Chapter Text
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
Dragon winced as Ivonkov tightened his dressings, muttering angrily all the while.
“And vhy vhere you shot? You are supposed to be Dragon zhe untouchable! Vho could manage to hurt you?”
Dragon glowered at Ivonkov, making them laugh.
“Aahh, I almozt vorried that you vere a fake! Good to know itz you, Dragon.”
Dragon sighed, annoyed. “ The person who shot me..It was an… Old acquaintance.”
“On the subject, can you look into this…”
Dragon stared at the walls of Goa Kingdom. Tall, grey, crushing and authoritative.
‘Nobles’, those of ‘noble blood’.
Filth.
There was no humanity left behind those walls.
Dragon turned, his cloak swishing behind him as he began the path down back to the revolutions boat waiting for him.
He would stay in Goa searching for his son for the next two weeks.
That was the deadline he gave himself, until he had to give up.
Sometimes, the right thing was to do what is necessary, and pouring his time into finding one person was useless compared to saving hundreds.
If Luffy had survived this long without him, he was probably fine on his own. Monkey D’s were always ok with being alone, and if his son wasn’t, he probably wasn’t his.
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
Whitebeard leaned back in his chair, frowning in thought. Marco stood in front of his father with a newspaper, the other commanders gathered around them.
On the front page was Shanks’ raised bounty of 1,500,000,000 berries and threatening glare, a bold headline above his cold eyes.
“Red-Haired Shanks Sinks Marine Warships in Cold Blood!”
“Pops, what do you make of this?” Vista scratched his cheek, looking curiously at the smoothed paper in Marco’s hands.
“The brat must have a reason.. But I do not know what could have provoked him. Perhaps a marine knocked off his hat?” Whitebeard chuckled slightly, before his eyes hardened.
“But, it is curious that the red-haired brat decided to take a gamble on the new era now.” He reminisced, remembering the shock of seeing Shanks without an arm. “Maybe it’s time...” Whitebeard closed his eyes, his hand gripping his Murakumogiri absentmindedly.
Thatch looked curiously up at him. “Time for what, Pops?”
Whitebeard peered down at his children, the lines around his eyes crinkling.
“The era some old friends of mine waited for.”
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
Benn blinked his eyes open wearily, realizing he was laying down. The soft pillow beneath his head rising and falling slowly.
Benn raised himself slowly, peering down at the relaxed face of Shanks. His husband sleeping deeply, his arm circled around Benn’s lower back. Benn huffed, he didn’t need to guess that Shanks had gotten up when he fell asleep in his chair, and carried him back to the cot.
Really, at this point they’ll need to tie him to the cot next time.
Benn sat up straighter, pushing his hair out of his face as he looked out the porthole. The Ocean gentle and blue, rocking the Red Force like a babe in a crib gently.
Benn stretched, bringing his arms up. He moved to get out of bed, quietly slipping onto the creaking floorboards.
Shanks blinked his eyes wearily open, realizing his husband was missing. His stomach dropped, dread waking him like a bucket of cold water.
He scrambled upright, wincing as light pierced his eyes from the porthole, blinding him for a moment. He put his hand up, trying to block out the sun. His heart was erratic, his mind conjuring images of Beck, bloodied and chained next to Luffy, Beck dead with his head in front of Shanks on the cobbled streets of LoqueTown-
“Shanks.”
A gravelly voice sounded from right beside Shanks, making him tense, before a rough hand grasped his own.
“Beck.” Shanks gasped in relief, reaching for the blurry figure.
There, beside the cot, stood Benn. Hair still disheveled from sleep, his shirt wrinkled and his eyes heavy. He stepped closer to Shanks, cradling Shanks’ head in his rough hands. Shanks placed his own hand against Benn’s, his eyes fluttering closed. Benn was warm, alive.
“Damn.” Shanks said after a moment, making both men chuckle.
Ben breathed a sigh of relief. “You’ve slept for a while now, I think you should know the crew is worried.”
Shanks raised a brow, “Just ‘the crew’?”
