Disclaimer: None of these characters except Falco are mine! T.T

I know hardly anything about the story when I begin… usually I begin with just the image of a person and a place. And then I write to discover what the story is. To me, that's so exciting: rushing to find out what the story is and what will happen and who I'll meet along the way."

-Sharon Creech

ONE PIECE: ROMANCE DAWN 1

FALCON IN THE SKY

I-I-I-I

.:The Whitebeard Pirates and the Falcon:.

The girl could hear the footsteps of her pursuers thundering behind her, as flashes of green and brown flew by the girl.

Thirteen years. Why now?

"Hold it!"

"Get her!"

She took another deep breath as she leaped over a bolder and then painfully raised a hand to stop the bleeding from her shoulders. She hated bullets. They were one of the only things that was capable of taking a bird down from the sky. But the one engraved in her shoulder was a type she hated even more. Kairoseki bullets.

The best chance she had was to grab her swords from her house. She didn't carry any weapons around when she was jogging... no one was up at the mountains during the mornings, and there was no harm from doing so.

Which was proven to be wrong today.

As the forest cleared, she could see the vast blue ocean, and the equally vast village ahead of her. Running down the hill as fast as she could, she dashed across the sandy path that led her to the heart of the village.

"Stop running immediately!" The Marines cried.

She quickly looked over her shoulders. There were five of them. How did they know who she was? Her identity was kept as a secret for thirteen years. Did someone spot her? Was Mihawk here?

She grabbed her key from her pockets and desperately tried to unlock her door when she was in front of her houose.

"Come on... open up..."

"There she is!"

Click.

She swung the door open and grabbed the first sword she saw. It had a black handle with golden engravings of a dragon on them. The sheath was shiny and black, and the body of the sword was straight and long. Just when she was about to unsheathe it, she heard a sharp click and felt a sword placed beside her neck. She froze and panted hard, wisps of smoke barley visible in her dark home.

"One more move..." The Marine panted. "And I'll kill you."

"Ensign! Ensign Masamoto, where are you?" The two could hear the cries of the remaining four Marines.

"I'm here, you dumbasses!"

Clack.

The girl took the chance to kick the ensign in the stomach and unsheathed her sword. After waiting for him to get up, she took the first chance to attack. She lunged with a powerful kick from her foot and swung the sword gracefully in front of her. The Marine gritted his teeth as he block, then clumsily swung the sword in front of him. She could immediately sense his weakness.

Too easy... She grinned. After pretending to go for the neck, she rotated her sword and hit his stomach.

The remaining four Marines appeared in front of her, looks of horror on their faces.

She didn't want to kill anybody... she really didn't. But it was better than revealing the self she had hided for over 13 years.

Regretting that fate ever chose her to be born, she raised her sword, and with a quick slice, killed the remaining four Marines.

/./././

After packing quickly, she left the house without a sound. She'd heal her wounds after she had found a safe place. There could be more Marines on the island, and there was nothing more she hated than engaging with those white-and-blue-uniformed fools.

Sighing one more time, she placed her hand gently above her wound and lugged her belongings to the port. She didn't know what to do. The bullet was a big problem, along with the bleeding, the amount of luggage she had with her, and the fact that she didn't own a boat.

After walking aimlessly for a couple of minutes, she bumped into something hard.

"Ow," she whined. "What the h-"

Marines. Maybe around 50 of them.

Ah, shit! She thought, eyes widening. She could immediately see he was a Marine of high rank. He had orange hair, and scruffy brown beard and eyebrows. His eyes widened largely when he saw her.

"V... Viv..."

Taking that chance, she ran for it as fast as she could. She could hear the head Marine shout: "Get her!"

Shit... she thought. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

The Marines WERE after her. How did that happen? She didn't interact with anyone for thirteen years! How did someone spot her? If those two Marines knew who she was, then it probably meant that the World Government was chasing her. They found out she was alive.

Her jog from this morning already seemed surreal. Had it really only been an hour ago she was relaxing underneath the beautiful trees in the peaceful forest?

Her thoughts came back from reality when the pain on her shoulder grew even deeper. She guessed that there was some kind of other poison in it. Heh. Touché.

She shut her eyes tightly as she tried her best to ignore the almost overwhelming pain. Even if she tried to attack, there was no way she could win against 50 trained Marines with guns. Maybe she could've, but she was loosing too much blood and she felt that her arm was paralyzed.

Thump

"Who the hell is it now?!" She cried, rubbing her forehead. She glared at the person she bumped into.

"You okay?"

She opened her eyes and rubbed her back. The man had an orange cowboy hat, with freckles splattered across his face, and a tall, muscular build. He smiled warmly as he pulled out a hand. She took it gingerly and painfully got up.

