Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.


In the end the Buster Pirates won and hoisted their trophy of Aleister's body up by thick cords of rope with his feet hanging in the air between the Grand Masts on the Main Deck. His hands were the most dangerous asset he had, and were caged with huge lobster cages for huge lobsters clamped around his sleeved wrists. Even if he could manage to somehow pull something out of the portal space in his hands, he couldn't easily use it. The traps were solid steel and nigh-unbreakable to the standards of either lobsters or gunfire. Such was the standard of Grand Line lobsters, to rend through most metal as easily and quickly as if it were wood.

"Good thing we had those, eh?" a pirate said, admiring the work.

"All's well, I suppose" Zan said. Rez hopped up onto the railing and sat beside him.

"Not really" Rez added. "For one thing, we just made another enemy, and a dangerous one at that, on this blasted sea. That power of his gives him a frightening advantage in any fight. Secondly, without him doing it, who's going to get all his crap off of our deck!?" Zan looked out. In reality the stage he had brought with him was just as large as it seemed, and only by the illusion of selective lighting and shadows did it appear any smaller than it actually was. It covered most of the Imperial Dragon's Main Deck, right up to the Grand Masts. The pirates had been seated farther back then they even realized and shaded by a much wider area then they remembered setting up. All a part of the greater mystery and illusion.

"His crew's all captured and tied up" Zan said. "The nurses are treating the wounded, and doing quite well I admit."

"They patched you up nice and fast" Rez observed. Zan's body was wrapped in bandages, almost covering him save for his face and pants. Zan grinned and groaned to sit upright.

"I'll be alright" Zan said. "I've survived worse."

"That's kinda disheartening" Rez admitted. "You know, you being an assassin and all." Zan just smirked and chuckled.

"Hey, Rez!" called Marco. Rez jumped down from the Upper Deck to the Main and confronted Marco. "Have you seen Bard?"

"Nope" Rez casually admitted. "Hey, by the way, you think we can get some fishing done around here? That is, does this look like a good area to fish? We still aren't moving, so-"

"Uh" Marco began, "Rez? We kinda need Bard right now." Rez glanced at him and sighed, finding it impossible after all to avoid the subject.

"Do I look like his keeper!?" Rez shouted. "That fool could be anywhere by now! You know how he is. Anyway, if your precious captain is so desperately needed, why don't you try looking for him?"

"We did" Marco said. "In fact, we seem to be missing not only him, but Araly and Gretta are gone as well."

"And wasn't there another Gretta?" another bulky pirate asked. "You know, that Void girl? We can't find her either. We sent some guys down to guard the infirmary, since that's the only other place we've got people right now, and those Paladins that are able to move around are searching for her." A stark silence came over Rez and Marco as, together, they slowly pieced things together. Rez suddenly ran to the port side of the deck and looked down into the water. Instantly, his rush of curiosity was replaced with a furious tension.

"We haven't moved, have we?" Rez asked. Marco joined him soon, leaned over the rail, and then immediately stepped back with a hand on his head. They stared down at the water, placid and calm, where a ship had been, and where one should be, but where there was nothing at all. "And if I remember correctly, wasn't she the first mate?"

"Uh...." Marco groaned. Rez took him by his collar and shook him with a face of demonic anger.

"YOU WANNA TAKE A GUESS WHERE ALL FOUR OF THOSE GLORIOUS BASTARDS DISAPPEARED TO!!!???" he roared with all his might.

"Ship on the horizon!" a pirate called. "Ah, wait no! It's their ship, sailing away! AH! There's Captain Bard!!!" Rez turned furiously, threw Marco back and rushed to the pirate shouting at the bow of the ship. He shoved him to the side and peered through the spyglass he wielded to see, not surprisingly, a distant black dot running across the water chasing after a further away image of a ship. Rez crushed the spyglass in a fist and held his forehead with his palm.

