Author's Note - I am aware that since most of the mysteries in the One Piece world have yet to be revealed in canon, all of my speculations will probably eventually be contradicted. But for the purposes of this story, assume that anywhere i contradict canon, I am right, and any time I contradict myself, I'm and idiot, and the newest thing is right.

Disclaimer : I do not own One Piece or any of the other fandoms from which names, places, abilities, or references are taken! Imaginary points to anyone who catches said references throughout the story and PM's them to me. Dunno if you'll get anything real, but i give sneak peaks and deleted scenes to my repeated reviewers, so it isn't unthinkable.

Chapter 08 - The Voice of All Things

"How long till we reach Alabastra?" Ace called from the figurehead. He looked out across the ocean, squinting to see if he could catch sight of the far off desert island.

"We're still a week out, Ace. You aren't going to see anything out there." Kuina didn't even open her eyes. She was stretched out next to her sister's chair on a blanket, dozing in the sun. Roger was going through a set of exercises Ace had taught him. Soul was somewhere below deck. Probably in the workshop.

The young captain sighed in boredom and hopped to the deck, landing as silently as a cat. He walked over to his navigator and took a seat on her blanket. She smiled slightly, but remained unmoving otherwise. He picked up a book he had found in the library and began flipping through it. It was a collection of theories about the mysteries of the Grand Line from across several generations.

The power of Haki and the Devil's Fruit abilities are meant to counter, compliment, and balance each other. There are three of each. Zoan Fruit and Observation Haki, giving the Haki user the ability to match the Zoan user's animal reflexes and instinctive intuition. Logia Fruit and Armament Haki, allowing both to make their body invulnerable to direct attack, with the exception of each other. Paramecia Fruit and Conqueror's Haki, both immensely flexible and full of potential. These two powers are both capable of more than anyone knows.

Strangely, the rarity of the Devil's Fruits and their corresponding Haki are not linked in any way that has become evident. Paramecia is the most common Fruit, while Conqueror's Haki is the rarest. Observation and Armament are within everyone, but Zoan and Logia are both rare to varying degrees. It is unclear what this may mean.

Ace closed the book and stretched out on the blanket next to Kuina. She smiled wider and squirmed an inch closer. Ace was lost in thought.

Each Haki was the bane of a certain Fruit? It made sense. Nature always attempts to find balance. However, now that they believed there to be a fourth Fruit, that no longer held true. The only options were that this Fruit had no balance, and was unchecked in its strength, or that somewhere out there, there was a fourth Haki to match it.

Ace flipped through the book again.

Armament Haki gives the user the ability to protect themselves with their strength of will. In it's rawest form, it is an invisible suit of armor, but those who have truly mastered it can use it to much greater effect. This Haki can be used to give strength to body and weapon alike in order to better stand against otherwise unbeatable odds. Logia users in particular are susceptible to this form of Haki, as it robs them of their greatest advantage, often revealing weaknesses they never sought to remove. Once called the Haki of the Body.

Observation Haki allows the user to sense the ambition of those around them. It is used most widely of the various forms of Haki and has many names and many uses. It can be used to predict the moves of an enemy, or to know the intentions of a stranger. Those who master it can remain as aware of their surroundings in their sleep as they are awake. It was once called the Haki of the Mind.

Conqueror's Haki is the greatest and rarest form of Haki. Where the other two are found in all people, this Haki is absent from most. Those who possess it are frequently great and powerful men. As the rarest, it is also the least understood. We do know that this Haki allows a person to turn their ambition into power to crush their enemies. Beyond that, this power is a mystery. This was once called the Haki of the Soul.

The captain closed the book again and turned his head to look at his navigator. He grinned and quickly kissed her cheek, watching her face turn red as he pulled away. He needed to get his mind off this for a while. He'd revisit it later after he had let the information sink in, unbiased.

"Hey Roger, want to spar with me?" Soul poked his head out from the lower deck doors. Roger gaped at him.

"Are you crazy? If I mess up with Ace, the worst I'll get is some bruises and maybe a broken bone. I've watched you cut five men in half with one swing with that thing!" The red haired pirate shook his head. Soul scowled.

"Fine, but how am I supposed to stay in practice?" Soul walked to the stairs and ascended to the upper deck, grabbing an apple from the kitchen before leaning against the railing and looking over his friends relaxing in the sun.

They had not seen another ship in days. The last one that had come within sight of their crow's nest had turned and fled. It was a strange feeling, going from complete unknowns to world wide notoriety so quickly.

