Hello everybody. So, we are here today for the new version of Golden Prince (hence the 2.0 in the synopsis).

The character of Rhyddid Aarch is the propriety of Shadow of Samhain.

Lots of the stuff came from an ongoing story made with her. It's a much darker story. Lots of the stuff that were on the original story will not be there. So, if you came here expecting something similar, well, you may be desapointed.

You will see lots of foreign language, other than japanase, that will be present as local dialects. Oda gave the nationality of some characters, so I expand on that giving some ocean/island the same nationality.

So, enjoy and see you later.

Javier was a man in the crowd. A pirate among many others who came to assist to the death of a certain individual who deserved respect. They had only met briefly in the crazy race of this crazy man toward the top of the Grand Line, but it was enough to each recognize what they both were. Both were D.

True, when he came back to Baterilla, his damn uncle Bruno had some stories to say about this man that is today on the way to lose his life, but this death didn't impact him anymore than that, unfortunately. A man that he respected, and that like many before him, was going to die.

Under the rain that was beginning to fall on this horrible day, he sighed when he heard the question of one curious about the treasure of Gol D. Roger. At least, it had the merit to make the condemned laugh for the last time.

"My treasure?" repeated Roger. "I leave it to you, if you want it. Find it! I left it there somewhere in the world!"

And he fell silent for eternity with a big grin on his lips.

The blond pirate made a vague gesture of greeting and turned around. His ship and crew were waiting for him. And maybe it will be time to go back to the South Blue. His daughter had to go back to school after all and he missed his sister.

His steps on the dock were calm, unlike those crazy who had felt the fire light up in their heart hearing the last words of a the late pirate. A true gold-rush. Amateurs. They would die for the most part before they could even reach the first island. He put back the hood of his coat on his head and finished leaving the streets soaked and full of people of Loguetown.

He didn't like East Blue that much. This ocean was smelling of hypocrisy. Worst than Baterilla. The problem with his birth island was that he was a Portgas and as such, he was trapped in a vicious circle that had taken too many life for that damned earth. A circle that he had, in vain, tried to break, to escape. But like all his family, he always go back there.

"Capitán," greeted the giant with alabaster skin and ruby eyes who was waiting close by the ship to raise anchor.

"Pedro. We're going back home."

The behemoth bowed in front of the thin man and followed him on the ship.

"Your sister called," stated the man with his voice so deep that it seemed like it came from the depth of a rock.

"Ah? What did Rouge want?"

"DADDY!"

Javier crouched down just in time to pick the little blond girl throwing herself in his arms up, before he pulled her enough for her to hang on his neck to hug him. Amelia, from her six years of age, was a ball of joy and a big huger. His treasure, his jewel. He kissed her forehead before putting her back on the deck of the ship.

"So? What did my little sister wanted for her to call me during the execution?" inquired Jasquier.

"She was strange on the denden. It was almost like she was holding back her tears. Calling her back wouldn't do anything, capitán, she said that she would be cutting all communication for a while."

The blond halted on his way to join his cabin and turned toward Pedro.

"She said that there was a lot of presence Marine in the South Blue. They seem to search for something, and not with the best method. She think that it will be dangerous for your daughter. She said that she can manage, but that she would be calmer if she didn't need to worry about her niece."

The blond blinked his ashen eyes in puzzlement. A feeling of worry was wrecking his guts. On one side, he wanted to go back to the South Blue to know more, but on the other, he wanted to trust his sister and to keep Amelia safe too. He was feeling something in the air.

"Daddy? Is something wrong?" asked Amelia, taking her father's hand in her own.

"I don't know. I hope it is just a bad feeling…"

He tightened his grip on his daughter's hand before yelling orders to set sails. The sails were opened and a black flag unrolled from the top of the mast, showing the Jolly Roger of the crew. A skull on two machetes crossed and a bloody red hibiscus drawn on the front of the skull between two devil's horns.

"The Demons are setting sails once more, muchachos!" yelled Javier as he went to the helm.

