Chapter 13 - His Son, Lonely Hearts, and Epsilons
Updated: 12/2017
Published: 11/2016
#FFFFFFFFF#
AN: Merry Christmas everyone! Extra long chapter for you and you and you! Thank you so much for all the faves, follows, and reviews so far. I had a hell of a time with Ace, first time writing him, so hope he's in character for you all. Also posting with the app on my phone again (and getting more creative with the breaks because of it) because I'm still getting 503s on the computer. Get a new datacenter or servers or something, FF. This is getting ridiculous.
#FFFFFFFFF#
"Riyo, keep an eye on that bottomless pit. I don't want to spend a beli more than necessary! And we need to keep a low profile!"
Said the woman screeching at the top of her lungs. Although Riyo was glad to know Nami had her priorities straight: captain babysitting, money, and then damage control.
She threw a wave over her shoulder in acknowledgement as she followed Luffy's rabid run at a more sedate pace.
Luffy was like a bloodhound on a scent trail. He veered off to the left and unerringly followed a seemingly random direction, cutting through shoppers and stalls without a care for the angry tide left behind.
Riyo was already grinning when Luffy launched himself at a bar at the end of the street.
She scanned his destination quickly for any ill intent. Knowing Luffy, he'd manage to inadvertently offend some centuries old custom by charging in blindly as usual.
[Bwahahahahahahaha!]
The maniacal laughter from the beast should have been her first warning.
Riyo made it through the door as Luffy slammed into the back of a marine. Considering Ryuko abruptly lost it, cackling in their mind and rolling in mirth, Riyo was going to guess the marine was what had set it off.
Riyo had no memory of the man. She could only guess they must have encountered him sometime during somnum.
She had a second's impression of him as he flew. A solid-built human with white hair, a heavy white marine's jacket, and a lot of cigars. He had the buzzing energy her instincts associated with a fruit user--the same buzz as the man he slammed into at the bar.
Both of the poor bastards went crashing through the bar, through the back wall...and then through more walls by the sound of it.
Riyo shrugged. They'd be fine.
The beast seemed to be collecting itself now that the marine was gone. The fanged grin in her mind wasn't reassuring.
[Smokey tried to hurt Alpha.]
Riyo stopped and cocked her head. "Hurt how?"
A few of the locals in the crowd--which, why was there a crowd to begin with?--glanced at her when she spoke. She ignored them.
{Take his head,} the Other supplied disinterestedly.
"Really," she purred. It wasn't a nice sound.
Luffy glanced at the wreckage of the bar before sitting. "Hey, you know you have a giant hole in your bar?"
Riyo laughed as she hopped up to sit on the stool next to her captain. She propped her head lazily in her hand while she rested an elbow on the wooden bar top. Nami had loaned her a cotton, orange strapless dress to use in the desert heat and she settled it around her knees.
"That was you, Luffy."
He blinked. "Oh. Oops."
"That's all you have to say?!" the crowd roared behind them.
She swung her bare feet since she couldn't touch the floor from the stool and giggled again. No shoes garnered her a few odd looks considering she was walking barefoot through scorching sand and stone, but people had seen weirder on the Grand Line.
Luffy completely forgot about the hole to grin at her. "Are you hungry, Riyo? We need food, bar guy!"
"I'm not, but thank you, Luffy. You eat."
Luffy blinked, as if his brain couldn't process someone turning down food. "Are you sick?"
Riyo laughed again. She seemed to do that a lot with Luffy. "No, not at all. Ryuko and I are thinking. We can't decide if we want to dismember that marine slowly and leave him alive as a useless head and torso, or if we should maul him and watch him bleed out on the floor. We're also deciding how we're going to get out of paying for your property damage while avoiding Nami. And philosophizing if this crew is actually capable of keeping a low profile. Or at least not getting involved, detained, engaged, or otherwise embroiled in unknown local contentions."
The whole crowd in the bar that had gathered for whatever reason blinked.
"Did I hear that right?" an old man asked the woman standing next to him a little too loudly.
The woman nodded slowly.
"What'd the marine do?"
And that is why she agreed to Luffy's promise. He always understood her context. He didn't judge her less-than-socially-acceptable ramblings.
"Ryuko said he tried to take your head at some point."
"Really?" He scratched his head below the brim of his hat. "I don't remember that."
"Don't worry about it. Here, food." Riyo shoved the plate the barkeep placed in front of them with a shaking hand at Luffy. Distraction complete.
While Luffy ate the barkeep stared at her like she was a rabid dog about to snap its leash which was completely unjustified.
She was embracing the freedom of her new promise to Luffy. She wouldn't actually (probably wouldn't) do it.
Most likely.
Surely.
That wasn't saying--since she was going to accept the inevitable loss of her mind in the face of all that is Luffy, willingly chained by her promise to the boy anyway--she wasn't going to bring everyone else into the rubber hurricane of insanity with her.
