A/N: Beta by Navigator101, updated on 10/18/18.

Chapter 6

It always comes back to one thing:
You should be doing what makes you happy.

- Charles Orlando

"They all gone," Luffy whispered sadly. This was the quietest the ship had ever been. Even when they docked at an island, there would still be people on board doing things here and there. Never before had it been this quiet on Moby Dick. It was unnerving.

"It's okay," Ace patted Luffy's head. "The old man said they'd be back by dinner."

"At least Thatch left us lunch," Sabo commented as he rubbed his arm uncomfortably.

"I'm bored," Luffy whined. "Nobody to play with." More like no one to yell at them for pulling a prank.

"Let's take a nap then," Ace suggested. Anything else they did would just be too noisy in the quiet ship and alert anyone nearby that the ship wasn't as empty as it should be.

Just as they were making themselves comfortable on the floor of their hideout with a bunch of blankets Marco had given them, they heard someone climb onto the ship. Curious, they climbed back up the ladder and walked along a beam right under the deck. They could hear the person walking until he was right over them.

"Strange," they heard the man say. "Thought Whitebeard said everyone was off the ship."

Ace and Sabo gave each other a wide-eyed look, realizing that the man somehow knew they were still on board. Probably that Haki thing Marco said Luffy could do. "Seems you've gotten yourself some guardian angels, Moby," the man laughed and continued his walk.

Sabo mimed to Ace his thought of how the man was crazy for talking to the ship as if it were alive. The boys followed, staying as quiet as they could.

The man walked about the deck and into the cabins, opening and closing doors as if checking each room. The boys winced at a loud noise and the painful yelp. Ace and Sabo looked at each other with wide eyes. They had forgotten about that trap. All the others were taken down before everyone left, per Marco's instructions.

Ace opened up the trap door in the sleeping quarter hallway and peeked through. He saw an old man hanging uncomfortably in their net trap right in front of the Fourth Division's sleeping quarter.

"Ah, you there," the man looked right at Ace, "would you be so kind as to lend me a hand, please?"

Ace continued to look at the man for a few more moments before hesitantly climbing out and walking over. Again, he looked at the man, trying to decide if he really should help him out or not. "You're the ship coater, right?"

The man laughed. "That's right. The name's Rayleigh." Figuring the man wouldn't harm them since Whitebeard said he trusted him, Ace pulled a rope and released the man, who flipped and landed on his own two feet. "You must be one of Moby's guardian angels," Rayleigh said as he dusted his pants.

"Ace," he answered, remembering Sabo lecturing him about his manners, as he eyed Rayleigh warily.

The man nodded before tilting his head in the direction of where Sabo and Luffy were peeping through the door Ace had used. "And the other two?"

Ace glared at his two brothers for showing themselves, trying to decide if he should answer or not, but Luffy opened the door all the way and climbed out and ran over to hug Ace. "'m Luffy. That's my brother, Sabo." He pointed to the blond walking over to them.

Sabo bowed in front of the man. "Sorry about that. We forgot to take it down and didn't think you'd be walking around the ship." Ace followed suit and pushed Luffy into a bow as well.

Rayleigh waved at them dismissively and laughed. "Don't worry about it. I was just doing an inspection before I start my coating. By the way, what are you boys doing here?"

"The old man said to stay on the ship," Ace said, holding onto Luffy's hand.

"I see. I meant, why are you on this ship with Whitebeard?"

The boys gave the man a cautious look before running back to the trap door. "None of your business," Ace yelled before slamming the door shut.

Rayleigh scratched his head before he realized something. "There aren't any more of those traps, are there?" He called out to them. It's not like he couldn't get out of them easily, he just wanted to see who was still on the ship when he was told everyone had left.

"NO!" came Ace and Sabo's muffled shout back from under him.

The three kids followed the man from within their secret hideout, curious about the strange old man who talked to himself.

-*/

Rayleigh was under the sea, coating the bottom of the ship, when Luffy whispered that more people were coming towards the ship. They froze where they were in the back of the ship as they heard quiet footsteps on the deck, hoping the newcomers were just the ship coater's helpers.

"Are you sure they're on this ship?" they heard one say.

"I'm positive. I overheard some of Whitebeard's men talking about three kids they left on the ship, and they sounded a lot like those three brats that ran from Joker, don't you think?" The boys went pale at the mentioned name.

"Doesn't matter. If it's not them, we can still bring them back. I'm sure Joker wouldn't mind replacements."

"So? How do we get them to come out? I don't think they'd willingly come out to greet us."

"Easy. Destroy everything," one suggested. "We'll fish them out eventually."

"But this is Whitebeard's ship. There's no way we can fight them."

"Don't be stupid. The ship is empty. If there is anyone here, it'd be some wimpy coater." They all laughed in agreement.

