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 50: Worried Pirates and Nicknames

"Sorry, I'm still hungry!" Luffy laughed, rubbing the back of his head as his brothers rolled their eyes.

"Oh, well you can have my food if you want," Shirahoshi said with a smile as she gestured to the giant plates of food beside her.

"Wah! Really?!" Luffy asked, eyes sparkling in delight and mouth watering in anticipation as he stared at the feast in front of them.

"Mm! You did save me after all, and you're with the Whitebeards. Its the least I can do!" Shirahoshi said happily as she lowered her hand over to the food. Luffy cheered and jumped over to the food, Ace close behind while Sabo followed at a much slower pace, shaking his head at his brothers' antics. Ace and Luffy began chowing down, Sabo opting to take a much smaller portion, while Shirahoshi watched in amazement.

"So, this Vander Decken guy wants to marry you, but he's trying to kill you? That doesn't make much sense." Ace said, mouth full as he spoke. Luffy nodded his agreement beside his brother as he took a bite out of the bread.

"Its been 5 years already," Shirahoshi said as if it wasn't all that big a deal.

"5 years? You must be bored!" Luffy said as he swallowed, this time Ace nodded in agreement as he took a sip of the water.

"On top of that my father made a rule that the guards can't stay here for more than 5 minutes. Megalo here is the only one I can talk to. He's my dear friend." The mermaid princess said a bit somberly now as she looked over to the shark who was close by.

"That sounds like no fun at all," Luffy said with a frown as he began slurping up a piece of seaweed.

"Not really. Anyway, you humans sure eat a lot even though you're small!" She said, observing the mass amounts of food Ace and Luffy were scarfing down in record time.

"Ah, don't use those two as reference. Regular humans eat much smaller portions. I, for example, am quite content with just this much." Sabo said as he showed his much smaller portion of food, more comparable to how much normal humans ate. Shirahoshi giggled at that, resting her head in her hand.

"So you three are with the Whitebeards, right? Do you guys go on a lot of adventures?" She asked wistfully, looking off somewhere.

"Well, we haven't been with them long, but they have gone on quite a few if Whitebeards stories are anything to go on," Sabo said with a smile as he thought back to the stories the old man would tell them.

"Oh yeah? Have you ever seen the sun? There are stars in the night sky, aren't there? And there are different kinds of flowers and hairy animals! Have you ever been to a green place called a 'forest'?" Shirahoshi asked with a dreamy look in her eye. Sabo laughed a bit nervously at all the questions while Ace and Luffy eyed her weirdly as they continued eating.

"That's a lot of questions, but uh, yes, yes, yes, basically, yes to all of them," Sabo said, ticking off fingers as he tried remembering all the questions.

"Really?! I've always wanted to see those places! But... it would be selfish for me to leave my room." The princess said, looking over to the giant doors sadly, sighing a bit as tears began welling up again. Sabo didn't know what to say to that, especially seeing as the mermaid looked to be on the verge of crying again.

"You can't leave because of that Vader Deck guy, right?" Luffy asked as he and Ace finished up the last of the food. Sabo mindlessly corrected Luffys mispronunciation of Vander Deckens name while Shirahoshi nodded, turning back to look at the brothers.

"So we just gotta stop him, right? And then you can leave." Ace said, crossing his arms and frowning.

"Y-yes, but no one's been able to find him," Shirahoshi said, eyebrows slanting in worry.

"Don't worry about that, princess. Anyways, I think we should be leaving now. If what the guards said is true, the Commanders are worried about us." Sabo said, standing and smoothing his down. Ace and Luffy nodded in agreement, both getting ready to leave as well. Before they were able to say goodbye though, the princess began sobbing again.

"You three are really nice! Thank you for wanting to help me! I'm sorry I kept you here so long." She sobbed, Ace tsking at the tears.

"And I thought Luffy was a crybaby." He muttered though Shirahoshi didn't hear over her crying. Regardless, Sabo elbowed his brother while Luffy laughed.