Olivia vanished from her chair without a word, and returned in a flash with a new book. It was becoming second nature to the twins to use their power. Ace had noticed there was a slight breeze whenever they appeared or disappeared, and was beginning to work out how to read their movement with his observation haki.

He peaked up at the new book his doctor was reading. Maladies and Injuries of the Desert, a Guide to Survival in Harsh Climates, Volume 3. He smiled. The girl was always putting her job first. Then again, she did enjoy her work, so he had no right to complain about it. He'd be grateful if they ever needed her skills.

He lay back on the blanket and thought about the years he had spent with the twins.

"What are we doing, Ace?" Kuina was crouched behind a thick shrub next to her best friend and her sister. Ace grinned at her, filling her with excitement.

"The baker said he would give me a dozen cookies when horses fly, so we're gonna make it happen!" Olivia laughed quietly, then asked for clarification.

"And how are we going to do that? I don't see any wings sprouting from it's back." The girl pointed at the animal in question, which was eating lazily inside the fence.

"If you saw a bird on a roof, with no other way up, you would assume it flew, right? So we just need to get the horse on the roof without leaving any signs of a way up, and he'll have to accept that it flew up there!" Ace gestured wildly, indicating how large their chances of success were.

"So, how are we going to get it up there, if there is no way to get it up there?" Kuina asked, eager to hear how her leader was going to thwart impossibility. She really believed there was nothing he couldn't do.

Ace pulled out a roll of paper and spread it out in front of the two girls. He pointed, and they all grinned. He had come through for them again.

They worked through the night, silent as shadows. While Kuina and Olivia built a lever arm across the apex of the butcher's barn (the only building in the right position with a strong enough roof), Ace carefully led three large cows onto the large platform where the town fair was usually centered. They strapped the cows to the short end of the bar, and the horse to the long end. When they were sure they had everything measured right, they lowered the cows, raising the horse to the perfect height.

All in all, it took much more time and effort to set up and to hide than it did to execute, but the result was as desired. The next morning, the baker stared in slack jawed awe at the horse standing calmly on his roof. No one ever noticed the small indention on the roof of the butcher's barn where the lever arm had been loaded to the point of bending the wood.

Ace received his cookies, and even his first sword from the blacksmith who had wanted to see the baker eat his words for some time. As soon as he brought it home, his mother ordered him to begin taking lessons from his grandfather on how to use it properly. His training had begun, but his adventures with the twins had not ended.

Some months later, a man had come and harassed the twins' mother. The trio spent the night prying up floor boards on the man's ship in order to put a live hippo in his room. A hippo too large to fit through the door. He was not strong enough to kill the creature, which had realized it was trapped and become terrified and angry. The creature ended up escaping to the water after tearing through the hull of the ship, which then sank.

The man, no without a ship, heard rumors about a group of kids who did impossible things as a hobby. Things like getting a raging beast into a room that it could not have fit into. Enraged, he had sought out the one identified as their leader. His rage ebbed and turned to fear when he witnessed the child in a training session with the Revolutionary Dragon.

From that day on, he never harassed Robin again. A few months later, his ship reappeared at the dock, unharmed, and hippo-free. He had thanked the three children profusely, but they never acknowledged it as their work.

Had anyone gone to a small cove several miles up the coast, they would have found the place where the ship, nearly identical to the original, had been constructed. Ace had contacted Franky, a friend of his mothers, and learned the basics of ship building. They had taken enough notes on the original to recreate it, following blueprints that Franky sent back to them.

A few years after that incident, the group decided to get the attention of the townspeople and stir them to action. It took them nearly a year to complete the operation, but in the end, they had no doubts that it had been worth it.

They started by shadowing the people of the island carefully, digging up any secrets they had, and discovering, one by one, what each person desired most. It was more challenging with some than others, but they were cleaver and persistent. They kept a log of what every person wanted and what every other person had, then set to work mapping out the best way to combine them. By the end of the year, they were ready to implement their plan. The team split, and one by one, slipped notes into the pockets of every single person on the streets, and into the mail boxes of all those who remained within their homes.

These notes each held the name of another person in the town, the thing that person wanted most that could be provided by the receiver, and a little scrap of information as a catalyst to make that Christmas something special.

Not a single person skipped out. And every year since, the town has exchanged gifts without encouragement.

Ace looked over at his navigator. She'd stuck with him through some crazy schemes. He hoped she would be there till the very end, whatever that may be.