She stared back at the barkeep. And didn't blink. The perks to being a sea queen: a clear membrane for her eyes in any form. She could always win staring contests.
After a few seconds Riyo smiled innocently at the human, but she didn't blink. Luffy continued eating, blissfully unaware that Riyo was contemplating which joints to start with if she did go the dismembering route with the marine while staring down the human.
A rubber hand patted her head as it was stretched out to pick up a new plate of food, startling her from her staring. She looked at her captain.
He grinned at her around the unidentifiable mush piled in his mouth.
Riyo sighed but smiled back at him, relaxing against the bar. She thought she heard the barkeep give a sigh of relief.
Luffy obviously wasn't as unaware as she thought. It may have been due to the deepened bond or his own skill, Riyo had no idea. At this point she would assume nothing about Luffy's perception, as contradictory as that sentence seemed on the surface.
Riyo turned her attention to the hole in the wall instead. She was waiting with a smirk for the marine when he stomped through and zeroed in on them.
"Strawhat! I've been looking for you!"
Luffy didn't stop eating as he stared at the marine. And ate and stared. And kept eating and staring.
He honestly didn't remember the man. Riyo grinned wider.
[Smokey. Won't forget him.]
{Tried to hurt Alpha.}
"Oh please, I'm sure you didn't even acknowledge Luffy at that point."
{Mine,} came the dangerous snarl.
She rolled her eyes.
Smokey, as the beast called him (and aptly going by the lit cigar), stopped short when Luffy didn't even slow down shoveling his food in. Probably didn't help Riyo was talking to the air.
The marine stared at them as if he couldn't decide if they were serious or not.
"Dis dah muhreen?"
"Yep," Riyo said.
Luffy swallowed his mouthful. Stared at the man. Looked at her. Looked back at the man. Stared back at her and then his eyes widened comically as he abruptly leaned forward and shoved everything edible on the bar counter into his mouth like a demented chipmunk.
"Bad's Bomer!"
"Oh, so Smoker is his name. Figured Smokey was a nickname," Riyo said calmly.
"Strawhat!" the man growled, a scowl firmly on his face.
Luffy grabbed Riyo's arm and shot up fast enough to knock over his stool as he scattered the crowd and dashed for the door, cheeks bulging.
Riyo let Luffy's arm stretch farther and farther while she stared at Smoker.
"Sorry to cut our meeting short, Smoker. You seem like a perfectly nice marine man, if a bit obsessive compulsive. Why so serious?" Riyo smiled wider at his deepening scowl and slowly clenching fists. "I'd advise you don't touch a hair on my captain's head. It'd be a shame if I had to kill you and get blood on Nami's dress. She'd charge me an arm and a leg; I'd have to pay her with yours."
Riyo's amicable grin never faded as she wiggled the fingers of her free hand at Smoker. She saw a vein in his forehead pop.
"Toodles!" she called out as she was yanked away.
She thought she heard a voice yell, "Wait, Lu!" as she went, but she was more concerned by the marine's enraged shout and the smoke at their heels.
Awesome. A logia devil fruit.
#FFFFFFFFF#
They led Smoker and his marines on a destructive chase through the city.
Riyo and Ryuko were sniggering and snickering like children the entire time, pulled along by Luffy's hand warm in their own.
At some point they picked up the crew in their mad dash, but that didn't last long with Zoro's sense of direction and Riyo's own nudges to keep them out of the direct line of fire.
Riyo may have alerted more than a few of the dozens of marines chasing Luffy and her accidentally-on-purpose to distract them from the crew.
It didn't encourage her at all when Luffy laughed, clear and free and happy, next to her; when he threw her one of his too wide grins, eyes sparkling with mischief, when he realized what she was doing.
Smoker managed to eventually pin them down, but it was only Riyo and Luffy. The crew, she knew, were already on Merry--she had been tracking them all as they went.
Riyo was too high on adrenaline and adventure and the sound of Luffy's laughter to care about the smoke billowing towards them. She was poised to move herself and Luffy safely out of harm's way when she felt a presence.
A man jumped in front of them from the roof of a building and blocked the attack with a plume of fire. He turned his head to shoot her captain a familiar grin.
Riyo felt her hearts lurch and her stomach drop to her toes.
"Lu, I've been looking all over for you!"
The wind shifted.
A faint scent carried by the sea breeze washed by. A scent burned into her mind decades ago. It was diluted and tinged with the smell of warm wood smoke, different from Smoker's sweet-sharp cigar, and poignantly perfect meshed with the salt in the air.
She remembered her argument with Kureha.
She remembered the angry confusion, choking despair, and brittle loss when old Alpha chose to be executed rather than die on his own terms at sea.
Most of all she remembered the damning hope. The stupid hope that refused to die day after day.
The reason was warm and alive and grinning at Luffy.
This man was Roger's child.
Her world condensed to the man in front of her and the sheer relief slowly filling the hole her hope had been digging year after year after decade into her mind.
