Chapter Four

A Time Long Forgotten

The Straw Hat pirates sat in silence, staring at the emotionless blonde kneeling in front of them. Nami stood up and walked towards Aries. The navigator gripped her hand in a tight fist. She raised her fist and struck the girl hard, knocking her over. The blonde sheep girl fell onto her side. A small yelp passed through her lips and her eyes burned fiercely.

Aries glared up at the older girl and bared her teeth. "What was that for?"

Nami shook her hand, her knuckles bruised and scratched from the rough bone horns on the blonde's head. She leveled her glare with Aries. "I don't understand how you can say that! You sound like you don't care about being the property of pirates!"

A low growl rumbled in her throat as she pushed herself into a crouching position. "Of course I care! I hate it! All I want is to be free! But I can't get away from them! They're too strong!"

The orange haired girl gritted her teeth, her heavy wooden staff spinning in her hand. "You have Devil Fruit powers! Doesn't that mean you're like super strong?"

The blonde girl felt her throat tighten around the words she wanted to scream. She felt the fleece gloves start to shift against her arms. "I don't know how to use my powers!"

She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet and pushed off them, leaping at Nami, fist pulled back. Her young face contorted into an ugly scowl.

Before she could fully extend her arm, the green haired man grabbed her wrist with his much larger hand. He twisted her arm behind her back and held his sword to her throat. She held her breath, eyes wide in fear, and cast panicked glances to the other crew members. Sanji was yelling at the swordsman for being rough with the small blonde, but Aries couldn't really make out his words. She struggled in his grip, but he was much stronger than her.

After a few minutes of fruitless struggle, she gave up and let her body fall limp in Zoro's grasp. She raised her head and saw Usopp standing in front of her, a sad expression on his face. His left cheek was still red and puffy from her punch earlier. She cast her eyes away in shame.

"We can help you, ya know. We're strong. If you would just tell us how to, I just know we can set you free." His eyes shined with honesty as he pleaded with her. He looked at Zoro and nodded his head. The man grunted and released her arm from his iron grip.

Aries stumbled forward and Usopp quickly grabbed her upper arms to help steady her. She nodded her head numbly before turning to look at the other pirates on the deck. Her deep blue eyes took in the sight of the other four pirates before turning back to the long nosed boy holding her up. She hardened her gaze and jutted out her chin defiantly.

"How do I know I can trust you? You all are pirates."

"If we were gonna hurt you, don't you think we would've done it by now?" Luffy spoke from his spot on the wooden deck of the ship, eyes shining with his innocent honesty.

The sheep girl let her eyes search his for any sign of lies, and when she didn't see any, she turned back to Usopp. She let out a heavy sigh and moved out of the sniper's grip. She knelt down in front of the Straw Hat crew and they gathered around her.

"I was born on an island in the North Blue that specialized in training fisherman. It was a beautiful place that was warm year round, and the fisherman from our island were the best of the best. There wasn't a fish market in the world that didn't have at least one fisherman from our island." Her voice sounded far away as she spoke. Images of the turquoise waves and small boats floating just off the shore passed her mind's eye. As she spoke, she slowly untied the rope that was holding the roll of wool against her back. It fell against the deck soundlessly.

"My father was one of the best teachers the island had so he had a lot of students. One day, when he and his students were pulling in one of the drag nets, they found a strange looking fruit among the fish. It was a large apple-shaped fruit, but it was pure white and fuzzy with a thick, brown, curled stem. One of the students recognized it as a Devil Fruit and immediately suggested that they sell it to pirates. Devil Fruits are very rare and some people are willing to pay millions of beri for one. But daddy wasn't so sure it was a good idea. There were really bad pirates in the North Blue around that time."

Aries paused and ran her fingers through her long bangs, shifting them out of her eyes. Luffy and Usopp were leaning forward, waiting for her to continue talking. Nami, Zoro, and Sanji looked less interested, but she could tell they were also waiting for her to start speaking again.

"Needless to say, the discovery of the fruit split the main village in two parts: those in favor of selling the fruit and those against it. Dad insisted that the fruit stay in our house, so no one could get to it. I was just a kid, but I could see the arguing and fighting escalating. I didn't want Dad to get hurt, so during one of the many arguments, I ate it. I ate the fruit without a second thought. I just wanted the fighting to stop. When Daddy realized what I had done, he was so mad. I remember he tried to hit me, but my horns had started to grow." She paused once again to run her fingers over the rough horns spiraling from her head.

"He got a pretty nasty cut from them." A small hollow laugh left her lips. "But he wasn't angry that I ate the fruit. Oh no. He was scared because one of his students had advertised the sale of the fruit already which meant that pirates were on their way. If they found out there was no more fruit to buy, things could get violent. And he was right. A few days later, a pirate crew came and started destroying the villages by the shore. It didn't take them long to find my father and I in our house. I don't remember much about them, but the captain, the man who killed my father…"

Her fists clenched on her knees. Her shoulders shook as she swallowed the sob that crept up her throat.

"His name was Bellamy, a rookie from the North Blue who had recently allied himself under a really powerful pirate in the Grand Line." Aries took a deep breath and raised her head to stare at a spot on the deck between two of the pirates across from her. She could feel herself retreating back into the depths of her mind.

"After they killed everyone on the island, they took me with them to the Grand Line to be sold in the biggest human auction house in the world. I was bought and sold so many times, I lost count. A year later, I was bought by the Captain Coyote and brought to the East Blue. I've been his slave for 4 years now. He has sold me to many people, only to kill them, steal everything of value, and of course, take me back to the ship to do it all over again on the next island."

She could tell that her voice was empty, but she didn't care. She looked up to observe the group's reactions. Sanji and Usopp looked at her kneeling figure with large teary eyes. Nami was frowning at her, but still looked wary. Zoro wasn't looking at her, instead, his eyes were on Luffy.

And Luffy was leaning back against the railing of the Going Merry, eyes shrouded by his signature straw hat. The young captain was silent for a few moments before getting to his feet. He walked over to Aries slowly, eyes still hidden by the rim of his straw hat. He stopped directly in front of her.

"Do you want to be free?"

Luffy's voice rang loud in her ears. She could feel his heated gaze on her skin. Her lips twitched down in a deep frown as she matched his heated gaze with her own.

"Just because I wish for it doesn't mean it will happen," she spoke harshly, the words dripping like poison from her lips. Aries could feel the familiar sting of tears behind her eyes.

The dark haired boy crouched down to be on her level. The blonde girl could finally see his eyes. He stared into her blue eyes with his intense, serious gaze. His black eyes mirrored his confident aura.

"Do you want to be free?" he asked again.

Aries couldn't hold back her tears any longer. They fell down her flushed cheeks like waterfalls as she sobbed.

"Yes!"

She covered her face with her gloved hands and sobbed into the soft fleece. She felt someone rub the top of her head gently.

"All right then! Let's go kick this Captain Coyote's ass!" Luffy shouted to the sky with a laugh. Sounds of agreement came from the rest of the crew.

The sheep girl looked up from her hands and watched as Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji made their way to the side of the ship.

"There is a slight problem, though," she spoke quietly, small hiccups interrupting her breathing.

"Hm?" The three boys turned to look at her.

"I don't know who Captain Coyote is or what he looks like. Not a lot of people on the crew know." She spoke hesitantly, as if afraid of how they would take the news.

The three tilted their heads, processing the information, before shouting in confusion.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THE CAPTAIN IS?!"