Summons

Luffy hadn't really known what to think when the snake lady had shown him the mark on her back and revealed her past as a slave, so he'd said the first thing that come into his head when she asked if it changed how he saw her:

"Look I already told you I hate those Tenryuubito… besides; my assassin was a slave before."

"You have an assassin?" the weird lady asked. "Why?"

"I've got a crew! Fox is part of it!" Luffy told her brightly. "She doesn't have a mark like that though." He paused, remembering. "She probably flayed it off! She was doing that for the other slaves at the Auction House when I punched that Tenryuubito."

"Flayed it off?" one of the other two woman repeated, sounding dazed.

"Yeah! Fox was made to eat Devil Fruit too and she can heal injuries so they don't scar. I bet she'd be happy to do that for you if you asked!" the rubberman said. "Wait, what did she tell me?" he paused, absently rubbing his ribs. "I can't remember…" Something about her name?

"I think I like you!" the snake lady told him with a giggle. "Say where it is you wish to go! My ship is yours to use. Perhaps once you are reunited with your crew you can introduce this Fox to me."

"Really?!" Awesome! Luffy promptly forgot he'd been trying to remember what Fox had told him.

He didn't remember until much later, when Elder Nyon told him about Ace' impending execution and he checked his brother's vivre card. Then a whole lot of things crashed into his mind all at once:

Fox being quiet and upset when Luffy said he wasn't going to help Ace;

The way Fox treated her hat, which was really Ace' hat;

Fox letting Ace kiss her outside Alabasta and later telling Luffy that his big brother was one of her nakama;

Fox kicking him in the ribs on Sabaody and telling him that if he called her by name, she'd hear and find him.

"Fox?" Wait, that wasn't her name. "Lisska? Dracule Lisska?" The spot on his throat she'd touched before Kuma made her vanish tingled slightly as he said her name out loud.

Fox had been knitting in Shanks' cabin when she felt the summons tug on her Devil Fruit Power. Putting the needles aside she grabbed her bag, scrawled a quick note so Shanks would know where she'd gone and let herself follow the tug. Life was everywhere, but it was easier for her to home in on beacons than to just go wherever. Getting back would be easy; Shanks had a beacon on him too.

The world dissolved then reformed as she emerged at the other end to darkness and tropical warmth.

"-isska?"

"You rang, Captain?" she teased as Luffy's eyes widened, taking in her loosely braided hair, lack of sunglasses and casual attire.

"Fox!" she had barely a second to brace herself and then her rubber-bodied captain was hanging off her neck and babbling about how amazing she was to have done that and was she alright and where had she been-! Fox ignored the babble and hugged him back, amazingly relieved he was still mostly in one piece, while she absently checked him for damage.

"Luffy, why do you feel like a fungus tried to kill you?"

Her captain stopped babbling and looked sheepish. "Eh, I ate this mushroom and it tried to eat me back?"

Fox lightly slapped the back of his head, her other hand still holding onto his arm and glowing slightly, healing residual damage and making sure he could fight off any other aggressive fungi in the future. "Idiot. What would happen to all of us if you died? None of us are cut out for Pirate King!"

"Sorry," Luffy said. "It was okay though! The nice ladies here cured me!"

"That was kind of them," Fox noted. "Speaking of which, where is here?"

The elderly lady who'd been watching them replied. "This is the island of Amazon Lily."

Fox blinked. "Boa Hancock's turf?"

"You know of Hebihime?"

Fox shrugged. "My father is one of the Shichibukai, honoured elder. I try to keep track of the important things."

The elderly lady peered at her. "With those eyes you must be Hawk-Eyes' get. But your captain mentioned you were once enslaved?"

Fox frowned. She hadn't expected her captain to spread that around. "I fell afoul of Donflamingo when I was nine and got sold; I escaped when I was fifteen. How is that relevant?"

"Donflamingo? That I did not know; we must tell Hebihime," the old lady fretted.

"Wait! I want to go and save Ace!" Luffy blurted out, grabbing Fox' arm. "Can you help?"

Fox hesitated, deeply torn. She wanted to throw caution to the winds, she really did, but she had a baby to protect and her father would be at the execution. She couldn't face him across a battlefield without a proper mask and her more deadly secret was not one she was ready to share.

"Fox?"

She sat down. "Luffy, I want to," she told him. "But I promised Zoro I'd be careful. I'm pregnant, you see."

Luffy stopped pulling on her arm. "Pregnant? You and Zoro are going to be parents?" He stepped back and stared at her stomach. "You don't look pregnant."

"It hasn't even been a month yet Luffy," Fox informed her captain with a hint of exasperation.

