A/N: Beta by Navigator101, updated on 2/16/2019.

Chapter 10

The best index to a person's character
is how he treats people who can't
do him any good, and how he
treats people who can't fight back.

- Abigail Van Buren

The party went on through the rest of the day. Shanks liked how the Whitebeard Pirates enjoyed to party as much his crew did.

The boys had taken a short nap earlier (only because Ace fell asleep first) and were up and about causing trouble again. Shanks really did find them amusing. When the kids decided to take a break from running around, he took a seat next to them on the beach. "You boys want to hear some stories?"

"Story? What kind? You tell us about your adventure?" Luffy asked excitedly.

"Sure, or I could tell you some stories about the Pirate King," Shanks grinned, knowing most kids enjoy those stories.

"Pirate King?" Luffy tilted his head. He'd never heard of this before.

"What? You've never heard of the Pirate King?" Shanks faked a shocked expression that wasn't entirely fake. Somewhere deep down, he knew the kid probably didn't know much about the world and how it worked. "I used to be his cabin boy. Gol D. Roger was a man I admired and the only captain I'd sail under. We had so many adventures."

"Gol D. Roger?" Luffy's head tilted even further, trying to remember why the name sounded so familiar but couldn't place it.

"Whitebeard told us some stories about him, Luffy," Sabo said, distracting the boy from remembering or blurting out that Gol D. Roger was Ace's dad.

"I," Ace hesitated, "I'd like to hear about his adventures. If you don't mind?" After finding out that the man he hated for so long actually wasn't a bad person, he'd secretly wait for Whitebeard's stories of the Pirate King.

Whitebeard watched them fondly as Shanks told them story after story about the late Pirate King. He could see the excitement on Ace's face, enjoying the stories as much as his brothers. It was a good thing that Akagami had met the boys. Ace could, at least now, know more about his father from someone who knew the man. There was only so much he could tell on his side. Of course, he had come to this island specifically because he knew Shanks would be there.

Eventually, some of the older Whitebeard crew members, who had been with him since Roger's time, joined them and added their own stories. The stories continued through dinner.

Luffy vibrated with excitement towards the end of the party and suddenly stood up. "I gots it! I'm gonna be next Pirate King!" He declared. Everyone burst out laughing at the boy.

Shanks only gave the boy a look as if he was just another boy with a big dream. "And why is that, short stuff?"

"Because," Luffy gave the man a look as if he were stupid, "Pirates is free. That mean Pirate King is more freer person in the world!" He threw his hands out to show the world.

"You tell him, kid!" someone shouted.

Understanding dawned on him once he remembered what he had heard about Garp's grandchildren, and for some unknown reason, Shanks felt that the kid could possibly do it.

Even Whitebeard was impressed with the boy's determination. It may be a child's dream, but he knew better. He understood what it was the boy wanted, just as he was sure Shanks did too. He was sure his family wouldn't mind supporting the child's big dream of being the freest man in the world. It wasn't like he was after One Piece anyway. He's happy where he is with his family. He's already living his dream. Even better, he's got himself grandchildren!

-*/-*/-*/

About a week after the birthday party, Thatch was sent out on a mission with a few men from his Division to an island not too far away. Some idiot pirate crew decided to cause some problems in one of Whitebeard's territories. It didn't take long for Thatch to return.

"I'm back!" he called out once his tiny crew of eight pulled their smaller boat back to shore.

Ace and Sabo ran up to greet the man. Thatch looked around before asking where their youngest went when he heard the boy call out his name from the deck of Moby Dick.

Luffy held onto the rail as he walked back a few steps and launched himself. Ace and Sabo yelled at him as they scrambled around to catch their brother when he landed. The three of them ended up tumbling in the sand.

Thatch laughed at the boys. "I see you've thought of a new move, Luffy."

"Yeah, but he needs to work on his landing," the two older boys groaned under their giggling brother.

"Uncle Thatch!" Luffy got up to tackle the older man.

"I missed you too, kid," he ruffled the boy's hair. "But 'uncle'?"

"Pops says to call you that," Luffy said happily getting up off of his brothers to give the man a hug around his leg.

"You're back sooner than we thought," Marco said as he walked up to them.

"Three days there, three days back, and one day to get rid of the nuisance. Pathetic. Not sure where they got the crazy idea to try and take over Pop's island. Oh yeah! Look what I got from them." Thatch reached into his bag and brought out a small box and opened it up to show them. Then he looked at Marco with confusion on his face. "Uncle Thatch?"

