Chapter 17

The sad thing is, nobody ever really
knows how much anyone else
is hurting. We could be standing
next to somebody who is
completely broken,
and we wouldn't know it.

- unknown

After breakfast the next day Marco found the boys one Luffy short. "Where's Luffy-yoi?"

"No idea," both Ace and Sabo shrugged before turning their attention back to their card game.

"Rockstar said he wanted to teach Lu-ya he shouldn't run around without his clothes," Law said.

Not a moment later, Rockstar slammed open the cabin door, causing everyone on deck to look his direction. "Ladies and gentlemen! I present Midget Marco!" He stepped aside to show Luffy standing behind him.

There was a pause before a roar of laughter erupted.

"Oh my god! Is that your clothes?" Sabo said in between laughs.

"How did they get his hair like that?" Ace laughed from beside Sabo.

Law chucked. "They do say imitation is a form of flattery."

Marco's eye twitched in annoyance. Those were his clothes. He couldn't believe they actually went through his things and altered his clothes.

"Pops!" Luffy ran up to him. "I look like you!"

"I see that-yoi," Marco bit out. "Why are you wearing my clothes? And how did teaching him the importance of wearing clothes turn into this?" he looked to Rockstar, who managed to look sheepish.

"Actually, I have no idea. One minute we were having a serious conversation, it was a serious one-side conversation. I don't think he understood anything I said. Then he gets up all serious like and walks away. I followed, and he led me to your room. I look in and there he was, rummaging through your things. He just started stripping right there and then. He needed help putting the clothes on, so I helped. I even made it fit with rubber bands and some pins. He didn't look right, so I fixed his hair too. I kid you not. I have no idea how the lecture of wearing clothes turned into this. He looks happy about it at least."

"Luffy, why are you wearing my clothes-yoi?" Marco asked again.

Luffy tilted his head in thought. "Rockstar was talking about clothes. It was boring, and I didn't understand what he was saying. Something about bad men wearing clothes. Then I remembered your scarf belt. I really like your scarf belt. And then Rockstar helped me look like you!"

Marco looked at the kid in confusion, trying to find the connection between his belt and perverts, before giving up. There is no understanding how the kid's brain worked.

-*/-*/-*/

"So? What do you think?" Shanks asked as an island came to view the next morning.

Law, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy looked at the small village that greeted them. The harbor held many fishing boats with fishermen unloading the day's haul. Behind that was a small bar with a large sign over the the door, announcing it's name: Party Bar. Lining the streets were more shops of various types and what looked like homes further on down.

"Looks homey," Law said.

"It's an island. What do you want us to think?" Ace asked, confused.

Shanks's smile dropped. "What? I heard you two were from Dawn Island in East Blue. This doesn't look familar?"

"Sorry, Shanks, but Ace and I lived with mountain bandits and only went to Goa to cause trouble. I don't remember seeing any village like this on Dawn," Sabo explained.

"Oh," Shanks said dejectedly.

Benn came over and placed a comforting hand over his captain's shoulder. "When we were sailing around East Blue, we frequented a place on Dawn Island called Fuusha Village on and off for about a year. Captain liked it so much that he had this uninhabited island modeled after Fuusha. All the villagers you see are former slaves that we happened upon. Shanks wanted to show you a little piece of home."

"Fuusha?" Both Ace and Sabo's face lit up.

"Makino was from Fuusha, right?" Ace asked Sabo.

"You two know Makino?" Shanks asked, getting over his depression.

"Yeah. She and Dadan were friends, surprisingly and would sometimes visit and give us clothes," Sabo said. "The Mayor came with her because he didn't trust the bandits. They're the only ones we know from Fuusha."

"And Gramps. We've never been to village itself though," Ace rubbed his hand through the back of his hair. "I wasn't allowed anywhere near people. Gray Terminal didn't count for some reason. Though we did sneak into Low Town to turn things in for cash and wreak havoc just because."

"Thanks for trying?" Sabo tried.

Shanks waved his hand dismissivly. "Meh. I brought you to an island. Explore all you want. You never know, you might like it here."

Before they even reached the pier and anchor, they could already see and hear the villagers gathering and cheering at the sight of their ship.

"Very popular," Law commented.