The three boys quietly landed on the floor of the ship. "What do we do?" Sabo whispered urgently, and they jumped at the sound of wood cracking, a cold sensation running down Ace and Sabo's back.

"Dammit, the ship!" Ace said as he ran towards the trap door leading to the training room with his brothers following. Ace and Sabo both grabbed a bo staff before running out to the deck. Luffy, used to always being handed his weapon, didn't know what to do and just followed his brothers in grabbing a staff.

"Stop it!" Ace yelled at them. It may not be their ship, but this ship was his and his brothers' safe haven. He wasn't about to let anything happen to it if he could do something about it. Sabo and Luffy were right behind him and saw parts of the upper and lower cabin had a huge chunk taken out.

"Oh? Decided to come out of hiding, did you?" one sneered as another took out a piece of paper from his pocket and looked at it.

"That's them," he showed the paper to the others. "Ace, Sabo, and Luffy."

"We're not going back," Sabo growled, gripping his staff with determination.

All the men laughed at them. "What can a bunch of kids do?" All the men drew their swords and charged at them.

Ace and Sabo jumped over each one, dodging every attack and knocking some down. Luffy rushed right up to one and jumped up to swing his staff at the man but had his staff knocked out of his hands. The man easily grabbed him in midair, but Luffy bit the man's hand, stealing the sword that was dropped in the process.

Armed once more, Luffy attacked with determination. There was no way he wanted to go back to the way it was before Moby Dick. He remembered how hurt his brothers looked every time he woke up after his punishments. There was no way he wanted Ace and Sabo to be hurt again. They were free, and he was going to do everything he could to keep it that way. Now that he's had a taste of freedom, he intended to keep it.

He'd taken down two men when there was a yelp of pain from one of his brothers.

"Hold it right there, runts," one man called out, causing everyone to stop. He held a pistol right at Ace's head. The young brunette was hissing in pain from the bullet that had grazed his right shoulder.

"Dammit," Ace grunted as he held onto his bleeding shoulder.

"Ace!" both Sabo and Luffy yelled in horror.

"No one make a move," the man with the pistol said. "Drop your weapons." He looked at the last remaining man and tilted his head in Luffy's direction once the sword left the boy's hands. "If you do anything, I'm going to blow this kid's head off."

The man grinned evilly as he walked towards Luffy with a stone collar, one that Luffy recognized all too easily. It may be a little bigger than the one he had before, but he knew what it was. They all looked the same regardless of their size.

Luffy took a shaky step back, only to be warned by the man with the gun, and the next thing he knew, the collar was on his neck. It was heavy. He didn't like it. He wanted it off. He'd finally learned what freedom was. He didn't want to go back.

Sabo and Ace looked at Luffy in fear. They could see the life in Luffy's eyes disappear, leaving just two dead black eyes looking at nothing. Luffy had shut down. They'd never seen Luffy in this state before. It was unnerving. "Luffy," they breathed, feeling lost.

Ace cursed himself for not being able to protect his brothers and even causing them to be caught once again. It was all his fault.

The two men who hadn't been taken out yet, laughed. "It's just like the Executive Officers said. You catch one, and you get two free," the man standing next to Ace lowered his gun, laughing. "Let's go." He walked away from the boys, knowing they would follow now that one of them had the bomb collar that was in their control.

Sabo walked next to Ace, supporting him as Ace walked sluggishly from blood loss, with Luffy in front of them.

They all, with the exception of Luffy, turned their heads to the side of the ship when they heard the sound of something splashing.

"Oh? What's going on here?" Rayleigh asked as he casually pulled himself onto the ship. His eyes trailed across the deck, seeing the bodies lying about the deck, two dead and three unconscious. Then he took in the rest of his surroundings and noticed the state the boys were in and Luffy's collar.

"We're just taking back what's ours," the man who put the collar on Luffy stated.

Ace and Sabo both looked down in shame. They were runaway slaves. Slaves are property. The three of them belonged to Doflamingo.

"I'm afraid those kids are Whitebeard's," Rayleigh said with amusement.

"They were ours to begin with. We're just reclaiming what's ours." The man who had the gun on Ace turned to Luffy. "First things first. Kill this old man."

"Luffy," Sabo tried to stop the boy, but his brother just walked past without acknowledging them. The two men grinned as Luffy emotionlessly picked up a sword that was dropped earlier.

"Luffy, was it?" Rayleigh asked as he brought a hand to his chin and hummed in thought, then nodded to himself. "I see. Boy, aren't you a pirate?" Rayleigh said to Luffy. "Pirates are free. They do what they want, be it good or bad. Pirates belong to no one but the sea. They take orders from no one but their captain. Isn't Whitebeard your captain?"

Luffy stopped right in front of Rayleigh, life and understanding slowly coming back to his eyes as the old man continued to talk.