"A Devil's Fruit? We seem to be running into a lot of those lately-yoi," Marco looked at the boys with a raised eyebrow. The two older boys flushed in embarrassment. "And if they're determined to call me Pops and Pops Grandpops, then you, as my brother, are Uncle Thatch-yoi," he said smugly.

"Aww, come on," the cook whined, "I'm too young to be called an uncle. I'm still young enough to be their big brother." He swiped the side of his hair for added effect.

Marco raised an eyebrow at that.

"Okay. Maybe not," Thatch deflated.

Luffy tugged on Thatch's pants to ask if he was going to eat the fruit.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to think about it and research what fruit it is first. I'm going to report to Pops now." Thatch left to find their captain, though not before turning around to yell to the kids, "And don't call me Uncle. I'm the awesome Thatch!"

Late that night, while most of the two pirate crews were asleep, Luffy woke up and looked around to see what had woken him. He crawled out from under Marco's arm, the man wouldn't let him sleep with his brothers just in case they went up in flames in their sleep. Again. He dusted some sand out of his shorts and looked again. Still not seeing anything, he went on Moby Dick to take a look around and maybe use the toilet.

He walked to Thatch's room when he saw the light still on. He'd barely gotten a foot in, when he was carelessly pulled off his feet, but he did see Thatch on the floor with a knife buried deep in his back. "UNCLE THATCH!" Luffy yelled out, not even noticing he was being taken out of the room. Luffy continued to yell out to Thatch even as they made it across the deck and down to the same boat the fourth commander had returned in.

"Zhehahaha. Good timing, kid," Luffy went still at the voice. It was a voice he knew. It was the voice of someone he played with often, but it sounded different.

"Teach?" Luffy whimpered. "We have to go back. Uncle Thatch is hurt!"

"Luffy, my boy, we are not going back, and Thatch is dead." The man laughed some more. "I finally have the Devil Fruit I've been waiting forever to find. It's now mine, and you are going to help me escape this place." Teach used the rope that tied the small boat to Moby Dick and tied Luffy up so he could free his hands to row the boat. There wasn't enough wind at the moment to help him get away quick enough.

Luffy was too shocked to do much. Teach was part of Whitebeard's crew. He was one of their brothers. He was family. The boy didn't understand what was happening. How could Teach leave his brother to bleed out? But he knew, he could feel it. A feeling that he never felt before from his so-called brother: Greed, and nothing but greed.

Once the shock wore off, Luffy thrashed about to do anything to get away or to get revenge, anything, but he was tied up and had no weapons. He knew he was useless. So he did what he did best, cry as loud as he could.

Luffy's yell had woken up most of the sleeping pirates. Many of them, Marco included, ran to Thatch's room, the only place in their vicinity with lights still on, to see what was going on.

"A doctor!" Marco yelled, practically demanded, to the surrounding crew members. "We need a doctor right now!"

Everyone ran around in panic, wanting to know what happened. Ace and Sabo couldn't find Luffy in Thatch's room once almost everyone cleared out to grab one of their many doctors. They were sure it was their youngest that had done all that yelling.

Then they heard the boy's struggles and ran to where the noise came from. They looked over the side of the ship and barely saw a smaller ship sailing away in the dark, and they were sure their brother was on it. "Luffy!" they cried out.

Luckily, Shanks had heard, and saw Luffy being taken before anyone else and jumped overboard from his own ship, where he had slept. He got there just in time as the boy was being thrown overboard to distract a sea king that was headed their way.

The red-haired captain grabbed the boy just as the sea king's mouth closed, just barely missing them. It resurfaced to reclaim its meal, and Shanks gave it a glare, sending it away with a blast of Haki. "Get lost," he growled.

The man then sluggishly kicked his legs towards a row boat coming their way. Once Ben reached them, he dragged them both into the boat. Ben's eyes widened when he saw the state his captain and Luffy were in. They were both drenched in sea water and blood, with Luffy clinging onto his captain and crying.

What really caught his eyes was the fact that Shanks was missing an arm. The first mate quickly rowed back to shore. "We need a doctor here!" Ben yelled out, urgency clear in his voice, before they even reached the shore.

