Her ninth birthday went by without notice and she was fine with that. Or, at least she assumed it had passed as the only calendar on the ship was not only on the wrong month but also two years old at that point and by the time she got it in her head to circle the days so she could track how long of a journey it took to get from Volca to Dawn Island it was already too late to start keeping track.

Even when she had been with her mama they hadn't gone out of their way to really celebrate her getting older it was mostly just her favourite breakfast food and a trip into town if she wanted to go (and that was usually a hit or miss thing as the only reason she would want to go into town was to see Mayor Berkeley, and he usually made the trip out to see them himself.)

She was never around kids her age, most thought she was weird and the other's parents kept their children away from her for fear of her breaking their children's noses (it happened once and apparently people had a hard time of letting go of the fact a four year old broke a seven year old's nose.)

So she couldn't fault her papa for not knowing what day her birthday was, according to her mama's stories he hadn't been around for her birth and showed up a few months later and kept showing up around those same months and neither of them had actually clarified for him the date of her birth - April first because of course her birth was a joke - and he never asked.

What she wanted most for her ninth birthday was not a material object but information. Particularly information on Conqueror's Haki because all that she knew about it was that it was rare, a one in a million people had it, that it was powerful and Gol D. Roger was probably the most infamous person to have it and was the reason people would call it the King's Will.

Maybe it was based on a person's parents like how in the Before with Charlotte a person's parents both had to have the gene for blue eyes for the child to have a chance to have blue eyes because blue eyes was the recessive gene so maybe Conqueror's Haki was a recessive gene and though her papa had it her mama might not have the gene at all so she was shit out of luck. She'd need a good sized control group of people whose parents did not have Conqueror's Haki so she could see if any developed the ability on their own and then compare them to people who had one parent with Conqueror's and another group with people whose parents both had Conqueror's-

And her head hurt just thinking about it scientifically.

But, there had to be an explanation besides 'Hey, you got lucky' that a person would have the ability to use Conqueror's Haki and she was open to both magic and divine intervention at this point so she didn't have have to quote a famous writer from the before when he said - or at least a character of his said - "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Science existed for a reason so it should be able to explain why some people had the ability and others didn't. Though science in this world couldn't explain how devil fruits came to be or how it was only the first person who ate the fruit got the power even if numerous people took a bite of the same fruit and-

-and she really needed to drop her train of thought and refocus on her task of trying to get information about Conqueror's Haki from her father because information was knowledge and knowledge was power.

And if they were going off that idea, she had a bit of a head start on most people.

So pushing open the door to her papa's cabin, the sight of him sitting at his desk looking over paperwork gave her pause because when people think of pirates the first things that pops into their head is usually not paperwork especially when it's her papa in question as he seemed like the last person on the ship to be filling out numbers and it seemed more like a Benn thing to do.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Wren awkwardly grabbed a stool situated beside her papa's bed - what it was therefore she had no idea - and placed it beside her papa's seat as she clamoured to sit on it so her head was even with the top of his shoulders, a slight grin on her face when her papa put his pencil in his mouth as he flipped through the papers, this was something she didn't knew he did and it amused her to no end. The youngest Emperor who could go toe to toe with Whitebeard had the habit of biting the ends of pencils.

"Papa," said man hummed, and didn't stop flipping through the paperwork as Wren looked over his shoulder trying to catch a glimpse at just what was writing on the papers but all she saw was chicken scratch writing, "why do you have Conqueror's Haki and I don't?" She resisted the urge to look at his face as his hand stilled from flipping papers and she could finally make out the words 'property damage repayment'.

"It's a one in a million chance, Songbird." She could see from the corner of her eyes as his body shifted in his seat to face her, a squeak leaving her lips as her own seat was turned so she faced him. "Some people discover they have it naturally, and some people need a reason to unlock it." A hand under her chin brought her face up so that her eyes met his, "Why do you want to know?"

She absentmindedly picked at the frayed ends of the strings on her pants where she had ripped a small hole the last time she wore the pair when she got caught on the nubbin in the doorway to her room, "I just heard that those who have it can change things."

"Bah," her papa's hand on her head ruffling her hair out of the braid she convinced Yasopp to put it in, "don't believe that old wives tale. Just because someone has Conqueror's Haki doesn't mean they can change things. Just look at your old man, I've got it and I don't want to change anything." He threw his head back with a booming laugh. "Besides, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Just focus on Armament and Observation for now and don't worry about the other." She couldn't hold back the scowl when her father picked her up by the back of her shirt and carried her out over his shoulders still laughing, "We've got a couple of months left in our journey so let's see if I can teach you how to coat a blade in Armament Haki."