"For as long as I've known Whitebeard, once he takes you in, you are considered part of his family. You are one of his sons. You have many, many older siblings to watch over you. Is this what you want? Do you want to leave your family behind?"

Luffy looked up at the man with tears in his eyes and shook his head. "I wanna stay here," his voice trembled as tears streamed down his face. "I like it here. I wanna stay here with my brothers!"

Rayleigh smiled. "Good. Now, to take care of this thing." Rayleigh touched the collar, causing it to tick.

The small boy flinched and closed his eyes in fear. The next thing Luffy knew, the weight of the collar was off his shoulders, and there was an explosion off to the side, over the ocean. Blinking, Luffy brought his hands over his neck to find the collar gone. Rayleigh looked up at the men as they whispered between themselves.

"I recognize him now. He's Dark King Rayleigh."

"The Pirate King's first mate?"

"What's someone like him doing here?"

"We better tell Joker."

The man with the gun now had Ace and Sabo at gunpoint. "Don't forget we still have your friends here. Hurry up, and get rid of that old man so we can leave," the man demanded, confident that they could still get away. As soon as the Dark King was distracted by the kid, they'd run, with or without the kids. At least they have information on the kids to give to Joker.

Feeling conflicted but not wanting his brothers to be harmed because of him, Luffy raised his sword again, but Rayleigh knocked the weapon from his hands and was no longer near him. Looking around at the sound of shock, he saw the older man now standing in between his brothers and the man threatening them, who was now holding his hand in pain with the pistol lying uselessly on the ground.

That had the remaining intruder shaking. With the new knowledge that he couldn't beat the man before them, he took off running, but Luffy was faster than the out-of-shape man. The boy dashed across the deck, grabbing another sword on his way. The surprise of feeling strong murderous intent coming from such a small body stopped Rayleigh from going after the retreating figure.

"You're not telling pink bastard anything," Luffy said darkly as he killed the man quickly. He stood over the body for a moment before stabbing his sword into the body when he heard Sabo call out Ace's name and ran over to them.

Ace had collapsed to his knees. "Ace?" Luffy skidded to his knees in front of his brothers. "What's wrong, Ace?"

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy," Ace breathed and looked up at his youngest brother with a smile. "You did good, Luffy." Luffy dipped his head as his brother lifted his hand to rub the boy's head. "Looks like you need another bath, though." Luffy looked down and saw the blood spots that splattered on him.

"Let's get you bandaged up first and clean this place before that bath," Rayleigh said as he picked Ace up. "Otherwise, I won't be able to finish my job."

-*/-*/-*/

Whitebeard and Marco could see Moby Dick between the large trees. Once they got close enough, they could tell something had happened, if the pile of bloodied bodies was anything to go by. Marco quickly transformed his arms into fiery wings and flew the rest of the way to the deck. He could hear the pounding of multiple hammers before landing and saw Rayleigh, Sabo, and Luffy working on repairs to the ship, Ace leaning on a cabin wall, asleep, and four unknown men, who were glaring at him, tied up.

"Rayleigh, what happened-yoi?" he asked worriedly, walking towards the three doing repair work.

"Marco!" Luffy dropped his hammer, making another hole that needed to be fixed, and ran up to the man to give him a hug around a leg.

Marco placed a comforting hand on the boy's head. "And didn't we tell you to stay under-yoi?"

"Now, now, Pheonix," Rayleigh smiled, "things happened, and it couldn't be helped."

By this point, Whitebeard was on board. "Is Ace alright?" The large captain had seen the bandages peeking through the sleeping boy's tank top.

"Don't worry, it's just a slight graze. We patched him up. Explanations later," Rayleigh sighed. "First, let's fix this so I can finish your coating first thing in the morning. These boys were kind enough to lend me their hands. Very handy boys you have here. Though, one is better at making holes than the other."

"Sabo," Marco handed the boy a large bag, "Here are the things you asked for-yoi. Do you need help putting it up?"

"Let us go! Once Joker finds out about this, you'll be in trouble!" One of the tied-up men decided to yell at the intimidatingly large captain. Whitebeard and Marco watched with amusement as Ace got up to kick the man hard enough in the head to knock him unconscious.

Sabo's eyes lit up as he took the bag. "Thank you! We may need some help since Ace can't do much with his shoulder like that."

Ace glared at him. "Not like I asked to get shot at," he mumbled as he went back to his wall to rest.

Before long, more crew members came back and were surprised at what they saw. No one asked for too many details about what had happened. They just assumed it was another group of idiots that decided to attack their ship and just helped with the repairs, easily ignoring their new captives. Now that they had enough help to repair the ship, Whitebeard asked Rayleigh to come to their meeting room to explain.