Cowboy hat, no shirt, thick beaded necklace, shorts, and heavy boots. There was some kind of lined tattoo on his arm done in black ink she could see from the side and Whitebeard's mark in color covered the expanse of his back.
She knew from her reports from various sea life, tabs she kept on all of the Yonkos, exactly who he was: Portgas D. 'Firefist' Ace, Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. One of the Old Man's cherished sons.
Riyo didn't remember falling to her knees onto the stone street next to Luffy.
She didn't remember pressing a hand to her mouth to stifle the keen of Ryuko's pain or the Other's growl of angry disbelief.
This entire time, this whole time, he had been right there. All these years she could have held him, loved him, protected him.
The memories played over and over, the clues, the hints, all of it clicking into place.
Roger's lover Rouge had been pregnant.
Roger died to protect her and his unborn son and lover.
Ace was the wrong age, Riyo could tell; the woman must have held her pregnancy to protect him. Nearly impossible, but rouge could have done it out of anyone Riyo knew.
It explained where Crocus went, her old Omega, when Ray was working to piece her back together. Rouge couldn't have survived the birth having held it so many months.
Baby Ace had been left alone in the world.
Riyo moved the hand from her mouth to reach out to Ace, afraid he might be a cruel mirage from the heat. Her other hand latched onto the thin fabric of Luffy's vest near her head in some attempt to ground herself.
Did Crocus raise him? Did Ray, when she left?
Why did Ace use Portgas? Was it for safety, or something more?
Ace spun further to face them when she fell. His eyes, open and full of exasperated warmth for Luffy, chilled into a careful balance of polite but wary as he looked at her. "Is she okay?"
Oh. No. It wasn't for safety. He didn't use Portgas out of safety at all.
Riyo knew those eyes. She saw them reflected in her crew when they remembered their time before Luffy. She saw them in her own reflection each day.
The world hated the Pirate King. Why would they treat his son any better?
"Luffy--" she cut herself off from using Alpha, no matter how Ryuko was keening it over and over in her mind. Smoker was within hearing distance. "Luffy, he's here. Is he here? He's alive. Buzzing fruit energy. How is he alive? Am I hallucinating again, Luffy? Oh seas, he's here and it's not in my head."
Riyo kept rambling as she stared at the Whitebeard pirate--a successful rookie in his own right and now a division commander for a Yonko. The Strongest Man in the World.
She remembered the reports. He tried to kill the Old Man over a hundred times to claim the title of World's Strongest.
The reports had made her laugh at the time, something too rare, because she knew the Old Man was humoring him.
Now it all made sense and she hated, hated everyone that drove Ace to feel the need to justify his own existence. To separate himself from his blood.
She should have been there to protect him. She should have given him the love he needed.
Deceptively strong arms grabbed her shaking hands and wrapped around her shoulders. Somehow she found herself riding piggy back on Luffy. Her gaze was stuck firmly on the dark haired man.
Roger's son had found Luffy, somehow.
"It's my fault; I should have told her. She's really happy to see you, Ace. I'm gonna take her back to the ship. Take care of Smoker and then you can come meet my crew! Shishishishi!"
Yes, Luffy should have told her, but she couldn't be angry with her Alpha. Seas knew Ace would hate anyone knowing the truth if Riyo had all of the clues right.
"See me? Luffy, what--"
Luffy didn't even wait for a response as he took off at a sprint, a wall of smoke crashing like a tidal wave after them.
It was a good thing Luffy could stretch, or she probably would have broken his collarbones twisting around to see the equally massive wall of flame that met the smoke as the two Commanders went head on.
#FFFFFFFFF#
Riyo was sitting, wrapped in a thick blanket, and drinking a cup of hot cocoa on the deck of the Merry.
No, it was not odd to need the extra heat in over a hundred degree weather, Chopper--you need heat for shock, Chopper. Yes, sea queens can go into shock, Chopper. Be happy I don't need a volcanic vent on the sea floor, Chopper.
Riyo took another drink.
She may have spiked it from Zoro's stash when Sanji wasn't looking.
Sea queens only laid a single egg at the end of their life. One egg in the deepest trenches of the ocean.
Hatchlings were sacrosanct. Children were cherished, no matter the species.
It was an instinct so ingrained even the Other upheld it in their worst rages; they had orphaned entire islands and never made a scratch on a child.
Ace had been abandoned who the hell knows where. He had been abandoned and alone, hunted and hated by the world when he was a defenseless baby. Human babies were even more vulnerable than sea queen hatchlings. At least sea queens were born full grown and self-sufficient.
Ace was hers. He was always hers. He simply didn't know it yet.
[Mine] Ryuko butted in.
{Strong,} the Other snarled. {Mine.}
"Ours," she snapped at them both.
Across the deck, Usopp and Vivi jumped and shifted closer to where Zoro was leaning next to the stairs for the upper deck. The swordsman peeked open an eye to look at her before dismissing the outburst and going back to his upright nap.
