Chapter 13

The good thing about losing
everything is you have
absolutely nothing left to
loose, and absolutely
everything in the world to gain.

- Mandy Hale

Months later, they once again docked near an island with a bustling town on the other side. Everyone gathered their things and disembarked to set up for another party on the beach, away from the population.

The three boys were the first to run off towards the forest that separated them from the town when they were given the okay. Their game of tag somehow turned into a game hide-and-seek. The whole forest was their hiding place. Ace concentrated his Haki to try and find his brothers.

They never let Luffy be 'it.' They knew they wouldn't be able to hide from their brother for long. The boy's Observation Haki was always on, and he didn't know how to turn it off to make the game even. He and Sabo didn't understand how Luffy was still able to find them when they suppressed their presence. Luffy's only explanation was that Ace is Ace, and Sabo is Sabo. He always knows where they are. It was only them that it worked on. When they tested it out with a few other commanders, Luffy couldn't find them with their presence hidden.

It took him a little over an hour, but Ace finally found Sabo. Now with Sabo on his side, they both concentrated on finding their younger brother. Luffy's always the hardest to find. Especially since they have a special rule that they can continue moving about and change their hiding place until the seeker finds them and calls out their name. It made their game more challenging. Maybe a little challenging.

Luffy giggled to himself as he swung from one branch to another. It was a freeing feeling to have the wind blow passed his face and through his hair. Almost like when Marco takes him flying. Almost.

The trees grew sparser, and he realized he was coming towards the edge of the forest and had to turn back. Before he did, he noticed the presence of three people and heard a few voices and decided to investigate out of curiosity. He quietly landed on a thick branch high above the three people. One held a sword, while another had a gun, both pointing at one person with a long unsheathe sword perched on his shoulder. All he could see of the other person was white hair.

Not really thinking much of what he was doing, Luffy jumped to land in the between the two group and stretched his leg to swipe the two with the drawn weapon off their feet.

"Well, that was easy," Luffy scratched the back of his head and tilted it in confusion before he went over the two to check if they were conscious or not. They weren't. Satisfied, he turned to look at the person they were threatening. He tilted his head in curiosity. The man in front of him didn't look old. Oh, it wasn't white hair he saw from above, it was a fuzzy white hat with brown spots around the sides.

The young man just looked at the girl in front of him with a confused look, not quite sure what just transpired. One minute, he had two men cornering him, and the next minute, a girl saves his life, though he didn't need the help.

They didn't say anything, just gauging each other. One, unsure if the other could be trusted, the other, out of curiosity.

"Crap. I forgot," Luffy exclaimed in a panic before jumping up and hiding himself in the tree he was in earlier.

Moments later, two young teenage boys ran out of the trees and stopped to catch their breath with their hands on their knees, startling the young man once again.

The blond looked up and gave him a pleasant smile before asking. "Excuse us, have you seen a girl in a light green dress and a straw hat come this way? About this tall?" He held his hand to just a little under his chest.

How should he answer that? He wasn't sure if the girl was being chased too or not. Is she the bad guy or were these two boys? Though, she did seem panicked. Should he answer? Should he lie? They don't look dangerous, but looks could be deceiving. He had learned that from that man. He's heard of that man's many failed experiments. Lie it is. No point in endangering the person that just helped him.

"No."

"Dammit," the darker haired boy hissed. "I could have sworn I felt him here." Then he looked at the stranger. "Or maybe it was you."

"Whose idea was it to add the special rule?" the blond moaned in his hand. "How long has this game gone on?"

Sabo turned to look at his brother when he was nudged in the side. "Hey, Sabo," Ace pointed to the two downed men.

"You didn't do that, did you?" Sabo asked the stranger with a grin.

Ace looked up and around in the trees, trying to spot their brother with no luck. "Lu, I know you're here somewhere. We give up. Let's go back."

They looked directly up where they hear the rustling of leaves, the movement caused a few to rain down on them. Luffy popped his head down and giggled before jumping down in front of his brothers. "Yay! I win again!"

Sabo grinned at the stranger knowingly. "We thank you for your attempt to protect our, uh, sister. I'm Sabo, that's Ace, and that's Lu," he took off his top hat and gave a slight bow in greeting and pointed to each one of his siblings as he introduced them.

"Tralfalgar Law," he nodded at them before looking back at the unconscious men when one of them moaned. "Well then, if you would excuse me. I have some business to take care of."