"Sí señor!"

One hand still holding his daughter's one, he put the other on the helm to turn the old ship around. Like their hacienda in Baterilla, the Demonio was passed on generation to generation in the family since Roja the Flor de Fuego. A jewel, a remind, a relic that they took so much care that it seemed like it had just came out of a shipyard, just as solid as the first day.

The Demons of South Blue sailed through the water, bringing behind them the memories of hot summers of their birth ocean and their ferocity. Here, in the East Blue, they were like lions in the middle of rabbits. But they would stay here. Because they had a little girl to protect. Amelia may be the daughter of the captain, but they were still a family, a pack and they all considered the little blond as their sacred pearl. Their strength and their weakness. And they knew that, even if they weren't in the South Blue, they still had ears and eye there. Rouge, the captain's little sister, was the knot of the information network of their natal sea. So, if she judged that to come back to their home was dangerous, then, they would stay far away. At worse, the could still sail calmly through the first few islands of the Grand Line. Or, they could also go to the West or North Blue. The world was all there to be explored by their little pearl. And maybe even, run away and escape the vicious circle of their island.

.

.

It had been month since they last heard from the South Blue or Rouge. And to add to that, Javier had the sensation that his sister had blocked her network so that he would know nothing of what was happening in the south. This left everyone in fear and in the dark. Reason why it was unanimously decided to sail back to the South to go to Baterilla. There have always been a Portgas in Baterilla. There will always be one until the family become extinct or the island disappeared. They were only three anymore, and with Javier and his daughter on the sea, it was his little sister Rouge, who was finding herself morally chained down to the island of the red olives which were so popular as a luxury product without anyone, others than those born on the island, knowing the bloody history behind them.

The crew went for a stopover to Tijuana, last island in the South Blue before entering the Grand Line. It was most of all a no-law area where it was easy to test the water for the entirety of the south sea.

And this was there that they understood that something had happened without their knowledge. Something big that carried with it the smell of blood, bloodbath, and rotting flesh. The smell of the World Government.

Tijuana, key point of the South Blue, had been utterly annihilated.

The rare survivors were fighting to keep living in an almost ghost city surrounded by pauper's graves, made because they lacked the time and people to dig individual graves for all the dead. What they were told tied a knot in the stomach of all the crew. The Marine and the World Government had led a joint operation to find Gol D Roger's lover and their possible offspring. Javier had seen some operation like this in the East Blue, but they were only isolated incidents and on a small scale. Not… not the annihilation of almost the totality of an island.

Reason why the crew didn't stay any longer. Anyway, it wasn't possible to restock here on Tijuana as things were. So, they quickly set sail to join Baterilla. Preying for everything to be alright.

When they sailed the next day on the waters of the archipelago which their island was a part of, they were welcomed by the militia that was in charge of protecting against pirates, since they weren't a part of the World Government to take advantage of the Marine's assistance. The Demonio and his crew were recognized and they were left to pass without difficulty, with only one shot of their canon to welcome them back home. Javier wished he could push their good feeling where the sun don't shine, he needed to see his sister. He had to know that she was alright, that he was worrying for nothing, that she had cut his tie with his information network for nothing.

Unfortunately, as he reached the city, they realized that Baterilla didn't seem to have been spared if the black clothes of grief on the inhabitants were any sign. The moment the anchor was put down, the mayor of their city, Agustin, was on the dock with a solemn look.

"Señor Portgas," greeted the mayor with a dark voice.

"Agustin… how many are dead?" asked softly Javier.

The old man opened his mouth, then closed it again and shook his head. He then showed with a shaking arm the monument to the dead of their island. The stone angel was still covered with many fresh flowers but it was clear that something had been added to the block he held in his hands. Before he even read it, Javier had an idea of the name that was written, but to see it, there, in the rock, broke his legs. It was logical, in the cycle after all, he fell on his knees in front of the monument that told him quite rightly what was the price of the freedom and independence of this island. Freedom that had taken another life as payment.

