Warnings: slight angst, violence, blood and slight gore, language

Disclaimers: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece but I own my words and plot!

The Worst One can do is Underestimate

"Is it alright that a group as large as ours is going? This is around the same size as Shanks' group was all those years ago, isn't it?" Nami asked, staring out at the small group of people preparing their tiny ship that they would soon set out on to find the island Luffy had to get to. Rose looked at the ginger and nodded, blue eyes blank.

"Yes, it is, but the island can not move as quickly now. It can only move when the sun is in the sky, but now the sun sets. It will also slow down once we get closer. It knows what is coming and it's accepting this time. It didn't want the All Soul to live because the All Soul has such immense power, but once Luffy was born, it wishes for the powers to return to the earth. Once there again, the powers can lie dormant and not threaten the world. But it had to wait for Luffy to mature and age enough. A three year old cannot use the power, much less understand what it is. It ran a lot when Luffy was a toddler, and now it still must run, it's part of it's mind to run, but it's not like this is the same situation as Shanks. It knows Luffy knows now, and the threat of Blackbeard is great enough for it to fight against itself to try to stay put longer. We have a much better chance of finding the island than my father did," She replied expressionlessly. Nami nodded, trying to follow, but the other woman's words were strange, which didn't help when talking about the situation they were in.

"Pops, I'll get to see you again, right?" Nami looked up at the upset voice, frowning slightly, saddened by the sight before her. Luffy was in front of Whitebeard, looking up at the older man with watery eyes.

"You will, Luffy. I can guarantee that I will see you again, no matter what the circumstances are."

The child bit his lip. "But what if something happens and-"

"You trust the crew going, don't you?"

Luffy nodded his head vigorously, suddenly perking up. "Of course I do!"

Whitebeard grinned. "Then do not worry about seeing me once more. You have a brave crew, Luffy. I will see all of you again, that I can guarantee you."

Luffy stared at Whitebeard for a moment before smiling widely, giggling. He moved forward and tried to hug the man – keyword tried, because the man's arm was too wide for Luffy to wrap his arms around, much less his torso. Whitebeard held the child close a moment and then pat him on the head before standing, backing away from the ten year old.

"We will meet again, Luffy."

Luffy grinned and nodded, saying goodbye loudly before turning and bounding over to Ace, who smiled softly at the boy. Ace turned up to Whitebeard. Nothing had to be said. Ace just gave a playful salute, grinning.

"We'll return successful, Pops, I promise you that!"

A half hour, as they departed from their family, both sides loudly cheered and screamed goodbyes, some crying. It echoed over the sea for miles, and Luffy couldn't have felt happier than he did at that moment, knowing that, even though he was far from a large part of his family, he was not alone.

They were no longer on the Moby Dick, the home, pride, and joy of many of the passengers for hundreds of years. They did not know when they would return. For all they knew, it could be three months from then or even ears. None of them wanted to leave, but, at the same time, if they didn't go, they would lose someone precious in all of their hearts.

Luffy was not as scared as he was few weeks ago. He had come to accept the fact that all of the ghosts were gone. Instead, he clung onto his older brothers like a leech. He once again began to show them that vibrant smile of his – even if it wasn't as bright as before, it was a step in the right direction.

Ace focused almost entirely on training, practicing his odd control over fire. He continued to develop new techniques and improving his abilities. The only time he wasn't training was when he was eating, sleeping, or when Luffy decided to latch onto him for the day.

Thatch had taken up the role of one of the cooks, Sanji being the second. They took shifts cooking. Neither wanted to forfeit the position, and they had been fighting excessively over it, resulting in Nami (violently) forcing them to work together.

Nami was navigator. She was forced to listen to Rose's irritatingly vague directions, but the other red head didn't seem to care at all for the fact that she was one of the main reasons of Nami's stress. Still, the times Luffy would come to her and ask to play would somehow make the burden of navigating the ship to an unknown destination always made her relax, even if it was just a little bit.

Izou, being the only one with any sort of medical experience (actually, he had a lot of it, he just wasn't an official doctor), became their doctor of sorts. None of the injuries thus far were serious – it was mostly bandaging up Luffy when he would fall down stairs or fling himself into the water, something he was apt to do (especially if he though he saw a fish).