"Like I said, we're their heroes, even though we weren't really trying to save them. The ship they were on just happened to attack us," Benn said proudly as the rest of the Red Force crew gathered on deck, ready to disembark.

The Whitebeard Pirates followed Shanks down the plank. Once they all set foot on the island, they were surrounded by people of all ages.

Luffy, being the smallest and the youngest, was surrounded by Law, Ace, and Sabo so that he doesn't get jostled by the crowd.

Law looked behind him when he felt someone grab his sleeve. He looked down to see Luffy looking at the people nervously. Law nudged Sabo and gestured with his head towards Luffy. Understanding what was going on, Sabo pulled Luffy and Ace to slip away from the crowd. Law stayed in order to inform Marco and Shanks that the trio didn't just up and disappeared.

"You okay there, Luffy?" Sabo asked once they were a good distance away from the crowd and walking down the dirt road of the village.

The boy nodded and gave both of them a bright excited smile. "Yeah. There was a lot of very happy people. It made me feel, um, I don't know. Tingly? It was a good feeling. Just too much."

Ace and Sabo didn't quite understand what he meant, so they just ruffled his hair, relieved that he wasn't feeling afraid of the crowd. They decided to go ahead and toured the village without waiting for everyone else.

Once the crowd diminished, Marco looked around him and noticed the three missing. "Shit. Where'd those kids go-yoi?" he asked Law.

"Luffy looked nervous, so Sabo took him and Ace, and I guess, walk through town."

"How long ago?"

Law narrowed his eyes at Marco's worried look. "About a minute or two after we got off the ship. Why?"

"What's wrong?" Shanks interrupted them.

"Ace, Sabo, and Luffy went off on their own-yoi," Marco groaned with his hand over his eyes.

"So? This island is safe. There's no need to worry about them," Shanks laughed.

"You don't understand," the blond moved his hand to his forehead and swiped his hair back. "It's either they find trouble, or trouble finds them. How do you think their bounty keeps going up when they're sailing with us? They're lucky they haven't been caught yet. They even managed to burn down an island without doing it themselves."

Law's eyes widened in realization, before smacking his hand to his face. How could he forget. "Shit. They have about a 30 minute head start. We have to -"

Before he could finish his sentence, they heard Sabo cry out in pain, followed closely by Ace's voice. Now that they know which direction to look for the boys, they ran as fast as they could and saw Luffy on the ground, unmoving with some white powdery substance on his face, and Sabo rubbing his teary eyes, trying to get the same powdery substance out.

"Let go of me, dammit," Ace said to a boy that was dragging him away from his brothers. Getting fed up with struggling with the persistent boy, he proceeded to punch the him once, sending him to unconsciousness. Leaving the boy laying on the ground, he crouched down next to Luffy and shook him. "Luffy? Luffy, you okay there? Come on, say something."

"What happened?" Marco demanded once they reached them.

"My eyes!" Sabo wailed with tears streaming down his face.

"I don't know," Ace answered, still trying to shake Luffy awake. "We were just walking, and that kid," he jerked a thumb behind him, "came up and threw something at Sabo and Luffy, then tried to drag me away."

Law crouched down to take a look at Luffy. The young teen was barely breathing. He swiped a finger through the powder and sniffed it before taking a small lick and finched. "It's a very potent sedative. We need to flush Sabo's eyes very thoroughly and take Lu back to the ship. All my supplies are there, and hopefully, Shank's infirmary is well stocked." Shanks nodded that they were. "It looks like he may have ingested a some of it. We have to hurry." He picked up his sister and ran towards the ship, with Marco doing the same with Sabo.

Ace followed with the unknown boy thrown over his shoulders. "What?" he asked when Shanks looked at him. "He attacked us, and I want to know why. He's lucky I didn't fry him."

"He's not breathing," Law said worriedly, as he checked over Luffy once more in the infirmary with the ship's doctor.

The doctor held a stethoscope to Luffy's chest and shook his head sadly. "His heart's stopped beating."

"Move," Law shoved the older man aside and pressed two thumbs on the boy's chest. "Counter Shock!" He sent waves of electrical currents to the body, willing the heart to start once more. It didn't work. He tried again with no success.

There was a pained groan from the next bed over, where their attacker was stirring. Ace wasted no time to grab this person's shirt and shake him awake. He didn't want to think about his baby brother being dead. There was no way Luffy was dead.