Soul had moved to sit on the railing near the figurehead, looking out over the waves as the ship cut through the water. Here with these pirates was the most relaxed he had felt in years.

"Tell me a story!" A young boy begged his father. The older man smiled and sat beside the bed. His son was getting old enough that he didn't feel bad about telling his favorite story at last.

"Alright. Let me tell you the story of the day I met the Pirate King." He smiled wider as his son stared up at him in awe. His son loved pirates. All the stories he had heard. They were mostly sheltered from the government's interference, living in such a secluded part of the Grand Line. Pirates had not been vilified so harshly here.

Many years ago, I was a marine. I had left home and joined their ranks thinking that I would be able to serve the people of our world and see the farthest reaches of the globe. In those days, I believed the government and its soldiers were the law, and the law was always right. I was a fool.

It was in these days that a pirate, some nobody from East Blue, first made his appearance. Of course, being the weakest of the four seas, no one really took him seriously. They seemed to forget that the Pirate King, Gold Rogers, came from that very sea. Well, as this young pirate traveled and rose above his obstacles, one after another, it became clear he wasn't quite as weak as they had originally thought him to be.

The government had no idea what it was dealing with. They put out a bounty on the man, thinking that small incentive would be enough to bring him down. They thought that would be the end of it, and I admit, so did I.

That man showed us, then, what we were dealing with. Not a man of unimaginable strength, or possessing ancient secrets, or even remarkably skillful by nature. No, he was something far more dangerous. He was a man who truly believed in himself, his friends, and his dream. There was no doubt in his heart. All men have doubts. That, at the bottom of it all, is where all our weakness resides. But he had none, and that made him unstoppable.

We reacted in the only way we knew how. We sent more and more of the military's strength in pursuit of him, and were beaten down, over and over. I began to realize, as did a few others, I think, that we were making things worse. Every attack we set upon him served only to make him stronger. Every word against him brought him more allies.

The day finally came when he was to reach that legendary shore. Raftel. The End of the Grand Line. One Piece. We were at the end of our rope. We had no cards left to play, so we made a desperate gamble. We called up an alliance of the most powerful crews in the New World. The three vice admirals, and three of the four Emperors. With these titans among men, we set out to destroy the man who sought to become the king of the pirates.

I will never forget that day, on the shore that every child of that generation had dreamed of, standing at the front line of an army led by six of the most dangerous men to ever live, I looked across the sand at nine pirates. Some little more than children. I had not grasped until then what it meant that he was only nineteen. He stood there, among his crew. His friends. His family. His Nakama. He faced the greatest assembly of power since the three ancient weapons of the void century. He stood tall and proud, and he faced us without fear.

I should have known then, that we stood no chance. That no army, no matter the size, could ever have stopped that man's dream. I had heard the legends that surrounded him. I knew that it was us, in our constant attempts to bring him down, who had made him so strong. We had, in a way, made him capable of reaching that shore. And we had made him more than strong enough to defeat us.

Well, the commanders were blinded by their own status. Arrogant and foolish, they believed numbers and titles were what determined strength. They sent the front line at him. I gritted my teeth and charged, fully expecting to die. I ran straight at him. I knew any second his first mate, the infamous pirate hunter, would slice me to ribbons. But it never came. I felt something wash over me like a tidal wave of nothing. It brought me to my knees in a daze, the world silent and dull around me.

There he stood, a foot in front of me, as calm as he had been when we arrived, a hundred thousand strong, to bring him to his death. He reached down and grasped me by my shirt, and lifted me to his eye level as if I weighed no more than a kitten. He stared, long and hard into my eyes. I could sense around me that some of my comrades had been struck down. I could feel that some had turned and ran. But I was the one he had chosen to judge.

His voice still rings in my ears. "You are a good man. Don't through away your life for something you don't believe in. A good man's death should be on his own terms. A strong man always faces death with a smile, knowing he lived a life worth living, and died as himself and no one else. Stay out of the way. I don't want you to die here today in the service of these dogs." He tossed me to the shore where I landed in the sand with the waves gently lapping my feet. I couldn't bring myself to move. I had been struck by his words.

It was then that I decided to leave the marines. The man had been right. If I were to die smiling, it could never be while serving these men. I was able to gather my senses at last, and rose in time to watch the attack. I watched as the most deadly fighting force ever assembled, six men of legendary strength, and a hundred thousand loyal men, charged into the face of nine pirates. I watched as they broke upon the pirates like a tidal wave upon a rocky shore. And I watched as this army, that could never have been beaten by mortal men, fell like a house of cards before a hurricane.