Robin was a general helper on the ship, able to do anything. Her repertoire of skills was extensive, and she often offered to help Thatch cook (Sanji would never let her help), Nami navigate, or Izou organizing the medicine cabinets and tending to Luffy.

Because Luffy was such a troublemaker, even more so at his current age than previously, he had two consistent babysitters with him. Two pairs of eyes were better than one when it came to watching Luffy. Therefore, Sabo and Zoro were assigned to watch him. Ace would've been one, but he was still outraged with all he had learned and they had deemed him too violent to be around the boy too much – for all they knew, he would think about something relating to Teach and burst into flames (last time he did it, he almost burnt off Thatch's hair, something the brunette was still not happy about two weeks later despite Ace's apologies). The blond and green haired men ad to make sure he bathed (which was more difficult than it sounded because for a loud kid, he knew how to hide when he wanted to), ensure he didn't eat all of their food (or steal the food from everyone's plates), keep him entertained (easy), and (in Sabo's case, because this is Sabo we're talking about) pull pranks on the other passengers on board.

Marco was the "captain", so to speak, being First Division Commander and the one with the most experience. He'd "debate" with Rose (debate is used very lightly, as their shouting matches could be heard for miles) about where they had to go, mediated fights on board (mainly between the narcoleptic flame head and the annoying girl named after a flower she was exactly like, pretty but all thorns), keep stock of provisions, decide shifts for watch, cleaning, and other necessities, and overall just keep everyone out of harms way as much as possible. This was not a fighting mission – they needed as little distraction as possible.

Lastly was Rose, who purposefully set herself apart from her crewmates of over one hundred years. She would sit atop the crows nest, eyes closed as she did whatever it was she did to determine where to go and what it was they had to avoid on their journey.

They travelled like this for around two months until trouble reintroduced itself into their lives.

It had been a quiet evening on a winter island in the middle of nowhere. The vampires had just sated their bloodlust with a quick hunt, making sure the victims that lived would remember nothing when they awoke. The werewolf, in need of space for the full moon, had run off and had just returned. Nami and Sanji had been feeling extremely violent and had the urge to do many unspeakable things, so they had run off into the night to prey on humans in the many scattered villages on the island. They didn't think that maybe they shouldn't have left Rose, Robin, and Luffy alone on the ship, but all of them had been too out of their minds to care. Now that they regrouped, they severely regretted it.

"What the hell…" Thatch whispered, stating all of their thoughts with one phrase. They were staring at the ship covered in bloody…creatures, lying on the ground in positions that clearly spoke of defeat. There wasn't really any indicator as to what they were. They were indescribable, fearful looking beasts, monsters of large and small sizes, bright colors, and contorting patterns, dripping of green and yellow acidic-looking ooze that seared into the ship walls like flames scorched the land.

Marco stepped on one of the things with his left foot, pulling back immediately as it began to sizzle and smoke until it's skin faded from existence, leaving only black bones of a charred carcass that smelled absolutely repulsive. Thatch cringed at the sight. "That's disgusting," he muttered. Marco merely nodded, ignoring the silent gaging of Zoro in the background. It smelled foul to Marcos nose, so he could only imagine what it smelled like to the green haired werewolf.

Ace suddenly sprung into action, taking off towards the galley. No one was there. He went deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ship, but each room was empty. It only caused the despair growing in his heart to sink its claws in more firmly, making him panic even more. After every door was opened and each room was only emptier than the first, he let out a howl of frustration and outrage. Flames ignited on his body as he exploded in fury, almost lighting up the ship around him.

"Ace, calm down!" Ace could vaguely hear Marco yell at him as his arms were grabbed and pinned to his sides. Ace refused to listen and only began to struggle more until he broke free of the blonds grip. He ran back up to the deck of the ship and jumped over the edge into the snowy landscape, ignoring the worried screams and shouts of his family and friends as he took off to find the missing members.