"Why the hell did you attack us?" he yelled as he continued to shake the boy. "What did we ever do to you?" He continued to yell as he was being pulled off and held back by Marco.

The boy shook in fear as he realized he's been caught.

Shanks sat down calmly on the boy's bed just as Sabo walked in with Benn's help. "How's Luffy?" The room was silent, and all he could hear was someone sniffling. "Ace? What's going on? I can't see. Is Luffy okay?" Fear laced his voice. The quiet was unsettling. "Guys?"

"Lu..." Law tried to answer, but his voice caught his throat.

The doctor answered for him, but was cut off when there was gasp from Luffy's bed. He and Law quickly moved to check on their youngest brother.

"He's breathing," Law crumpled down to the floor next to the bed in relief. "Lu-ya's breathing again."

Ace shook Marco off him and rushed to Luffy's bedside and lightly tapped his face to wake him up. "Lu? Luffy? Wake up."

The doctor placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "With the amount his ingested, it may take him a while to wake up again. Once he does, he may be disoriented, and he may not be able to move, hear, or see. It's temporary though. It's already a miracle that he's breathing again. He was dead for a good five minutes or so."

"Oh, God," Sabo fell to the ground. "Lu died? But he's okay now?" He felt cold at the thought of almost loosing his precious brother. "Wait. Disoriented?"

The doctor nodded, before he remembered Sabo couldn't see him. "Yes, disoriented. Your loss of sight is also temporary. It should come back some time tomorrow or the next day."

"What's wrong?" Ace asked warily at Sabo's pale face, as he wiped away his tears.

"Trao, do you have the tranq gun with you?" Sabo asked seriously.

"No..."

"Go get it. We might need it. How disoriented will he be?"

"With how much that's gotten into his system, very," the doctor answered, "but he shouldn't be able to move around, so a tranquilizer will be unnecessary."

Ace understood what Sabo was thinking. "This is Luffy we're talking about. Better safe than sorry, especially if he can't see and doesn't know where he is once he wakes up."

"So, care to explain-yoi?" Marco asked of the boy in the other bed. Everyone else had forgotten about him once they found out Luffy was still alive.

"Hey, don't be scared." Shanks offered gently when the boy didn't answer and continued to shake in fear. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Says you," Ace growled.

"Ace," Marco warned.

"What's your name?" Shanks asked, trying to warm up to the boy.

"Jeff," he finally answered.

"How old are you?"

"Eleven."

"Eleven, huh? Jeff, you seem like a good kid, so there must be a good reason for what you did," Shanks encouraged.

"I...I thought...I thought those two were nobles, "he pointed to Sabo and Luffy, "and I wanted to save him," he pointed to Ace, "from them. I didn't mean to hurt them. I saw this bag of powder in a pile of trash, and I thought it would just distracted them enough for us to run away." Tears streamed down his eyes once the situation finally hit him. He knew he was in trouble. These were pirates. Sure they were pirates that saved him along with the others, but pirates are pirates. Not to mention he recognized the tattoo on the other man as Whitebeard's. It's not just one big named pirate he was dealing with.

"What made you think those two are nobles? From what I've heard from their grandpa, their background is quite similar to yours," Shanks said amused.

"Their clothes?" Jeff said meekly.

"He's got you there," Ace said with a weak laugh.

Sabo huffed from his position on the floor near the door. "Nobles wouldn't be caught dead in these clothes. Too casual. You wouldn't believe how many times my real dad went through my closet and burned my favorite clothes. 'I will not let my son wear something that will tarnish our good name,' he would say. Good thing I'm not his son anymore. Nobles are hypocrites."

"Oh? So you used to be a noble?" Shanks asked. "Garp didn't mention anything about that. Just said you were his grandson."

"Yeah. I ran away from home because I didn't agree with how the nobles view human lives. Just because someone wasn't born a noble, doesn't mean they're trash or tools to be used. Even being born a noble, children are used to further pursue the adults' reputation. I just wanted my own freedom. Gramps never asked anything. To him, I just showed up one day at Dadan's, and he just adopted me without a question. It was like I've been there the whole time," Sabo said with a fond smile.

Ace snorted. "Ironic really. You went from filthy rich, to dirt poor, to slave in a matter of a year."