"Why...." he asked with a low voice, shaking with a tearful rage, "....did nobody notice until now...?"

"We were busy tying up the whole crew" the pirate he had shoved admitted "and, honestly, I had forgotten about the girls during the whole battle. I was too focused on staying alive!"

"Up anchor!" Rez commanded, his face recovered from its sweeping depression. He turned and pointed to the wheel. "We're going after them! Full sail! On the goddamn double!!!"

"You heard the First Mate!" Zan called. "Follow that ship!" The crew reacted instantly and rushed around, prepping the ship for full sail despite the obvious obstruction in the path of the Grand Sail. They lowered it as much as they could and stopped it far enough above Aleister's head so as to not hit him or place their precious sail in a dangerous circumstance should he awake. The Wing Sails were lowered as well, and the low winds all caught into the massive sails of the ship and moved it, slowly, forward. The anchor was risen and the currents of water that led after the distant, small ship sailing away caught the massive bottom of the Imperial Dragon, and across the waves it began its crawl!

Rez took to the bow with a foot up on the elevated step of the sprint while Marco took to the wheel and Zan was left to rest his injured body in the light of the day. The sun was at an angle in the sky, as the time that had passed during the conflicts went unnoticed by the pirates, and clouds were moving in from all corners of the sky, giving the illusion that the patch of blue above them was the only place of such brightness under the vaulted heavens in the world, filling the pirates with an arcane and passive sense of pride and adventurous drive.


Meanwhile, out on the open ocean, running in a heated sprint...

"UUUOOOOOHHHH!!!!!" roared Bard, hyper in his rage as he chased down the ship that had departed during the battle. "You damn dirty piraaaates!!!" Oh, wait, I guess I'm a pirate too, but I'm not one of those pirates. "YOU DAMN CREW YOU!!! YOU'RE TERRIBLE PEOPLE! Er, PIRATES! DAMN YOOOOOU!!! I'll catch your ship and suplex it right to HELL!!!" Bard ran for a bit before his brain moved again and reminded him of the hostages he was seeking to rescue and how poorly they would be able to swim through a ship he had successfully suplexed clear over his own back. "Uh, after I save Araly and Gretta! Yeah! Then, SUUUPLEEEEX!!!!" Despite his rambling roars, the ship sailed on with a dummy at the helm holding the wheel steadily in place. Vega Void was below the deck in hiding with her hostages, passive Gretta and extremely sick and hatefully angered at her captor and her role as a captive. Vega sat overlooking them in a dressing-room style of bedroom, her own personal space on the stage of a ship, polishing a rapier in front of a mirror.

"I have a question" Gretta began, "how can this ship operate properly with only you on board?"

"Only me?" Vega said. She turned in her seat and glared Gretta down, a spiteful glance she'd never received before and looked away from in apathy.

"Certainly" Gretta said "you don't expect me to work. I'm a princess. I haven't worked a day in my life. And her..." Gretta was obviously about to rail on Araly, but the girl in question loudly groaned and clutched her stomach, fighting back a flood of sickness from spewing out of her mouth. ".....hmm. Now I remember. You told me you were sea-sick, didn't you? It was so arbitrary I'd forgotten."

"What?" Araly groaned. "Why...how could you forget?"

"It didn't seem important to me at all" Gretta said with a shrug. Vega appeared with the tip of her sword at Gretta's throat. She looked down at it, still deep in apathy, and sighed.

"It's at least interesting" Gretta said "in that it's harder to fight with than a normal sword." Void pushed up on her and forced her against the wall she sat before.

"I won't stand" Vega snarled "to be made a mockery by that bastard anymore!" She drew away and straightened her voice back out into a calm yet oppressing demeanor. "That man is a heartless manipulator, that Altair. He formed this crew under a stolen flag after he acquired his powers on the eve of setting out into this ocean. He claims to be a man 'blessed by starlight', and that nothing can best him in this world because of his luck. I'd rather not stand around and watch and hope that his luck eventually runs out. With this chance, I'd rather just run and let him do as he may to your precious crew."

