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 95: The Aftermath

Another two weeks passed by slowly on the Moby as they sailed through relatively calm waters. News had spread that, once again, a group of children had escaped a mental facility, all of it orchestrated by Ace, Sabo, and Luffy which caused an increase in their bounties. It was no surprise to anyone that that was what the Marines came up with to save face, but it didn't mean it wasn't annoying to see the blatant lies and cover-ups.

As planned before they had saved the children the Moby was heading to another island, also not under their protection. They'd hit some rocky waters, and the weather hadn't been particularly nice which set them back, but now they were nearly there.

Despite the bad weather and delays, Luffy had never been happier. The devil fruit was finally gone, and with it, all the darkness that had radiated off of it, suffocating the Moby. The ship was lighter now, and even if there was bad weather, Luffy felt like it was lighter.

Now, the weather was cleared up, the waters were calm, and the newest island was in the distance.

Docking was being prepared and Luffy knew he should be helping- Ace and Sabo were after all- but he was too excited. Every new island, every new adventure, was just as exciting as the last. It would never get old to him, so instead of helping as he should, he sat on the railing, legs swinging off the side of the Moby as he smiled ear to ear and gripped the railing with both hands to keep steady.

"Oi, Luffy, come on and help." Ace called over, rolling his eyes as he did. Luffy turned to look at his brother, still beaming, and laughed.

"In a minute!" He called back, wanting to watch the island for a moment more. Behind him, Ace grumbled and Sabo told him he should expect this by now, but Luffy ignored them both, basking in the sun, in the happiness, in the light.

It took him another five minutes, which Ace was sure to scold him for, but he eventually got down off the railing and helped get ready. Whitebeard was radiating his usual warmth as he watched over them all, and that was almost as good as sitting on the railing for Luffy as he walked by the Captain. Finally, the darkness was gone from the Moby, both fruit and Teach, and all that remained was the warmth, the love, the happiness.

He laughed to himself as he continued working.

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

"Luffy's been in a good mood lately, hm?" Sabo asked as he and Ace walked leisurely through the small village on the island. It was one of seven villages on the medium-sized island, each village bigger than the last. They were in the smallest of the villages, deciding that would be best so there weren't too many people scared.

"You've got that right. He's been smiling all day. All week really. Even during that storm." Ace said with a sigh, though he was smiling.

"It's probably got to do with that devil fruit being gone. There's no more darkness around." Sabo suggested. Ace nodded beside him, the two going silent now as they walked.

Aces division had been sent to do the restocking this time. They were still high in supplies from the last island so only one division was necessary to grab supplies, and per the rotation, Aces division was next to do the one-man restocking. Of course, with the facility being liberated they needed more food and medical supplies, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle on their own.

Ace had split up the division into groups, each in charge of getting its own list of things, and he, Sabo and Luffy were in charge of grabbing some more wood for some minor repairs. The Moby was a strong ship, but even she had suffered some minimal damage during the storm they had sailed through.

Of course, Ace and Sabo were just fine with gathering the supplies, Luffy too even; however, the youngest had been in such a good mood that he'd rocketed himself off ahead of his brothers, and if it weren't for Sabo's hearing they would have been in more of a rush to chase after him. As it was now, Sabo could hear him talking to a few people- from the sounds of it children- and entertaining them as he waited for Ace and Sabo to catch up to him.

"Have you talked to Whiskey? About... you know?" Ace suddenly asked, breaking the peaceful silence. Sabo sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"A little. You?" Sabo asked, watching as Ace began kicking a pebble along the path. His brother shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"A little." He said, repeating Sabo's words.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" Sabo asked, wondering why his brother would have mentioned the facility if he didn't seem to have much to say about it. Ace was quiet a minute longer, and Sabo was ready to let the conversation drop altogether before Ace spoke again.

"I told Whiskey about the rooms the kids were being held in, the ones with the beds and stuff." Ace started with a frown, not looking at Sabo. The blonde nodded, staying quiet to let his brother continue.