"You were a slave?" Jeff asked, finally feeling safe enough that the pirates wouldn't kill him.

"Like Shanks said, our situation is quite similar," Sabo said with a frown. "But our story is a little more violent."

"Story time later-yoi," Marco suddenly cut in. "Shanks, take that kid, Sabo, and the doctor to a different room. Somewhere safe and away from here-yoi. Looks like Luffy might wake up a little earlier than we think. I just saw his fingers twitch."

Shanks laughed. "You too, Marco? Seriously. How dangerous could one midget be? He's just a cute little kid."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Shanks," Ace said as he helped Sabo up, "but like Sabo just said, 'Our story is a little violent.' You're the Captain of this ship, so your life is our priority. Not to mention, Luffy is our problem. Sabo can't see, so take care of him for us."

"Also, Pops?" Sabo turned his head to face the room, not really knowing where the other blond was.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful." Because, while Sabo wasn't worried about Marco hurting Luffy, he was still worried about his father figure.

Marco nodded before the door closed, leaving him, Law, Ace, and Benn in the infirmary with Luffy.

"Mind explaining?" Benn asked. "I'm with Shanks. There's no way this brat is that dangerous."

"There was this one time, back when we were still a slave, the people there drugged him and brought him back to our cell out cold. He woke up and tried to kill us because he was hungry. He didn't recognize us. He killed the three guards that came to stop him. I'm not sure how we did it, but Sabo and I somehow knock him out. We came out of it badly hurt. When he woke up, he didn't remember anything. He was only three. If you want to know what you're dealing with, image fighting all 16 Commanders at the same time," Ace explained. "Okay, maybe that's exaggerating but close enough."

"Is that why you have that tranq gun-yoi?" Marco asked.

"No. I asked Sabo for one. The next person to laugh at my narcolepsy will be sleeping in their dinner," Ace blushed. "Trao just accidentally brought it with him and noticed it in his bag a few days ago."

"You've never seen him fight," Law said, taking away the small knife and pistol from Luffy's holsters. "He maybe scrawny, but he knows what he's doing."

"You're kidding," Benn said disbelievingly.

"They're not. We trained him, so we know what he's capable of-yoi," Marco answered.

Benn remained quiet, waiting until later when he's with his captain to ask more question. For now, he'll have to see firsthand.

It was only five minutes later when Luffy stirred. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times, looking confused.

"Luffy?" Ace said from beside the bed. He reached his hand over to place his hand over his brother's head, only to be slapped aside.

Luffy quickly moved to the corner of the bed and moved his head side to side, trying to figure out why he couldn't see anything, and why he couldn't recognize any of the lights in the room. His head hurt so much that he couldn't think straight. The only thing he could think of were of his brothers. Where are they? Are they alright? What happened? Why was everything so quiet and dark and fuzzy?

"Ace? Sabo?" he tried to call out, but no sound came from his mouth.

"Lu-ya, it's okay. Calm down," Law tried. He was pushed down when he approached the bed.

"I don't think he can hear you-yoi. Remember what the doctor said-yoi?" Marco said as he pushed himself off Law. He reached out to grab Luffy's arm when the boy tried to dash out of the infirmary, only to be bitten on the hand and punched in the face.

"I thought no one could touch you," Benn said in surprise as he too tried to catch Luffy. He was kicked out of the way, into the door, and out in the hall.

"Haki," was all Marco said as he wiped the blood from his lip where blue/gold flames erupted to heal his cut and chased the boy with Law and Ace on his tail.

"What the hell happened?" Shanks demanded. He and Jeff ran out to see what the commotion was, ignoring Sabo's protest. "I thought Doc said he wouldn't be able to move for a while."

"We may have a bit of a problem, Captain," Benn said. "The kid's fast."

"It's been confirmed-yoi," Marco panted when Benn finally joined them on deck, where Ace was fighting Luffy with a broken mop handle and Law with his long sword still in it's sheath, "he can't see either. He tripped all over everything in his way. He's using haki to see people though-yoi."

"How should we handle this?" Benn asked with his hand over his shotgun.

"Attack with everything you got and hope you can knock him out-yoi. We're either going to have to try to hit him the tranquilizer or knock him into the ocean-yoi."

With that, they both joined Ace and Law.