Ben shook his head, mumbling something about raising two children instead of one. “I was worried too, you big baby.”
Shanks wiggled his eyebrows at Benn, who scoffed but didn’t let go.
They stayed there in silence, enjoying each other's warmth.
Shanks’ yawned, breaking the stillness by moving to stand. Benn silently let go of Shanks’ face, stepping back so Shanks could get up.
Shanks sighed. “I guess we need to do that meeting...”
Benn nodded.
Shanks groaned, dragging his hand down his face.
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
The room was dim, the only light coming from a lantern that swung gently above the table that was covered in maps.
The soft orange light cast onto the senior officers faces made the tense silence seem otherworldly.
Around the circle table were ten chairs surrounding, with each of the officers, Benn, and Shanks sitting in one.
Shanks shifted forward, the creak of his chair as he stood fell flat in the silence.
“When the Ocean knocked me out, She showed me something,” Shanks roughly ran his hand through his hair, beginning to pace. “She showed me Goa, I saw Luffy. I saw what happens because we’re too late.”
Bonk Punch leaned forward, frowning. “You mean that you saw the future, a prophecy?”
Shanks sighed, “If you want to dramatise it, yes.”
“Well, don’t leave us hanging.” Limejuice smiled tightly, “What did you see?”
“I saw-”
The Red Force was knocked to the side, the lantern swinging wildly, as if it were trying to jump away.
Thuds of boots above their heads turned from a steady beat to a thundering dance, the crashing of waves a symphony woven together with the sails.
No one moved, listening.
A surprise storm didn’t happen in paradise waters.
Shanks sighed again, more drawn out, taunt like a bowstring pulled. “I guess this is our answer, I can’t talk about it unless we want to capsize and the Ocean to drown us.”
Hongo leaned back. “Can you give us a vague answer?”
The storm quietened slightly, waiting.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Shanks tore his eyes away from the lantern, which swung in lazy arcs, casting them in light and harsh shadows.
“CP9 is involved, and they find Luffy. Goa is burned, and Luffy is-”
A wave slammed against the hull, quietening Shanks again.
The group stayed in silence for a moment, the creaking of their home their only comfort, processing every detail and implication.
“Well,” Gab whispered, his voice carried in the stillness, “This ain’t gonna be pretty…”
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
Luffy tore through the forest, chasing after a bird. He laughed, clambering messily over a log, not taking his eyes off of the colorful animal.
He tumbled over the other side of the fallen tree, springing up and bounding forward, stumbling on top of boulders, running into mud pits, and slipping through vines. The bird trilled above him, its beautiful feathers glinting in the light cast through the trees. Catch me if you can! It taunted, its musical voice fluttering through Luffy’s ears, soothing.
Luffy laughed again, delighted in their game of hunt. The bird turned to swoop down towards him, letting him reach his hand out and caress its wings as it passed over his head.
It trilled again, tucking its wings close to its body and diving, disappearing over a ledge.
Luffy stumbled, looking around. He hadn’t realized they had come to a cliff.
The Ocean crested over sharp rocks standing like a funeral procession, the Marine warship standing ominously dark against the bright Ocean. Luffy scratched his scar, looking at the giant ship that dwarfed the other ships docked. In another situation, he would have thought it cool.
The Wind whispered of another person coming up the cliff, making Luffy look over his shoulder, spotting a man wearing a white shirt and pants, with a matching white hat.
He stopped, panting, straightening and stretching. “D-damn, this fucking island is nuts..” He stopped muttering when he caught sight of Luffy, his face changing smoothly into a rehearsed surprise. “Hey kid, where are your parents? It’s not safe here.” He put his hands to his hips, his gasps for air slowing.
Luffy started to pick his nose, uninterested in the man. “They're not here right now.”
The man raised an eyebrow, walking closer. “O-kay.. Well what’s your name, mister?”
Luffy looked away from the Nothing-Guy, trying to peer over the cliff to see if he could spot the sparkly bird.
