Warnings: Violence, possible OoC characters, blood
Disclaimer: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece, I own my words.
Everything is Going to Change
"Ace, where's Shanks? And Usopp and Rouge? Everyone? They're gone. They're gone, Ace, they're gone! I can't find them anywhere!" Luffy cried frantically, pulling on Ace's arm and looking up at him with fearful eyes. The boy had just barged into his room, hyperventilating and crying, startling and scaring Ace. The vampire quickly kneeled down and began to shush the child, stroking his hair in a calming manner.
"What do you mean they're gone, Luffy?"
"I haven't seen them for three days. I've looked everywhere. They just disappeared," Luffy bit his lip as he looked down, his hat shadowing his eyes. Ace frowned sympathetically.
"Luffy," He whispered. Luffy turned his head up then, teary eyes staring at Ace.
"They've always been here, Ace. One of them was always here with me. They never left. Why would they leave, Ace?" The child asked, terrified, as tears began to stream down his cheeks. Ace's eyes widened as he stretched his long arms out, pulling the kid into a hug. He felt him shake with every sob that made it out of his mouth, clutching tightly to the bare skin of Ace's back.
"I'm sure they're fine, Luffy. Even if they're not here, you still have us, right?" Ace said softly, rubbing the boy's back. Another sob made it out of his throat, causing Ace to flinch at how harsh it sounded.
"But Ace, everything is changing! There's weird things everywhere and they won't go away! I'm scared, Ace! What's happening?" Luffy pushed himself closer to his brother, who only held him tighter at the revelation.
"It's alright, Luffy. We'll be here for you always, okay?" Ace murmured to the child, who sniffled and nodded in response. Still, Ace could not wipe the contemplative, worried look off of his face. Ever since they saw those memories three days ago, everything had changed.
As the door to the mess hall closed, the sounds of voices, talking with nervous, worried tones, was drowned out. Whitebeard, the commanders, Sabo, Nami, Robin, Zoro, and Sanji were all in the room, seating themselves at or on tables or standing against walls, leaning against benches.
Whitebeard sat down in his chair, eyes thoughtful as he crossed his hand, resting his chin on them. Close to him Ace sat down, putting Luffy in his lap as the child still slept on, unaware to all that had just happened.
"What are we going to do?" Jiru spoke up, voicing the one thought racing through everyone's minds.
"We need to find this island, the only question is how," Fossa said.
"We can't all go searching for this island. For all we know, Teach has gone around and caused the hostility. All the humans immediately became hostile upon seeing the kid's blood. That shouldn't be the normal reaction, considering that if he dies, the world would be forced to relive that hell again," Thatch said, looking up to Whitebeard.
"I would be surprised if he hasn't done anything by now," Whitebeard said, his eyes turning over to Luffy. "We must find this island, but Thatch is right. We cannot have a large number of people going. Attracting attention to the child will do nothing more than hurt him and the ship cannot lose so many people at once."
"The island won't allow many people near it anyway."
They all turned their eyes to one of the tables near the door. The young woman was standing on it, eyes sharp as she stared. "Only a few people can go and Sanji, you will not be one of them if you do not quit staring at me," She said, staring down at the man with harsh eyes. He practically melt into a puddle, causing the swordsman to snort and mutter something about him. Rose rolled her eyes as she turned back to the rest of them. "The more people searching for it, the harder it will be to find. The island does not like crowds. That's why it took so long for Shanks and his group to find it."
"How do you know this, yoi?" Marco said, staring at the red head with slightly narrowed eyes. She had been keeping this from them, and she was able to do so without letting a thing slip.
Her eyes turned to him and he saw a knowing glint in them. "I am much older than you believe me to be. By reasoning, I am just a few years younger than Ace. The only reason I have lived this long is because of the magic in my veins, courtesy of Shanks, and the blue blood that has been in my mother's family's bloodline for centuries." She began to walk forward along the table, moving closer to them. "The history we carry is passed down from generation to generation. It is inescapable. I carry the knowledge of my ancestors starting from the blue bloods, which was millennia ago."