"Uh, its no worry Princess, anyways, I guess this is goodbye for now!" Sabo said as he and his brothers jumped onto the bed, narrowly avoiding a falling teardrop, and making their way down the blanket.

"G-Goodbye Sabo-sama! Luffy-sama! Ace-sama!" Shirahoshi said, tears still falling as she waved goodbye to them, Megalo waving as well. The three went to the doors, Sabo listening to make sure no one was near, and then pushed them open with his brothers, enough for them to slip out. Once out they shut the doors again, looking around once they were out.

"Now, let's hope they're not mad about our little disappearing act," Sabo said with a sigh. Ace and Luffy nodded and the three began heading off in random directions, waiting to randomly come across someone. It would be better if they were actually lost in the depths of the castle so that it would look more believable to whoever found them. It didn't take long for Sabo to hear Thatch and Marco talking and to lead his brothers in their direction.

"Maybe marines got here without us noticing and took them! Marco, what if they were caught again, and we didn't even realize?!" Thatch said with a worried voice, making Sabo wince a bit in guilt that they had worried the chef so much.

"I'm sure they're fine, yoi, and if they were taken you know Oyaji would go after them," Marco replied with his normally stoic tone, but Sabo was sure he heard a bit of worry in it as well.

"Well, yeah, but- ah! There you three are! We were so worried!" Thatch said, tears of joy springing to his eyes as he ran over to them, looking as if he was going to hug them. They tensed a bit, not exactly ready for the physical touch, but allowed it regardless, trying their best not to squirm or push him away. After all, they had been trying to get more comfortable around the pirates, and that meant being able to physically interact with them without fear that they would stab them in the back while they did.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Sabo stuttered out, entirely focused on not pushing the Commander away and not paying attention to how articulate he was. Thatch pulled away, a relieved smile on his face while Marco watched with his arms crossed, shaking his head at the chefs' antics.

"Uh, Luffy gets bored easily and wandered off in the middle of your talk so Ace and I went after him, but we got a bit lost," Sabo explained after regaining his composure.

"We're sorry to have worried you." Sabo apologized, bowing slightly.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'm just glad you three are safe! Right, Marco?" Thatch asked, grinning to the Commander who nodded.

"Let's get back to Neptune, yoi. I think the banquet is ready." Marco said, and Luffy could feel the previous worry that had come from the commander dispel into calmness. Luffy smiled happily and nodded, grabbing his brothers' hands and following behind the commanders. Even though they had just eaten Ace and Luffy would happily eat more.

"So, did you guys see anything cool in the palace?" Thatch asked as they walked. Sabo refrained from mentioning the fact that they had met the Mermaid Princess and instead opted for shaking his head.

"No, we didn't look in any rooms, just wandered through the halls." Sabo lied easily because there was no way he was telling him the truth.

"Well, I guess that's for the best, this is a palace after all. It wouldn't do us any good to get caught snooping into things we didn't mean to find." Thatch said with a shrug, but there was a mischievous feel about him that said he wouldn't mind doing exactly that. Sabo smiled at that and nodded, agreeing with the chefs' words. It didn't take much longer for the group to wander back into the entrance hall where Neptune was talking to some guards, the two ministers by his side.

"Neptune, we found them!" Thatch said cheerfully as they walked up to the king. Neptune turned with surprise but smiled happily.

"Fantastic, Jamon! Then let's go to the banquet hall and celebrate!" Neptune announced, and the brothers couldn't help but smile at the enthusiasm. It was strange to them that, even though this was a palace with, no doubt, high security, no one questioned the brothers' disappearance. Surely they might be bothered over the fact that they had potentially been able to witness something they didn't want others to know. However, that didn't seem to be the case as they walked into the banquet hall and the brothers' little excursion hadn't been brought up once.

Food came out in waves and as the group was seated plates were filled. Sabo gave a quick reminder to his brothers to attempt to use the manners they had learned seeing as they were in a palace and they were, in their minds at least, on thin ice with everything that had happened.