Yes, Ace was theirs now. He had always been theirs, he simply didn't know it.
They hadn't known it, either, but Roger's son was never going to be alone again.
Riyo owed the Old Man for giving Ace a home. She knew the Yonko or Marco couldn't have missed who his father was.
Damn.
She pressed the warm mug to her forehead. She'd have to do something to pay back the unexpected debt to Whitebeard. A life debt to a Yonko known as the Strongest Man in the World could get...bloody.
Riyo also wanted to figure out why the hell Ace smelled like the pigeon; she knew Marco's scent from far too many friendly spars together. Her only conclusion made her want to put the idea of phoenix rebirth to the test.
That turkey bonfire was going to have hell to pay if he thought he could claim Ace as his mate without going through her first.
[Stupid flaming pineapple.]
Her claws flexed, gouging the clay of the mug in her hands.
She hadn't been able to retract them since Luffy left with her.
She wouldn't be able until Ace made it to the Merry safe, as stupid as that was. He was an experienced pirate. He had been a captain of his own crew. He had made it to the New World before becoming a commander for Whitebeard. He obviously knew how to take care of himself.
Riyo absently noted Sanji refilling her cup with more hot cocoa. She sloshed it into what was left of the first, hoping some of the alcohol was still there.
It would take enough booze to kill a sea king to get her on the nearest path to drunk, but the burn was a pleasant way to distract herself.
Zoro drank some strong shit.
"Thanks," she muttered into her cup.
"Of course, Riyo-san!"
Riyo stared at the shore and counted the seconds since they left.
She never claimed she was rational about these things.
#FFFFFFFFF#
"...and I've never been able to beat Ace in a fight, even before he got that awesome power! I'd love to try it now!"
They had been sitting offshore for what felt like hours, passing the time as Luffy told them a little about his older brother by three years. Riyo was the only one who seemed to realize it wasn't by blood.
Her wavering attention snapped to Luffy at the railing as Ace vaulted up and knocked the boy out of place to crouch in the spot himself.
"Who do you think you're gonna beat?" he poked at her captain.
Riyo stood up, dropping the blanket to the ground and shoving the empty mug into a hovering Chopper's hands.
Luffy went bounding over to Ace, "Ace? What are you doing out here?"
"Didn't you get my note in Drum, Lu?"
"Huh?" Luffy asked.
Ace waved a hand. "Never mind."
Riyo stood next to Luffy, inches from his brother. She hadn't blinked yet, afraid he would disappear.
"Hey, you're that girl. Glad you're feeling better."
His words were polite, but his eyes were still wary, on edge, distrustful at their core.
Hidden pain aside, he looked so much like Roger it was dejavu.
[Ours. Hurting, alone.]
They had so many years to make up for.
{Claim him!} the Other snarled, jerking forward enough in her mind she physically stumbled a halting step towards Ace.
"Woah, Riyo?" Luffy asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
She shook her head at Luffy before she looked right at Ace's small frown.
"I'm going to hug you now. Please don't run. Chasing doesn't end well for either of us."
There was a dual snarl and growl from Ryuko and the Other at the thought of Ace trying to escape their bond.
"Wha--"
Riyo grabbed his bare shoulder, far hotter than the human skin she expected.
The bond lurched from her chest to Ace's, coiling tight between them.
{ [ Ours. ] }
Riyo hissed as she pulled the connection back, bringing it down to a steady stream when it wanted to roar like a waterfall.
She had forgotten the work it took to establish an epsilon bond.
Ace made a startled half-shout; from his sudden loss of balance as she tipped him forward off the rail or from the building bond, she wasn't sure.
She crushed Ace to her chest, her arms squeezing as far around his shoulders as she could when he tried to struggle free.
"Lmph-mph-mphfph."
Riyo didn't really care what he was trying to say. She wasn't letting go until the bond was settled.
It wasn't like she'd permanently damage him from all of the yanking he was doing. He was a logia and she wasn't using haki.
Luffy stepped next to them to place a hand on Riyo's shoulder. She glanced at him. "I'm sorry, Riyo. Ace doesn't like to talk about it but I should have said something. You're my nakama."
"Is this the brother you--"
"Yeah," Luffy cut her off. He smiled at her, not his usual grin but something warm and sincere. "I'm glad you accepted Ace. He's kind of dumb. He needs the reminder sometimes and I'm not always there to do it."
"Mphrmph. Fumph-bphmf omph ophmph. Ampshpm!"
Riyo was fairly sure Ace was putting his pirate vocabulary to use there.
Riyo clenched her eyes shut and sucked in a steadying breath as the bond finally settled into place. She could feel Ace's buzz of confusion and anger. Even deeper was the stunned disbelief. As if he didn't deserve the affection.
As if she would take it back once she knew his secret.
Riyo let go of Ace. He stumbled back from her and promptly lit himself on fire. A normally solid defense, she was sure. Too bad he lacked one important fact the rest of the Straw Hats were already starting to realize...