Portgas D. Rouge

The scream that came out of the pirate's throat sounded like the cry of an agonizing animal. Amelia had run to the hacienda out of the city to prove that it was false, that her aunt was still alive, but the facts were here. To protect their home from a bloodbath, Rouge had lost her life.

They had promised to break the circle, to get out of it, to be able to leave their feelings behind with the chains of their conscience. And it will never happen. Baterilla had, once more, claimed the price of the blood of a Portgas. Baterilla had taken his sister from him. His very little sister.

He stayed there, prostrated, in front of the monument, crying like a mad man, almost tearing his hair. He didn't even see Pedro who had gone to pick a hysterical Amelia up to take her back on the ship.

Javier hated this island. All the Portgas had hated this island. It was only their conscience that had chained them to this hypocritical land.

"She died for us, we will die for her," said simply Agustin.

Why would the pirate care about that! It wouldn't give his little sister back! Rouge had only been twenty-one years old and life in front of her! And they though that he gave a fucking damn that the island would bleed in compensation!

Rouge was dead.

He remembered the shining smile of his little sister sitting beside the fountain of the patio of their old hacienda. This house so big and empty that they inherited from generation. A house that had just lost one more of its inhabitants. The way the sun gave this pink color to the blond stream that was her hair. So young, so beautiful, so full of life… dead before being able to enjoy the joys of living. Rouge had given her life to help him pull Amelia out of the circle. So that the little one wasn't condemned to die at the hand of the malediction that Baterilla was.

And today, he regretted it because his little Rouge was dead without having the chance to even live.

Some of Javier's men helped their captain on his feet and brought him back to their ship, understanding that it would be too much for him to go back to the hacienda in those circumstances. They left the father and his daughter in their cabin, trying to get over it, while they asked around for the circumstance of the death of the young woman that had been one of them without being a part of their crew. Rouge had an important place in the life of the Demonios. They knew here for years, had seen her transform from an unbearable adolescent to a devious young woman. If it was said that she had died for the island, then it meant that it wasn't a natural or accidental death. She had help dying.

So, she would be avenged.

They would find the ones responsible for cutting short the life of the young woman. And they would avenge her.

.

.

Five years.

Finding the who had been quick. Agustin had told them clearly that a Marine ship had come and that a man with a bulldog mask had went to pass several days in the hacienda to go back one night, like a shadow, to the point that it was noted his departure only the next morning. His description (a gigantic gorilla of a man wearing the uniform of a Vice-admiral) and the one of his ship was leading to only one target: Genkotsu no Monkey D. Garp.

It was a very big and juicy target. One of the hero that had broken the Rocks and, very recently, had brought Gol D. Roger to the scaffold.

A fearsome man that he couldn't attack like an idiot, even if the hot blood and thirst for revenge was burning in their veins. This man had taken Rouge from them. They would make him suffer. They would torture him slowly and happily to make him pay for the young woman's death. The all had in their mind the pale body in her white dress resting in the bed of hibiscus that had accompanied her to her death stake. The Portgas didn't live long, but it always hurt to lose someone close, to know that from now on, the young woman so bright and charming was resting with their ancestors, in an urn, in the family crypt under their island.

This was why Javier had taken his time to track the man. To make him feel threatened, followed, in danger. Spiders were patient in their hunt and it wasn't only because of his information network that he was called the Araña. He would take Garp in his web, and he would make him pay for the death of his sister gone far too soon.

"I have the flower, daddy," stated Amelia, now eleven years old.

"Perfect. The bell will soon ring for him, I know where to trap him. We will avenge Rouge, my angel. We will avenge her death."

He slid the hibiscus flower that his daughter gave him in the mail that he folded carefully to send it to Garp's office at Marine Ford. It was only one sentence, a simple «you will pay» with the flower, but it was enough. Enough to pressure the man.