Rose groaned as she clutched at her abdomen, which made sizzling sounds like boiling water. The wound was large, gaping, painful, and she feared it would be the cause of her end. She had never seen her skin so…not there before, and she had seen a lot. The sight would've made her throw up if she could even muster that. She'd seen burned skin, but this was a brand new level of burns. Her surroundings were blurry and the voice frantically trying to get her attention was muffled, but somehow she managed to see the tiny limbs reaching for her injured side. She grabbed the smaller hands reaching to try and help her and shook her head. "No, Luffy, you can't touch me. The poison will hurt you too."

"But Rose, you could die! I'm not gonna let you die! You're my family!"

She chuckled – it was a watery, painfully weak sound that made her want to punch herself for making such a pathetic noise in front of the child. "I won't die from something like this," She rasped, lying through her teeth. He frowned at her, brows furrowing in anger.

"Don't lie to me!"

She blinked and smiled. "Should've known you would be able to see through that," She smiled at the child, hoping it would get him to smile once more, but it didn't work. He still had that frown on his face, staring at her upset and worriedly. He was serious, something very rare to find on the boy's face. She reached out with the hand not covered in the monster's poisonous, acidic ooze burning at her side – the whole reason for this mess – and pushed his hat back before running her hand through his locks. "Calm down, Luffy. As soon as the others find us, and you know they will, Robin and I will be alright."

Luffy bit his lip and she felt sick with herself, unable to help the boy who looked so terrified right there. She felt terrible knowing that she was part of the cause for the pain he was suffering. It was her fault – she hadn't been focusing on keeping the barrier up, so they had come on board the ship. Robin had been hurt saving Luffy and, when Rose was trying to get them all out, she had been hurt to. They only managed to escape because the words of the spell had already been spoken.

"I'm weak."

Rose lifted her head and stared at the child, eyes wide with shock as he shook.

"All I've been doing is letting other people get hurt for me. I've been useless trying to fight off Teach and now our family is separated because of what I am, and I can't do anything to help on this journey. My ghost friends are lost too. I…I don't want to ever lose someone again! I'm going to become stronger – someday, I'll be the strongest person in the world! I'll have more freedom than anybody else!"

"You already are strong, Luffy."

"No, I'm not! Rose, I'm gonna learn how to fight and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" He pointed a finger at her, his other hand on his hip as he glared – it wasn't aimed at her, it was more of a dare for anyone to try and stop him.

Rose smiled fondly yet sadly.

"I'm sure you'll get there some day, Luffy."

He didn't know why she was frowning, but then there was a growl from the entrance of the cave they were in. Rose looked to the entrance with Luffy before moving in front of Robin, who was passed out on the ground from a head wound. Luffy stood and moved in front of Rose despite her hissing at him to move. It didn't help her cause when the movements she made caused her to suddenly start coughing and eventually a mixture of blue and red was splattered all over her hands.

"Luffy, please don't do this," Rose whispered violently, trying not to cough or pant. The child just shook his head and walked forward, ignoring her pleading whispers.

To tell truth, he was scared. If it was a creature, he wasn't sure he would be able to fight it off. But, he had to try – he wasn't going to let his friends die while he just sat there twiddling his thumbs. He was just glad that he had played around with his blood powers a lot over the years – at least he had some ideas up his sleeve.

A loud growl practically knocked him off of his feet. He grimaced slightly, making a disgusted whine as he felt the monsters drool covering his body.

That stuff stained, dammit.

But where was it?

Luffy looked at the opening and saw…well, nothing. Was it invisible? Because that would be annoying. He wasn't good at fighting invisible enemies.

Another roar, and more saliva fell down on his head. Luffy turned his head upward, mouth pulled into a shocked frown, and stared at the creature above him. It was flat, sticking to the ceiling's every ridge and crack. Its mouth was huge – it could probably swallow the ship they were on. It looked like a three year old finger painted it and it's eyes were glowing.

It roared again.

Luffy gulped.

Luffy shook his head again and growled before staring back up at the creature. He then brought his hands up and bit each one until little blue dots poked out. The blue suddenly started spreading out before it hardened itself to his forearms, like a defensive shield.

"Come at me, you bastard!" Luffy exclaimed, raising his hands in a fighting stance as he crouched. The creature roared as it all gathered into one place on the ceiling before slowly starting to drip down (Luffy tried not to laugh cause he thought it looked like snot).