"And why now?" She turned towards Robin, who was staring at her with demanding eyes. "If that is true, you should have been able to tell us this long before. Why would you tell us know, after we have seen what has befallen the past one hundred years."
"It is a consequence of this blood. Luffy is technically my master, as he is a pureblood and we are a hierarchal species, even if he will vehemently deny it. Unless he said something, or allowed me to speak of it, I would never have been able to tell you anything. But now, since you know, his safety is better than his confidence in my capability not to speak. Though I doubt he even knows what I am. His control is, at best, shaky over the blood."
"Control over the blood?" Robin asked, brows furrowed.
"Yes, control. Power." She brought her right hand up to her mouth and bit on it, causing small red dots to form. She pulled her hand away and then shook her hand. They looked on in shock as a mixture of blue and red appeared, forming the shape of an axe as it hardened. "We can manipulate it." The form changed again, turning into a sword. "There is a reason for this manipulating. I can only form weapons." It changed into a spear. "We are to protect the blue blood at all costs and make sure he gets to that island." A mace. "We are to get him there without causing damage to him or our surroundings, or at least as little as possible. With how things are turning out, I doubt that things will be able to proceed as smoothly as they have been." A gun. "You are my nakama, but, I cannot deny the nature of my blood. By doing so, I may end up unwillingly killing you or myself." She looked up at all of them with hard eyes. "You have five days to make a decision about what you will do about Luffy. If you have not decided by then, I will be taking him with me at sunrise."
She simply disappeared into thin air, probably somewhere on the ship. Ace's back flared a little bit as his eyes turned murderous.
"Ace, do not fight her."
"But Pops," Ace stopped reluctantly with a scowl seeing the man shake his head.
"We will think about what to do over the next few days and we will give her our answer by the fifth day. I can tell you one thing – the boy will not leave here without at least one of us with him."
"It's rare for you to act like this, Sabo."
"Shut up."
Sabo was standing in the middle of a gang of thieves, all of whom were lying on the ground, bleeding out from their necks and arms, the main source being bite marks. Still, their clothes were torn and scratch marks and puncture holes were on their torsos and backs. Some of them had their necks snapped, twisted at horrific angles. The moon shining down on the scene, as crimson leaked from their bodies and dyed the green grass red, gave it an oddly, chillingly beautiful look as the red glinted like jewels.
The blond was covered in blood. It drenched his clothes. His once white dress shirt sagged against his body, so drenched with blood that it squelched with every move he made. His pants felt heavy and his boots, though black, shined with blood. Blood dripped down from Sabo's chin as his face was covered in the substance, some of it still wet, some of it drying.
"What's wrong?"
Sabo chuckled softly. "You ask what's wrong. You know very well what's wrong, Thatch," Sabo turned to look at the man, hatred gleaming in his currently blood red eyes. They were lusting for more bloodshed. "Humans disgust me. What they've done, what they're doing, is unforgiveable. To try to kill Luffy, a child, because he was essentially the victim of Teach's madness, because they want vengeance, or because someone told them to, because they think it will make their lives better…it's sickening."
Thatch frowned, staring at the younger. "I understand what you're saying, but you can't just go around causing bloodshed like this, Sabo. You could get into trouble."
"I don't care."
A hard look came over Thatch's eyes. "Well, I do."
Sabo snarled and Thatch growled. After a few tense seconds of glaring, both lunged at each other. While Sabo was aiming to hurt – too much blood always caused a vampire to lose sense of who and what they are – Thatch was merely aiming to subdue. They both punched each other in the face and then, Sabo lunged for Thatch, punching erratically. Thatch dodged each and every one and, when they were on slippery ground, he reached out with his leg and tripped the other. Sabo slipped, falling to his back hard, and Thatch followed, grabbing at his arms and pinning them.