"You obviously don't know those pirates well" Gretta said. "They aren't the type to fight with luck alone. They're desperate, diligent, powerful and abusively hard-working all in the sake of becoming stronger as men individually. A single man can't just walk into a fray the likes that the Buster Pirates can stir up and part the winds. That man's more than likely dead by now, and because of your cowardice, you'll never get to see it. Zan most likely ordered him to be thrown into the ocean to end any threat of him becoming our long-standing enemy." Vega turned and slapped Gretta across the cheek, forcing her head to turn to the side.

"Don't dare insult your captor" Vega hissed. Gretta was speechless, for once. Her snide remarks and chiding skepticism had given way to terror and fear, for at the instant she was harmed she knew it could easily be repeated. Vega didn't need her for anything, and she was the one in control of the ship's arms.

"Ugggghhhh" Araly groaned. "What insult?" she said, joining in on what she had heard. "Isn't it like a coward to run from a fight, even one she may end up winning at the expense of a few broken nails?"

"And what about you, then?" Vega said. She walked over and picked Araly up by her ponytail, forcing her to stand with a debilitating sickness flushing her face pale. "Where were you when the fight broke out, exactly? I managed to take you both from the confusion after all your comrades ran into battle, and left you alone and defenseless. What kind of faith can you have in such men, who lie and deceive, and use you as a stepping stone to their own fortune!?"

"......you really don't know them well" Araly said. Vega drew back a hand to force Araly into submission with a slap. Gretta recovered and stood up, prepared to help, as Vega's arm moved through the air. Then it stopped, short of Araly's face, as the seasick girl brought up an arm on instinct to block it. She grinned and looked up through the shade of her brow at Vega's tense face. "We'll fight until there's nobody left! That's who we are! It's what we do!" Araly grabbed Vega's arm and pulled her forward. She tilted forward her head and smashed Vega's nose against it, then pushed her away and to the floor while she slumped against the wall and slowly sank down with a sick groan. Vega grabbed her injured nose while Gretta stood over her.

"She's right, you know" Gretta said. "They're all a bunch of animals on that ship." Vega swung an arm at Gretta's legs to distract her as she retreated. She stood back up and took her rapier out. Her face was tense with rage and she held her nose tight, praying it wasn't broken.

"You bitch...." Vega lowed. "The both of you, who do you think you are!?"

"That's a fine question" Gretta said. "The bigger question is, just who are you? We can certainly defend ourselves, but you can't change the facts. You ran from that fight and took us with you only for insurance. I'm not one to say for sure, as I've only been out to sea for these few meager days in my life, but is that really what a pirate should do?"

"......" Vega was silent. She lowered her rapier and backed against the door. Tears were starting to form and gave her eyes a rippling wetness. She lowered her head, her lips quivering, and rose up with a stoic expression and tears unfought on her face to meet Gretta's gaze. She looked down, at a narrow change of height, at her reflection in more regal costume. She, herself, still wore the fabric that tied her to her captain as an 'assistant' while Gretta's regal aura exuded even stronger with the clothes she wore. With her envy as the final push, Vega sighed and spoke openly. "You and I, I can tell, are a special kind of people. Not just our skin, our hair, and our rose-red eyes, but something about us seems to echo to all others that we are defenseless."

"....hmm?" Gretta hummed.

"I wish to tell you" Vega said "just how the Top Hat Pirates formed under Aleister Altair, for I was there when it all occurred..." Vega's mind drifted back to that moment of time, when she was younger, before her life became a nefarious race from port to port and ship to ship, a challenge to stay alive and hidden long enough in the mystical shadow of Aleister Altair as he led his band to shallow glory across the Grand Line....


