Chapter 2 - Meeting the Fourth Commander

Flashback

The three siblings looked into the cell where a man had been chained to the wall opposite them. The bare light they held illuminated his various wound and bruised body, his hair whish was famous for always being in a pompadour hairstyle hung limply either side of his face. His beard had lost its usual shape and badly need to be trimmed but despite his appearance when he looked up, his gaze was far from broken.

"Why on earth are there three kids outside my cell in the middle of the night?"

Thatch was shocked. Even though he was chained and beaten up he still had his keen senses that had helped to get him his position as fourth commander on Oyaji's ship. Three brats were watching him with curious expressions, well two of them at least. The girl who looked to be the youngest had a blank face that sent shivers down the commander's spine.

'What could have happened a child that had caused them to have such a cold expression?' He wondered. 'It's as if she has seen the horrors of the world and didn't make it back in one piece.'

He continued to examine the three strange brats in front of his cell. The two boys wore casual clothes that no Marine would be caught dead in and held a similar pirating air about them that his siblings on the Moby Dick had. He looked again at the girl and noted that she wore the uniform of the higher ranks of Marines - the personalized suit and the formal Marine coat of 'Absolute Justice'

'What strange brats. Two look like pirates and the third is a little girl wearing a high ranking uniform. What do they want with me and not to mention how did they get in here? We're underneath Marineford HQ, one of the safest places on the Grand Line.'

The longer he stared at the two boys the more they seemed familiar. Thatch was wracking his brain as to why, and the process was giving him a headache. There was something about the two that he recognized, had he seen a picture or heard a description about them? He was either an idiot like Marco had always claimed he was or the stupid Marines had hit him over the head a dozen too many times. Thatch paused at the thought of the picture, and slowly his thoughts started to connect.

Picture – Poster – Wanted Poster – Pirate Wanted Poster!

"AH! You're the Blue Gentleman Sabo and Fire Fist Ace! You're the Supernovas that had been making a fuss in the New World. Wait. That was a year ago or so, the two rookies that had the biggest bounties suddenly disappeared without a trace. I mean it's not that unusual considering the New World but you had made regular appearances in the New World. Why are you brats here in Marineford?"

The newly identified Sabo walked until he stood directly in front of the cell, he took off his Top Hat and bowed low to the chained commander. Ace just gave his usual cocky smile and remained silent. He was perfectly happy in letting Sabo do the talking since he had no intention of getting friendly with stranger outside his siblings and his former crew. Also he wasn't about to move away from Luffy who he knew was feeling conflicted about talking to the man and the conversation she planned to have with him.

"It is as you have said Mr. Fourth commander, my younger brother and I are both pirates of reputation and high bounties. Since we were once part of the pirating world we feel obligated to see what kind of person is being sent to their death. Morbid I know, but this is the only kind of contact that we will get so long as the Marines hold our leash."

Thatch was shocked. 'The Blue Gentleman and Fire Fist were brothers!' More questions piled on in his head that main one being what the blonde boy had meant when he said "So long as the Marines hold our leash."

'What could the Marines possibly have that two Supernovas had agreed to let the Marines who had hunted them down to control them?'

Finally failing in trying to work out the answer, Thatch decided to straight out ask the boy in front of him. Usually he would have tried to work it out a little longer but his head hurt too much, both from his beating and from thinking too much.

"What do you mean brat, by the last part. And you two are brothers! Well that's a surprise you look nothing alike."

Sabo smiled and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Yes we are brothers, but we kept our connection secret for various reasons. Well, thinking about it, there really isn't any point to keeping a family I'm proud of a secret so please allow me to introduce my little sister." Sabo twisted the upper half of his body so that it half faced the two behind him, with his hand out palm up he pointed to the girl in the marine uniform. "This is Rear Admiral Monkey D. Luffy, Granddaughter of Monkey D. Garp and mine and Ace's little sister Also Fleet Admiral Sengoku's successor.

Thatch could do nothing but gape. 'Garp. As in 'Garp the Fist' the hero who caught the former Pirate King Gold Roger? What was with these brats? Wait if Garp was her grandfather that meant that he was also the grandfather of the two pirate brats in front of him'. Thatch shookhis head in an attempt to clear away the wreckage his brain was in after all the revelations that had been so casually handed to him, but only succeeded in making his headache worse.

Sabo laughed quietly as he watch the commanded failing to gather his thoughts together but was brought up short when he remembered the real reason the three siblings were down in the dungeon talking to this pirate.

"I apologise for the sudden overload of information and you're probably wondering why I'm telling you this"

Thatch nodded his head, there had to be a reason why three brats; two being pirates and the third a marine would come visit him in the middle of the night.

