Author's Note - This is where i intended to end chapter 13, so you see how much i ended up stuffing in. I couldn't help it! It just kept going... This story is in charge, i'm just the finger's between it and the keyboard.

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 15 - Lost to the Shadow

"Who's the short girl?" Cora asked, pointing at Rachel, who was drawing a sword.

The young warlord actually growled when she heard that.

"I dunno, but she doesn't look friendly." Roger said, drawing his own sword in response.

"Surrender now, or I will be forced to fight you. Dracule Steel is the only one I will make a special effort to take alive." Rachel ran forward faster than the pirates had expected and slashed a deep gouge across Ace's chest before he could summon his haki. Roger and Soul stepped forward, the scythe appearing in Soul's hand from nowhere as the two spread apart and moved toward the woman who had attacked them.

"Who are you?" Soul asked calmly.

"Akarui Rachel, one of the seven pirate warlords. Your crew is one of the most wanted in the world. You may be second only to the revolutionaries, in the eyes of the world government." She swung her sword experimentally at the man with the scythe, but he easily spun the staff of the weapon to block her, the blade lashing out far to close for comfort in the same movement.

"I'm afraid no one on my crew is going anywhere with you." Ace said, stepping forward. Olivia had wrapped a few bandages across his chest, but he had already bled through them. At least it would keep any dirt out. "I don't want to fight you, but I will if I have to."

"You're already injured. Don't be an idiot. I would like to see what the red head can do, though." She pointed her sword at Roger, smirking confidently.

"You might regret that. Roger?" Ace looked at his cook. "It's up to you. Soul can take her, but you are the swordsman."

"I'll face her, Captain." Roger took three long strides forward and stopped, facing the warlord. "How does someone as short as you become a warlord?"

"Because of my skill with a sword!" She threw herself into battle instantly, beating him back mercilessly. It was all he could do to keep her from decapitating him.

He took an opportunity to shove her back and gather his wits, calling up his mantra. When she came at him this time, he fared much better. Although he could not land a scratch, he was no longer struggling to keep from dying. He remained defensive for a few minutes until he thought he understood her style enough to attempt fighting back.

As soon as he took three offensive strikes, her style changed completely, throwing him off and putting him back on defense.

"You're not bad, red head. But your not very good either." She knocked his sword aside and raked her blade across his shoulder as he bent his legs, barely letting the attack clear his chest where it was aimed.

"My name is Roger. And you haven't won yet." He saw her attack coming, but rather than block it, her let it fly. Her blade slid deep into his leg, but before she could pull it back, he lashed out. His sword shattered her cross guard and tore open her knuckles, causing her to release the sword. He grinned and pulled the blade from his leg, holding it now in his left hand. Wincing in pain, he swung both swords, tearing two parallel cuts in her shoulder.

"You let me stab you... Clever..." She grimaced at him. She hadn't thought of that. Not once. A person simply letting her stab them. It had not crossed her mind. How foolish of her. She would not fall for that again. Assuming she lived, now that she had fallen for it once.

"Leave. My leg hurts. I don't want to fight you any more than Ace does, but if you try to take Steel from us, I will." Roger leaned on her sword, panting slightly. He'd been doing a good job of hiding how much the short fight had taken out of him.

"Alright... You win this time. But I'll find you again. I can't just go back empty handed." She said. Ace nodded.

"I'd expect nothing less." The captain said.

"Oh this is just too perfect!" Felix laughed as he stepped out onto the street. "Little Rachel got her ass handed to her by a rookie pirate! And what's more, she's even letting them go! There is no way you'll remain a warlord after this!"

"Felix what are you doing here!?" Rachel snarled. Had he followed her here? He must have, to have such unfortunate timing.

"We're here on orders, actually. We're supposed to... Oh, what was it? Oh yeah, we're supposed to 'assess the situation'! How much more ambiguous can they get? They may as well have given us written permission to have a little fun!"

"What situation? I'm here to bring in Dracule Steel and found the Straw Hat pirates!" Rachel said. Felix shook his head.