I was one of only two hundred men to leave that island with my life. I was spared by the Pirate King himself, and I was even privileged to witness his first mate place a crown upon his head as his crew cheered the single greatest man I have ever met.

I retired my post two months later, telling my commanding officers that I no longer felt that I could serve them in the way they required. I spent the next year sailing with crews of every kind. Pirates, merchants, immigrants, prisoners. I spoke to people of every age and creed, and I learned bits and pieces of the Pirate King's story from those who had witnessed his actions first hand.

I was, and remain, of the opinion that he was a good man. I truly believe that all those years as a marine, for all the evil some pirates committed and for all the good we may have done, when I stood against Straw Hat Luffy, I had been on the wrong side. I was determined to never be on the wrong side of what was right again, and I hope you will choose a path that will allow you the luxury of your own morality someday.

His execution was a painful blow that the world will never completely recover from. I was there when it happened, although I was deep in the crowd. He died, as Gold Roger did, with a smile on his face, and I am more determined than ever to do the same.

The boy was smiling at his father.

"I want to be a pirate, just like Straw Hat!" The boy crowed. His father laughed.

"I will be proud of you no matter what, so long as you follow your heart. Now go to sleep, Soul."

"What would you think of me now, father? First mate to the son of the man who spared your life. Would you be proud of me, despite what I have done?" Soul looked up at the clear blue sky. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm proud of you. You are a great man, and you are following a great man. Ace is going to be one of a kind, just like the kings who have come before him. Luffy conquered the Grand Line with a crew of only nine. Roger was said to be able to 'hear the voice of all things', and uncovered the true history. I can't wait to see what Ace can do. Especially with you at his side, Soul." Olivia hugged him gently, then smiled warmly at him.

"Thanks, Olivia. You are remarkable too, you know. This whole crew is. The world is going to figure that out soon, and then life is going to get very complicated. Are you ready?" Soul hopped down to the deck and stretched, then looked at the young doctor.

"Of course. By the way, it's time for lunch." She disappeared without another word, and Soul realized he was alone on the deck. How long had he been lost in thought?

Inside, Roger was just finishing serving the last plate of food. He handed it to the shipwright as he walked through the door. The cook took his seat at the table and joined in the meal with his friends.

"So, Soul, what all o you have hidden in the nowhere around us?" The red haired pirate asked.

"All sorts of things. I don't really take an inventory very often. Let me see... There is the Stryker, a few apples, the handcuffs that I took off of you guys, my scythe, the broken eternal pose, a few books and odds and ends from the workshop. I think that is everything." Soul pulled one of said apples out and bit into it.

"I was half expecting a few bodies. Do the apples stay fresh forever?" Kuina raised an eyebrow at the man.

"For a while, but it just seems to slow down the aging, not stop it completely. Believe me, I've forgotten some food in there for too long before. It was not a pleasant smell when I opened it again." Soul tossed the core of his apple out the window and into the ocean. Olivia had a thought.

"You never told us where you got that broken pose. It might help us find out what it was supposed to go to." The doctor leaned in, obviously excited to hear a story. She was disappointed.

"It was something my father picked up. He said it was buried in the sand near the shore at Raftel." He pulled the item into view and turned it over a few times, then handed it carefully to the curious girl. "If we could just pull Gold Roger's trick and 'hear the voice of all things', I bet it could tell some really amazing stories."

Ace dropped his fork back to his plate and stared at his first mate.

"Hear the voice of all things?" He asked.

"Yeah. Come on, Ace, your mother told us this story! Roger and his crew discovered the true history without reading the poneglyphs because he was able to listen to them. He could hear their voice, in a way. Why is that so important all of a sudden?" Kuina looked in concern at her captain. He leaped up out of his chair and grinned at his crew.

"That's it! That is what I've been missing! I've been beating my head over this for days and it was right there the whole time!" He was nearly bouncing with excitement now.

"What are you talking about?!" Roger called, thoroughly confused by his captains sudden outburst.

"There is a haki for every fruit! I couldn't figure out how there could be four fruits now unless there was a fourth haki, and that's it! That is the fourth Haki! The ability to hear the voice of all things! And Roger was the only one to ever have it! Roger and his crew... My father was taught Haki by Silvers Rayleigh! I bet he knew it as well! I'm sure of it! That must have something to do with Raftel!"