More pirates came running to help the man pull the boat up the beach, and two doctors helped carry Shanks and Luffy off the boat. Once they had Shanks on the beach, the doctors quickly worked on the captain to stop the bleeding long enough for him to be carried into the infirmary, where they could do proper work.

Izo had to be called over to help get Luffy off of the red-haired captain. Kobato couldn't stand the sight of blood and passed out from seeing so much of it on the two. In order to get Ace and Sabo to stop fretting over their brother, the head doctor pushed them away from the gruesome scene and had them watch over Kobato for him. It took a few tries to get the kid to let go so the older pirate could be taken care of. As soon as he got Luffy off, Izo stripped the boy out of his bloodied clothes to find no wound on the boy.

Feeling relieved that he didn't see any visible wound, he was finally able to hand him off to Kobato, who finally woke up, so he could take charge in the infirmary. Kobato carried Luffy, who was still crying, a little further up the beach where Whitebeard was.

"Luffy, it's okay. Everything's okay. Are you hurt anywhere?" she tried to calm the boy down. While Izo checked for visible wounds, she felt around to make sure nothing was broken or bruised.

Ace, Sabo, and a few other crew members had gathered around them. Kobato let Ace and Sabo take over her position once she was a hundred percent sure Luffy was physically fine and didn't need a trip to the infirmary, hoping they could help calm the poor boy. The two boys sat down with Luffy sobbing over the both of them as they rubbed soothing circles on the crying boy's back.

"Un-Uncle Th-Thatch," Luffy hiccuped as he continued crying. "Uncle Thatch. Shanks. Teach." They waited patiently as the boy continued to cry. "Teach kill Uncle Thatch. Shanks's arm gone." He said in between sobs.

Everyone there looked at each other in concern at the boy's words. Teach was one of their oldest members. They all were thinking there was no way Teach would betray them.

"Uncle Thatch is okay, Luffy," Sabo said, the two older boys didn't notice the looks the men around them had. "He's hurt, but the doctors are helping him right now."

"Shanks, too," Ace added. "Uncle Izo is helping them, so they'll both be fine."

Luffy calmed down to sniffles after hearing that his Uncle and friend would be okay.

"Tell us what happened," Whitebeard asked softly as he took a seat in the sand with the boys.

"I woke up 'cause … I don't know. I see Uncle Thatch's light on. And then Teach take me. And then Teach throw me at sea king. The sea king ate Shanks's arm!" He wailed loudly at the end at the memory of Shanks's arm being eaten.

"Why would Teach do that?" Someone asked. While another asked, "Are you sure it's Teach?"

"Te-Teach said wanted Uncle Thatch's fruit," Luffy wailed with his face pressed against Sabo's chest.

Whitebeard sighed and tiredly commanded, "Someone get a head count. Check if anyone is missing. We'll discuss this more in the morning." As the night went on, Sabo slowly leaned into Whitebeard as he fell asleep with Luffy in his arms. Ace had already fallen sleep on Sabo's other side. Kobato had her head on Whitebeard's lap next to Ace.

Marco walked up to them with a few blankets to lay out and cover the four of them. He carefully picked up Luffy, now wearing one of Kobato's sweaters, to move him over to Kobato's side and sighed as he gave his report to his father figure.

"Teach is the only one missing. I just don't understand-yoi. He's been with us for so long. I can't believe he'd betray us like that-yoi." He spoke softly as to not wake the kids and Kobato.

Whitebeard only sighed sadly as he looked up to the predawn sky. He was heartbroken that someone he'd considered to be his son to betray him. "Should we go after him-yoi?"

"No," Whitebeard said after a pause. "Leave him be. It's dark, and he's probably long gone. Thatch and Akagami are our first priority."

"I'm actually surprised that Luffy wasn't able to escape before Teach took him," Marco smoothed the sleeping boy's hair.

"He was probably just as surprised as we were that it was one of our own that attacked Thatch and was caught off guard, or Teach is stronger than we all think. Something doesn't feel right about all this."

-*/-*/-*/

Shanks was the first to be let out of the infirmary just a few days later. Luffy wouldn't leave him alone and tagged along everywhere he went. As soon as he was sure Thatch would live, Shanks was ready to leave the island and resume his sailing, letting his own doctor to finish the healing process.

"It's time for us to go. We've been here too long as it is, and I'm sure the world's wondering what we've been up to." He gave the kids a wink. "Tell your Uncle Thatch when he wakes up that he better be in tiptop shape the next time we meet."

