Warnings: Dark themes, lots of mentions of death, strong language, human experimentation, experimenting on children, child abduction, graphic descriptions of experimenting, lots of needles, lots of violence, poor descriptions of panic attacks, descriptions of blood, rated M for safety.

*If I need to add anymore warnings please tell me in the reviews or a PM and I'll be sure to add it!*

Chapter 19: Unlikely Questions, Unlikely Answers

The brothers were as alone as they could be in the infirmary, most of the nurses gone, though there were still a few mingling towards the front of the room. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had been talking in hushed voices so no one could eavesdrop on them and they didn't have to read a bunch of signals.

Sabo had been explaining to Ace everything that had happened while he was out, Luffy filling in bits he still wasn't too sure on, like how he and the pirates got them out of the facility. It was the day after Ace had woken up. Thatch had given him lunch as promised, Ace digging into the soup that tasted better than anything he'd ever eaten before, after some prodding from Sabo and Luffy. By dinner he was much calmer then he had been earlier due to Sabo practically yelling at him to be as nice as possible.

Breakfast had passed much the same as previous meals had, and when all the nurses left the brothers found it the perfect opportunity to talk to each other.

"So they just let the kids go?" Ace asked in a tone that screamed disbelief. Sabo nodded, Luffy listening but playing with the blanket on Aces bed instead of contributing to the conversation.

"From what we know, yes, they were taken to the town on the island and the townspeople there brought them home. According to them, you need about a week or two to heal and they can't stay docked at an island too long so they had to leave the island yesterday before you woke up." Sabo said, remembering that when they went to talk to Whitebeard they hadn't been docked at the island anymore. Ace scowled.

"You mean we're stuck again." Ace said, Sabo nodding.

"Basically, yes, but this time we have the upper hand. They obviously aren't too worried about us, we aren't cuffed, and they know nothing about our abilities. Their estimate for your recovery is already way off, you look back to normal already, and they don't know about you or Luffy having devil fruits." Sabo explained, and Ace nodded, hopes rising.

"There's a lot of pirates on this ship, but if we use the element of surprise to our advantage we should be able to at least get to a smaller boat somewhere on this ship and try and navigate to another island, but we're in the Grand Line, and even if we had a compass it wouldn't work here," Sabo explained, fiddling with his blanket.

"So? I'd rather be in the middle of the ocean than with bastards who are a word away from turning on us." Ace said, still scowling. Sabo sighed, shaking his head.

"You say that now, but what about when we're out of food and there isn't a single island in sight? Right now, these pirates are feeding us and keeping us healthy. All we have to do is play nice until we reach the next island." Sabo hoped Ace would see the reasoning behind his words rather than try to get through this with brute force. Sometimes it worked and most times it failed, leaving them in a worse position than when they started.

"We don't know these bastards! What if they spend months without going to another island? Or they lock us up like they did in the facility?" Ace asked. Luffy, feeling the anger and slight fear coming from Ace, snuggled closer, trying to calm the temperamental brother.

"They're a big crew Ace, they have to stop somewhere sometime, and if they do turn on us suddenly then that's why its good to have the element of surprise. The second they try locking us up we fight our way to a boat and leave, but there's no use in leaving now when we're safer here than on a sea we know nothing about." Sabo reasoned, Ace falling silent while Luffy looked between the two.

"Fine." Ace said after a minute.

"But that doesn't mean I'm gonna like it!" Ace said defiantly, crossing his arms and pouting. Sabo sighed in relief.

"You don't have to like it, just try not to be too mean to them, I'd rather we get as close to an island as possible before you start pissing people off," Sabo said, hearing someone coming towards the infirmary and signaling to his brothers who fell silent. Within seconds Marco was walking in, heading straight for their bed. Before Ace had a chance to say anything Sabo spoke up.

"Hello First Commander, it's nice to see you," Sabo said, smiling with practiced ease. With a plan set and his brothers all safe and healthy Sabo found it much easier to stay calm and put on a mask. Marco nodded towards them.

"Nice to see you too, yoi. Whiskey told me all of you are good to walk around if you wanted. Same rules apply, she doesn't want a repeat of yesterday." Marco says, glancing to Luffy and Sabo, both doing their best not to fidget under the gaze while Ace did his best not to start shouting at him.