The thing landed on the ground with a squish, making a squelching sound before it suddenly sprung into a form like rubber. It was fat, ball shaped, and had spindly limbs – Luffy thought it looked like a spider, as it certainly looked like one (minus the eight legs, at least). The thing hissed like a cat and Luffy brought up his small fists, glaring at the creature.

The thing rushed at Luffy before the boy could move at it and Luffy instinctively brought up his hands, grabbing onto one of its limbs. The thing make a sound of annoyance and tried to shake him off, but nothing worked – the boy was stuck onto him like glue. Luffy refused to relent as the shaking continued, only screaming as he was shaken around.

Rose was trying to move, but the gaping hole in her side was not helping. In the state she was in, she wouldn't be able to use her powers either. She grunted as she slipped and fell to the ground, trying not to yelp as she coughed up blood again.

"Stupid mother fucking boiling oozing blood," She continued to mutter curses as she stared at her charge currently latched onto the things leg. "Luffy, be careful!" She warned.

The warning fell on deaf ears. The child was still latched onto the thing. Currently, he had a focused face, ignoring the feeling of his cheeks heating. He never was good at thinking. But finally he flinched and he grinned, keeping his lips shut.

Suddenly, they started to turn blue. He grinned open mouthed – the whole inside of his mouth – teeth, tongue, skin – was colored blue. He got his face close to the creatures leg and opened his jaw wide before biting down on its skin.

Hard.

The creature screeched and began to flail harder than before. Luffy clutched harder to the skin, unrelenting with both teeth and hands as his fingernails sharpened and began to puncture the multicolored thing.

The leg was suddenly slammed into the cave walls and Luffy yelped, unintentionally letting go. He fell to the ground with a grunt and before he could do anything else, a limb landed hard on his stomach. He coughed as the air was knocked out of him and looked up at the thing – its eyes were filled with rage as it's acidic blood trailed down the limb, slowly nearing the boy.

Luffy squirmed, trying to cut his abdomen so the blood would cover that area, but he was unable to escape the strong hold on him. He was filled with frustration – he hadn't been able to do much before he was defeated, and now he would likely die. But he didn't want to die like this! His blue hands reached up, scratching, but it didn't work, and he braced himself for –

The thing went flying off of him.

Luffy blinked as breathing suddenly became easier. He began coughing as he heard yelling and then everything felt really hot. He was picked up then before he could look to see who it was, but the smell of cinnamon and the strong arms alerted him as to who it was.

"Ace!"

"Luffy! I'm so glad you're alright," Ace said into his shoulder, holding the child close.

"Ace, Rose and Robin are hurt!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed, shaking his brother. Ace put him down and he dragged the older further into the cave to where Robin and Rose were. Ace cursed at the state they were in as he quickly approached, kneeling down to the somewhat conscious redhead.

"Rose, are you alright? What happened?"

She was back to her practically emotionless self. "Sorry, I screwed up," She managed to rasp out. But finally, the sizzling at her side overwhelmed her. Ace cursed furiously as he saw her eyes roll back into her head.

"Luffy! Help me get Robin on my back," Ace suddenly demanded of the ten year old. The child nodded and quickly scuttled over to Robin, helping put the unconscious woman into a sitting position. Ace kneeled down enough to somehow pull her onto his back, but he remained crouched down. "You have any fabric I can rip? I don't want her to fall."

Luffy understood what he was getting at and blinked, looking down at himself before shedding the scarf around his neck, something he had been forced to wear because of the cold.

Ace thanked the child as the two somehow managed to tie Robin's arms around his neck. He then put his arms under her legs and managed to pick up Rose, her injured side facing outward upon Luffy's adamant demands. Ace and Luffy linked one of her arms through Robin's tied ones and somehow Ace managed to get a firm grasp on her legs and back. The situation was compromising, to say the least, because if one of those things came back, Ace wouldn't be able to do anything lest he risked hurting the girls. Also, there was a blizzard outside, one Ace had only be able to walk through because he had been able to burn the snow on the ground. Now that wasn't an option, but neither was staying and letting Rose and Robin die, something that seemed possible at the moment.

