saw Sabo earlier today," he rumbled.

"Yeah, the kid crashed right into your room, didn't he?" Vista stroked his moustache contemplatively.

Whitebeard grimaced, "He did, and when he did, he looked…" Whitebeard hesitated. Whitebeard hesitated. Whitebeard hesitated. That isn't something you see every day. So, his children, were, understandably, worried.

"What happened?" that was Namur, who seemed to have taken a liking to the blond boy. In two words, he perfectly summed up the stray questions going on in everyone's mind.

"He was afraid," Whitebeard forced out, "It was like, he was afraid, not of me killing him, no, he was afraid of something else. He was afraid that telling me that, would sign his death warrant,"

Small gasps and chatter was heard around the room, and after a while, it was Marco who spoke up.

"Why would he feel like that?"

"My question exactly,"

"Maybe we should keep an eye on them?" Jiru offered, "I could do that,"

He was silenced by a glare from the titan in front of him. It wasn't a terrifying glare like the ones he gives his enemies, but a sort of glare a reprimanding father would give to his son.

"No. They were recently pulled out of a facility, where their every move was monitored, and they had no free space at all. They're on this ship to gain just that. We will give them the freedom that they so greatly need, without a guillotine hanging above their neck at every precipice,"

Curiel picked his ear and grinned sheepishly, "Look, Oyaji, I love ya and all, but I didn't even know what half those words meant. What the hell is a guillotine?"

Marco sighed and facepalmed, "A guillotine," he droned, as if he had done this at least a hundred times, which, when you consider it, was probably true, "Is an execution tool in which they attach a blade to a pulley-lever system," At Curiel's lost stare, Marco sighed and dumbed it down.

"A guillotine is a machine that lops your head off when someone pulls a stick, got that?" Marco said exasperatedly.

Curiel nodded triumphantly and punched his open palm, "That sounds like a good weapon,"

Marco stared at him for a moment, before sighing, knowing that this is the best he could get out of him.

"So, what do we do, Oyaji?" they heard Izou question.

Turning to their father with expecting stares, they saw the great Whitebeard sigh.

"We will try to support them best we can, Haruta!" he called.

"Yes, Pops!" Haruta saluted.

"Go dig up anything you've got on the facility. Everyone else, try to give them some space,"

"""GOT IT!"""

One by one, everyone filed out of the room, leaving only Marco and Whitebeard.

"What weren't you telling them?" Marco asked.

"What do you mean?" Whitebeard tried to play off.

"Don't do that with me. I know that look in your eyes, what were you hiding?" Marco countered.

Whitebeard sighed and looked out the large window in his cabin, watching the waves roll against the hull of the Moby Dick, "I've got a bad feeling, Marco," he breathed.

"I've got a bad, bad feeling,"

AN: So, good news, I'm still alive. Bad news, I've been putting off this chapter for a while, and I should've published it earlier. I just had a bit of writer's block, and such. I've got a few of the major events down, it's just the small talk and transitions between said events that gets the best of me. I've always been better at writing active scenes. So, the usual...

CRITICIZE ME! (and tell me what I can change)

After I'm done with a good amount of the story, and get a serious writer's block, I might rewrite some of the earlier chapters just for the heck of it, so watch out for that, and, well, see ya!

~~OracleNorZi