It may not have brought her any closer to her answers but at the end of the day he was teaching her something she didn't know so at least that fulfilled a bit of what she wanted for her ninth birthday. And maybe she would never develop Conqueror's Haki but as of right now she still had her Armament and learning how to transfer it from her body to a blade could be quite useful in the future.

No one could give her a straight answer when she asked how much longer/how far away was their destination, the most she got was Roo telling her that they were close when she cornered him by helping to mop the deck but that didn't clarify anything and he only ruffled her hair - everyone on the ship seemed to have a habit of that and she was starting to get to the point that she hated when people touched her hair - saying she was adorable when she pouted.

With that being said, Wren finally decided to approach her papa about Dawn Island to try and discover just what she could expect to find on the island, hearing was quite different than seeing and experiencing.

So when her papa knocked on the door to her room and slowly pushed it open giving her enough time to quickly slide her notebook under her pillow and asked if she wanted to join him on deck to go fishing, Wren jumped at the chance to pick his brain, and learn how to fish because one could only guess how important a skill like that was to have in a world that was mostly water.

And fishing for well, fish, could be easily translatable to fishing for people; particularly devil fruit users who often forget they are devil fruit users.

Which, from her spotty memory, that tended to be Luffy when he started on his journey, but mostly stood out when Luffy finally met the Freaky Fish Guy at Traity McTraitorson's home town.

And if she just so happened to grab her notebook to stuff under her armpit with notes from the so called "history" book she had liberated, as stated before, from her papa's room so she could question her papa about the truths of the world that she only really had a bare grip on.

Sure, she knew that the government had killed Robin's family and friends on Ohara because they were able to read the poneglyphs that the government had tried their hardest to cover up. And yeah, she knew that the government turned a blind eye to slavery even if they claimed that they were against it, the fact that they guarded the Celestial Dragons as they went to human auction houses proved otherwise.

But, don't even get her started on the whole deal between the government and the Merpeople at Fishman Island.

Of course the government wasn't all bad - what was that saying in the Before? "Not all men." - well it could be used to apply to a select number of government officials and Marines, like Corazon when he went out of his way to save Law or Jaguar, or even Garp.

She was getting off track and had to shake her head clear but let out a squeak as her papa lifted her up by the back of her shirt and sat her down gently on the railing beside her, not even giving her a chance to get her bearings before she had he hands full of a fishing pole at least twice the size of her with only a pat on her head from her papa as he carefully pulled her notebook out from under her arm and sat on it himself, all while holding his own fishing pole between his legs.

It was quiet, or as quiet as it could get on a maned pirate ship in the middle of the ocean, between the two of them as they both sat on the railing.

Wren couldn't help but bite her lip as her eyes stared down at the fishing float bobbing up and down with the gentle current of the ocean, not really paying attention to all that was going on around her and definitely not catching the look the look her own papa shot her from his spot beside her but she did finally find the way out of her head and thoughts when her papa gave an audible sigh meant to catch her attention.

"Beri for your thoughts?" Her papa nudged her with his elbow but Wren couldn't bring herself to look up from the fishing float still bobbing on the water and proceed to bite her bottom lip just hard enough that she knew that there would be an indent of her teeth and could possibly either bruise or draw a small drop of blood.

How could she even begin to put her thoughts into words? How could she even begin to ask the man who saw Charlotte as Wren - as his daughter - whether or not he believed in reincarnation or if he believed in other worlds and if it was possible for him to believe that his daughter was a product of both. Or even, how was she to ask him if he knew that his captain had a son and he was so close to seeing the boy when he was on Dawn Island.

That wasn't even touching on the fact she wanted to ask just how deep the corruption ran in both the Marines and government, because as much as both parties would deny that there was any corruption Wren was not stupid and she wouldn't be surprised if the government started to promote the idea that ignorance was strength.

After all, if they kept the population blind and uneducated then they stayed in power and that power isn't something people are willing to give up easily once they have it, as history in the Before had shown time and time again.

Just how could an adult, least of all a child, supposed to even start a conversation like that.

So, she chose to promptly ignore all those thoughts and ideas and went with something simpler, something a child would ask and not an adult mind stuck in a child's body.

Swinging her legs slowly so they bumped up quietly against the railing, Wren turned her head slightly to ask her papa just what was Dawn island like as she had never really gotten a clear answer from anyone she asked, though she blamed this partly on the fact they wouldn't have focused on the aesthetic of the island and would have spent most of the time in a drunken stupor and unable to clearly remember much about the island. Really only Benn had been able to answer her and his answers were "dull, quiet, and a place people retire to" and even then it didn't really help her any.