Law was surprised once more when Lu handed him a long vine. He'd have thought the three would have left already. "Thank you." He used it tie up the men. "You ate a Devil's Fruit, didn't you?"

"Yup."

"You did a good job taking these guys out in one move," he said as he stood back up to study his handiwork. "But I could have taken care of them myself."

"I know. Sorry." The girl didn't look sorry as she continued to give him a blinding smile.

"So what's their story?" Sabo waved at the unconscious men, then winced when Ace smacked them both on the head when one tried to open his eyes. They were definitely unconscious now.

"Long story," Law sighed. "Weren't you guys leaving?"

"Come with us," the girl practically demanded.

Sabo studied the person in front of him before he made up his mind. Luffy wouldn't have invited the other guy if he were a danger to them. "We're having a party. You can tell us your long story along the way." He figured he should thank the person for trying to shield their youngest brother from unknown dangers.

Law stared at them for a long moment before agreeing. He's hungry anyway and had no money. Might as well get something to eat while he can. If they were dangerous, he could easily take out the three of them.

"Lu, would you mind hanging those bastards? Somewhere really high where the birds can reach easily," Sabo requested.

"Okay." Luffy grabbed the end of the two vines and stretched up to reach the highest branch he could grab and rocketed them up.

"So?" Ace asked as they waited for Luffy to finish. "Why were you being chased by Doflamingo's men?" Ace and Sabo had seen the pink bastard's tattoo on both of those men. It was mostly hidden under the men's sleeves, but they saw it. They weren't sure if Luffy saw it or not, but they didn't want to worry the boy. Luffy still showed fear when anyone mentioned the bastard.

"I ran away from him when he killed the person that saved my life. Long story short, I now have something he wants," Law said darkly.

The two gave him an overly happy smile that he found creepy. "What?" he asked warily.

"Good for you," they both answered before laughing.

"I don't get it. What's so funny? And how did you know those were Joker-ya's men?"

"Let's just say we have a history with the pink bastard, and we have something he wants too," Ace grinned.

Sabo nodded just when Luffy jumped down. He placed an arm around his younger brother's shoulder and brought him into a protective hug. "And he'll never get it back."

"How can you be so sure? He's got men all over the place. I've had many close calls with his men," Law said suspiciously.

"We're hiding in the safest place in the world," they both said together again.

"I see. I'm interested to see where this safest place in the world is."

"Then follow us. We're having a party today," Sabo said.

"Party!" Luffy sang. "Food!"

"Bath first, Lu," Ace said. "I don't think they're ready yet."

"Then let's play some more."

"No. Let's just head back and get ready," Sabo said. Now that they've ran into Joker's men, they didn't feel safe to be too far from their family, somewhere safe.

"How did you know it wasn't me that took those men out?" Law asked curiously as he followed the trio.

"Because you have a sword," Ace said, looking pointedly at the long sword resting on the taller person's shoulder. "They didn't have any cuts on them."

"And because we know Lu's handiwork anywhere," Sabo turned his head around to give a grin. "Lu's the only one we know can attack someone and leave people confused. You had this look like you didn't know what just happened when we first saw you."

Law trailed after them in comfortable silence, slowing to a stop once the saw the large ship off the shore of the beach. "Whitebeard-ya," he whispered.

"That's right," Sabo smiled. "The safest place in the world."

"How did you end up with Whitebeard-ya?" Law continued his pace behind them.

"We kidnapped Pops. Then Pops kidnapped us," Luffy said as he turned his head in an awkward angle to look behind him.

"That's disturbing," Law pointed out.

"What is? That we were kidnapped by the person we kidnapped?" Ace asked with his arms behind his head.

"No, that," Law pointed at Luffy.

"You'll get used to it," Sabo shrugged. "He's made of rubber, so he tends to do strange things like that."

"Hey, kids," Izo waved them over with the newspaper. "You have to see this."

Luffy stretched his arms to grab ahold of Whitebeard's shoulder, who sat next to Izo and a few other commanders, and rocketed over, while Ace and Sabo ran the rest of the way. That left Law to walk in his own slow pace.

"You boys made the news," Izo announced.

Ace and Sabo took the offered newspaper and read it. It was about their little escapade at the marine base when they busted Sabo out.

"Why did it take them so long to print this?" Sabo asked.