Conversation was made as food was eaten. Topics such as updates about the island, where they could resupply, where they were heading next, etc. were mentioned while the brothers ate their food silently. This was probably the first time sense Shanks' party that the brothers had a chance to fill up as much as they wanted. Sure, they had been eating more on the Moby now, but it was more of the necessary amount rather than the amount that they would like to eat. Now, however, they were able to have two meals without anyone being the wiser.

As the food diminished and the banquet ended they all said their goodbyes to the king and the ministers, as well as Jinbe. Marco and Thatch began heading out, the brothers close behind when Sabo picked up on a conversation between two guards.

"I swear I locked that door, who would be crazy enough not to?!"

"I don't know man, maybe you thought you closed it and it didn't latch correctly?"

"No, I'm telling you, I did the usual protocol, even waited a minute to make sure it wasn't going to slip open."

"Ah well, as long as Princess Shirahoshi was fine. We'll just have to be extra careful next time. Maybe all those weapons are taking a toll on the door."

"Maybe." The mutter from the guard didn't sound all that convinced, making Sabo wince.

Yeah, they would have to be extra careful from now on.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Welcome back my sons, how was it?" Whitebeard asked from where he sat in his chair as they arrived back on the Moby.

"It was good Oyaji," Marco said, walking up to the giant.

"Yeah, we had another banquet! Those royals sure know how to throw a good feast." Thatch said dreamily as he thought up the many different things he could cook with the inspiration he got from their meal.

"Gurarara~! I don't doubt it!" Whitebeard laughed. The brothers watched as the two Commanders began chatting with the Captain and decided they would head off to their room. It was getting late now, the group having spent the entire rest of the day on the island and having dinner at the palace. They slipped off silently into the catacombs of the Moby and headed to their room, Ace yawning and stretching as they did.

"I wish we could have more feasts like that! It was delicious! And we got to eat sooo~ much, right Ace?!" Luffy asked happily as he thought back to their day.

"Sure did, Lu. Maybe we can do something like that again one day." Ace mused, a small smile on his face.

"The food was pretty good, not to mention plentiful." Sabo agreed, thinking back to the giant-sized portions that had been served. They reached their room after that, the three filing in quickly and shutting the door behind them. Ace and Luffy immediately went straight to the beds, pulling off their wristbands and flinging them over to their desk without even looking. Sabo rolled his eyes, taking off his own wristband and walking over to the desk, placing his with his brothers.

"If you lose those then you can't go on islands you know," Sabo said with a hint of a smile as he did.

"What?! Ace, you almost made me lose mine!" Luffy cried as he looked over to their wristbands with wide eyes.

"What do you mean I made you?! You threw it, not me!" Ace retorted angrily, but Luffy wasn't hearing it, instead pouting and crossing his arms, looking away from the eldest.

"Meanie, you don't want me going on islands." He muttered, only riling Ace up more. Sabo laughed, getting into bed and deciding to defuse the situation he had kind-of-sort-of started.

"Now now, calm down, they're still safe you've just got to be more careful with them next time," Sabo said, ruffling Luffys hair, his Straw Hat sitting on his lap. The youngest beamed at him and nodded, promising he would be more careful with it.

"Whatever. Anyways, what are we gonna do about that Vander Decken guy?" Ace asked as he crossed his arms behind his head, laying down and staring at the ceiling. Sabo frowned and laid down as well.

"We're gonna beat him up!" Luffy said as if it were obvious.

"We could, but the pirates don't know we can fight, remember? If we just show up to the palace and say we've defeated him there's going to be a lot of questions." Sabo said softly, paranoid that someone would hear their conversation.

"Oh..." Luffy mumbled as he laid down as well, frowning a little.

"But... we are going to help Shibasoshi, right?" Luffy asked, completely butchering the poor Princess's name. Sabo smiled gently at that.

"Its Shirahoshi, Luffy, not Shibasoshi." He corrected, the youngest's face scrunching in confusion.

"But that's hard to pronounce. Shibasoshi's easier." He said as if it made everything ok.