"Word reached us not an hour after you left on your little babysitting duties that the Straw Hat Pirates had landed at Water 7. What a coincidence that you happened to be here, screwing up on such a grand scale!"

"My business is my own. Whether I lose a duel with a fellow swordsman is no concern of yours." She wished more than anything he had shown up before she had been injured. She could have simply killed him. Now, she was all but helpless. Or so she thought.

"You should leave now, warlord." Roger spoke, standing strong despite the blood still running from his leg.

"Oh? Just a moment, swordsman. I need to finish up with my little colleague here first. I'll kill you second, if you like, but she was in line first, sorry." Felix laughed, then ran forward and pressed his palm to Rachel's forehead. Before Rachel could call out for him to stop, Roger had driven his sword straight through the still extended arm.

Rachel screamed in pain as her arm began bleeding. Felix laughed louder, looking at his uninjured arm with glee.

"I still love this ability!" Felix drew a pistol from his belt and fired at Roger. The bullet grazed the swordsman's cheek, but he was kneeling beside Rachel, wrapping a strip of his shirt around her arm.

"What happened? How did he do that?" Roger asked.

"His Devil's Fruit ability... If he touches someone with his right palm, they suffer any wounds that would normally hurt him..." She blinked, then her eyes closed. She'd fainted.

"Olivia! Take care of her!" Roger tried to run at the warlord, but his injured leg gave out under him.

"Take care of her? Why do you care about someone who came here to kill you?" Felix stepped forward and kicked Roger savagely in the ribs, rolling him back toward his crew.

"Callan, sea stone." Ace called. Without further command, the winged man leaped forward, flapping once to give himself the extra distance he needed and wrapped a sea stone studded band around the warlord's neck before pressing a charged dial to his shoulder. With a crack he heard the bones in the man's upper arm break.

"Captain!" Another man ran toward them. He snarled angrily and ran straight into Callan. As soon as the band was removed, Felix grinned, his shoulder repairing immediately as Rachel jerked in pain on the ground.

"Good timing, Sean. Now, the one with the Straw Hat is the troublesome one. Can you take care of him? I've got this one." Felix lunged forward and slammed his palm to Callan's head, then whipped out his pistol and shot through his own thigh. The Shandian fell out of the sky with a cry of pain.

"Soul, drive him back! Olivia, Kuina, get the injured back to the ship!" Ace called out, turning to face the newcomer. "You'll suffer for hurting my nakama."

"We'll see who suffers." Sean made two steps toward Ace, then bolted toward Cora, reaching his right hand out toward her forehead. She had no chance to move.

As soon as Sean's hand made contact, he became insubstantial. With a demented grin, he plunged into her, vanishing entirely as if her had stepped through a door. Then Cora threw a knife into Steel's arm, causing him to drop the rifle he had been aiming at Felix with.

"Cora!" Steel yanked the knife out with a groan of pain and barely dodged as another came his way.

"Retreat!" Ace shouted. They couldn't win this... He summoned his armament haki and charged Cora, whispering an apology before he slammed the side of his hand into the back of her neck, dropping her unconscious immediately.

Sean slammed to the ground under her limp form just as Kuina appeared and whisked them away. Olivia took Soul and Steel at the same instant, leaving the two warlords alone.

"I know where they docked. It's near an abandoned cave. Tell the crew to get to their ship and stop them from sailing." Felix ordered. He cursed. The winged man was out of his power's range now. Sean nodded, and rushed off to deliver the orders to their crew. Felix set off toward their enemy's ship.

"What's their status?" Ace asked his doctor. Olivia was doing her best to remain calm.

"Callan can still fight, but he'll have to be flying to do any good, his leg is bad. Roger is down for now, same with the warlord girl. Steel was lucky. He's good to go. We got Soul out before any blows landed. Cora is groggy, but there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage." Olivia reported. She had only paused for a moment when she reported Roger's condition, but Ace knew she was worried.

"Will Roger and the girl recover?"