"What the heck is wrong with you? You don't smother random people you meet!"
...Riyo wasn't normal.
"Pretty heater!"
She jumped forward and pressed her hand to Ace's chest. Her scales instantly surged up.
"Gah! You're going to burn yourself!"
"So cool!"
"Amazing, Riyo!"
What she imagined made Chopper and Luffy shout in tandem with Ace's startled warning was the color.
Her scales were their true color in Ace's fire. Sea queens were the most beautiful in the heat of their home, and they tended to live near or on underwater volcanos and vents-which was saying something on the Grand Line.
Something had to be toasty to get the same effect on land.
In Ace's fire her scales shed their usual skintone. They slid right past the dull black armor color--in truth a deep purple, but most couldn't tell. They even flashed past their standard signal colors and her usual matte blue, purple, and pink shading in her changed form.
Each scale in direct contact with Ace's fire turned a brilliant opalescent rainbow of blues, purples, greens, yellows, pinks, and oranges with the constant deep purple undertone for a base. They caught the light of Ace's own fire and the bright sunlight outside to shimmer, sparkle, and dance with color.
Riyo stepped closer to Ace, mindful of Nami's dress because she was not going to try to guess the interest and damages the navigator would charge her if she lit it on fire, and pressed her other hand next to the first. She was mesmerized when her fingers seemed to sink into his skin, fire licking at the edges where she pressed.
Ace was frozen with shock.
"What are you?" he finally got out. His flaming hand reached up to hold onto her forearm. The scales there turned the same brilliant shade as those around her hands and wrists. "What did you do?"
This time he glared, the words stronger as the anger took precedence. The hand on her arm flexed, squeezing tight enough it would have broken anyone else's bones.
"I can feel it like a tether in my chest."
Riyo met his quite literally blazing eyes with an even gaze. "Good. You have haki." She sighed and dropped her free hand. Ace hadn't let go of the other yet. "It's not a tether, it's a bond. I was a bit rusty on epsilon bonds and had to slow it down. The weight in your chest, the foreign emotions you feel, are real." Riyo smiled at him. Those hard eyes looked a little too vulnerable. Anger was easier than weakness, she knew. "They connect you to me."
"Why?" he snapped, equal parts angry and...embarrassed?
She wouldn't have any of that nonsense.
"Because you've been mine since the day you were born, Portgas D. Ace, and now I'm making it official."
He dropped her arm as if it had somehow burned him and opened his mouth to say something scathing, she was sure.
"No, the bond can't be broken unless one of us dies. No, I am not changing my mind even if that wasn't the case. No, I don't care what you think I don't know about you. I know all that I need to and your blood means nothing to me."
She grinned evilly at his sudden dropped jaw.
He spun to look at Luffy. "Lu-"
Luffy crossed his arms and shook his head. "Nuh uh. I wouldn't ever hurt you like that Ace. You're being dumb again."
Ace stalked over to Luffy and smacked his brother with a fist in the back of the head. Riyo noticed the flames were almost entirely gone from Ace's body.
"That's for both times you called me dumb, rubber brains! I'm your older brother, show some respect!"
Riyo laughed, drawing Ace's glower to her.
She clapped her hands. "Next issue. You stink like the pineapple."
The whole crew gave her a lost look, but Ace crossed his arms and stared her down.
"How do you know that? How do you know him at all?"
Riyo smiled at Ace, way too pleased to see him tense when she showed too many teeth. "I see the pigeon doesn't like to talk about me. Another tick on my shit list for him the next time I visit."
"Visit?" Ace parroted.
Riyo ignored the implied question to walk over to Ace. He didn't move away, although he stayed battle-tense.
She grabbed his face in her hands, shoved his cheeks together to stare at him with fishlips because she could, then yanked him down to rub each of her cheeks against his before swiping them across his chest as he tried to pull away.
"Excuse me!" He slapped at her hands. "Stop that, woman!"
He was so warm. There were many naps in their future. Yes, there were many naps to be had on her new heater epsilon.
She took a sniff. "Better, but it'll only last a few weeks." Riyo crossed her own arms this time and stared at Ace deadpan. "Tell that flaming excuse for a party trick the next time you see him that if he breaks your heart I'm eating his. I mean it."
"Breaks my hea--" Ace started.
"Oh come on!" Usopp cut him off. "What does it take to get in on this? I don't want to be eaten…" the sniper sobbed.
Ace stared at Usopp. Then a grinning Luffy who had been laughing his ass off since Ace hit him. And then the rest of the smirking and outright smiling crew.
Ace looked so done with this entire conversation Riyo nearly hugged him.
He was adorable.
Ace closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Lu, what the heck is going on?"
Riyo grinned. "You're ours now, Ace. Our Epsilon."
"Yes, you said--that…" Ace finished slowly, a dawning horror on his face as he stopped rubbing at his migraine (although Riyo knew a logia couldn't actually get one) before opening his eyes to look at her.