"We understand. Was there something you wanted?" Sabo asked before the hot head could argue. He was slightly confused, he and Luffy having spent days in bed before getting an ok to leave, but Ace had been up for only a day and he was fine? He knew that the eldest was fine, but the doctor didn't know about Aces healing ability, so why was he getting the ok so much sooner? Sabo ignored these thoughts, deciding to think on them more later, when Marco spoke up again.

"Oyaji wanted to speak with all of you seeing as we were interrupted yesterday," Marco said, clearly expecting them to go that second. Sabo bit the inside of his cheek, smiling. Maybe this was why he was allowed to move so early so they could go see the Captain.

"Of course. We should get going then." Sabo said, hiding his growing discomfort as he turned to look at his brothers. Ace was scowling while Luffy was frowning, grabbing Aces hand as they all stood up, following Marco out the door.

The walk was as nerve-wracking as it had been yesterday, Luffy clinging tightly to Ace and Sabo's hands, sandwiched tightly in between his two brothers who were focusing all their energy on keeping their guards up. As they exited the hall they were once again blinded by the light, Ace looking up at the sky in wonder, not having experienced the natural light in years, unlike Sabo and Luffy who had experienced it yesterday. He was quickly pulled from his stupor though when Luffy tugged his hand, refocusing him on the many eyes that were on them. Marco was talking to the crowd, telling them to get to work, but it had the same effect as yesterday, pirates only pretending to look away when, in reality, they were watching the three out of the corner of their eyes in curiosity.

Sabo couldn't blame the crew for their curiosity, but that didn't make it any easier for them to make their way across the deck, Ace bristling in discomfort, ready to snap at anyone who so much as looked at them wrong. Luffy was shuffling quietly in between the oldest two, eyes focused on the ground as he tried taking in some of the emotions around them, looking for any signs of the darkness that lingered in bad people. He wasn't getting much, mostly just curiosity, but that was good, right? It meant that at least the majority, didn't have the bad feelings and probably wouldn't hurt them.

Soon enough they were reaching Whitebeards massive chair, his commanders all dutifully at his side, Marco joining them like he had yesterday.

"Hello again Whitebeard, sir," Sabo said smoothly, politely, doing his best to keep his tone steady. Ace was biting his cheek to keep from saying anything, allowing Sabo to take charge and do the talking.

"Good morning. I'm glad to see that you three are all up and healthy." Whitebeard said, the brothers detecting nothing but earnestness in his voice. Luffy sensed the pure emotions coming from the giant and became ever slightly more comfortable. It was strange, the feelings that the giant man emitted made Luffy feel safe, calm, but he didn't quite know why. It wasn't enough to really calm him down, his stress and anxiety levels extremely high from all the attention on him and his brothers, but he felt just calm enough to bring down a barrier and look at Whitebeards soul, squeezing Ace and Sabo's hands for reassurance.

The two older brothers glanced at Luffy when he squeezed their hands, noticing the look in his eyes as he gazed at the giant, and they turned their attention back to the Captain, tense, ready for Luffy to tell them whether there was darkness in the man or not.

"Its thanks to your medical staff that we were able to recover this fast in the first place," Sabo said, trying to continue the conversation and keep the attention on him rather than on Luffy. His voice was slightly more strained then it had been previously and he wasn't sure if anyone else picked up on it, but he had other things to worry about.

"Seeing as we were cut off yesterday, I'm sure you've got more questions, correct?" Sabo asked after a pause in the conversation. Whitebeard nodded, humming in response.

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind answering some more questions I would be grateful." He says calmly, Ace and Sabo turning their attention to Luffy briefly who seemed to be finished looking.

'No darkness.' Luffy tapped the words on their hands, calming the brothers ever so slightly, though Ace still looked ready to bite someone's head off and Sabo was barely holding himself together as it was. Luffy was going back to fidgeting, turning his attention to the commanders to try and determine their souls as well to see if they had any darkness.

"We'll answer what we're comfortable with," Sabo said, moving to sit on the deck, his brothers doing the same. Whitebeard nodded in understanding, everyone settling in for a long conversation.

"Why don't we start off simple? I've heard that you three have names, yet it seems everyone knows them but me." Whitebeard said with a smile, looking at the commanders who had been in the infirmary when they had given their names, Thatch rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and smiling. They had been so busy after the awakening of Ace and it slipped their minds to tell Whitebeard about them.

