Hello Friends! Here's a scene I found in my files from a much earlier version of The Siren. This is from back when I was planning on having Addie join the Whitebeard Pirates and take over as the first division commander (making Marco the first mate officially). But obviously this scene is NEVER going to be used in the Siren proper, even if I get this far in canon which is a big IF. Anyways I still think it is still a pretty interesting interaction and didn't want it to go to waste.

Heavy warnings for discussion of past sexual assault/ childhood assault.

Nothing graphic or shocking (if you've read The Siren) but if you haven't read through Reforged then maybe skip this drabble.

New World, Moby Dick

Pops, Marco, the rest of the commanders were all sitting around the table in the conference room that held no purpose other than for meetings like this one. Every seat was taken except for the one directly across the table from me. And I could not stop staring at it. On a normal day Thatch would be taking full advantage of the fact that he sat across the table from me by trying to distract me while we were having a meeting, which always resulted in Marco snapping at him for not paying attention and me getting annoyed at him. But now I wished that my idiot brother was sitting in his spot and that he was busy drawing stupid things to show me or throwing little balls of paper at me. I wished with every fiber of my being that this was a normal meeting and that the last few days had never happened. But instead of the calm organization that usually accompanied these meetings everyone was arguing with each other over who would be the one to hunt down Teach. I didn't involve myself in the arguments and instead just stared at Thatch's empty seat. After a few more minutes of listening to the arguments I finally had had enough and decided to speak up.

"I am going to be the one to kill Teach." While I spoke in a quiet voice, everyone in the room stopped arguing to listen to me as I was the only one who hadn't spoken since the meeting had been called.

"Air you know that we need you here to help run the Moby and fill in for whoever leaves." Marco said in a dismissive way before looking to once again begin mediating the argument between Vista and Namur who had been arguing over the table.

"You misunderstand me Marco I AM going to be the one to kill Teach. After all, the only reason that I have dedicated the last 12 years of my life to gaining strength has been to kill this one man. I am not asking you for permission. I am telling you what I will be doing. I am going to kill Marshall D. Teach and you will not stand in my way." I said while staring Marco in the eye. The silence that washed over the room was oppressive, everyone that had been speaking immediately stopped and stared at me. No one dared to speak while Marco and I continued to stare at each other. It was Pops who finally broke the silence.

"What are you saying Ariadne?" At this I broke eye contact only to stare at Pops with my expressionless face.

"I am saying that I have spent every moment of every day of the last 15 years waiting for the time that I would be able to kill that man." While I said this my face stayed completely blank. I could feel everyone else in the room staring at me. Pops thought about what I had said for a moment before he replied with one simple word.

"Why?"

"I have my reasons." While I was well aware of the fact that this answer would not satisfy him I was not at all prepared to share my darkest secret with both my captain as well as the rest of my fellow commanders. Hell, Ace didn't even know why I wanted Teach dead so badly. As I had suspected Pops was not happy with my answer.

"Explain."

"I'd rather not."

"I don't care. You do not get to say things like what you just did and not provide an explanation."

"Trust me when I say that you do not need or want to know my reasons."

"Bullshit. What I want is to know why you are so hell bent on killing someone who until a few days ago was a loyal member of this crew."

"Oh yes he was quite loyal wasn't he? And that is precisely why I do not wish to waste my breath explaining my reasons for wanting him dead. Why does it even matter? The whole point of this meeting was to decide who will get to kill him anyways wasn't it? Why do my reasons matter when the result is the same?" I could feel my expressionless mask was beginning to break at this point. I had hidden what Teach had done to me from everyone in my life for the last 15 years, and now I was going to be forced to tell so many people every grisly detail.

"Why does his loyalty have anything to do with you wanting to kill him? You need to start talking Ariadne. Now." I could tell that Pops was beginning to get angry with me which only made my mask crack faster until I felt myself snap.

"You want me to talk? Fine but know that you are the one who demanded to know this. You want to know why I want to kill Teach? It's quite simple really. He has always been a disgusting bastard and I am well aware of the fact that I am a beautiful woman. I am also aware of the fact that I have always been quite pretty, that is something that Teach has also always been aware of. You want me to talk so I will tell you all how he used to take me down to the deck 1 cargo hold and force me to watch things that no 10 year old should ever see. How he used to force me to-"

"Stop." I ignored Pops and continued to speak

"He used to force me to undress so that he could touch me in ways that no child should be touched. He would do things to me that even brothel workers refuse to do. He-"

"STOP!" This time Pops not only yelled but also sent out a wave of haki that forced me into silence. Pops was staring at the table while breathing heavily. His breathing was the only sound being made in the room. Everyone was silent until Ace finally spoke up from his spot next to me.

"You never told me who it was."

"What?"

"You told me that you were abused as a child but you never told me who it was that did it."

"It didn't matter.'

"No you didn't want me to start a war. You knew that I would immediately try to kill him and so you didn't tell me. Shit, this is why you were so against me challenging Pops all those years ago isn't it." I didn't respond to this, instead I just stared at him. "Of course, you knew. You knew that I would lose and what that would mean for our crew. You knew that we would be taken in by them and you didn't want to come back here."

"No, she was always planning to come back regardless of what Teach did when she was an apprentice with us. You said so when you left to travel on your own." This time it was Marco who spoke up. I could hear in his voice that he didn't believe what I had just said. I looked down at my hands on my lap before I replied to him.

"I did say that I would come back. But I never intended to honor that." I said in a small voice. This was all quickly becoming too much for me to handle and I could feel my walls beginning to crumble. But I knew that there would be no escape from this conversation until absolutely everything was out in the open.

"How could I? Every time I saw one of you in the paper or saw your jolly roger I was suddenly back in that room. Every time that I hear waves crash against the hull of a ship I hear his sick laughter in my head. Every time I smell a damp musty scent I can feel his hands on my skin. So tell me after living with the memories of the hell that I was put through on this ship, why would I want to come back?" After saying this I lifted my head and looked at the people who were seated around me. That had a variety of expressions on their faces ranging from total disbelief to complete horror.

"NO. No, if that was happening why didn't you tell me? Or Thatch? Hell anyone!"

"Tell you? That's funny. Tell me, if I had come up to you as a 10 year old little girl who you had only known for a few weeks and told you this would have believed me? No you would have believed the man who had been a loyal member of your crew for decades. Even now you can't believe what I am telling you even though I have been a division commander for 7 years. And tell Thatch? I tried, and Teach nearly killed me. What option did I have other than to run and never look back?" I could see that this was the final piece of information that Pops needed to understand what I was saying as well as my reasons for what I had done. Marco however still had one more question.

"How many times did he do that to you?" Marco asked while avoiding eye contact.

"I stopped counting after the first year." I told him honestly.

:((((((((( My sweet baby girl. I just wanna give her a hug T.T but don't worry! She has a MUCH better situation now! My girl belongs with the Red Hairs and with people who respect her!