"Remember the conversation we had before? Sometimes your nicknames can hurt people, even if you don't mean it." Sabo chastised gently, knowing that, sometimes, Luffy just couldn't be bothered to do something without good reason.

"Oh yeah..." He mumbled quietly, frowning a bit at that. He didn't want to hurt good people, and Shibasoshi was a good person. Even if she did cry a lot, which he knew made Ace mad.

"Regardless, we are going to help her, so don't worry about that," Sabo reassured. The princesses situation reminded them all too much about their own experience at the facility, being locked up without any freedom. Of course, while they were in a dark cold cell and barely fed anything, Shirahoshi was in a warm, comfortable room and fed extravagant meals. Even so, a cage is still a cage, no matter how nice it is.

"But we don't know how." Ace stated with a hint of annoyance in his tone, showing that he very much just wanted to go beat the man up and get this over with. Sabo sighed, already knowing this was going to be a tricky plan to pull of, and they didn't even really have a plan.

"Right now, no, we don't. I guess we're just going to have to see what happens tomorrow. Odds are though that we're going to have to fight him. I don't see a guy who chased after the princess for five years stopping now just because we asked politely." Sabo said as he thought about how they could pull this off.

"You're right about that." Ace muttered as he got comfy on the bed, closing his eyes, but still listening.

"Maybe Ace can use his haki!" Luffy suggested happily, and his brothers looked over to him with wide eyes.

"Did you just... suggest something smart?" Ace asked in disbelief, mouth gaping at the idea.

"Meanie," Luffy said, knowing the words were an insult. He could be smart, just not as smart as Sabo. Speaking of, the blonde tried, but failed, to remove the shock from his face and address the suggestion.

"Well, that could work, but it's not a guarantee, it doesn't work on everyone, remember?" Sabo asked. They didn't know a lot about the rare third haki, but they had found out through trial and error that the mysterious power didn't always work the same on everyone. For one, it didn't affect the brothers, whether it was because Ace wasn't directing it to them, or because they were immune like some others, they didn't know. Not only that but when Ace had tried using it on some of the doctors, namely Haru, it had only made him stumble a bit, not knock him out like it had on other kids they used it on.

That being said, the power, while helpful in some cases, was a hit or miss with their experience.

"Oh, right," Luffy muttered.

"It was a good thought though, we'll definitely try it tomorrow and see if it works," Sabo said encouragingly, ruffling Luffys hair and smiling to the youngest. Luffy looked over to the blonde and smiled widely, nodding happily at the fact that he had helped, even if only a little.

"We should go to sleep then. The faster we can beat this guy up the faster that crybaby princess can leave her room." Ace said, rolling onto his side, facing away from his brothers in an attempt to fall asleep.

"Don't call her that when we're around people, please." Sabo groaned, knowing that there would most definitely be a reaction to the words depending on who heard them. He thought Luffy was bad, but now he had to worry about Ace's nicknames.

"Yeah, whatever."

Welcome back to another chapter! It's been another long, crazy week for me, but I hope everyone else's was much nicer than mine. At least I'm done with classes for now so I should have more time to write hopefully!

So a little about this chapter! I was debating on how I wanted to go about the whole, 'Shirahoshi being stuck in the Hard Shell Tower' for a while before finally deciding on what I wanted to happen. As mentioned before, things are going to start changing now that the brothers met Shirahoshi much sooner, and as you can see, they're already preparing to take on Decken. How that's going to work will be revealed next week.

Also, we've hit 50 chapters! Its officially the halfway point! Last week was our one year anniversary, and now we're halfway through the ASL brothers' journey with the Whitebeards. I never expected that I would write, or stick with, a story this long, but I'm glad I have! This story has been so much fun to write thus far and I cant wait for you all to see what comes in the future! So again, thank you all for your amazing support, your favorites, follows, reviews, and even views. They all mean the absolute world to me and I dont know if I would have ever thought about doing something like this if it weren't for you guys.

To end, I'm going to put the stats of this story so far:

Favorites: 535

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Views: 110,222

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Thank you all so much, and I'll see you all next week!