"She asked me how it made me feel and stuff, and I admitted that I was kind of jealous that they had beds and rooms and we had a shitty cell and the floor." Ace continued. As he talked Sabo made sure that no one was paying too close attention to them, but everyone around them was minding their own business.

"Which is stupid cause those kids were still hurt and I was jealous they got to sleep in a bed at night." Sabo frowned at his brother's words but again remained silent.

"Whiskey said that it was alright that I felt jealous, or angry, or even happy, cause they were my feelings and I was starting to figure out how to pinpoint what I was feeling and why I was feeling it. She told me I had a right to be jealous, that what was done to us, to the other children, was wrong and she wouldn't be surprised if every child that was in the facility with us- our facility- felt the same way as I did." He said, trailing off at the end. There was another moment of silence as Sabo thought over his brother's words, trying to find a response. It wasn't often they talked about these things with each other, even though they knew they could, and he was actually happy that Ace was talking to him rather than keeping all these thoughts and emotions inside.

"I didn't see the rooms myself, but when you and Luffy told me about them, honestly, I kind of felt a bit jealous myself. It didn't seem fair that, as you said, we got a hard cold floor and the kids there got beds and pillows. Even a window." Sabo admitted, sighing.

"I think the thing I was most jealous of was the fact that they had windows. I would have killed for one of those in our cell." Sabo said, voice soft now. Ace scoffed beside him.

"Me too. Of all the things to be jealous of, we're jealous of a bunch of tortured kids getting a tiny window." The eldest said with a dry chuckle. Sabo laughed along with him, smiling now.

"I'm glad you got me to start talking to Whiskey." Ace said eventually, also smiling slightly.

"Oh? That's quite a change from when we were arguing to the point that Luffy had to leave the room." Sabo said, though there was no malice as he spoke, merely poking fun at his brother. Ace picked up on this and rolled his eyes, bumping shoulders with the blonde.

"You should know me by now. I wasn't going to talk to some nurse about the facility willingly. I had to fight about it first." Ace said with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah, and make my life harder as a result," Sabo replied, bumping shoulders back.

The conversation dropped now as they turned the corner and found Luffy there, drawing on the ground with two kids who looked to be siblings, a boy, and a girl.

"And this is the dragon that took the princess!" The boy said, drawing with a green piece of chalk.

"Can it breathe fire?!" Luffy asked animatedly, obviously enthralled in the drawings.

"Duh!" The boy said, smiling as well as he drew what Ace and Sabo guessed were wings.

"And the princess was taken to a castle! In the tower where shes waiting for the prince to save her!" The girl said, drawing said castle out of purple chalk, a princess esque drawing inside one of the castle windows. The little girl looked around four and the boy couldn't have been older than 6.

"Well, the prince could bring a big sword and wear this cool armor!" Luffy suggested, drawing as he spoke. The children watched in awe, amazed at the idea and nodding enthusiastically.

"Yeah, and he has to have a horse too! To ride into battle!" The boy added.

"And he has to have a crown! Because he's a prince!" The girl said.

"Luffy's oddly good with kids." Ace said as he and Sabo watched their brother play with the two who were much younger than him.

"He's practically a kid himself, teenager or not," Sabo said with a laugh. Luffy seemed to finally notice their presence now, looking up at them and waving.

"Ace, Sabo! You caught up!" Luffy said, the two kids looking up in surprise at the two.

"Yeah, and how many times do we have to tell you not to rocket ahead of us?" Ace asked with a raised eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"But it's fun! And faster. You two are slowpokes." Luffy said with a pout.

"Either way, we should go and get the supplies now. You said you wanted to go look at the other villages too, right Lu? If we take too long we won't even get to see the nearest one today." Sabo said, Luffy's eyes widening as he realized this.

"Right! See you two later!" Luffy said, standing and waving to the children.

"Bye Luffy!" They said with a smile as they waved back.