Vista held up a poster for them to take, his grin widened as they looked at it. "Must be because they couldn't decide what to do with their lack of picture."

It was a new wanted poster that was just released. In place of their picture was the symbol they used.

Law looked over their shoulder to take a look at the wanted poster once he reached the group. "ASL?" he asked.

"Who is this?" Whitebeard asked.

"That's Trafal…Trafalafal…Trao," Luffy said from the large man's shoulders.

"Trafalgar Law."

"Yeah, that. Bad people wanted to kill him, but I stopped them," Luffy kicked his legs back and forth as he told his version of the event.

"Oh? Is that so?" Whitebeard gave the young man a considering look, before looking at Ace and Sabo.

"Our dear sister, Lu," Sabo said, hinting at a game they wanted them to play, along with another message to Whitebeard, "knocked them out before his men could kill Trao."

"Lu," Whitebeard took the hint, while the other commanders around them snickered, "why don't you go with Vista to find Marco and help him set things up?"

Vista helped the boy down from his perch, and they walked away to find the First Division Commander. Vista whispered to everyone he passed about their new prank they were playing while he was at it.

"Now then, why is Doflamingo's men after you?" Whitebeard asked. "And why did you two bring him here?"

"Ah, well, you see…" Ace wasn't really sure himself. "Um, I don't know." He said sheepishly. "Lu said to?"

"Strange reason," Law stated. "I would have thought it was because I have something Joker-ya wants, not because your younger sister said to."

"Yeah, that."

"You're starting to sound like Lu," Sabo teased his brother. "It's because he was kind enough to protect Lu because he thought we were after her during our game of hide and seek. I invited him to our party as thanks for trying to protecting her, and technically, Lu told him to come."

"Oh? That was very kind of you. Thank you for looking after my grandchild. You have something Doflaming wants, you say? How did you get your hand on something that?" Whitebeard said conversationally, as he took a sip of alcohol from his large mug.

Law stared at the large man with wide eyes before spouting, "Your grandchild?!"

That caused the commanders there to laugh. "All three of them are," Izo said, "though, not by blood. Everyone on the ship is one big family. We call Whitebeard as Pops. The kids calls him Grandpops because they gave the title of Pops to Marco."

"Let me get this right," Law rubbed his temple, "the Pops-ya you said you kidnapped and then kidnapped you in turn, was Marco-ya? Marco the Phoenix?" Ace and Sabo nodded with a gleeful grin. "How did you even manage that?"

"We can't tell you," the two sang.

Haruta sighed. "Even we don't know how they did it. Marco made them promise not to tell. Must be too embarrassing to tell."

"Now what was this about you having something Doflamingo want?" Whitebeard asked again.

Law stayed silent while he looked at Whitebeard, thinking if he should trust this man or not.

"You can trust Grandpops," Ace and Sabo both said.

"He's the reason we're free. If it wasn't for him, we'd still be stuck in a cell, and Lu would never learn of the outside world," Sabo said cheerfully.

"Don't you mean, if it weren't for you kidnapping Marco?" Haruta teased.

"Details," Ace waved it off. "Grandpops and the commanders are helping us protect what the pink bastard wants. He can help you too."

"Just one question first: Do you want eternal life?" Law asked.

Whitebeard's eyes widened before he gave out a loud laugh. "What would I do with eternity? We all grow old. We all die. That's what life is about. Without death, there would be no reason to dream!"

The answer surprised Law. Who wouldn't want to live forever if given the chance? He was startled out of his stupor by several of the commanders' "Here! Here!"

"Does my answer not satisfy you?" Whitebeard asked curiously with a soft smile.

"I...I ate the Ope Ope no Mi. In exchange for my own life, I can give another eternal life. That's what Joker-ya wants," he finally answered, looking to the ground. He then gave a loud sigh before continuing, not seeing how Whitebeard lifted his hand to silence his sons. "I think I should start from the beginning," Law after a thoughtful pause, taking a seat on the sandy beach in front of the captain. "Due to circumstances I don't really feel like reliving right now, I willingly joined Doflamingo-ya's family when I was ten. I was dying from a disease, but Cora-san, Joker-ya's blood brother, took me around against Joker-ya's wishes, to find a cure. There is no cure. Instead he gave me the Ope Ope no Mi. Cora-san saved my life, but Joker-ya killed him, his own blood brother. To sum it up, I've been in his family for two years, with Cora-san for a year before he was killed, and on the run for the past four years with a few close calls."