Luffy once again cried, not wanting his new friend to leave.

Akagami gave him a considering look. He took off his straw hat and looked at it before placing it firmly on the boy's head. The former cabin-boy of the Pirate King would love to see what the future held for this child. "Don't cry, kid. It's not like we won't see each other again. How about this. You give me my hat back when you've achieved your goal. You want to be the Pirate King, right? In order to be the Pirate King, you have to be strong. This hat is very important to me, so you better return it in good condition."

Luffy tilted his head back so he could see the man from the too large hat and gave him a look of wonder before he grinned through his tears. "Okay! I'm gonna get strong enough to beat you."

"I'll be sure to visit when I can. All right?" Luffy nodded as he sniffled and wiped his eyes. "Make sure to get stronger the next time I see you." Marco grinned and shook his head at those words. If only the other captain knew what the kid was capable of.

Once everyone from the Red Hair Pirates left, Marco bent down to give something to Luffy.

"This is for you-yoi," he showed the boy a holster with a small hunting knife in place. He helped the boy strap it on his right thigh. "So you can protect yourself if you ever find yourself in need of a weapon. As you are right now, you're not strong enough to defend yourself-yoi. And this one," Marco held up another holster with a small pistol, "is from Izo. It took him some time to find something he thought would be suitable for you-yoi."

Luffy nodded. "Pops, I wanna get more stronger, strong enough so I can protect everybody."

Marco placed a hand over the boy's hat. He was still uncomfortable with the new title, but the kids wouldn't stop calling him that. His captain seems to enjoy being called Grandpops, though. "You're plenty strong already-yoi."

"I know," Luffy mumbled, looked down uncomfortably, "but I don't want to be strong like that. I want to fight on my own. And even if I'm strong now, I don't know how to fight somebody like Teach. I'm not strong enough."

Marco found himself in awe at how much understanding the normally oblivious boy had. Mixed with the deep serious voice the boy used that was so out of place, Marco wondered if this was the same happy-go-lucky child he'd been watching over. The boy had the knowledge to understand that his strange ability of knowing how to use different fighting styles was useless if he didn't have the strength to back it up. It may have gotten him and his brothers this far, but here in New World, it wasn't going to get him far enough

"I'll see what I can do to help. Working with your fruit ability is a good start, though." He turned to see Ace and Sabo waiting for Luffy behind him. "I got one for you boys too." He handed them their holsters with a knife. "My birthday gift to you boys."

-*/-*/-*/

The following days all three boys trained with their ability, while Ace and Sabo also had a few other trainings added to their schedule. They would visit Thatch every day, with Luffy feeling more upset with each visit. Only Ace and Sabo realized that with each day of Thatch not waking, Luffy would get more fidgety and agitated. It was by the third day of Shanks leaving that the boys decided to do something about it.

"Maybe he needs to vent or something," Sabo mused. He and Ace were practicing on controlling their powers. Marco had them practicing calling forth their power to burn a few branches they gathered earlier.

"Vent?" Ace looked towards where Luffy was stretching his arms and trying to reach a tree branch with Marco supervising him.

"Yeah. He's probably frustrated that he couldn't help Uncle Thatch and got hauled away by Teach," Sabo glared at the twig in his hand and tossed it to the ground when it wouldn't catch on fire even when he was concentrating. "This is harder than I thought."

"Your hat's on fire," Ace took his stick to poke at the misplaced fire. "How are we supposed to let him vent? Attack someone? Let him go all out?"

Sabo sighed as he flopped himself on the sand and took off his hat to glare at it. The fire extinguished itself quickly when he put his hand on it. "Huh. It's not hot, and there's no burn mark." He picked up another stick to concentrate on. "Not someone. Maybe a tree? I did it!" He held up his burning branch to Ace.

Ace pouted at his brother. "That's not fair. Hey. Wait! Don't you dare poke me with that!" He took a step back when Sabo attempted to poke him with the flaming branch.

Whitebeard laughed in amusement as Sabo chased Ace. They ran about, yelling at each other, until Ace tripped and fell flat on his face, with Sabo tripping over his fallen form, accidentally stabbing his brother with the burning branch. Whitebeard immediately got up to check on the two. "Are you boys okay?" he asked as he helped them up.

"Oh, my god, Ace. I'm so sorry!" Sabo went to pat his brother's back where he'd stabbed him.