"Well," her papa began crossing his legs to trip the fishing pole between them as he used his now free hand to rub at his chin where he had begun to form a beard, "it's a summer island with not much traffic from what I learned. We were probably the first visitors in years that didn't originally come from the island."

That didn't supply Wren with any useful information. She needed facts, cold and hard, about the layout of the island, the location of towns, how often Garp would show his face - though she knew from memory that he would later show up yearly and terrorize the boys and try to convince them to join the marines and give up any thoughts of being pirates - and who she needed to avoid at all cost.

"There's this nice town we stopped at last time, smaller than what you're used to probably but still a popular place. Foosha Village I believe it's called." He shot her a small smile knocking his shoulders against her slightly not noticing just how pursed her lips were as she ignored the rest of his ramblings about that one town.

It was at that moment that Wren realized just how much Shanks, her papa, didn't know about her and how much she didn't know about him.

When she had been younger and finally realized just what her predicament was in this world it had seemed like she had been dealt the best set of cards a person could be. Here she was with one of the most powerful pirates in the world as her papa, a man she could remember stopping the War of the Best by just showing up. It was almost too good to be true, like it was something out of a fairytale.

But the novelty of it started to run out the older she got until she got to this point in her life. Her first father, her dad, had been with her since the moment she came into the world in the Before and knew everything there was to know about her while she had been Charlotte. He knew her favourite colour, her favourite foods, and the name of each of her friends. She, in turn, knew as much as she realistically could about her father.

Shanks though, her had only shown up for a week or two and if she was lucky a month, since she had come into this world only staying long enough to do what he was required as a father before he was off again. He didn't know that her favourite colour was purple or that her favorite food was white rice and she loved lemonade nor did he know just how much she preferred being away from people in any town.

This was the longest she had been with him and it showed just how far apart they were as father and daughter.

She could almost picture a chasm with her and Shanks standing on either side of the deep fissure. Him just standing there with a nonexistent wind blowing his black captains jacket to his side as she reached out to him as her side slowly began to crumble and he just stood there doing nothing as she was pushed farther and father from his reach.

"I need you to do something for me, Songbird." That old nickname drew Wren from her thoughts, the chasm disappearing as the sea came back into focus as her papa took the fishing pole out of her hands standing it up against the railing that they were sitting on but behind them so they didn't fall overboard. "There's this little kid, probably only a year or two younger than you, who I met on my last trip."

Oh.

Oh.

He was talking about Luffy. He was talking about Luffy because they were getting close to Dawn Island and every second they travelled brought her closer to truly being apart of the world and not just sheltered away with her only impact on the storyline being her interactions with Shanks.

There would be no more if and or buts after she got to the island. No more half measures once she got to Dawn Island. There was no going back she would forever be apart of the storyline with no chance of turning back she had sealed her fate the moment she had set foot on the Red Force.

From what she remembered of the story, Luffy never had anyone to teach him how to survive on his own until Ace and Sabo finally accepted him as their brother and he never had anyone teach him how to use Haki until he had met Roger's old first mate; Rayleigh. But that would change with her, she had the chance to change history. She could start teaching Luffy herself and buy them some time if - when - the war came and he had to fight through Impel Down to get to Ace.

She would gladly rig the game in their favour.

"His name's Luffy, I think you'd like him." Shanks continued unaware of just what Wren was plotting in her silence. "In fact, I have a feeling that kid is going to make something of himself one day and until that day comes I'm trusting you to look after him and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble."

"Is that the kid you gave your hat too?" She already knew the answer to her question, her fist tightening around the fabric on her knees as her knuckles turned white from the force.

"Got it in one." He threw his one arm over her shoulders pulling her in tight to his side. "Can you do that for me Songbird? I'm trusting you to look after him after all he's the one I'm betting all my chips on." Though she didn't know exactly what her papa was talking about in regards to betting but she could and did agree with a sharp nod of her head to watch over Luffy.

He was going to be pirate king one day even if she had to drag him kicking and screaming through some of the challenges on route to the finish line.

It's not until she overhears one day that Wren finds out just how close they are to Dawn Island and just how close she is to making her mark on history. If all went according to plan historians would mark the day she set foot on Dawn Island as the day the winds of change started to blow.

Two weeks before they can dock, and two weeks until her plans can be set in motion.

With one hand, she silently pushes open the door to her papa's cabin eyeing how he sits in the plush but tattered chair at his desk and the stool she stole all those days again still at the corner of his desk having never been moved back by his bed whether it is because he forgot to move it or for some other reason she will never know and doesn't care to know as it's insignificant in the long run.