"I... Probably. I don't know. If it were normal wounds, I would be confident, but I don't know what might come with that man's ability. I'm doing all I can..." She clenched her eyes, and Ace hugged her once.

"I know. Go, take care of them. I want everyone but Soul, Steel, Kuina, and myself below deck behind locked doors. They won't let us go so easily." Ace said, holding her at arms length. "Be strong, Liv. I know how strong you are. Be strong for them right now. I need you, and so do they. Especially Roger."

"Yes Ace." She smiled up at him. It was like they were kids again. It seemed unimaginable that they had ever been so carefree when her friends were hurt so badly.

"Little pirates! Come out, come out! I'm not done playing with you yet!" Felix shouted from the shore. Ace could see the man's ship coming toward them. They were going to be blocked in...

"Olivia! Kuina! Take the injured and find a safe house in the town! Get off the ship! Kuina, when they're safe, meet us on the shore, and be ready to fight." Ace ordered. The twins nodded and vanished. Soul was at his shoulder, scythe in hand. Steel was only a few feet away, gun aimed at the man on the shore, but uncertain. What if he shot the man and killed Callan?

"Sean! I think you should show them your special trick!" Felix called out to his first mate. The man in question leaped to the shore and pulled something from his pocket. A whistle. He blew on it, and a strangely deep sound pierced the air. The two ships began to rock as the waves churned and the tail of a sea king lashed into the air, dwarfing their ships completely. The monster lunged out of the waves and onto the shore, snapping it's enormous jaws right where the warlord had been. Then the beast froze, dragging itself out of the water and coiling on the sand like a gargantuan snake.

"Captain... I think he took over the sea king..." Soul frowned. That was not fair.

"Yeah. You've taken sea kings before though. We both have." Ace said, smiling.

"None with the minds of men. We should get to that cave. He can't fit that body in there, we'll have the advantage." Soul suggested. Ace shook his head.

"The cave is too small, you can't use your scythe in there."

"It's a risk we'll have to take." Soul said. Reluctantly, Ace nodded.

"Anything?" Sabo asked.

"No. We've searched everywhere, but no luck. You think someone might have eaten it and just chosen to lay low?" Koala asked.

"Lay low with the ability of the Pirate King? Not likely... He died on that platform. All of our evidence suggest that the ability goes into the closest available host. Their crew didn't take it, and no one has shown up with the power, so it must still be here somewhere." Sabo said. They were searching for any clues about the fourth D, but nothing had given them any leads. Someone had suggested that Luffy's old ability might be a good starting point, but they were no closer to finding that than anything else.

"There is another option. You heard the report about Raftel. What he did to Blackbeard? Maybe he got rid of the ability before he died." Koala suggested. Sabo nodded.

"That would make sense... If he wanted to keep it out of the wrong hands, he would have done just that... That would mean it is most likely buried with him. We're not digging him up to find out. What is our next option? Where was his last stop before Loguetown?"

"Alabasta. We should check on them again anyway." Koala said, taking a seat on a nearby bench. "Do you really think we can find one person in the whole Grand Line?"

"I hope so... How can we count to four if there isn't a fourth to count to?" The revolutionary leader asked, sitting next to her.

"Well... The will is inherited. It doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Who would have passed the will on to their children? Only the crew knew his middle initial, and we already know none of their other children carry it."

"We can't make our search public, or the government will make life very hard for a lot of people."

"If it is not the crew, and it wasn't their allies, then it must have been someone who already carried the will. Did Saul have any living relatives?" Koala asked.

"None. He was the last of the Jaguar line." Sabo said, sounding slightly defeated.

"Dragon hasn't had a kid with Robin since he retired, has he?" Koala teased. She had made jokes about him being a dirty old man, but she didn't really expect him to have reached that young. Sabo shook his head.

"No, and Garp is well past that as well. The Portgas line was wiped out by the government. The Gol line as well. Unless there is another family we don't know about, there is no one."

"Monkey, Portgas, Gol, Jaguar... Saul wasn't human. He was a giant. So, we may be searching for someone who doesn't exist, or we might be looking for a fourth family." Koala said.