"Luffy, stay close, alright?"

Luffy nodded as they walked up the slope of the cave slowly. When he saw the blizzard, and it actually registered when his mind wasn't running on adrenaline and fear from an upcoming battle, he clutched onto his older brother's shorts fiercely. Ace really wished he could hold his brother close right then, but the most he could do was warm up his leg a little bit. As they stepped out into the white in front of them, Ace sincerely hoped that their human bodies would be able to withstand the biting cold.

Marco was pacing the deck, had been for the past few hours despite his family trying to stop him. He was too high strung right then – granted, they all were, because they were missing four of their group and they were on the island, likely stuck in a blizzard. Marco himself would've gone after Ace, but not long after the blizzard took hold of the land, causing the reckless man to disappear in a flurry of snow.

So Marco was pacing, something he often did when stressed, and this moment for sure called for stressed. He had paced when Luffy ran off after he got burned on that island and he had paced after they learned Teach was trying to get in his body. But this was different – he was possibly going to lose his family.

Marco didn't want to lose anyone. Never again.

Thatch suddenly yelled that he saw them.

Marco ran over to the railing as the rest of the crew began to emerge from the many corners, crevices, and rooms of their wooden ship. The blond sighed with relief when he saw them, but his heart then began doing flips because Robin was bleeding from her head and Rose's side was sizzling and Ace was screaming at them for help and it was never good when Ace screamed for help, never, never, never.

It was somewhat of a blur then as Izou had them brought to the infirmary. Marco was really glad that Izou, for all his modesty, could've sufficed for an actual ship doctor, because there was no way any of them alone could've fixed this. Thatch was called down for his steady hands and Nami for her apt ears and the rest were forced to wait for the outcome, their hearts on edge and their minds amuck.

Stiffly, Marco walked over to Ace, who was sitting on the deck and holding Luffy in his arms. Marco's concern spiked again as he walked over and kneeled down to the man and child, but Ace only shook his head with a sad yet relieved smile. Marco looked at the boy and smiled softly, fondly, when he saw that Luffy was simply asleep against the fire using vampire's chest. But then the corners of his mouth twitched because it probably wasn't a normal sleep, he was likely exhausted and fear for his family's safety probably kept him up for the past few hours or however long they had been gone. Marco was just glad that the clouds in the sky were so thick that the sun couldn't harm them, because he wasn't sure if Ace had just walked here in the middle of the day or the middle of the night. At least that was one less person to worry about.

At the same time, Marco couldn't help but to think what Teach had up his sleeve to pull monsters out from years past. And why would Marco think it was Teach?

The crossbones of Blackbeard were imprinted on the decks floor panels, and would probably never come out.

AN: I know I'm late and I apologize. I don't have much of an excuse. I can say though that I wrote half of this out on paper and then I thought I lost it and the same day, I had to cut off like three inches of a ink project I've been working on for the past month and a half, and that combined was NOT good. Still not an excuse, because I found it in the end, but it pissed me off and made me want to sob all at once. (Have you ever had to cut off 3 inches of a project? I hadn't until the that point. Literally almost cried. *shivers at memory* My baby…)

ANYWAY, on to story talk - things are going to get more action packed from here on out. I have written out everything to then end (not actually written, but I have it all planned out) and I have a break coming up soon so I should be able to write stuff then. But first, I have to work on a request, which is likely what will come out next.

shadowmarialove: I'm excited to get to that part! I'm glad you think so! :)

LuffyLover: Hahaha, thanks! I'm glad you like it despite the sadness :)

herseybarrules: I'm glad you like it! Here's an update :)

I swear all I do is procrastinate on writing a chapter and then bang it out in one day. I do this for every freaking story I have, no joke. I wrote "I Don't Want to be Superhuman" in two days really - one in November, then I came back to it like the day before I came out with it, wrote a little, day it came out I wrote like 15,000 words. I need to figure out how to stop procrastination. But for those of you who are still with me between these long updates, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! :D I love you guys a lot and your reviews make me REALLY happy!

Thank you so, so much for reading guys! Love you all! Please tell me what you think of this chapter!