Taking a deep and silent breath, adjusting her grip on the large textbook under her thin arm, Wren walked with determined steps to her stool, hoping up with little more than a grunt and plopping the historical book down on the papers her papa had been going through without looking up as she made her way into the room.

It's time she had some answers about the world and not from propaganda filled books printed by the marines to paint them in favourable lights and paint pirates and revolutionaries as worse than the devil.

She can remember from snapshots of Charlotte's memories the older version of the woman being reflected in a window and scoffing at a poster taped to the glass saying a dark haired gentleman wasn't ready for various reasons listed below his image and that they should vote for a different party.

Subtle propaganda but propaganda all the same.

In the textbook though it's always shown from the view of one sides, never any 'recovered' letters or notes from the other side showing why things were happening or how the fight was affecting them. It was so subtle that she wasn't surprised no one from this world noticed, if they were never shown any other way then this would be their normal; only seeing with one set of eyes.

History was written by the victors and those to contradict them are usually wiped out.

From her memory she knows the bare minimum of the truth; she knows that Noland the Liar wasn't lying, she knows that Ohara was destroyed because of the poneglyphs and Robin was accused of something she didn't do. She knows about the Amber Lead Syndrome from the 'White City' of Flevance and how the Marines got the nobles out but not the rest of the population leaving them to their damned fate.

But her knowledge of the world only goes so far and can only be reminded of certain things through books for so long before she need actual answers from someone who has seen both the best and the worse in the world. There are things she doesn't know like just how one gets to Raftel or if there is a way to break seastone cuffs and these are things she knows she needs to learn even if it means experimenting on herself but she hopes it doesn't have to go that far.

"Ah," he blinks at her owlishly not expecting the book to cover his paperwork or for herself to plop down on top of her liberated book, "what's up Songbird?" He looks tired, evident by the bags under his eyes but Wren can place why that would be as the last few nights have been quite peaceful for once with no midnight storms battering the ship to jolt her awake. "Papa's a little busy right now with captain stuff." There is a part of her that is bothered by his attempt to brush her off, the chasm between them growing everytime he tries to brush her off when she wants to be with him and only coming to see her when he wants.

Except, this time she isn't going to be brushed aside like an unwanted pet only to be interacted with when it was convenient for him. She is going to get her answers whether she has to act her mental age or push aside her pride and act her physical age.

She would not be going into this world blind.

It's cold out.

And he's hungry.

Mostly, he's hungry.

One Monkey D. Luffy, future pirate king and not a stinky marine, held his knees closer to his chest trying to ward off the chilly air of the night as he sat as close as he could to the small fire he had created in the rocky alcove at the bottom of the cliff Ace had pushed him down a few hours earlier.

He listened to his stomach grumble again wishing that the mushrooms he had picked not long before hadn't tasted so bad or else he would brave leaving his spot to go find more to try and fill himself up. They had looked so good, the red with white spots standing out in the mass of green everywhere but the moment he had bit into one he had felt green.

He still couldn't understand how one could feel a colour and both Shanks and Makino had tried to tell him but he had gotten bored listening to them and just went back to eating his food wishing he could tell them what they were talking about was boring but Makino had told him after the first couple of times that doing that was rude and he liked Makino she made good food and laughed at his jokes so he wouldn't do it around her.

If only Ace wasn't such a butt head. All he was trying to do was get to know the other boy, after all Gramps had told them to look after each other and since the bandits were stupid they should be friends. But every time he tried to go after the other boy he would always lose him no matter if it was because Ace knocked down a tree to try and crush him - it's always fun to blow himself back up after those times - or if he had just disappeared behind a big tree.

Stupid Gramps, he'd show him. One day he was going to be king of the pirates and there was no way he could be a marine then and wouldn't that make his Gramps mad. Serves him right. He was going to see Shanks again and show him just how strong of a pirate he had become.

Maybe he should have tried to climb the cliff, at least then he could be back at the house with a warm meal even if it was only a bowl of rice and water he could always steal off the bandits plates when they weren't looking.

If only he had someone to go hunting with, someone who could help him take down that big croc that almost ate him when he went chasing after Ace one day. Then they could be friends and maybe Ace would want to be friends with them as well then all three of them could be friends and they could hunt together and live together and they wouldn't need those stupid bandits.

His stomach growled again as he stared into the small flickering fire.

He was hungry.

A/N:

So sorry about the late update, did not realize until last night that it was time to update this story. And working until 10 did not help me get home at a reasonable time.

Also, Red Dead Redemption 2 has been kicking my butt these last few weeks. Such a good game but it breaks my heart.

I'll try to be more on time next month but as always, leave a comment telling what you liked or what you didn't as I can't improve unless I hear back from you readers.