Riyo smirked, letting her scales fade into place across her chest and arms. She wiggled her fingers at him much as she had Smoker.
The irony of mocking both a marine and pirate commander the same way in one day was not lost on her.
Ace was starting to look paler as he stared at her scales. Riyo had the gleeful suspicion the Old Man kept his sons and daughters up on the old ways.
"The Old Man is still your Pops, Ace, and I know why you call him your father. He's a good man. But you fall into my protection, too. If I had known...if things had been different for us both who knows what could have changed. Maybe everything, maybe nothing, but there's no use crying about it at this point." She watched Ace for any small tells as she monitored the maelstrom of emotion across their bond. That was a hell of a chip on his shoulder. "You're no more your blood than I am, Ace," she said. "Your blood does not define the person you are," she said again, because he needed to hear it, and she would keep saying it as many times as it took for him to believe it.
He gave her a baleful look.
Riyo ignored it to face Ace. She straightened to her full height, for the first time using the traditional ceremony of binding for a new member of her pit.
She pressed the clawed tips of her right hand over her primary heart. "I've known you, Portgas D. Ace, and now I bind you." She moved her fingers from her heart to press them to her forehead. "I've watched you, Portgas D. Ace, and now I mark you as pit." She dropped her hand. "Known, watched, marked, and bound. In all ways, until death parts our ways, my Epsilon, Portgas D. Ace."
Knowing Whitebeard and Marco, and based on Ace's earlier reaction to the word, she could guess he knew what it meant.
She was right.
Ace dropped the backpack from his shoulder, his eyes comically wide and face pale.
He bowed formally to her, hands at his sides. He spoke to the deck. "My loyalty and protection to you, queen. To be known, watched, marked, and bound is an honor. In all ways, until death part our ways, may this claim stand true." He stumbled over the words slightly, likely dredging up old lessons and stories, but pulled it off admirably.
She smiled, some part of her preening and pleased to give and receive the traditional words of binding. "The honor is our own. My centuries three to you, epsilon."
Ace jolted up from his bow.
Riyo shrugged at his gaping mouth. "Figured the Old Man was kind enough to continue teaching my people's culture, I can share my age."
A sea queen's age was notoriously protected, only to be shared with the closest family and pit. Ace was aware of the taboo.
In the wrong hands and someone with the right knowledge--like the Old Man--key weaknesses could be used against her. At somewhere between three and four centuries she was only in the equivalent of her early to mid twenties for a human. She had outgrown many achilles heels, but she was still susceptible to the cold and her scales could still be pierced by a devastating enough force and will.
Her blood would not thicken to ward against the strength-sapping chill until she was over 500, and her scales wouldn't become impenetrable until somewhere in her seventh to eighth century--which wasn't completely unheard of considering they naturally lived over a millennium.
Ace bowed again to her, almost perfunctory, as if his brain defaulted to the action with no other ideas to use. "Thank you."
Ace watched her for a second longer before he abruptly spun away, sweeping over to grab Luffy by his vest and dragging the boy bodily over to an empty spot of deck.
Riyo grinned wider. "He's my Alpha," she called after the two.
Ace froze before he continued walking.
Riyo could still hear most of the muttered words.
"Seas damned--rubber-brained idiot--I leave you alone and this is--only you, Luffy."
Riyo didn't need to strain to pick up Luffy's response.
"Shishishi! Riyo likes you! She tried to eat most everyone else at first!"
The response to that was an inarticulate combination of a somewhat hysterical snort and a pained snarl.
Riyo was officially calling today a win when she got a Whitebeard division commander to snorl.
#FFFFFFFFF#
Ace left not too long after his fruitless conversation with Luffy.
Telling Luffy to slow down and think and be safe was asking a flower to stop blooming or a tree to stop growing. It went against the natural order.
She watched Ace give Luffy his vivre card. Not that her captain realized what the card meant.
Riyo knew how expensive and time consuming they were to make. It was unlikely Ace had one made arbitrarily on the off chance he found Luffy. No, Ace had purposefully tracked down Luffy to deliver the vivre card because the Whitebeard pirate was on a mission with a high chance to get himself killed.
Riyo didn't like that. She had only found Ace today. She had twenty years to make up for and that stupid pyro was going to damn well live for her to make it up.
[Selfish.]
Yes. She was.
Ace made to leave, ready to take care of the marine ships heading towards the Merry.
Riyo stopped him with a question. "What are you actually doing in Paradise, Ace?"
The pirate was crouched on the railing, ready to drop onto his skiff. He watched Riyo from beneath the brim of his cowboy hat.
"I'm looking for someone. He killed a crewmate for his devil fruit and fled."
Riyo felt her eyes change as her claws slid out and dug into the railing.
"He killed crew? For power?"
Ace nodded at her.
"I made a promise to Luffy," she started, "that I would pretend to have a devil fruit as long as possible. Unless someone on the crew would die by my inaction, I would willingly chain myself for my Alpha. If this someone is in Paradise hiding I want to know who it is. I want to keep the crew clear or I will be far too tempted to test that promise."