The letter ended in the Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp's hands. As planned. The threat, the old man recognized it. He received them regularly, it came with his grade and job. He maybe receive just a little more of them than usual because of his behavior. However, the presence of the flower in the mail made him twitch. Why did it seem important to him?

Judging that seeing if they had anything internally that could clear things up on the provenance of this threat, he went to see the chief of internal investigations, the vice-admiral Rhyddin Aarch, also called Aarch of the Purples Claws, because of his red eyes in the middle of his dark face and his mythical zoan of the griffin.

"Aarch. I received a threat letter," stated point blank the huge man that was Garp.

The Vice-admiral Rhyddid raised his eyes from the files in front of him to look at his senior in the Aarch strectMarine before sniffing his coffee carefully. No, the crazy man in the mortuary wasn't testing a hallucinogen poison on him, Garp did spare the walls of his office for once.

"Garp… Whose wall did you break?"

"If I knew. I just received this."

The old man put on the desk of his colleague the simple folded note that included the dry flower.

"Not that I worry about death threat, anonymous or not, but I can't shake off this strange feeling."

Aarch grabbed with a clip one then the other then sniffed the flower.

"Hibiscus."

Garp didn't know a lot about flowers, but this one he knew, he didn't need his comrade to know.

"And what is it about this that make you say that there is a problem?"

The old D. just shrugged.

"My guts. And maybe the feeling that there really is someone trying to kill me. I don't have any proof, it's just that…"

He snapped his finger, a frown showing that he was searching for the right word or a way to explain his feeling, before renouncing with a defeated sigh.

Aarch stretched.

"A bad feeling," repeated the zoan.

He went back to the letter, rereading the simple sentence on it.

"The style is impersonal. So no possibility to find the culprit through the style. The paper? Well, it's from a service of Marine Ford. Wait."

The griffin looked at it over the light and whistled.

"He really went through a lot to steal this one from Sengoku. We have the texture of the Big Boss' paper itself. Someone who has a message to send through, you're right. If I read between the lines… He tell you that he can have you without you seeing him."

"Someone twisted enough to send me threats taking Senny's paper?" repeated Garpin a dubious voice.

He could have though that it was Rayleigh, but they tolerated each other. To threaten him this way would be going against the accord he had with Roger's old first-mate. And most of all, why the hell a hibiscus? Or even to tell him in a letter. If he was after Garp for a reason, he could wait for him to come back to Foosha to tell him to his face.

"You don't have any idea? Because enemies, I have a lot of them, so, I'm swimming a little. This man isn't just anyone if he managed to get Senny's paper without us hearing about it."

Aarch was still staring at the hibiscus flower then his eyebrow twitched a little. His lion tail appeared, switching in worry.

"Garp… please tell me. You didn't mess with Bruno-sensei and his family?"

"You don't know? Bruno died ten years ago, after he fell sick because of the injury that got him to retire."

Why was he talking about the old Bruno to him? The poor man had given his life for the Marine and the Marine had thrown him away when he couldn't serve them anymore.

"Garp! I know that he's dead. But he had family! He had two nephew and niece. Portgas D. Rouge and Portgas D. Javier. Which of the two of them did you mess with?!"

Shit. It was the only thing in Garp's head at this instant. Yes, Rouge had told him that Bruno was her late uncle, but she had never told him that she had a brother. He passed his hand on his face. Bloody hell, everything was clear now. This «Javier» had probably learned about the dead in childbirth of his sister and was holding him responsible. Or something like that. Unless he knew that he was hiding the little Ace. In any case, he understood better the threat. But who was Javier to manage this wonder by a simple threat?

"You're sure that it is the Portgas?"

Aarch caught his face and said with exasperation.

"Oh the fool, he managed to fuck with the Portgas. And there is only Javier that could have managed this feat with the paper. The hibiscus is their way of saying «You will die painfully». It is a form of promise in the blood. A little like if I was telling you, myself, that I will spread your body-parts to the four winds."