Really. Why did he tell them all this? He still was on the fence about joining them but seeing how Whitebeard took in three children claiming they were wanted by Joker made him feel safe. Whitebeard is known for taking care of their own, whether it be attacks by the marines or other pirates.

"We've never met the family," Ace mused.

"We were, ah, slaves for his subordinates, I guess that's what they were, for about five years," Sabo said. "We were freed and stayed with Grandpops."

"You should stay here too," Ace gave Law a smile, already liking the other for wanting to protect Luffy. "Lu thinks you should stay."

"I agree," Whitebeard said. "It'd be safer for you if you were under my protection. Especially if you know so much about the family. He wouldn't stop to get you back in order to keep you quiet. Sounds like he'd want you to use your abilities for his own purpose. There is no need to let everyone know about your ability to give eternal life if you'd like. Just the ones here, and I'm sure not one of us have a need for it."

The commanders around him nodded in agreement.

"Ace, Sabo," a member from Division Ten called out to the boys. "your, ah, sister needs a bath. She kind of ran amuck in the kitchen."

"Coming!" the boys yelled back.

"Isn't she old enough to bathe herself?" Law asked.

"Yes, but if left on her own, Lu may drown herself in the tub or something equally stupid," Sabo sighed as he got up to leave with Ace.

"Something to keep in mind if you join us: Lu is a heart attack waiting to happen," Haruta snickered.

"That's a good way to put it-yoi," Marco huffed as he walked up to the group. His shirt looked like it got burned in parts and had what looked like sauce dripping from his hair. "The kid nearly burned down the ship, instead of the other two. Who's this-yoi?"

"You're not going to take a bath with them? Looks like you need it. This is Traflagar Law. Lu recruited him. Sounds like he and those brats have something in common," Izo said.

Marco glared at Izo. "The last time I took a bath with them, the three of them nearly drowned themselves while trying to save each other, and I worked up a sweat-yoi. Welcome to the family, Law. I swear, those three are going to give me gray hair."

"That's because you worry too much. You need to relax," said Fossa. Law didn't even have a chance to say anything about his joining them.

"Maybe Pops should have made you their caretaker instead," Marco countered.

"Sorry, no thanks. I'm already mostly bald, and I'm not ready to handle the title of 'Pops,' yet."

"Sorry to interrupt, Commanders, but we need some extra helping hands in the kitchen," one of the cooks came out to tell them.

"But we can't cook," Izo pointed out.

"No, but you can repair things. Everyone else is already doing something."

The all groaned as Marco grinned at them. "Have fun guys. I still need to pick up some supplies from town after I clean up once the boys are done-yoi."

"Law, you're coming with us," Haruta dragged a stunned Law with them.

-*/-*/-/

"So what's this party for?" Law asked from his seat next to Lu as he eyed the fancy decorations.

"They didn't tell you?" Ace asked around a mouth full of food.

"We're celebrating our birthday, our first wanted poster, and you joining," Sabo replied, thankfully after he finished swallowing.

"Special day indeed, and I never agreed on joining," Law sighed. "So how old are you now?"

"Twelve!" Luffy threw out his arms into the air, causing a piece of his meat to land on someone's head. "Opps."

That surprised Law. "It's your birthday too? You're…small."

"We're fifteen. It's all three of our birthday. It's the day we were reborn, so to speak," Sabo explained. "Since it's the same day you're joining, it can be your birthday too."

"I'll pass. About that wanted poster," Law asked curiously, seems they're ignoring the fact that he never said he'd join, "what's with that picture?"

"You don't have a choice. It's your birthday too. ASL: Ace, Sabo, Lu, and the wings represents our freedom," Ace drew it in the sand for him to see. "Lu designed it."

"What did you do to get 10 million beli?"

Sabo handed him the newspaper clipping he cut out. "Don't ruin it. I'm putting that in our album."

"Eighteen dead, eighty-four injured, entire base destroyed? You three did this for no reason at all?" Law clearly didn't believe it. The news didn't even mention that the marine had Sabo or that Marco was involved. It just said the three kids came to wreak havoc for no apparent reason. They didn't even name who the children were either. Sabo thinks it's because his dad didn't want people to know he's related to some hoodlums.

"I think Pops helped with the injured count. Not sure if the numbers are correct, but yeah, we blew the place up," Ace grinned. "They deserved it. They took Sabo from us."