Ace eyed her. "He goes by Blackbeard now. His name is Marshall D. Teach."
Riyo's claws spasmed and crushed the chunk of railing under hand to splinters. The split second wave of killing intent swept across the deck.
She held up a hand at the sound of dress shoes and swords but didn't look away from Ace.
"I'm fine. I'm in control. Startled for a moment but I'm good."
The chef and swordsman relaxed marginally but didn't go far.
"You know him?" Ace asked.
"I would have happily ripped off his head, fed his corpse to the sea kings on the calm belt, and punted his skull across the Red Line if I knew he was still alive, let alone on the Old Man's crew. I've met him. Didn't kill him only because my old Alpha stopped me. Then didn't kill him again once I heard where Red got his scar because I wasn't sane enough to focus that long. I figured the coward would have been dead by now from his own arrogance but the Old Man is getting soft. Teach is dangerous, Ace. More so if he has a fruit."
"I've heard every warning, believe me, but Teach was in my division. The man he killed was a friend. It's my responsibility, and I won't let him get away with it."
That mulish look was all too familiar. Roger never did back down from a fight, no matter the odds.
Riyo knew she was largely a stranger to Ace. Any warnings she gave him would mean nothing. Only time and her actions would change his view on her, but time was something she didn't have. She settled for the next best thing.
Blunt honesty.
"You're under my protection, Ace. You think you know what that means, but I can ensure you whatever you've heard has been vastly under embellished." She felt the ping of disbelief across the bond. "No. Those stories were from long ago, with sea queens that were more or less sane." She flashed her teeth, not trying to hide what she was. "I don't remember what having a whole mind feels like. You can't live for decades in pieces and parts and not change. Whatever you've heard, I will do it and more. So much more." She paused to look at him, to tell him without words how serious she was. "Be safe, Ace, or I will protect you."
Ace smiled at her. That damned D smile.
She hated that smile, sometimes. That smile was beautiful and heartbreaking and holy shit, Ace knew there was a high, high chance that he was going to die if he kept going after Blackbeard.
Then Ace was leaping over the edge of the Merry to land on his skiff and fire was shooting through the marine ships. They shattered with destructive force before Portgas D. Ace was gone.
He never verbally answered her.
If possible she hated that smile a little more.
Ace may not understand what it meant to be hers. The same way Luffy and Zoro and Nami and Chopper didn't understand.
They thought they did. After Vivi, everyone on the crew thought they understood the potential.
Everyone always thought they understood her claim until it was put to the test--and it was always tested.
The line was always pushed because the world was dangerous and arrogant and people were drunk on their own tea cup of power and they thought they could take what she would not give.
Then they all realized the human form a sea queen chose was only that: a form. An easy role to embrace.
When they pushed, and Riyo did not bend, the role fell away.
Riyo would not let any of them go.
She absently listened to Usopp chastise her for breaking the railing while she watched Ace disappear on the horizon.
Riyo would make Whitebeard's protective streak look like a child's tantrum the moment someone tried to take what was hers.
#FFFFFFFFF#
After the roller coaster with Ace, it was almost child's play for Riyo to watch a warlord topple.
It was not easy, or glamorous. War never was. But Riyo was viciously satisfied to watch Crocodile's plans crumble.
She did not enjoy being relegated to backup by Chopper, doctor's orders, when her need for water became a real issue. She was forced to stay with Sanji for most of the fun part.
Smoker's face when he realized Luffy had commanded Zoro save the marine too somewhat made up for it.
#FFFFFFFFF#
In the few days of safety they had in Vivi's home, Riyo made note of every wound on her pit and crew. Particularly Luffy.
Crocodile would be going to Impel Down courtesy of the royal family.
Riyo would find him one way or another, even if she had to break into the prison, and repay him for leaving Luffy for dead in the desert. That was saying nothing for the poison pumping through her captain.
#FFFFFFFFF#
They were finally sailing out from Alabasta, all of them proudly displaying their arms for Vivi's speech.
While Miss All Sunday, better known as Nico Robin, hid below deck.
Riyo was torn between being amused by or being resigned to the way Luffy seemed to collect crew members. It really was a toss-up.
The stowaway had built an impressive mask. Everything about her said she was calm, in control, capable, and deadly. Even using her instinct, Riyo could barely scrape past the shield. The woman had built a true shell around the upper layer of her mind and emotions.
Riyo wasn't normal, however. Instinct ran deeper than haki. And Miss All Sunday was an onion. Layers and layers beneath the sharp, crackling skin. Sweet and savory, stinging and burning.
[Sad. Alone. Unwanted. Hunted.]
{Strong. Survival. Smart. Deadly.}
Nico Robin was a broken woman with no place to call home.
The echo of kinship was the reason Riyo didn't say a word about their stowaway until the woman decided to reveal herself.
Then she did.