"Come one and all!!!" shouted the boisterous voice of an entertainer. A thick-bearded man with a huge body and short legs stood behind a podium built to his size on an elevated stage drawn from behind and the sides with grand, velvet curtains. "Come and witness the talent and magical display of Aleister Altair!!!" A crowd had gathered in the square where this man had assembled. In Lougetown, city of beginnings and endings, such a gallant display for citizens was uncommon. It was primarily a haven for the foolhardy to take their final rest before traveling north to the Reverse Mountain and the graveyard of pirates, the Grand Line. Those who lived there in peace couldn't help but be amazed when something unexpected would happen, and gathered to watch Aleister's show without hesitation.

He took a cloth, or so it seemed at first, and tucked it into his tightly balled fist. Then, extending his arm out into the audience, lowered it to the face of a young woman and opened it up to release a cluster of pure white doves into the air. She, and the whole gathered audience, applauded loudly and threw him tips of coins and cash. Aleister's show continued as he took, from his top hat, an immense bouquet of flowers that he tossed into the air. Instantly, it exploded into multiple bouquets with a puff of pink smoke and fell into the hands of maidens reaching out. Aleister performed a trick for the men as well, an illusion of sorts where he took a donkey onto the stage and then, under the veil of a thin cloth, instantly transformed it into a beautiful and busty lady that all the men hollered and whistled at.

Only one girl observing, with her guardians at either side, remained unamused. She had her silken, curly white hair tied back behind her head and draped over her face in two curly clustered bangs. This young girl was Vega Void, standing with a man and woman, neither of them reflecting her fairest features or physical traits. Two people who were not her parents that treated her thus with unrequited parental duty and caring. Vega, abandoned in Lougetown as an infant, was their adopted daughter.

"Isn't this amazing, Vega?" her foster mother asked. Vega stared straight ahead at the posing girl on stage.

"She was there the whole time" Vega said. "The donkey is backstage."

"Eh?" her mother said. Vega turned and saw two men in dark suits escorting the donkey off stage and to a shady character in an alley.

"See?" Vega said, pointing at the trick's inconsistent reveal. "That's what-"

"You're amazing, Aleister!" her mother cheered.

"Do another trick!" her father screamed. He took a fistful of coins and tossed them on stage. Aleister took off his hat and was able to catch all the money thrown his way out of the air by simply flicking his hat around with the swift movements of his fingers. Vega sighed and remained unimpressed, alone in her feelings and unnatural contempt. The show finally ended and the citizens departed, all of them in a lifted mood but Vega, who was just as skeptical and apathetic leaving as she was when she arrived to watch. Aleister and his assistants were busy taking down the stage they had quickly erected, all of them dressed as best as poor men could be, in matching suits that were wrinkled from overuse and noticeably dirty. Vega and her parents left together, but Vega soon returned just as Aleister bid a farewell to an admirer with much of his stage packed together and strapped onto his back.

"Is it fun?" Vega asked. Aleister turned in place to her and blinked curiously. "Is it fun for you to travel everywhere, even though there are pirates running around on the sea?" Aleister chuckled and stepped forward to Vega, keeping his distance respectable.

"But of course!" Aleister said. "Why, even pirates sometimes need to see a good show to bring about an easy mood! They're no different than other people, just a bit harder to find in any given spot! Have you ever thought about setting out to sea, miss?"

"Of course not" Vega answered flatly. "If I had to get defiled by some villainous mongrel of a man I'd rather have it done here, where somebody could at least hunt him down for me, and not in the open and uncaring ocean."

"The heart of adventure is in everyone" Aleister said. "It's that heart that guided me all the way out here from my origin in the South Blue!" Aleister turned and extended his arm up to the pillar, the preserved execution stand of the late Pirate King, which stood tall still in the central square of Lougetown, no great oppressor for those who lived in its shadow an neither a gleaming bastion of revelry and pirating to those who wandered to it from the stretching blue ocean. It was simply there to Vega, and to Aleister he knew what it was and what it's significance was, but it failed to move him anymore than it did to help register his point. "That tower there is a proud symbol to those who live following their hearts to adventure. But to others, like yourself, it only stands for the crimes those people's hearts commit. Is that not right?"