"Aren't you going to help them?" Jeff asked Shanks, who just leaned on the wall and watched them fight.

"Nah. They've got it. But still, I can't believe that cute little kid can be this vicious," Shanks said seriously just as Luffy tripped over Ace's mop, only to kick Law in the chest as he righted himself in one fluid motion.

"That's why you have to be careful of kids too, not just the scary looking guys." The two looked over to see Sabo carefully crawling up the stairs on his hands and knees. "That's how we managed to kidnap Pops."

Jeff went over to help the teen up and walk him over to where Shanks stood.

"Kidnap Marco? That Marco? Marco, the First Division Commander and First Mate of Whitebeard?" Shanks asked in surprise and burst out laughing.

"Our last job with our old employer," Sabo smirked. "Luffy was seven, and we were ten. Just imagine a cute little girl and her brothers doing a dine and dash, and you caught us red handed. Marco chased us down. Now that I know him, I'm not sure if he wanted to turn us in and lecture us, or to make sure we had a place to return to. Anyway, Luffy distracted him while we knocked him out with a set of seastone cuffs. They wanted to use Marco as a hostage to take Whitebeard's head. Opps. Don't tell Pops I told you. It's supposed to be our secret," Sabo blushed.

Shanks laughed. "So, all it takes is some defenseless kids to bring down Whitebeard's First Mate's defense."

Law was suddenly sent towards them, making a large hole in the cabin's wall.

"Where's the gun?" Sabo asked.

"He kicked it out of my hand. Not sure where it went," Law grunted. He has various minor cuts here and there and a deep one on his shoulder. "My sword got stolen."

Then they watched as Lucky Roo walked up the plank while eating a piece of meat. He looked at the ongoing fight, turned his head to look at Shanks, then down to his feet where he almost stepped on a gun.

"Oh, nice timing, Lucky. Shoot the kid with that, would you?" Shanks asked, pointing to the gun at his crew's feet.

Lucky studied the fight for a moment before shrugging and held his meat between his teeth. He pulled out one of his own gun and fired before firing the tranq gun in the direction Luffy dodged the first.

Everyone fighting, turned as one to look at Lucky in surprise at how effortlessly he took down the boy, then dropped to the deck in exhaustion.

"Jeff, go get Doc, would you? Looks like we have a few more people for him to patch up. I'll take Luffy back down to the infirmary, and Sabo? I would like an explanation as to how little Luffy is the way he is. Lucky…you just do whatever you were doing." Shanks pushed off the wall and walked towards the exhausted group.

"Who the hell taught that kid Haki?" Benn complained as he nursed a bruised arm.

"No one," Marco said tiredly. "He just somehow picked it up one day."

"Must be nice to be able to heal yourself," Ace grumbled as he glared at Marco, who supported him since his leg had been kicked by Luffy. It's probably broken, he thought to himself as he winced when he put slight pressure on it.

After everyone has been patched up and settled down, Ace and Sabo told their story, minus Ace's and Luffy's parentage or who their 'owner' was. They didn't want unnecessary information leaked with Jeff being there.

They were already lucky that Marines didn't have pictures for their wanted poster. Especially with Doflamingo still wanting Luffy back, they just wanted to take precaution in case Jeff accidentally leaked something to the wrong person.

"So let me get this straight," Ben said, "The three of you were slaves slash assassins?"

Ace and Sabo nodded.

"But you two were only eleven when we first met," Shanks said in worried confusion. "Weren't you kids too young to be going around killing people?"

"They didn't think so," Ace and Sabo both said.

"And Luffy -"

"Shanks-yoi," Marco shook his head, telling the ship's captain to not ask anymore.

"Just so you know, Jeff, you can't tell anyone about us. We don't want to go back," Sabo said. You just never know who would visit the island after all.

"Is that why Luffy insists that being the Pirate King equals being the freest person in the world?" Shanks mused.

Ace nodded solemnly. "It's his dream: to be the person with the most freedom."

"That would explain why he likes to run around naked-yoi," Marco smirked, causing everyone to laugh.

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

A/N: I just realized that I forgot Law's ya name endings. Opps.

Got sick. Brain not wanting to work, so this is what you get today. Sorry if it sounds weird. It was somewhere around the last two chapters that my rough draft took a turn for the lazy. I'm now having to play fill in the blanks with my own writing. :P