The three brothers began their walk together now, heading towards the shops they would need to visit. Luffy rambled to his older brothers about Layla and Cain, the two children, and told them that they had been fighting when Luffy landed on the street. He had talked to them and before he knew it they were all drawing with the chalk and making up a story about a princess. They'd made up a few other stories, but they were more focused on the princess one out of them all.

"So what did you guys do?" Luffy asked once he was done telling them about his mini-adventure. Ace and Sabo shared a look before the blonde looked to Luffy again.

"We were talking. About the facility and our talks with Whiskey." Sabo said truthfully. There wasn't any need to hide it from the youngest, so he didn't.

"Oh," Luffy said, looking to be thinking about something.

"Hey Luffy, how have you been? You know, since we've been to the other facility?" Ace asked gently, slowly. He didn't want to force his brother into talking about it if he didn't want to, but he and Sabo were both genuinely curious. They hadn't been able to figure out how their brother was feeling on the whole situation and it was disconcerting to them.

"Me? I don't know..." Luffy admitted, looking to the ground.

"I was scared, cause there was another facility, but then I was mad at the doctors," Luffy said, trying to figure out how he had felt. It was hard sometimes, for him to figure out what were his emotions and what were other peoples emotions. Was he happy because he was actually happy right now? Or was he happy because someone nearby was happy and he just didn't realize it? It was unpleasant to always feel everyone else's emotions as well as your own.

"What about afterward? After we got the children out. Now. Are you alright?" Sabo asked.

"I... think so. I don't feel sad anymore, or scared, or angry. I'm happy right now." Luffy told them, thinking hard so he could answer truthfully.

"That's good. If you don't feel happy you can talk to Sabo or I. Anytime. You know that, right?" Ace asked, ruffling Luffy's hair as he spoke.

"Mm." Luffy hummed in agreement, smiling to the two. They smiled back, letting silence take over once more. Another few minutes later they were walking into the main shopping district of the town and made a beeline for the shop they knew they needed to be in. Supplies were purchased quickly, Sabo and Ace knowing exactly what they needed to get while Luffy was there to help carry it all back to the Moby.

With each brother holding a box of their purchases they began the walk back to the Moby, chatting aimlessly about the going-ons of the crew, news they'd heard, or what they thought the chefs might make for lunch. There was a small debate over whether they would even be there for lunch, Ace and Luffy thinking it would be more fun to go to the next town and eat there while Sabo thought they may as well stay and eat on the Moby seeing as it'd be about lunchtime when they got back.

All in all, the three had a peaceful walk through the village, and even though they weren't exploring the island and going on adventures, they were still having fun and making memories.

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

The three didn't end up staying for lunch on the Moby. Luffy and Ace had outvoted Sabo and it was decided they would spend their allowances on food at the next village. They wouldn't be staying on the island long, this was merely a supply run and they would probably be gone by tomorrow, so they wanted to get in all the exploration they could.

The two villages were relatively close together, and within a half-hour, they were within the neighboring village, smiles on their faces and stomachs rumbling in anticipation. As Ace and Sabo began discussing whether they wanted to go to some stalls and eat as they walked or go inside somewhere, Luffy smelled something particularly delicious, his mouth watering at the smell. He hadn't meant to wander off without telling his brothers- after all, he'd just gotten in trouble earlier for rocketing ahead of them, he didn't want to get into more trouble- but the smell was so tempting that he found himself changing direction and going right towards it.

Ace and Sabo continued walking down the street, unaware that Luffy had just drifted behind them and made a right down a side street, following his nose and nothing else. By the time they did notice, they had already gotten to the heart of the village, and when they turned to get Luffy's opinion on where to eat they were left blinking at the empty spot behind them.

"He's like a ninja or something," Ace muttered, slightly surprised Luffy had left without them noticing.

"I blame Ruta entirely for that," Sabo said, pinching his nose and closing his eyes as he tried listening for where they're brother could be.