"Exactly. It just depends one what you are counting I suppose."

"Maybe we should wait and see. If Luffy wanted us to know, it'll become clear when it's time, right?"

"You may be right about that." Sabo admitted. He wanted so badly to ensure that Luffy's plan succeeded, he may have been attempting to do more than he should.

"Let's go back to Alabasta and see how things are going there. If a fourth D appears there, horray, if not, no harm done." Koala kissed his cheek and took his hand. "Don't beat yourself up. Finding one person on the Grand Line who may or may not exist is a long shot to say the least."

"Coby! Helmeppo! About time you came to see me!" Garp greeted his two old students, welcoming them into his home.

"We've been busy, but we couldn't let you go and become an old man without seeing you again!" Coby grinned at the man who had once frightened him. Helmeppo nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, they kept telling us you were old, but clearly they were still a few decades too early. You look the same as ever!" He paused. "Or you were just already old, and kept chucking cannon balls long after sane people would have switched to golf balls."

"Helmeppo, sane people don't throw cannon balls to begin with." Coby pointed out.

"Good point."

"Alright! Enough of you two! Tell me what's been going on in the world! I've been pretty well cut off. The government thinks I'll hear a rumor and go back to my cannon ball throwing ways, for one side or the other. Their happy with me retired." Garp said.

"Well, your great grandson is well on his way to following in his father's footsteps. Last we heard, he had a crew of seven, but he seems to be bringing them in faster than Luffy did. The fourth emperor has made himself known. He's got a zoan fruit that turns him into an enormous black dragon. He was apprentice to Blackbeard." Coby explained. Garp grimaced. Another Blackbeard was not what their world needed.

"Your son is living a pretty calm life, and the rest of the Straw Hat's have settled down and made the most of the gift Luffy gave them." Helmeppo continued. "The marines are assembling a new force of warlords though. Ace is making them nervous. They want to be able to step in and wipe him out at a moments notice."

"Not gonna send wave after wave to make his stronger, like they did with Luffy? Well, I guess they do learn, when the consequences are bad enough." Garp commented. "Bet they fail though. Us D's attract enough waves of trouble to become strong on our own. They haven't figured that one out yet."

"No, and trouble is finding them all over the place. Already survived a run in with that fourth emperor." Coby said. Garp laughed.

"That's what I'd expect from my great grandson!" The old marine swelled with pride. Pirate or not, family was family, and strength was strength.

"Hancock is still terrorizing any marines who step foot into the New World. You're lucky you're Luffy's grand father, or you wouldn't have gotten away so easily." Helmeppo said. Garp just shook his head.

"She has killed better men for worse reasons." Garp commented. He'd seen a lot of his fellow marines die to her crew. He'd been spared for his relation to Luffy alone.

"Oh, Rayleigh's dead. The fourth emperor took his Alliance Pose. We don't know when it happened, but Law knew about it before we did." Coby reported.

"... That's unfortunate. First time it's felt like the end of Roger's era..." Garp slouched. He'd spent his best years chasing Roger and Rayleigh across the world. Now the Dark King was gone.

"I know what you mean. I only met him once, but he seemed invincible. Hard to believe he finally died... But he'd be... 102 now? Even for the first mate of the Pirate King, that is a lot to ask." Coby said sadly.

"We'll see about that when I'm 102 years old." Garp grinned. Neither revolutionary would doubt it if he made it.

"Only four more years, old man. That's not a challenge. We'll see how your feel at 200." Helmeppo said. Garp shook his hand.

"200 it is. Check back in a century." He laughed. "Our world has been turned upside down twice in my lifetime. Dunno if I've got another turn left in me."

"Hope so, because I think Ace is going to do more than turn it." Coby said.

"You've got that right. I held him in my arms once, and I could tell he was destined for greatness. He's a D after all." Garp said. As he'd held the sleeping child, he had been reminded so much of his son, and his grand son, and even his adopted grandson. There was so much potential in his arms, it was frightening. Now that potential was coming out.