"To put it quite bluntly," Sabo continued with a smile, "We're being held hostage. Our idiot of a grandfather is a certain type of man. That type, is simple, stupid, and has overly large mouth that couldn't keep a secret no matter what the circumstances are. A man who cannot, and will never, shut up, even if his life, family, even if his career depended on it. Our grandfather has always wanted us to become Marines, and so long as this is achieved he doesn't care about the methods used, even if it means blackmail"

Thatch was confused as the blonde boy, Sabo, explained, he was not so shocked that they were being held hostages. It sounded exactly like something that the Marines would do, in his confusion he looked to the two dark haired siblings. The girl still had a cold expression but the boy had a deep scowl and fury was etched onto every line of his body, what was curious was that the girl, Luffy, he corrected himself, reached out and held the hand of her older brother. Her expression didn't change but the effect on both of her siblings was immediate. Both gained a soft look in their eyes and for the dark haired boy, the fury that had been so evident drained out of his body and he pulled his sister into a tight hug. After watching the two or a few moments Sabo returned to his explanation.

"What our grandfather exposed was not only our connection as siblings but our little sister's Devil Fruit abilities." He sighed and placed his head in his hands. "Luffy had the misfortune of eating a fruit with, what you could say…rather distasteful abilities. All three of us have eaten Devil Fruits, Ace the Fire Fire Fruit and myself the Teleport Teleport Fruit, but Luffy's Fruit is dangerous. She ate the Will Will Fruit which allows her to read the minds of her targets and control them. What makes her ability so special though is that even if she is knocked unconscious or dies, not that we'll ever let anyone –" Sabo added hastily after getting a death glare from his younger brother who had let go of his sister but still held her hand, "her power remains. For example, if she ordered her target to kill someone, the order is buried so deep into the target's mind that it becomes subconscious and they will kill the specified person without them even realising it. It is truly one of the most despicable fruits in known history."

Sabo took a deep breath and added what was for them, the most painful piece of information. "Shortly after Ace and I set off to sail to become pirates when we were 17, our grandfather spilt the beans about Luffy's Fruit and Marines came to collect her. They told her that if she didn't co-operate that her village be eliminated, the hostage list was added to three years later when they found out that we were siblings. Luffy was told that both of us and our crews would be killed, while Ace and I were sent a letter that contained a single line, 'Surrender to the Marines or we kill your sister'. Needless to say you can guess our answer since we're all sitting here now, it's been a year since we got that note and all three of us are ready to jump at any chance that comes our way that will let us escape. And that would be you Mr. Fourth Commander.

Thatch had been getting paler as Sabo talked. He had a hundred thoughts going through his head and not one made sense. Such a fruit was truly evil and he pitied the poor marine girl for one; having eaten it and two; having the marines find out about it. But what truly disturbed him was what these three brats had in stall for him. Through their brief exchange he could emphasize with their situation and he was starting to like them for how they had selflessly given up their freedom to keep each other safe.

After a moment pregnant silence Thatch finally spoke. "So just how exactly do you plan on using me to get out of your shitty situation? No offensive meant but none of us are in any position to break out of Marineford and live to tell the tale"

"Well you see…" Sabo began, before he was interrupted.

"Sabo-nii" Luffy spoke for the first time since they had snuck into the dungeon using Sabo's teleportation ability. "Even though you're smarter than Ace I think it would be best if I explained what we plan to do."

Thatch shivered, her voice was as cold as her expression. If it hadn't been for her earlier actions and her brother's explanation Thatch would have been tempted to tell the girl to take her plans and put them somewhere unsavoury.

"Whitebeard plans to start a war with the Marines in order to get you back. I plan to use this as an opportunity for us to escape. I am going to use your position as one of his commanders and the fact that we helped you to escape as a bartering tool to ensure we get a safe passage away from Marneford. After that we will fend for ourselves and will no longer be any concern of yours."

Thatch was shocked by her blunt honesty. She was telling him in no uncertain terms that he was a tool that she planned to use for their escape. He had to admire the girl for her cheek and willingness to use whoever she could. What he was surprised and unwilling happy about was that Oyaji was ready to start a war for his sake. This thought brought him to the realisation that many of his siblings and fellow crew members would get hurt and killed because he was stupid enough to get beaten by Teach. Despite his better judgement he was willing to go along with whatever this girl, Luffy, planned since it was most likely the best chance he had to get free without too many of his family getting killed. Over a moments thinking Thatch came to an overall conclusion, 'Marco was right, I AM an idiot'.