"Sounds like he followed his nose. Literally. He's in a bar or something, I'm not really sure." Sabo said, walking off in their brother's direction. Ace followed, trusting that Sabo knew where he was going, and laced his hands together behind his head.

"Maybe we should put a bell on him. That way you'd hear him walking off." Ace suggested with a chuckle to himself.

"Or a leash. He can't walk off at all that way." Sabo said. Ace nodded in agreement at that idea.

"Hey, at least he found somewhere we can eat." The eldest said with a shrug, looking at the bright side of things. It could be annoying when Luffy wandered off without a word, but it was just something he did.

In another few minutes, they were walking into what was definitely a bar, Luffy sitting in a stool at the bar itself, shoveling a plate of food into his mouth. The bartender was cleaning a glass as he watched Luffy with a raised eyebrow, a slightly amused expression on his face.

"Luffy, we just had a conversation on wandering off." Ace said sternly as he and Sabo walked up. Luffy turned to look at them, cheeks full of food as he smiled at them.

"Ashe! Shabo!" Luffy said through his mouthful. Sabo was about to scold Luffy for once again talking with his mouthful, and he and Ace hadn't even sat down when a woman came running out from the back, eyes wide. She caught everyone's attention and they all watched as she scanned the room, which was empty except for them seeing as it was still relatively early in the day. The second she spotted them, Luffy still shoveling in the food, her eyes grew wider- if that was even possible- and she rushed over, placing a hand on Luffy and stopping him from eating.

"How much of this did you eat?!" She asked worry and fear on her face. Ace and Sabo frowned, realizing that something might be wrong with the food, but Luffy looked unalarmed. He tilted his head, thinking.

"A lot." He said, moving to begin eating again.

"Wait- hold on, you can't eat it!" She said, trying once again to stop Luffy, which only made him annoyed.

"Why not?" Ace asked, watching both the woman and food carefully.

"Because- well... the guys in the back, they-"

"Poisoned it," Luffy told them with such nonchalance it made both the woman and bartender blanch at them.

"You knew that?! And you still ate it?!" She asked in shock, stumbling away from him. Luffy began eating the food again, nodding.

"You do know you'll have to see Whiskey after this. She'll be pissed if she somehow hears you ate poison and didn't at least go for a check-up." Sabo said with a sigh as he sat beside his brother. There was a wave of burning anger in him at whoever served his brother poison, but he knew it wasn't going to have an effect on him so he was able to curb it for now.

Ace on the other hand...

"I'm gonna kill 'em." The eldest growled out, a scowl on his face as his eyes moved to the door that most likely led to the kitchen.

"But they made me good food!" Luffy whined in an attempt at stopping his brother.

"Food that they poisoned!" Ace yelled back to him, giving his brother an incredulous look.

"To be fair, we are wanted," Sabo noted, understanding why it had been done, but not liking it either.

"Hold on a minute! He's eating the food! The poison!" The woman said, pointing to the meal that was nearly gone.

"Yes, he is, and he'll be fine. Our brother has a bit of a, uh, iron stomach." Sabo said, searching for the right words. After Luffy's literal death in the facility he'd grown an extremely high tolerance to poison, and unless the poison itself was extremely lethal, it wouldn't hurt him. Seeing as their bounties were alive only, Sabo was willing to bet that whatever poison the cooks had used, it was non-lethal, and thus, wouldn't harm Luffy in the slightest.

"A-are you sure?" The bartender asked worry etched into his features as he also watched Luffy eat.

"Forget that you're going to have to hire some new chefs." Ace said, bringing the attention back to him as they watched him march into the back. Sabo rubbed his temple but didn't stop him, knowing it would be useless.

"Aw, I wanted more food before Ace beat 'em up," Luffy said with a pout, shoveling the last few forkfuls into his mouth all at once.

"We'll grab more food on the way back to the Moby, how about that? Best we get there sooner rather than later now that Whiskey needs to look you over." Sabo said, both he and Luffy ignoring the screaming coming from the back, as well as the two behind the bar, still staring with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

"Yosh! Ace, hurry up! We have more food to eat!" Luffy shouted over the screaming.