"I see. So, this Javier is known. I'll look through his file. In the meantime…"

He took the letter back and ripped it apart meticulously before throwing it in the griffin's bin.

"Not a word about it, please. After all, who doesn't receive death threat in this job!"

Garp's smile rang false, but he didn't want anyone to search deeper in this case and for someone to discover the cause of Rouge's death and this way, Ace's identity.

"Garp, it's funny how you take me for an idiot. Sit down. Or, I will put my nose in the Portgas' file."

"Exactly, I'm going to put my nose in it. For once, this opponent sound a little promising without being one of the old one from Xebec or Roger's crew!"

"Bah, I'll call the hacienda. I should still have the number somewhere to avoid starting a war in the South Blue. We don't need that, after all."

He should really read through what was known about the Portgas if Aarch, who was the old student of the old Portgas D. Bruno, could say that if anything bad happened to them, it could lead to a war in the South Blue. Bruno wasn't nicknamed The Quiet One for nothing. If he talked, it was almost a miracle. See with Senny? No, his comrade already begrudge him enough for not intervening with Dragon's case or to not have thrown away Luffy the moment he had his guard. If he learned about Ace, it would be another thing entirely, more so if he had any knowledge that he was hiding reluctantly the Mei-Ô… in any case, Aarch wouldn't have anyone on the other side to answer him. Rouge seemed to be living alone at the hacienda, he doubted that Javier would go back, more so with the death of his sister.

He was going to pick the file of the man up since he seemed to be known, then go to the East Blue. Nothing showed that Javier wouldn't go after the kids to hurt him, so, he was going to warn Rayleigh.

.

.

Dawn Island, East Blue.

They waited a long time for this occasion. This perfect moment, to kill Garp on his birth island, in front of his own people, making him feel everything that Rouge must have felt in her last moments. And for this, Javier had done what he was good at. Take a role and embody it with all his heart. The role of a marine officer was something that he did regularly. With the clothes of a Vice-, he had left the Demonio hidden in a creak, then, he had taken the road of the jungle to reach the little village of Foosha. In any other circumstances, he wouldn't have let citizen be witnesses to violent acts that could traumatize them, but now, it was about revenge. It was about his little sister. A sister gone too soon which he couldn't grieve for yet. Once he would have brought to Garp the blow of Karma, he could begin to heal the wound that pulled at him permanently in his chest.

In the little village, he stopped.

It wasn't planned, that. His Haki wasn't perceiving one big source of power that matched Garp, but two. True, they were far apart, but if it came to a fight, Javier didn't want to be disrupted. He arranged the cap on his head hiding his face and straightened, walking down the path as if he really was a visiting marine. It was with an interest gaze that he noted that even if he was happily greeted, it was done a little nervously. A problem with the presence of an officer or Genkotsu no Garp had recently done something foolish that made the local life nervous in presence of the uniform?

"Officer, I didn't know that they send someone to see me. Who ask for me? Senny? Tsuru?"

"Sir, I have very bad news for you, I regret," the blond told him as he walked through the last of the distance.

Before Garp could react, he found himself with a machete against his throat. Since he was sitting on the ground, he was at the perfect height to be threatened by the poisoned blade of the pirate. And before the civil could move an ear, Javier's second hand had taken a gun out from under his coat.

"I am here for Monkey. To shoot on a civil isn't something that I particularly like to do, so, you shut up and stay where you are, sitting. I am here for this man, not for you. And it is something personal."

Garp watched the blade against his throat, then the man holding it, fearless.

So, Javier removed his cap of the Marine, unveiling his almond shape face with a large forehead and two blond strands falling in front of his eyes as they escaped the ponytail he wore. Two silvers killers eyes which illuminated the dark face with freckles. Behind the left ear, he had a red flower tattooed. A little one, true, but big enough to identify it as a hibiscus.

"Do I have to introduce myself?" asked coldly the blond staring straight into Garp's eyes.

"Javier, also called the Araña, actually the most wanted pirate in the South Blue," simply said Garp with a strange emotion in his voice.