"I'm okay. Why?" Ace looked at his brother in confusion, then to Whitebeard.

"I thought I stabbed you," the blond sighed in relief.

Whitebeard laughed at them. "You boys are made of fire. That little stick disintegrated on impact."

An evil grin was on Ace's face soon after hearing that as an idea came to mind. While Sabo's attention was on Whitebeard, Ace picked up a nearby branch and poked his brother's arm with it. "Cool," he said as the small area on Sabo's arm turned to flames, burning the branch.

The captain watched on as Sabo glared at his brother. Ace continued to push the branch into his brother's arm, watching in fascination as it just continued to burn instead of harming Sabo.

Seeing the boys were fine, Whitebeard left them to their fun.

"So about Luffy," Sabo sighed.

"Right, Luffy," Ace said thoughtfully. "I think got it. Our powers, I mean." He went on to explain what he thought to Sabo. By nightfall, they'd both successfully had fire spouting where they wanted and when they wanted, with a few mishaps. It wasn't perfect, but it was progress.

-*/-*/-*/

The next morning after breakfast, the two boys dragged Luffy to the nearest tree, instead of going to check on Thatch like they usually would.

"Attack that tree," Sabo said seriously.

"Why?"

"Because you look like you need to attack something," Ace said, earning a smack on the head from Sabo.

"You look like you need to vent. You shouldn't bottle up your frustration. Just let it all out on this tree," Sabo patted said tree.

Luffy just looked at the tree, not really understanding what his brothers wanted him to do.

"Pretend it's Teach," Ace crossed his arms.

Luffy scowled at the tree, as he pictured it being the traitor. He was was angry with himself for not being able to do anything when he was right there to do so. It was so similar to the time with Otohime, but this time, help came in time. Even so, he was still angry. The poor tree had no idea what it did, but it was being attacked by punches and kicks from tiny limbs.

"What'd that tree do?" asked a confused first division member.

"Pretending to be Teach," both Ace and Sabo answered. "We're letting Luffy vent."

"Sounds like a good idea-yoi." Marco looked at the man for a moment before nodding to himself. "Luffy, why don't you pretend this guy is Teach instead. Might save you from splinters."

One thing led to another and a few other crew members joined in. Some time before lunch was served, a sword was found in Luffy's hand. No one even bothered to question where the brat learned how to use a sword. They all just assumed their commanders had taught him somewhere during the time he'd started staying with them. Even Haruta and Vista joined to spar with the kid to help him release his distress. Every time the sword got knocked out of his hand, they would wait for him to pick it back up.

Marco supervised with Ace and Sabo by his side the entire time. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize Luffy needed time to let off some steam sooner. He's smiling now-yoi."

"He was frustrated about the whole Teach attacking Uncle Thatch thing and that he couldn't do anything about it," Sabo sighed.

"And Shanks's arm," Ace said.

It was just before lunch when Izo called out to them from the ship, stating that Thatch was awake.

Luffy stopped what he was doing and ran with his brothers to see Thatch. The hall was crowded, but they all parted for the commanders and the kids. Those were the only ones Izo was allowing to see Thatch right now. Whitebeard was already in the room, smiling happily.

"Luffy!" Thatch called out as soon as he saw the boys, with Luffy in Marco's arm, to prevent the kid from tackling Thatch. Marco set the kid down on the bed for Thatch to hug him. "Pops told me what happened. I'm so glad you're okay."

Luffy buried his face into the man's chest and sniffled. "I thought you were dead. Teach said he killed you."

"Hey, now. Don't cry. Izo said you're the reason I'm still alive. So thank you," Thatch hugged the boy as tight as he could, though he did wince at the pressure. He then patted an empty space on his bed for the other two boys to sit. "Why don't you brats tell me what I've missed until the meds kick in, and I fall asleep?"

It took another two weeks for Thatch to finally be able to move around without pain, and they set sail again.

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

A/N: Yeah...the top part was supposed to be in the last chapter. Can you tell? I knew I forgot something, but it was too late to add it in after I posted. XD

And I give up. I don't have my laptop for the next few days. It's being repaired because it's doing stupid things. Apparently FanFiction doesn't like my tablet. It kept timing out when I try to save what I've edited. Going to try again and hope it'll take this, and then I'm posting. Too frustrated to try to go back again(!) to figure out what I fixed the first two times.