"How much for the food?" Sabo asked the bartender. The man blinked a few times, trying to rid himself of his shock.

"N-nothing, it's free of charge." He eventually managed to stutter out.

"Are you sure? We'd- well, I would be fine with paying." Sabo said, knowing Ace would refuse to pay, and with good reason.

"No, I-I couldn't ask you to pay, not when your food was poisoned." He said, seemingly over the shock now as he denied Sabo's money. The blonde shrugged, patting the pouch of money at his side.

"Suit yourself. Come on Ace, we have to go see Whiskey now and it's another half hour back to the Moby!" Sabo called to his brother, he and Luffy both standing from their stools and heading to the doors.

"Hold on, I'll be there in a second!" Ace called back, and within a few seconds, a man was flying through the door that led to the back, crashing into a table and staying down. Ace emerged after, grin on his face and fire licking his shoulders as he placed his hat back on his head.

"Alright, I'm done." He said, looking pleased with himself as he began walking up to them. The bartender and woman watched the three as they began chatting amongst themselves, all smiles and laughs now as if the littlest of them hadn't just eaten a whole plate of food that had been laced with poison.

"R-remember that report that called them monsters?" The woman asked in a whisper. The bartender nodded mutely beside her.

"I think it was pretty accurate." He said, picking up another glass and beginning cleaning it.

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

"Hello boys, how was your trip?" Whitebeard asked as the brothers walked back on board the Moby, sticks with meat on them in their hands.

"Good!"

"Luffy got poisoned."

"I beat up some guys who poisoned Luffy."

The responses were simultaneous, and many on deck did a double-take at the nonchalance of their words.

"Wait, wait, wait, Luffy was poisoned?!" Thatch asked from where he'd been resting, sitting against the rail.

"Yup! The food was good though, so it was fine." Luffy said with a shrug, the brothers still walking as if it was no big deal.

"Is he alright?" Atmos asked in worry; he, and Thatch beginning to follow the brothers in an attempt at getting answers.

"Yeah, we never mentioned it before, but Luffy has a high tolerance to poisons. He's fine, but Whiskey'll kill us if we don't let her do a check-up, so that's where we're headed now." Sabo said, the three saying they'd be back soon before they walked into the Moby.

Everyone could only stare at the door the brothers had entered in shock.

All in all, it was another normal day on the Moby.

A more laid-back chapter for you all today. After all the angst and drama of the past few chapters, we needed some bright happy moments to lift us all up. Even if there was an attempt at Luffy's murder in this happy chapter. Even when it's a calm day on the Moby, it isn't.

We're transitioning out of the final arc now and moving on to the wrap-ups for this story. So far, I've only got 5 more chapters planned and this story will end on it's 100th chapter. Like always, the end of a story is sad, and I still have a lot I want to say, but as I've said before, I'll leave those thoughts for the final chapter.

The facility they liberated has taken a toll on the brothers, but this time they have Whiskey and each other to help them get through it. It brought up bad memories, trauma and mixed emotions, but now they know how to manage all of this in non-destructive ways. They don't have the same paranoia, anger, or fear like they used to have in the beginning.

Speaking of the beginning, I went back and reread this story and boy have the brothers grown since then! I always knew that they had, but to read how they were in the beginning compared to now, its much more obvious and drastic than I thought it had been. I also noticed a lot more mistakes I made in the beginning as well as my habit of using the infamous 'a bit' and I was thinking of going back and editing those chapters so they were cleaner and nicer to read. I would have to wait until I was finished writing this story to do that though, but I will most likely be doing it.

Anyway, as always, thank you all for following this story for so long! Whether you're new readers or have been with this story since the beginning, the fact that you all have made it to this story's 95th chapter means the world to me. That takes a dedication that I could never thank you all enough for.

See you all on Monday with chapter 96!

I hope you all had happy holidays!