"P-Portgas D. Ace! H-he's here!" The Marines cried, when they spotted the two.

"Looks like I'm caught. You running away too?" He asked, looking at her.

Hesitantly, the girl nodded. The man, named Ace, took one of her bags and grabbed her wrist before starting to run.

"Hiken!" He cried. Immediately, a large ball of flame came out of his fist and annihilated the path behind them. The girl was in too much of an awe to realize the excruciating pain that was growing in her shoulder. Logia. Devil Fruit. Most likely the Mera Mera no Mi.

Suddenly, the man grabbed her waist and jumped over the ledge and into the ocean.

"H-hold on!" She cried. "We're both Devil Fruit users! We can't-"

BAM.

When the girl opened her eyes, she realized she was on a small, yellow boat, Ace carrying her bridal-style.

"What the hell-"

"Hold on," He simply said. He leaped up with a powerful kick, and his boat went under the ocean. The girl shut her eyes tightly, thinking that she was truly going to drown until she heard a simple bump. She slowly opened her eyes and realized she was on a boat.

A very, very large boat.

"What's this?" A man with hair and face that resembled a pineapple appeared. He peered closer to the girl.

"A stowaway?"

"She was running away from the Marines. I helped her while she was at it."

"So you brought her to our ship?"

"Only because she looks like she's severely injured. There's a bullet in her shoulder."

The pineapple man raised an eyebrow. He crouched down and inspected the blood dripping down her shoulders. The girl covered it desperately as an attempt to stop the bleeding, but winced at the pain.

"May I?" He went, raising an arm slowly. The girl nodded and carefully took her hands off.

He slowly ran his thumb over the wound and the girl clenched her fists tightly in pain. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for the pain to end.

"Kairoseki. Poisoned. Get Florence," He said, standing back up. A pirate with a blue bandana nodded as he quickly ran downstairs.

"Miss, you don't look like you're too afraid of pirates. Do you know who we are?" The pinapple man asked. She nodded.

"Who wouldn't? The Whitebeard Pirates."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Marco. The first commander."

"May I know why you're not… scared?"

"Do you want me to panic?"

"Well… no…"

The girl simply sighed before rolling her eyes. "I don't know… the ship doesn't feel so threatening… I don't mean that as a bad way, but it feels kind of comfortable… and familiar."

"You seem awfully calm for a girl who just got shot," Ace said, smirking.

"I've been shot before."

"Have you, now—"

The man in the orange hat stopped speaking when a pretty blonde nurse with a pink uniform came forwards. She was holding a first-aid kit and was smiling brightly.

"I heard there was an injury?"

Marco pointed at the girl. "Kairoseki bullet. She's infected, too."

"Stop acting like a know-it-all, Marco," the nurse said, rolling her eyes. "By the way, it's infection from the bullet, it's not poisoned."

The crew laughed loudly as Marco's face went red.

"Well I oughta—"

"Not now," she chimed. "We'll discuss this after I've finished treating the wound. Someone go tell Oyaji."

"I'll get him," Ace offered, jogging slowly towards the stairs that led to the basement rooms.

/./././

"ARGHHHH!" The stowaway cried as the female nurse stitched her shoulders. Marco, Ace, and Florence were surrounding her as the needle jabbed through her skin, in and out.

"Anaesthetic is hard to bring aboard, and we use it in the worst situations. But your wound isn't that deep, so I don't have a choice but to just sew without numbing it. Sorry," Florence apologetically said.

"This girl is our best nurse on board," Marco said, sticking a thumb towards the nurse. "At least she'll completely stop you from bleeding and get rid of your infection."

"Yeah… thanks," the girl panted.

"We're done!" Florence smiled. "If you don't know already, I'm Florence, the head nurse of the crew. I also belong in the 1st Division, and Marco is my commander."

"Well," Marco said, scratching the back of his head. "You probably know by now, but I'm Marco, the 1st Division's commander. Whitebeard is our father."

"I'm the 2nd Division's commander," Ace grinned. "What's your name?"

The girl looked up slowly and smiled at him. For the first time, Ace could see her eyes clearly. They were large, golden, and though they looked full of life, they also looked dark and almost… hypnotizing. Tired, even. As if there was a secret she'd been chasing for a long time. But the irregular golden colour startled him. He'd only seen the same colour on one person. But what would that man have to do with his stowaway right now?

"I'm Falco," The girl smiled brightly. "Falco D. Mihawk. Nice to meet'cha!"

The first chapter was a bit boring… not very satisfied with it… oh well XD

Special thanks to my editor Bob now! Thank you~ (not her real name, but she doesn't have a pen name yet

Remember to R&R and check my profile for dA stuff, updates, upcoming stories and events!

~moonlitnights14