Displaying her cunning with her speech and her intimidation with her devil fruit, Nico Robin made an entrance.
Hiding the loneliness. Hiding the pain. Hiding the distrust and hatred of the world and the bone-deep weariness.
"Wait!" Nami abruptly turned to her. "Why the hell didn't you say anything? You had to know she was on the ship!"
She shrugged a shoulder at the navigator. "I did." She figured someone would realize it sooner or later.
"What, that's it?" Nami screeched. She pointed at Riyo. "You knew, and you let the freaking assassin woman who was trying to kill us board our ship?" She pointed at Robin as she shouted at Riyo. "You let the assassin woman who has long range devil fruit powers onboard?"
Riyo nodded.
Nami stomped over. Riyo didn't try to stop the redhead shaking her until she saw three Nami's raging in front of her. "What. The hell. Is wrong. With you?"
"Sh-she wah-wah-was lone-lonely." She managed to get out between shakes.
Riyo slipped under Nami's thankfully slack arms at the words and stumbled around a moment getting her balance back. Once Robin was no longer folding sideways in her vision, she made her way over to the woman.
Robin did not move as she got near, and Riyo was impressed with her acting. There was the barest hint of tightening around her eyes, a twitch of muscle to outwardly show her discomfort.
Her emotions were almost scarily neutral. Robin had trained herself to kill with not a single doubt. She had become the assassin in order to live.
It only cemented Riyo's decision.
She closed the final few feet between them.
Robin's breathing was slightly too quick to be calm, although she kept that I-know-30-ways-to-kill-you-right-now-or-maybe-I'm-simply-admiring-the-scenery smile on her face.
Riyo leaned slowly forward. When nothing bloomed from her body to snap her neck, she took one of Robin's hands gently in hers before she placed their faces side by side and rubbed her cheek firmly against Robin's in a claiming.
The bond furled out to join them, and this time Riyo was prepared. She let it roll out smoothly and slowly as she kept hold of Robin's hand.
"Aw, come on!" Usopp wailed. "You take a rival pirate, even if he is Luffy's brother, and then the assassin lady as pit? But Sanji and I are still out? What the hell are the rules here?" Usopp grabbed his hair as he walked agitatedly around the deck. He pointed at her. "Seriously, what are the rules?!"
She glanced at Usopp from the corner of her eye. "She is my Epsilon." That was all the answer there was. She let go of Robin's hand, the bond settled fully.
She pulled back as slowly as she had moved forward.
"Fascinating," Robin whispered, watching them all interact.
It's the first crack in her armor that Riyo has seen. Robin's eyes are a little too wide, her breathing a hair too quick. Shock and surprise bleed through the shell of her emotions before Robin locks them down again.
Layers; all the layers. Nico Robin was still water hiding undertows and raging currents.
Riyo always loved a good puzzle.
"You're an archaeologist," Riyo said instead. "You're looking for the answer to the Void Century, so I'm sure you know almost every sordid detail surrounding it."
Robin stared at her flatly. Riyo made a mental note to never challenge her to poker.
"You're not a stupid or a foolish woman, Robin. You know exactly what I am and what I can do. And probably a lot of sea queen etiquette these heathens lack," she added as an afterthought.
Riyo ignored the indignant shouts and grumbling from the crew.
"You're part of the crew and part of my pit now. You're under our protection. Even if it means protecting you from yourself."
Riyo knew what desperation could do when you finally had someone you thought you could trust; when your heart and mind warred over the pain of experience and the foolish hope you couldn't crush beneath reality.
Riyo knew how much it could tear you up and drive you to the edge. Adding suicidal tendencies into that mix wasn't going to end well for anybody; Robin wasn't fooling Riyo about what happened in the poneglyph room with Luffy and Crocodile.
Things would get worse before they got better.
"I don't let go of what's mine, Nico Robin. Luffy even less."
"Yeah, you're my nakama now, Robin! Riyo didn't even try to eat you! That's two in one day!"
"What." Robin said, focusing on Luffy.
Definitely a demand, not a question.
"Shishishishi, Riyo usually tries to eat anyone new on the crew. She didn't even snap at you!"
Riyo pressed her fingers to the growing headache at her temple. Unlike a certain fire logia, she wasn't being dramatic.
Why was Riyo's aversion to touching people she didn't take as her own a running thing with Luffy? Of everything he could possibly focus on?
"I didn't try to eat everyone, Luffy. I only snap at people who aren't pit or who annoy me. I was healing anyway for most of them. It was the Other and Ryuko in control at the time. I don't eat people," she emphasized--then thought better of it. "At least not anymore. Usually."
"Why?" Usopp groaned, heading to the galley. "Why do you say these things?"
Riyo shrugged.
It was the truth--and, if she was being honest, she loved watching Usopp's reactions.
She was a bitch, wasn't she?
"Fascinating," Robin says again, a little louder, as she watches them.
Yeah, Riyo was going to get along fine with her new epsilon.