"You know why I am here, right? So, tell me. Why my sister? Why did you kill her? What happened? She refused your advances, old enough to be our father, and you took umbrage enough to kill her right the next moment, because of your ego? Or then, you simply believed those shitty news about Gol D. Roger's descendant on our sea and you though that she was his lover?"

"Garp…" began the civil.

"Leave it, Woop. It is a misunderstanding," cut Garp without fear.

"A misunderstanding? I go back to my home to learn that my little sister is dead! And that you are the last one to have seen her alive!" got mad Javier. "Worse! You ran away like a thief before her body was found! Dare tell me that it doesn't show you as a culprit!"

"The appearances are against me, I admit…"

"No, really! Said the pirate, sarcastic. "Why Rouge?!"

"Rouge?" repeated the civil. "Isn't it…"

He didn't finish his sentence, but he was looking at Garp frowning.

"You don't know, I suppose" sighed wearily the marine.

"Know what? What are you plotting, Monkey?! I want to know why you killed my sister!"

"I didn't kill her. She died of exhaustion."

"REALLY?!"

"Let me show you something before you make the mistake of killing me. In remembrance of your old uncle Bruno."

"NO SE HABLA DE BRUNO!"

His gun, that he had diverted to remove his cap, was held up on the newcomer that was hiding under a gray wool cape with a large hood and who stopped his walk when he saw the weapon pointed at him. He was the one from which came the second strength of the island. A dark threat, cunning.

"I was just told that you needed help, Monkey," noted the unknown in a puzzled voice. "You are, however, strong enough to get out of this situation."

"This man is Portgas D. Javier," simply said the Marine like it explained everything.

In any way, it was like an electroshock to those witnessing the scene.

"Isn't He supposed to be the last one?!" Woop got annoyed.

"I though so too, until Javier here send me a threatening note."

"Oh, damn…" whispered the newcomer as if he was preparing himself for a headache.

He raised both his hands and left his hood fall, showing a face growing old with blond hair that were turning grey and a beard already grey. Javier knew this man, he had already seen his bounty. Bounty on which he had a wicked grin and malicious eye, when here, he had a serious face, and sad.

"Well well, if I was expecting to meet Silver Rayleigh himself when I came for revenge…" gritted Javier.

"And I think that it would have been an interesting meeting in any other circumstances," said Rayleigh. "I think, however, that you are missing an important information. A very important one that explained the sad death of your sister."

Javier's hand shook around his gun and it was only Garp's Haki that saved him from a poisoned cut by the machete on his throat.

Rayleigh turned partially toward the road and pointed the path out of the village with a gesture of his hand.

"If you don't like what I have to show you, I will help you to accomplish your revenge," assured Rayleigh. "But you are about to commit a mistake and we have explanations to give to you. So, follow us. It has been a long time since your rage has been boiling for nothing, I think it is time that it find it's true justification.

Javier brought his attention back on Garp.

"He won't run. If he came here, it was to warn me after your threat, capitán Portgas," informed Rayleigh. "He doesn't fear for his life, he is ready to go, he won't escape his punishment. He came to tell me to get to safety what your sister died to protect."

Javier hesitated, then with a gesture of his machete, he showed to Garp that he should get up. The weapon wasn't on his neck anymore, but at the level of his ribs. The message was clear. If they were misleading him, they would know.

"You're sure about what you are doing?" asked Woop.

"This situation is linked with a miscommunication," informed calmly Rayleigh. "My presence here, to the dismay of Monkey here, is the proof that Roger was ready to do anything for his security. If he had known about our actual visitor, he would have jumped on the occasion."

It was very rare when it happened, but at this moment, Javier felt like he was missing something important. He was the head of a very big information network, he knew too much to end up in the dark. It was for this reason, more than anything else, that he accepted to follow the unlikely duo that was Monkey the Marine and Silver the pirate. Retired, precised the ex-first mate of the King of Pirates. Strange thing, since Javier knew that he was courting an ex-Kuja. The logic would have wanted for him to stay close to the woman whom he was trying to bond with, not to lose himself in his birth sea.