Luffy, who had finished looking at Marco and Thatch's souls, was moving onto Izo's, discreetly telling his brothers that he hadn't found any darkness yet. Ace was, for once, remaining silent, assessing the entire situation with a watchful eye, ready to bolt the second he didn't like something.

"That's correct, my name is Sabo. Luffy here's the youngest, and Ace there is the oldest." Sabo said, gesturing to himself and his brothers. Luffy briefly removed his attention from Izo to look at Whitebeard and give him the best smile he could, which wasn't much, just a slight raise of the corners of his mouth, before turning his attention back to Izo, making sure the lady-not-lady wasn't looking at him. Ace nodded to Whitebeard, frown still present on his face. Sabo said he had to try and be nice, but that was easier said than done, especially when Ace felt like his skin was crawling and all his instincts told him to run, to get himself and his brothers out of the situation they were in.

"Two of them are 11, that's Ace and Sabo, the oldest brothers. Luffy's only 8, that's Garps' grandson."

At the sound of the brothers' names, a knowing glint shone in Whitebeards eyes, but he held the question in, for now, wanting to know more about the brothers before he brought it up. He smiled slightly instead, nodding his head.

"I think it'd be best to just ask the question on everyone's mind, that being, what was the purpose of the facility?" Whitebeard asked, only a tone of curiosity in his voice, no malice detected in his speech or posture. To be sure though Ace tapped Luffy's leg, getting the youngests attention away from the commanders and back on Whitebeard. A quick scan and a few taps later told the eldest brothers that Luffy hadn't felt any darkness either, which only slightly eased the brothers as Luffy turned back to the commanders, now onto the last 5 of the 15 commanders.

They had yet to answer the Captain, Ace, and Sabo having a quick conversation between themselves, debating whether or not they should tell them anything.

'We should at least answer something, we can't put off answers forever if we want to stay on their good sides!' Sabo tapped quickly, moving his eyes to the deck in front of him, watching Aces fingers out of the corner of his vision.

'But why do they need to know in the first place, its not their business!' Ace tapped back, just as fast, if not faster, also staring at the deck in front of him.

'Ace, regardless of whether it is or not, not answering them could make them angry, we aren't prepared for everyone on this deck to attack us at the moment. You only just woke up, you need at least another day of rest 'til you're ready to fight at your full strength.' Sabo tapped, a slight frown working its way to his features.

'Who cares, I can still fight and that's all that matters!' Ace tapped defiantly, almost huffing in frustration. Sabo's lips thinned.

'Ace, that's not the point. We can be vague, don't get too detailed, just answer enough to make them satisfied.' Sabo tapped, trying to compromise with the stubborn fire user. Ace didn't tap for a few seconds and they were going on a full minute without responding to Whitebeard, the commanders watching them with piercing gazes, ready for an answer they had yet to give.

'...Fine.' Ace tapped, glaring slightly as Sabo rose his gaze back up to Whitebeard, Ace still refusing to look at the Captain. Sabo removed the frown from his face and went back to a neutral look, inhaling as he felt Luffy tap that another commander was clear, no darkness.

"The facilities purpose is beyond me and my brothers. What they wanted was never clear and they never told us much in the first place." Sabo said coolly, fighting the urge to fidget restlessly at all the eyes on them, all the attention. If they didn't finish this conversation soon he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep Ace at bay anymore. The eldest was gripping his shorts with one fist, his other hand holding Luffy's hand tightly in a vice grip that would probably crush the poor boys' bones if they weren't made of rubber.

To be fair, Sabo wasn't doing much better either. Though his outward appearance may seem calm and relaxed he was anything but. He was clutching Luffys hand as well, maybe just as tight as Aces, while his other rested on his knee, his face a mask of neutrality, but on the inside his nerves were jumping and begging him to run from the situation he was forcing himself into.

Luffy was too concentrated on checking the souls of the commanders to give into his nerves, but he was gripping their hands tightly as well, his face neutral, eyes piercing, literally, into the commanders' souls, making sure no one was watching him as he did. When someone did happen to glance his way he quickly averted his eyes, looking at the ground and trying to calm his increasingly rapid breathing.

"Do you have any idea as to what they were trying to do? Why they needed so many children?" Whitebeard asked, pulling Sabo from his musings. Luffy was finishing up checking the commanders now, relaying the message that they were all clear, no darkness in them, which calmed them all just a tiny bit more.