"It's an eyesore" Vega said. "If you want me to believe in you at all, I'd like to see you make it disappear."

"Hahaha!" Aleister laughed. "What a spry and dry wit you have! Not one to care for the thoughts of others, are you?" Vega looked away.

"No use in it" she said. "By the way, what did you do with that donkey you stole?" Aleister gazed down at her, and his grin widened without dropping the snarl he built up.

"Why we have stolen nothing" he attested. "You shouldn't be so quick to judge others, young miss!" With that Aleister left, walking down the street with heavy steps of his feet as he carried the weight of lumber plus his own enormous body. Vega looked after him as he went and left for home. In the street she saw Marines mobilizing rapidly for a destination, but brushed their presence away as unimportant. She eventually returned home and retired to her own room, a girlish den laden with all sorts of stuffed animal creatures, modeled after things from far away lands she'd never seen, dressed all up in bright pink and glimmering crystals and precious metals mounted on stands for her to display freely. She went to her bed and tossed and turned impatiently for a while, until the rain started to pour.

She sat at the edge of her bed and stared out the window, watching the rain distort the clear visage that her window held, and saw the shadows of buildings and alleys as the lightning flashed. She didn't let a single thing drift into her mind as she watched the rain. Her eyes were set in a diligent gaze ahead, over the house roofs and into the distance of the city still yet blocked by the taller rooftops of houses and other buildings. Just as the calm darkness of the rainy evening sky began to take a hold of her energy and bring to her a dazed sleepiness, an orange glow and muted boom suddenly woke her up and stirred up her eyes. Off in the distance, some few blocks away, there was a fire, but the erratic nature of its glow, sparking up and dying down so quickly, suggested to her that it was no ordinary fire. It was a fight. Compelled to take flight, Vega dressed herself in a slick rain coat and ran out into the streets, a shining phantom of purest white running through the darkness, destination fixed on that distant glow....


In a bar of Lougetown, a discrete little speakeasy for pirates in the basement of a reformed criminal's house, a very indeiscrete war was brewing. Two bands of villains fought each other, one of pirates and the other of men dressed in formal suits with top hats, led by their big-bodied Aleister Altair, who held in one hand a treasure chest.

"You bastard!" the leading man of the opposing crew shouted. He was a swarthy man, and a thick-bodied one at that with a rounded gut and arms. He led a brigade of men dressed poorly at best, all wearing a tattered coat or cloak and patchwork pants with a ratty top-hat fixed to each head. "You give us back our treasure, or so help me-"

"Your treasure?" Aleister said. He tilted his head back and chuckled at the man. He passed a hand over the chest, then threw a cloth over it, and then pressed down and held the cloth tight between his palms. Then he revealed that the chest was gone and took away the cloth with a swing in the air. "Ta-dah! What chest, may I ask?"

"You....rat!" the man shouted. "Kill these louts! Show them the might of the Top Hat Ruffians!" His band of criminals charged and fought against their formal reflections. Aleister's handymen fought the brigands off, his assistants all taking up arms, including the lovely woman with scant, wet clothing distracting the enemies as she wielded guns against them. Soon only their leader was left and he faced down Aleister personally. "You son of a bitch! I'll burn you down with his ratty place!" He pulled out three bottles of liquor from his pockets, held them each by the neck between his fingers and took all the corks out at once with his teeth. He threw the bottles at Aleister and soaked his neat dress tuxedo with the heavy stench of alcohol. Then the man took out a strange, wide-barrel pistol and aimed while leaning away from it. "Take this! My Flare Gun!" He fired a flickering bullet that whizzed forward with a trail of smoke and ignited Aleister into a giant ball of flames.

"GAAAAAHHHH!!!" he shouted in pain.