"Oh. Well if you're pregnant of course you can't help," Luffy said. "Well, not fight. You'll fix up Ace when I've rescued him, right?"

"Ace is my nakama; of course I'll heal him if he needs it," Fox said. "But if you intend to rescue Ace there're things you need to know."

"Like?"

Fox fished the orange cowboy hat out of her bag and gave it to him. "I'm sorry for not telling you earlier."

Luffy froze for a moment, then slowly turned it over in his hands. "You, you knew?" he asked, staring at her with wide, hurt eyes.

"Your brother and I are best friends, Luffy. We use Beastie, the iguana, to exchange letters. When he brought me Ace' hat while we were at Thriller Bark I knew at once something was wrong and checking a newspaper just proved it. I was going to tell you as soon as you got back but then I had to stop Zoro from dying and after I was up and about again I heard you say you weren't going after him." Fox bowed her head. "I thought you knew at first, then I realised you didn't and hadn't even bothered to find out what was wrong. That hurt; you have to pay attention or you'll miss important things. So I didn't tell you. I just wrote to people who I knew would try and rescue Ace and wouldn't stand by and let him die. So you won't be the only person trying to rescue him."

Luffy clutched the hat. "You wrote to Ace' friends?"

Fox nodded. "His friends and my mother's family. Everyone I could think of who wouldn't mind breaking the law for him. I also wrote to Ace so he'd know people were coming to rescue him."

"You wrote to Ace? In prison?"

"Yep; he got it, don't worry." Fox grinned. "I'm good like that."

Luffy frowned at her. "You should have told me! I would have done something! I thought he was just having an adventure! I might be captain but I know I don't know everything! That's what I have my crew for! You have to tell me things!"

Fox fell to her knees and bowed her head. "I apologise. I should have known better." She stayed prostrate as Luffy walked over to her.

"It's okay," the rubberman said quietly. "You thought I didn't care, didn't you? And he's your nakama." He jammed the hat on her head. "You look after his hat; when I get him back he'll want to know it's safe."

"Do you need me for anything else while I'm here?" Fox asked, getting off the floor. "I'll need to go back soon."

"Back where?" Luffy asked curiously. Fox smirked happily.

"Kuma sent me to Shanks!"

"You know Shanks?" Luffy asked, a huge smile breaking out across his face.

Fox giggled. "I've known Shanks all my life, Luffy. I recognised the hat as soon as I saw you and knew you had to be the kid he was so enthusiastic about. He and my father go way back and he's always taken care of me when I needed it. So I do need to go back or else he'll worry."

"Sure! Say hi to him from me!" Luffy said with a grin.

"Before you go you should meet Hebihime," the elderly lady said firmly.

"Of course; I have to thank her for looking after my captain for me," Fox teased, twitching Luffy's hat over his eyes. "Goodness knows what would happen to him without a few smart women to keep an eye on him!"

Fox waited patiently outside the room where Boa Hancock had suddenly been taken ill, half of her mind following Zoro, Shanks and Ace. Tracking Ace was hardest as she'd never actually healed him, not even of bruises and scratches. She'd patched up Shanks once or twice after he'd gotten on her father's bad side and Zoro of course was so tangled up in her she couldn't get away from him, which she found more of a comfort than a problem. Zoro had finally worked out how to communicate with words in her mind and they were discussing where her swordsman had ended up: Kuraigana Island. Fox wasn't sure whether she should be pleased or terrified that her lover had wound up on her father's doorstep.

"Fox? Fox!" the assassin blinked.

"Yes Luffy?" she asked.

"Come on! I want to introduce you!" Fox let herself be dragged into the bedroom where two large women were standing beside a bed with a very beautiful and ill-looking woman in it. "This is Fox! She's part of my crew and she's a really great healer!" Luffy said brightly.

"You are a healer?" One of the large women asked.

"Just of physical injuries; I can't do anything about illnesses," Fox specified.

"Luffy mentioned you," the sick woman said breathily. "He said you were a slave."

"I was," Fox said evenly, "not that anyone could prove it. A man with a sharp knife saw to that, at my request."

"So you truly had the brand flayed away?" the fatter of the two big women asked.

"Why so many questions?" Fox asked lightly. The three women exchanged glances and the ill lady, who she now recognised as being Boa Hancock, turned to look her in the eye.

"My sisters and I were once slaves. Please, would you free us from the shadow of our oppressors and the Hoof of the Dragon, Fox-san?"

Fox blinked. "Of course I will my lady Shichibukai; now?"

Boa Hancock smiled. "Thank-you."

Fox produced a knife from her sash. "Don't thank me yet; this will really hurt. Who's going first?"

Luffy and Fox on Amazon Lily.