"No. All we know is that, whenever one child left, they were replaced with another." Sabo said, an edge in his voice at the thought, the brothers' expressions darkening.

"Left? Like, went home?" Thatch asked innocently from where he stood. Ace didn't even bother trying to hold back the scoff at the question, Luffy looking back at the ground and Sabo shaking his head, frowning.

"No, no one went home. The only way you left the facility was when you were no longer useful." Sabo replied darkly.

"No longer useful?" Thatch murmured, still not quite getting it.

"Dead. You left when you were dead." Ace growled out, Luffy beginning to tremble slightly, moving to snuggle closer into Ace's side for comfort. Thoughts momentarily forgotten, Ace turned his attention to Luffy, letting go of his hand and wrapping his arm around his shoulders, hugging him closer. Sabo scooted closer to Luffy as well, knowing the boy liked physical contact best when he was scared or nervous.

Thatch, finally understanding what Sabo had meant, frowned, everyone else doing the same.

"What would the people in the facility do to the children?" Whitebeard asked, wearing a frown of his own, though not directed at the brothers.

The brothers couldn't keep the memories from flashing back of all the tests, trials, training, doctors, needles, tools, straps-

Sabo shook himself out of those thoughts, turning and seeing Ace and Luffy's eyes glazed over, remembering the same things Sabo had. Luffy's trembling was getting worse, more visible to anyone, which was everyone, watching them, and even Ace was beginning to tremble ever so slightly, though you wouldn't notice unless you were right beside him like Sabo was. Letting go of Luffy's hand Sabo tapped Aces arm, trying to draw the eldest out of his thoughts. When he did Ace looked around, a slightly crazed look in his eyes before noticing Sabo.

'Help Lu.' Sabo tapped, turning back to the Captain and clearing his throat, knowing Ace would manage to calm Luffy down better than he could at the moment.

"The people, if they can even be called that, did anything they wanted to us. If they thought of something, they did it, no matter the side effects." Sabo said, voice low though audible to those listening, tone dark and eyes swimming with anger.

"They used a lot of needles..." Luffy's voice was quiet, soft, and timid. Everyone looked at him in surprise, not having expected the boy to talk, and Luffy himself didn't look like he had expected himself to either.

"And they made us eat yucky soup and we never got any good food, and they always made us sit in hard chairs, and they made us sick, and gave us headaches, and hurt us, and-"

"Luffy." Ace's tone was hard, yet not mean. It was only meant to pull Luffy from his ramblings, and it worked, the boy blinking in surprise, looking around, before meeting Aces eyes and frowning, leaning even more into his brother.

"Sorry." He mumbled to Ace, closing his eyes and trying to forget the fact that people were watching him, that they were asking about the facility, that they were surrounding him and his brothers, that if they said something wrong, they would be attacked.

It was silent as Luffy's words sunk in, the brothers not daring to speak in fear that the pirates would attack. Instead, they waited for someone, anyone, to speak up again, hoping that they would finish this conversation soon.

Eventually, it was Whitebeard who spoke up.

"I'm sorry that you three, as well as all the other children, had to go through something as horrible as that." He said gently, still frowning, though much gentler then it had been. Sabo nodded.

"I only have one more question, for now, one much lighter than the previous." He said, Sabo and Ace watching him carefully, Luffy still buried against Ace's chest.

"What is it?" Sabo asked, ready to be done with this. He felt exhausted from this talk, the memories weighing heavy in his mind.

"Do you three happen to know a brat named Red-Haired Shanks?"

Next chapter Done! It's up a bit late because I got busy and couldn't get it up until now, so sorry about that, but at least its still Friday.

We've now had the complete talk with Whitebeard, with Ace and all, and the talk was ended with a question that I'm sure will excite a lot of you guys. I've gotten a lot of reviews from people wondering when Shanks or Garp will come in, and with this, we're one step closer to that happening!

Also, yes, I know that Aces waking up scene last chapter was a bit OOC for Ace, however, everything with the facility has changed all the brothers, even Ace. When he woke up in an unknown place, he assumed it had something to do with the facility, and when Sabo told him it didn't have anything to do with them, he became cautious. Instead of his explosive anger showing through, he was subdued and quiet because he didn't want to draw attention to himself and his brothers and risk getting sent back to the facility.

For all the brothers know, the pirates could just be taking them right back to the doctors without them even knowing it.

Anyways, with all that said, thank you all for your amazing reviews! Until next week!