"Where am I?" Rachel tried to sit up, but the pain in her shoulder made her scream in pain and collapse back onto the bed, tears flowing down her face.

"Safe, for now." A girl said, gently wiping her wounds. "Stay still, you're badly hurt."

"You... You're one of the pirates... I tried to capture you! Why are you helping me?" Rachel asked.

"Ace said to." Olivia replied, unaware of a similar occurrence between their fathers and a marine named Smoker 20 years ago. Rachel felt just as shocked and confused as Smoker had.

"Your captain would save the life of someone who tried to take his... How has he lived this long?"

"He sees people differently. I've never in my life regretted trusting him, and I don't think I'll start now. He said to help you, so I'm going to." Olivia smiled and began wrapping the warlord's wounds again.

"Thank you..." Rachel whispered, relaxing and letting the doctor work. Her head drifted to the side and her eyes came to rest of a patch of red hair. "Roger... Is he... Alive?"

"For now..." Olivia closed her eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths before opening them and continuing her work. She had to be strong.

"You like him. And it's my fault he's hurt..."

"Yes. But I'm going to help you anyway. Ace has never been wrong. I'm trusting him, not you." Olivia said, tightening the last bandage just a little harder than necessary.

Over a mile away, three pirates were making a run toward a cave. Kuina arrived just in time to snatch Steel from Sean's jaws.

"The cave?" She asked. Steel nodded. They beat the other two by seconds.

"Soul, near the back. If you have a sword stashed, now is the time to use it. Steel, over in that corner. I cut Felix on my way past, he's vulnerable again. Take the shot if you get the chance. Kuina, whatever you do, don't let either of them grab you." Ace took a stand near the entrance to the cave, in front of his nakama.

The sea king slithered closer, lunging his enormous head at the opening, but unable to force his way in. Felix kept moving, staying behind the giant tail as much as he could. Steel took an experimental shot, but it couldn't penetrate the monster's scales.

"Backed yourselves into a corner, haven't you?" Felix laughed into the mouth of the cave. Ace ducked a lunging hand and delivered a powerful kick to the warlord's ribs, but it only knocked him back. He was advancing again in an instant.

"So have you."

The warlord spun around just in time to watch Sean fly upward before slamming back to the ground. At his tail, swinging him like a toy snake, was a man half made of metal.

"Leave those pirates alone, and I won't beat you to death with your own first mate, government dogs." Franky snarled swinging the helpless sea king up again, bring Sean to the rocky beach with an earth shaking crunch.

"Sean, ditch the snake, back to the ship!" Felix fired a shot at the man, but it bounced harmlessly off his chest. Franky raised his Waepons Left and fired back with a machine gun blast of metal. The warlord ran, grabbing his friend as he hit the ground and making for their ship.

"You saved us..." Ace was ready to collapse from relief. The cyborg stopped a few feet in front of him, looking him over critically.

"You look just like Luffy. Couldn't let those two take you out before I got to meet you." Franky grinned and held out his hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet the great shipwright of my father's crew! I'm Monkey D. Ace. This is Roronoa Kuina, my navigator. The one with the rifle is Dracule Steel, our sniper. And the one in the back is Soul, our shipwright. He's been wanting to meet you for a long time." Ace turned and gestured to his nakama, then froze.

At the back of the cave, Soul stood with his arms hanging at his sides, eyes fixed straight ahead. A surprised and resigned smile was across his face, wordlessly saying "You were right, Ace. Should have stayed in the open where I could use my scythe."

A small river of blood was flowing down his neck, and at it's source, the jaws of the monster that had been the object of Soul's hatred for a decade. The black beast let out a low growl, it's fangs sinking deeper into the reaper's throat and shoulder. Then it was dragging Soul back into the shadows and Ace was rushing for him as fast as his body would carry him.

He crashed into the solid wall at the back of the cave.

"Soul... No..." He sank to his knees, staring at the wall in horror. He knew one thing. The blood he was kneeling in was too much to live without.

So... Yeah. I felt like they had been winning too much.

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