“Woah, let's get away from that ledge, huh little man?” The Nothing-Guy said, waving his hands at shoulder level, showing his empty palms.
Luffy huffed, annoyed at the Nothing-Guy’s interruption to his great day. “I’m not little! I’m seven!!”
The man shrugged, inching closer as if he were trying to grab Luffy without letting him get away.
Luffy glowered at the Nothing-Guy, crossing his arms, tense. He was, maybe for the first time, uncomfortable. The Ocean behind him was silent and tense, waiting for a move to justify dragging this man under the waves.
“Hey, what’s your name kid?” He repeated, an arm's length away from Luffy.
Luffy stayed silent, bowing his head and looking at the man from between his fringes. He didn’t like this man, he felt slimy.
The man carefully reached a hand out, reaching for Luffy’s shoulder. Luffy raised his hackles, stepping back. The man stopped again, staring at Luffy intently. His face was smooth, gone was the gentle concern he had held.
“Boy. Come.” His voice was flat, the soft tilt to it gone, like a switch flipped when Luffy refused to answer. He beckoned with his finger, as one does a dog, expecting him to comply.
Luffy clutched his arms, tensing, willing himself not to fight. He promised Sabo not to go fight anyone without them, because he ‘attracted trouble’.
He shook his head. “Don’ wanna.”
His face darkened, raising his hand again, making Luffy’s gut coil tighter in fear.
They stayed staring at each other unmoving, the world around them quieting.
The man's hand shot forward faster than Luffy could track, and suddenly he was upside down.
The world rushed past his ears as the Sky became the ground and the green grass was above his head. Luffy began to struggle, his pinned arms useless against the Nothing-Guys solid iron grip.
“Monkey D. Luffy, you are under arrest by the Marines for defiance against the World Government. Do not resist.” The cold voice of the Nothing-Guy drifted over Luffy’s head, blaring alarm bells.
Luffy snarled, clawing at the arms holding him. He bit down hard into the flesh closest to his mouth, a cry of pain escaping the bastard's mouth. Luffy was dropped, bouncing onto the ground forcefully, air punched out of him.
Luffy sprung up, crouching lowly to the ground and gripping the grass below him. The man shook his arm, the bite wound deep and flowing blood at a steady pace. He swore, unclipping the rifle from his back. “Damn pest!” His voice carried over Luffy’s head.
Luffy lunged, bringing his fist down to connect with the man’s injured arm, making him scream, bones breaking like brittle sticks under Luffy’s hand. He stumbled away from Luffy, his arm limp beside him, the rifle steady in his other hand.
The man brought the blunt end of the rifle down to Luffy’s head but he moved out of the way before it could hit him.
Time seemed to slow as the man raised the rifle, Luffy stuck close to him as he wrenched his arm back, trying to jump away, but the man’s broken arm shot forward, grabbing his foot and making him hit the ground under her.
He towered over him, the rifle clicked, pressed to Luffy’s forehead. He was breathing heavily, staring in hatred at Luffy, who was staring back at him.
“You know,” he began. “If your bastardly father hadn’t started a damn revolution, my mother would still be alive. Because of your devil father’s corrupt ideas of freedom, my own mother joined them and died!”
Luffy struggled to move out of the way, but his foot came down heavily onto Luffy’s chest, forcing him down. He wheezed, not having fun anymore. He wanted Ace, he wanted Sabo, he wanted to go run around again.
“Die, Monkey D. Luffy!”
Luffy snarled, thrashing. He batted away the rifle end away from him like his Da taught him to, the loud crack made his ears ring, an explosion of dirt sounded right beside his head, and he twisted away from the man, wrenching his foot out of his trembling grip.
Luffy turned towards him, striking out and hitting him square in the knee, making him buckle. The man grabbed Luffy again, slicing his arm with a knife he produced from the inside of his boot. Luffy cried out, adrenaline shooting through him like thunder.
The rifle met his stomach, and before he could react, he pulled the trigger.