Luffy read the thoughts that went through the commander's head as she stood in front of the cell. There were too many risks involved for her not to, she desperately wanted her brother to be happy and sailing freely on the sea again. She felt a twinge of guilt when she thought about how slim her changes of living through the oncoming war were. Even if all three of them safely escaped the Marines wouldn't stop at mercilessly hunting her down. She knew too much. She was Sengoku's successor and her defection was a betrayal to the Marines on every level, even if she didn't know all the secrets about the Marines and the Wold Government that she did. She hadn't told her brothers about this when she had explained her plans that she had devised as soon as she had heard that Whitebeard's commander had been captured. She knew that if they found out about how unlikely she would be able to escape alive they would refuse to go along with her strategy and would stay incarcerated in Marineford in order to keep her safe as they could.

To Luffy, this was unacceptable and she was willing to use her own life in order to set her brothers free.

"Alright girlie, I'm in. But I'll warn you now if any harm comes to Oyaji I will personally come after your head. You understand me?"

When Ace heard the threat he strode forward and grabbed the bars with both hands. "Don't ever threaten my sister again." He snarled. "We want to set you free because we don't want a good pirate to be killed because his nakama betrayed him. Teach is scum and we don't want you to suffer anymore because he used you to further his own goals. Any man who betrays their nakama, the ones they had their lives entrusted with, deserves to be killed in the slowest and most painful way possible. Don't you dare think that our sister is like him. Even if you find it hard to believe we want to save as many lives as possible, including yours."

Thatch stared wide-eyed at the youth, 'No Ace' He thought to himself, 'He isn't just some nameless pirate this fire-top's name is Ace.' Listening to him Thatch was convinced he could trust these three brats to be able to get him out alive. He couldn't help but idly wonder what the Moby Dick would be like with these three new additions on board, and he smiled at the thought 'It would be a hell load of fun'.

His thoughts were interrupted again when Sabo spoke up. "Ace control your temper. If Luffy wasn't making the guards and the surveillance den den mushi sleep then we would have at least a dozen or so Marines down here, wondering what the noise was."

Ace hung his head after the scolding his brother had given him and walked away from the front of the cell to lean against the opposite wall with his arms crossed over his chest, and scowled at the chained pirate. He wasn't going to apologise, since no-one threatened his family when he was around, but he knew that his siblings would know that he did regret his actions somewhat from his body language.

Luffy sighed. "We need to get going. The guards watching the surveillance monitors will notice the time skip if I keep them asleep any longer." She turned to Sabo who stood up and brushed the dust and dirt from the back of his shorts, before once again facing the fourth commander, and to his great surprise bowed to him.

"I am sorry for using you and your connection to Whitebeard, but I can't think of any other way that we can escape from the Marines. Thank you for agreeing and I promise you that I will do everything in my power in order to keep you alive." She straightened before continuing in her cold voice, "We will be back again in order to discuss the plans that we have for when the war breaks out. We need to have all the details memorized so that there will be more change of us surviving. Good night"

With that she walked back to Ace and held his hand with her right while her left hand was held up to Sabo. With one last grin at the commander Sabo walked up to join his siblings and took the hand his sister had offered him. The moment the two hands came into contact the three disappeared before Thatch's eyes without leaving a trace to show that they had been there.

Thatch looked at the spot where the three siblings had been for several moments before chuckling which led to a full laugh.

'Oh those three are good,' he thought 'I've got to ask Oyaji to recruit them as soon as we all escape, they're too much fun to let go' . Thatch only stopped laughing when the guard came down and banged on the bars of his cell, telling him to shut up.

End Flashback

Luffy reminisced on the dozen or so meetings that they had had with Thatch after their initial one. They had grown somewhat close, not enough for her to call him a friend but close enough to like him, enough to refer to him by his name at the very least. They had talked about their plans of escape using her predictions and knowledge of both the Marines and how the base was laid out. Thatch had been astounded at her predictions, at how she was able to plan out each phase of the war down to the smallest details, Ace and Sabo had simply shrugged, used to her calculating nature which was the product of long and torturous lessons with all three Admirals and Fleet Admiral Sengoku.

Luffy turned in her chair and checked her Marine coat for the dozen or so apples she had stuffed into the various pockets. They were part of a gamble she planned to use, but whether her scheme would work was unknown, even to her. When her brothers when they had seen her stuffing her coat full of fruit they hadn't questioned her, simply slated it off as her preparing emergency food supplies since her gluttonous appetite had remained the same as it had as a child.

She picked up a single chess piece from the board in front of her and held it up so it was against the horizon that was being steadily beginning to darken with oncoming ships that were allied with Whitebeard.

The piece she held was the Queen. She let the corners of her mouth curl in a small, rare smile and in a low voice said:

"Let the war begin."