The walked away from the village under the worried stares of the bystanders before Woop called out the curious men to explain to them what was happening.

The trio, on their side, walked for several minutes silently. Garp seemed bored and Rayleigh absolutely relaxed. Two reaction that didn't help Javier to know what he was about to walk into. Then, they reached a big peaceful house that must be regularly repaired if the presence of concrete not far from the entry were to be believed.

"Monkey, you can avoid your usual circus?!" asked Rayleigh as he put a hand on the handle of the door.

"I don't intend to make the situation any worse than it already is," assured Garp.

Ignoring the machete that had already cut his coat, the marine walked a little away from the big door clearly able to let pass the big stature of the officer. Clearly, the size of the house was though for inhabitant the size of Garp, if not taller, than for those smaller. Javier threw him a glare, but seeing as he didn't move further away, let it pass.

Then, Rayleigh opened one of the door leaf and put his head in the corridor behind.

"Ace? Come here a moment please, my boy."

"And Luffy?" asked a little voice further away.

When he heard the voice of a young child, Javier put his weapons away. His machete found back his sheath on his belt, full of poison. No way was he going to be violent with children close by.

"You feel able to hold him?" inquired the ex-pirate.

"YES!"

"You're careful and take your time, okay?"

"YESSS!"

"What does it mean" hissed Javier. "If I want to see children, I have my own daughter."

"Let him come."

Soon, with careful little steps, a brown haired little boy stepped forward with a duckling with black eyes. Duckling that Garp took carefully in his own arms.

"My grandson, Luffy. But it isn't for him that you are here," said simply Garp as he watched the two years old boy against him with a small smile.

Rayleigh stepped behind the little boy that had brought the young child.

"This is my godson. Say hello Ace. Javier is a very known pirate captain in the South Blue and he came to visit us for you."

"For me?" wondered the little one raising his head toward the old man.

"Yes, for you."

Then, the child turned toward Javier. An almond shape face with a large forehead and to ashen eyes circled with ebony cut by two dark strands. Freckles were scattered on a bony face with high cheekbones.

"Hello! I am Portgas D. Ace! I'm happy to meet you captain Javier!"

The boy who wasn't older than five politely bowed in front of Javier before sending him a big grin. A bright smile, blinding, which took the breath of the blond away. Then, the smile became a puzzled pout and the little one turned toward the others two adults pointing at the visitor.

"It look like we have the same eyes!"

"You don't point at others, Ace," gently reprimanded Rayleigh making him lower his arm.

The little one swallowed his lips hiding his hands behind his back.

"You have some black from your father, but the rest, it's like him, yes," confirmed wearily Garp.

The kid turned once more toward the pirate that looked like he had been struck by thunder.

"Why did you come from the South Blue for me, captain Javier?" asked the little one with a curious face.

With a little noise, Javier fell on his knee in front of the child.

He had believed it to be misplace paranoia, but in front of a physical proof, he didn't know what to think. More so since the proof was staring at him in such a way that reminded him so much his little sister when she was a child. With shaking hands, he took softly the child's face between his hands, taking in every details.

At the price of her life, at the price of hundred of innocent lives in the South Blue, Rouge had lived her life. She had loved. Was loved. And had taken the secret to her grave, even from her own brother. Doing so, she had done what they couldn't for Amelia. She had broken the circle. She had broken the chains which held her family.

To the price of her life, once again.

He took the forbidden child in his arm crying.

"You… you… you look so much like her…"

"I look like who?" asked Ace not understanding.

Javier tightened his hold on him as he cried all the grief and hate that he kept inside since the death of his sister. A dam had just broken inside of him to swipe everything, leaving him in front of the facts.

Rouge and Roger had a child. And this child was here, in front of him, in his arms.

"Why are you crying, captain?"