"Oh no! Captain Altair!" one of the stagehand men shouted. Aleister's shadow remained in the flames, scowling in pain, slowly consumed by the burning might.

"Ha!" the ratty leader exclaimed. "That should teach you not to mess with me! Even the Marines run when they see the signals I shoot into the sky! You'd better wisen up in the afterlife, punk!"

"Why, that's a nice trick, isn't it?" Aleister said. The man stood in a still shock. His gun slipped from his hand as a nervous sweat built and he slowly turned. There sat Aleister, perfectly fine, sans his black coat with the treasure chest he had stolen balanced on one finger. He was looking down with narrow eyes and upturned eyebrows with an arrogant smile on his face.

"Brilliantly done, captain!" one from his crew cheered. "Your illusions are second to none!"

"Swapping your coat onto a stack of barrels at the last second" the beautiful girl said. "My, aren't you the clever one."

"Ahahahaha!" Aleister laughed. "It's nothing, nothing at all! Simple illusions, simple! Simple!"

"Grrrr!" the bandit lowed. "Who cares! Let's see you illusion this, you damned bastard!!!" Aleister saw him grab his gun and took up his own. From out of his sleeve he pulled a gun the size of a small cannon and aimed it at the man's face. He stared down a barrel wide enough for his own head to fit in and saw the heavy lead bullet stuffed into the chamber. He dropped his flare gun immediately and fell to his knees. Aleister opened the chest and looked at its contents, a magnificent treasure that brought an ecstatic glint to his sadistic grin at once.

"What a glorious item you have found" he said as he eyed the marvel. Resting against many layers of cushion was but a single fruit, an oversized cherry with a curly stem and spiral spiral pattern marks covering its skin. "What fruit is this, pray tell? Did you bother to research that before you decided to set up this turgid meeting? Or perhaps, after getting your money, you would simply ingest it yourself and use its powers agaisnt the buyer? Thank goodness I had the mind to kill them before they could arrive and come in their place, eh!?"

"What?" the man said. "Kill? You? You killed....those men? The Top Hat Pirates!?"

"If there is anyone deserving of that name" Aleister said "it must be me! Now tell me, kind rodent, what is this fruit that I have claimed?"

"Y-y-you can't!" he said. Aleister drew back the hammer of the pistol and aimed the weapon closer as a threat. He could see, over the barrel of the cannon, the serious glare and sadistic murderous intent in Aleister's eyes. He flinched and began chattering his teeth together in fear. "I-I-I-I-I don't know! I don't know, Idon'tknow IDUNNOOO!!!! I just told him I had a Devil Fruit and if he wanted it before I sold it off to someone else he had to meet me tonight. I didn't think, I couldn't image that that man would be able to die so soon!"

"All men die" Aleister said. "It is in life when we must claim everything that we can. So, you claim that you truly know nothing about this fruit?"

"I swear, I don't!" the man pleaded.

"And now that there is no more deal for you to benefit from" Aleister said "this fruit is no longer of your concern?"

"That's right, take it, please! Don't kill meee!!!" he shouted. Aleister's grin reached its fullest, spanning across his thick beard and up to his thick cheek bones.

"Then why leave you alive?" he said. The man's eyes filled with tears of terror in an instant.

At that time, someone was already watching. From outside, following the heart of adventure that beat within her, Vega Void watched from the window of the cellar and was the closest to the horrible bang. Her mind blanked again, and all she could see was the running that blurred the window she watched through, and all she could hear past the rain was the muted laughter of the mad and powerful man as he took the cherry and ate it with a cringe. Then his pistol vanished and sank into nothingness as his hands disappeared and were replaced by two colorless, transparent voids of space. The building continued to burn from the side exposed to the street, the origin of the fire, and the alcohol within continued to ignite, the origin of explosions. All of that she ignored to follow a greater curiosity...

A curiosity that scarred her for life...

To be continued....