Soul smiled now as well. It made sense. "So, we need to find Rayleigh. We need to learn about this fourth Haki. That will lead us to Raftel and the mysteries beyond."

At that, Ace slumped into his seat.

"Only problem is, Rayleigh died years ago." The captain glared at his food as if it had insulted him.

"Who else would know about something like that? I won't accept that it is a lost cause that easily." Soul asked. Olivia was the one to answer.

"Shanks. Red Haired Shanks, the oldest Pirate Emperor. He was on Roger's crew before he became king. If there is anyone alive today who would know, it would be him." The doctor looked around. Everyone nodded their agreement.

"We will keep our ears open for any whisper of where to find him. Until then, we'll continue on as we have been. Next stop, Alabastra." Ace stood and left the kitchen.

As the others finished and wandered out, Roger stayed to clean up. He liked these moments to himself. It gave him time to think without distractions. Time to let his hands do as they pleased and leave his mind free to wander.

As he had grown up, he had always wondered about his father. He had kidded himself that he was the son of a great pirate, but his mother didn't like to hear him say that, so he had soon stopped. His mother said the last time his father had been there was about a year after he had been born. At times, he can almost remember a smiling face framed by crimson hair.

Lately, he had begun to wonder. He knew the others suspected something as well. Was it possible that he had been right? What if he really was the son of a pirate? It would certainly explain why his mother had always been nervous to mention anything about him. If word got out that he was connected to them, it could have put them in terrible danger.

He had also been told that the last time pirates had been to their island had been about a year after he was born as well. They said some pirates had attacked because it was the place where Luffy had been raised, but other pirates, allies of the legendary pirate, had come to the island's rescue.

Had that been his father? They said that Shanks had not been present during the battle at Raftel. That would certainly explain it. He had gone to the protection of his family and Luffy's home instead. Or was Roger just making it make sense in his head? Was he just seeing what he wanted to see? He hoped not.

Someday, when they finally met the Red Hair Pirates face to face, he would know. He would find out the truth then, once and for all. But what would he do if, someday in the future, he was forced to choose between following Ace and following his father? Could he do that? He thought of Olivia.

He would follow Ace to the ends of the earth, he decided. If his father chose to oppose his captain, then he would fight. He would follow the path he had chosen, no matter the obstacles. Ace was worth that. Olivia was worth that.

He finished the dishes and returned to the deck.

Many miles away, on an island deep in the Grand Line, a girl sat on a stone ledge, hundreds of feet off the ground. Her feet dangled over the deadly drop as she looked out at the slowly sinking sun. She was at the top of a stone tower that looked like it had stood for centuries. It probably had. Her father had left that morning, and she knew, deep down, he would never return.

She sighed and pulled her guitar onto her lap, gently plucking at the strings as she let a few tears slip down her face. She idly brushed a lock of her jet black hair behind her ear. She was only fifteen years old, and she had been told her entire life that she looked just like her father. Was that such a good thing?

He was a tall, thin, terrifying man. He had eyes that had seen too much death. Eyes that had seen his own hands take too many lives. He had tried to make amends, but he had never been satisfied. Now, he was gone. Off on his last attempt to make things right. Trafalgar Law had gone back to sea.

His daughter, Cora, was alone. He knew she could take care of herself. He had not hesitated to abandon her. All these years of trying to live up to the man he had abandoned, and now he was simply leaving her instead. He had learned nothing. She clenched her teeth and held in the scream of anger and frustration and sadness that she so desperately wanted to let out.

She sighed and let the scream melt into a moan. What good would it do? It wasn't like he had been the shining example of fatherhood when he had been there. Her mother had died giving birth. He never mentioned her. She suspected that he had never planned to start a family with her. A tail flicked out of the water and then vanished beneath the surface. A passing Sea King. She imagined it was waving to her. She waved back. So what if she looked crazy? Who would see?

As if in answer, a passing sea gull let out a squawk that sounded like laughter. Great. Even the birds were mocking her. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, enjoying the smell of the sea. The one thing she had inherited from her father, besides his looks. She knew she belonged at sea.

Someday, she would leave this ruin of a castle and sail that expanse of blue. She would find people to call family and prove to herself that she was better than her father. She would show him that what really mattered, in the end, was loyalty. Not whether you were on the winning side or the losing side, but whether you were on the right side, and whether you stayed there in the face of death.

She lay back on the worn stone and looked up into the sky. Someday...

So, your first glimpse of Cora! She's fun to write. You'll see why next chapter.

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