Sabo snarled, kneeing Thatch in the gut. The older vampire coughed, and his grip loosened slightly. Sabo freed his hands and then punched the older man, throwing him to the side and pinning him. His eyes glowed a vicious red as his hands reached down for his neck.
But then he was pulled off of the man, arms restrained by a larger form. He growled, turning his head to glare up at Ace who glowered down at him.
"Now is not the time for fighting, Sabo. You can't be getting a blood rush right now. What would have happened if it was Luffy who found you instead of Thatch?"
Sabo flinched, tensed, and looked down, eyes becoming guilty. Ace let go of the younger, who grabbed the sides of his head with a deep sigh. Thatch stood up, looking worriedly at the blond. Sabo looked up with still red but apologetic eyes.
"Sorry, Thatch. I wasn't thinking straight."
The man grinned. "It's alright, Sabo. Happens to the best of us." Sabo gave an unsure smile and sighed as he looked back over the scene. He stared for a few minutes before turning away, heading in the direction of the ship. Ace sighed and Thatch glanced at him.
"Reminds me of my younger self, sometimes," Ace said, staring after the blond with nostalgic, understanding eyes. Thatch chuckled.
"C'mon, lets head back," Thatch said, patting the other vampire on the back as he began to walk back down the hill towards the port. Ace smiled as he began to follow after him.
Luffy stared out over the horizon as he stood on the railing of the currently docked boat, staring out where the sun would rise. He was unaware of all that was around him as the vampires moved around the boat behind him, making sure everything would be easy for the magicians in the morning.
Ace looked over at the boy for the tenth time that night, curious. He had been sitting there for hours just staring. It wasn't odd – the boy normally did it all the time – but this time, something felt different. It was as though he wasn't staring at the ocean, but something far away that they could not see.
So Ace approached the boy quietly, leaning on the railing next to him.
"Yo, Luffy," The ten year old blinked and looked over at Ace, face blank for a second before he grinned.
"Hi, Ace!"
Ace smiled. "What's up?"
"I'm trying to find something."
Bingo. "Find what?" Ace asked, putting his chin in the palm of his hand as he leaned against the wooden structure of the ship. Luffy hummed in thought.
"I don't know, but something's been whispering for the past three days. It feels like I have to go and see it."
Ace felt worry seep into his veins as his heart clenched. Something was calling for Luffy…that did not sound good at all. Ace gulped a little as the boy went back to staring. He hoped that everything that would come at them in the future didn't break the smiling child.
AN: It's done! That took longer than I thought it would, and it's not even that long. Sorry about that, guys. But now a bunch of stuff is coming up, and there are a lot of things to be paying attention to in this chapter. And yes, Rose will be a somewhat main character, but she will be in and out because of what she'll be doing in the future that you'll learn about in later chapters.
My poll will be closing in ten days! If you still want to vote for what I'll be writing next, go check it out!
And OH MY GOD we reached 100 reviews! I'm so happy! :D Do you guys want me to do anything special for it? A bonus or something like that?
kdh1997: Thanks! :) I wasn't sure how that chapter came out, so that make me happy
bloodytears87: Thanks :) sorry for making you cry, but I guess that means I got what I wanted to get across, across (if that makes any sense…)
onegirl92: I know, I feel like I torture Luffy too much...
shadowmarialove: Thanks! Ugh, work does suck, especially schoolwork.
seikens: Thanks! :) I hope you like this update as well :)
Bluebird42: I felt so bad killing them! But it had to be done, and I feel guilty for doing it. But yeah, that's how Luffy got to that island. I'm glad to be back from hiatus too :)
Guest: Thanks! There are some pretty good One Piece vampire stories, so I wanted to give it a shot. Thanks so much for reading "A Brother's Secret"! I'm glad you liked it :) . I definitely will (someday) finish this story. I don't ever want to leave one unfinished.
So, that's all for this chapter. I hope that you guys had a happy holidays! Also, to those of those in New England (if there are any) who are like me and stuck in a snowstorm right now, I hope you have a snow day and I hope that you're very warm!