"Luffy, why don't you stay here and help?" Sabo offered. Luffy looked at him questioningly before he nodded slowly, not really wanting to be away from any of his brothers after this incident.

"Don't worry, Luffy," Thatch said as he ruffled the boy's head. "They'll be back out in no time. How about you help me in the kitchen instead? Dinner's gotta be ready in an hour. You think we can do that?"

Luffy cheered as Thatch picked him up and placed him on his shoulders. Helping in the kitchen always means before-dinner snacks. And before-before-dinner snacks.

Marco, Rayleigh, Sabo, Ace, and the four intruders went to the meeting room to talk. The three that were on the ship at the time, explained everything that had happened.

Whitebeard turned his attention to the intruders, leveling them with a glare. "Why does Doflamingo still want the boys? Doesn't he already have enough people to do his dirty work?"

One of the men, the one they assumed to be the leader, grinned evilly. "You mean you don't know?"

Ace and Sabo flinched, knowing part of the reason. It's the reason why they didn't want Luffy here, to learn that he was the reason all this happened.

"That cute little tool you stole from us is Joker's first successful human weapon."

"What do you mean?" Whitebeard growled.

"Easy, he kidnaps a young, impressionable, innocent kid, hypnotizes the kid, and voila! A killing machine that can easily pick up any fighting style. Our very own unsuspecting assassin."

Marco kicked the man in the head hard enough that teeth and blood flew out of his mouth before falling unconscious. The First Division Commander had heard enough to make his blood boil. How could they do that to children?

"I thought I recognized that sword style," Rayleigh said thoughtfully. "I had just assumed he was being taught by Haruta."

Whitebeard turned his glare on one of the other still conscious intruders, "Are there any other children?"

The man trembled in fear and spilled everything he knew, not wanting to be killed. "No. All the others are dead. That kid is the only survivor. Joker's been keeping an eye on him to track his progress. He wants the kid back after many failed attempts after these three ran away. He wants to know why that kid is the only success so he can replicate it."

"So," Sabo's voice trembled at the information, "he wants Luffy back because …" He couldn't continue that line of thought.

"We…," Ace swallowed to wet his dry throat, "we thought that he wanted Luffy back only because he's a fast learner, not because … we didn't know he was a test subject."

Marco placed a hand on each of the boys' shoulders. "Doflamingo probably doesn't realize that Luffy had you guys to watch over him-yoi. All the others died because they didn't have brothers like you to raise them. You did great in raising your little brother into the good person that he is now-yoi. Luffy isn't a mindless killing machine. And because of you, he has a heart-yoi."

The boys blushed and smiled proudly at what they had accomplished.

A warm smile appeared on Whitebeard's face, and it dawned on him why the trio hadn't called him Pops yet. It was because they subconsciously knew he wasn't their Pops. It was someone else that they looked to for guidance. While he did put Marco in charge of the brats, he hadn't thought his First Commander would take over his position. Oh, how his son was growing.

Whitebeard nodded in agreement. "We've seen the boy's progress, and we know what kind of person he is. He's grown so much since we picked you boys up. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: We are all children of the sea. Your past doesn't matter here. You are my children, and you boys will be staying here for as long as you want."

Ace snickered. "That's what this old man said to Luffy."

Marco and Whitebeard looked to Rayleigh questioningly. "Just a little pep talk," Rayleigh shrugged and grinned.

"So what do we do with these guys?" Marco jerked his thumb to the tied-up men.

"Does Doflamingo know the boys' whereabouts?" Whitebeard asked.

"N-no," the last one finally spoke. "Just us. We overheard some of your men talking about some kids on your ship. We didn't tell anyone. I swear! I promise we won't say a thing about them!"

"They're all yours, Marco," Whitebeard said.

"Perfect-yoi," Marco grinned evilly at the men, causing them to shiver in fear.

"Marco," Sabo said shyly with Ace right by his side, "we were wondering if you could teach us to use Haki. We want to get stronger, so we can help Luffy next time."

Marco looked to Whitebeard, who nodded, and back to the kids. "Sure thing-yoi. Just don't be disappointed if you don't get it quickly. It's not something easily learned. In fact, only a quarter of the crew can use it-yoi." The boys nodded in understanding. "All right, then. We can start tomorrow while we wait for Rayleigh to finish his work-yoi. I'm sure some of the others wouldn't mind teaching you boys a few moves too. Now that everything's been sorted out, let's go make sure Luffy didn't already eat everything in the kitchen."

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. Stuff came up, and I forgot. :P

In the last chapter, during the Luffy vs Izo part, Izo was taking it easy on Luffy. So it's not like Luffy actually beat Izo in a real right or anything. Guess I forgot to clarify that somewhere in there. Sorry! :P

Shanks and Devil Fruits will show up in a few more chapters. ^_^v