"They're calling you demon children out for blood for no apparent reason," Law grinned at them, which the two boys returned.

"Numbers sounds right," Lu answered all the while shoving food in her mouth.

"Not very lady-like, is she?" Law mumbled under his breath. "And how would you know?"

"I counted. I …." Luffy was forced to stop talking as both Ace and Sabo shoved more food in his mouth.

Law blinked at that. "Okay. She counted." Law shook his head before he remembered what he had wanted to ask earlier. "What is it that you have that Joker-ya wants? Seems fair since I told you."

He looked concern as Lu chocked on her food, Ace and Sabo on either side patting her back. Marco came by with a glass of juice for her to drink.

"We don't talk about that person around Lu-yoi," Marco whispered as took a seat and placed Lu on his lap.

"All better Lu?" both his brothers asked worriedly.

"Yeah," she rasped back as she snuggled her face into Marco's chest.

"You know," Law tried for a change of topic, "with as much as you eat, I'm surprised you're so short." Or maybe that wasn't a good topic if he went by Thatch's grimace from his left. He just wanted to tease them.

"Probably because Lu can't seem to stay still for a second," Ace grinned at him as he pointed to his sister.

Law saw what he meant. The kid kept on moving, whether it be her arms stretching to get more food or her legs twitching or some other body part. She's always in some sort of motion.

"So you're saying that if she ate a normal amount, she'd disappear from using too much energy?" Law smirked.

"Never thought of it that way," Sabo placed his pointer finger and thumb to his chin in thought.

Law's smirk dropped. "Don't test it. I was teasing."

"Wasn't going to," Sabo waved the idea off. "I was just thinking. Do you think it's something we should be worried about, Pops?" he asked Marco.

"I'm surprised it took you boys this long to realize something's up-yoi. You boys have enough on your plate, and we didn't want you to worry any more than you had to. So we didn't say anything. It's nothing too serious though. So don't worry about it-yoi," Marco said.

"What?" Ace placed the food in his hand back down on the plate. "There's something wrong with Lu? But me and Sabo eat a lot too."

"She eats more than we do, Ace, and she's a lot shorter than we were at that age."

Ace turned worried eyes to their caretaker. "What's wrong with Lu?"

Luffy turned and tilted his head at his brother when he heard his nickname. Marco ruffled the boy's hair, handing him plate to get him to eat again. "Just a slight nutrition deficiency. It's what is stunting her growth-yoi. Kobato is working with Thatch with your meals. Or did you not notice how much energy you have now compared to before, or that Thatch only cooks for you and the commanders, while the others cooks for everyone else-yoi?"

"Now that you mention it," Sabo said.

"So what, cooks are like doctors then?" Ace said as he continued to stuff his face.

"Not quite," Thatch laughed. "I can only help the body heal through healthy food."

"This Kobato is a doctor?" Law asked in interest.

"She's our doctor," Sabo answered. "She's a pediatrician. She treats underprivileged kids at every island. I think Kobato's in town right now."

That was when Kobato walked, just returning from her trip to town, arms full of medical supplies. "That's right. Pops helped me fulfill my lifelong dream. To be able to treat children who wouldn't normally be able to see a doctor because of financial difficulties is a dream come true," she swooned before sighing. "Cost of medication is expensive in a lot of places, and children sometimes get put on the back burner because they don't contribute to the family or because they have no parents to provide for them. You must be Trafalgar Law. Marco told me about you while he was in town."

Law hummed as he took in the information. "Do you think you can teach me? I want to be a surgeon, but there's only so much I can learn on my own."

"Sure. I don't mind. Izo is our head doctor, though. You may learn more from him. We even have a couple of surgeons also. I double as a nurse on the ship when we're short staffed. It's not like we make a habit of picking up children for me to treat," she laughed.

"She was in a sad state of depression when we picked her up-yoi," Marco said after Kobato left to put her things away. "That week we found her, she didn't have a choice but to let a little girl die because her family didn't have the money to continue the treatment-yoi. At the time, she couldn't give out free treatment because her own financial hardship."

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

A/N: And there's the reason I came up with to have Kobato on Moby Dick. :P

I have some free time this week and next, hopefully. So here's another chapter sooner than I had hoped~

By the way, thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews! They make me feel better about my story. ✧٩(ˊωˋ*)و✧