A scream pierced the air, red blood coating the grass around them. Luffy seized, hands gripping his stomach, curling into himself.
A boot came down hard onto the bullet wound, the man grinding his heel down. Luffy screamed again, pure feral rage and pain.
A sharp screech reverberated in the air, a flurry of colorful feathers and a deadly beak attacked the Nothing-Guy, making him scream.
Luffy sobbed, the world around him blurry and loud, multiple voices of outrage overlapping.
‘SKYLING-!’
‘My child-!’
‘HOW DARE HE?!’
‘BELOVED! GET UP!’
Noises blended together until all he felt and heard was static.
Luffy stared off the cliff, the Sky was dark with storm clouds, the sounds around him quietening behind a buzzing in his ears. The burning pain in his stomach turning from sharp to nearly invisible, his eyelids growing heavier with every second that passed.
He blinked slowly, and a flash of red crossed his vision, landing with a muffled thump across from him. His eyes focused, and landed on whatever was in front of him blocking the view of the Ocean.
The bloodied face of Nothing-Guy was staring lifelessly into his eyes, blood splattering half of him, with his body disappearing into blurriness. His lifeless eyes burned into his, accusing.
Luffy blearily blinked again, some lazy tears sliding down his cheeks, before falling into unconsciousness.
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
Ace was walking with Sabo towards the bandits hut, looking for their idiotic brother. Luffy had gone off to chase some bird, and they were left in the dust.
Mogra came out of the hut, and when he spotted them he frowned.
“Where’s Luffy?”
Ace shrugged, hands deep in his pockets. “Ran off. He’ll come back sooner or later.”
Mogra’s face shifted to worry. “You best keep him close and stay in the jungle, yeah?”
Sabo tilted his head. “Why?”
Mogra opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a sharp screech echoed above them. The three of them looked up, spotting a bird circling overhead holding something in its beak. It swooped down lower, letting them see what it was holding.
Ace felt his stomach drop, seeing the familiar yellow and red of Luffy’s straw hat. Sabo made an angry noise beside him, knowing that Luffy treasured that hat as much as he treasured them. It was dirty, as if it had been dropped. The bird circled back up, flapping its colorful wings in powerful strokes, flying deeper into the forest.
Ace listened hard, but no screams of outrage followed the appearance of the bird, no flying rubber fists and crybaby tears of anger.
Where was Luffy?
Before Ace could realize what they were doing, he and Sabo tore after the bird.
Mogra’s already distant shout echoed through the forest, but fell on deaf ears.
They ran for what seemed eternity, following the screeches of the bird and rare flashes of colorful erratic feathers.
Eventually they burst from the foliage, breaking onto a hill. The sound of a fight came from higher, and the bird flew up, cresting over to where the sound came from. The twins glanced at each other, uneasy, before following. As they lumbered up the hill, they heard the pained grunts from two people, one higher pitched than the other. Alarm started to set in, and Sabo looked around cautiously, in case there was an ambush.
A voice, heavy with exhaustion but fueled with hate came from the now quietened fight.“You know,” the man began. “If your bastardly father hadn’t started a damn revolution,” Ace and Sabo shared a glance, alarmed. “My mother would still be alive. Because of your devil father’s corrupt ideas of freedom, my own mother joined them and died!” The sound of struggling became more frantic, more disorganized. Sabo and Ace renewed their struggle up the hill, the wind hard and darkening clouds overhead the beginnings of a harsh storm.
The sound of something heavy hitting flesh broke the frenzied fight. A wheeze was forced out, and more heavy hits were exchanged. Sabo and Ace froze, almost turning back. This wasn’t their fight, and they had to go find Luffy. They probably didn’t want to involve themselves in this and endanger Luffy.
They were about to turn back around to try and find the bird again, to find Luffy. But before they could make it anywhere away from the top, the bird dove into their path, dropping the straw hat and crying out in distress, diving down to latch onto their clothes and drag them up the hill. They frowned, Ace grabbing Luffy’s hat from the ground and dusting it, while Sabo batted away the bird.
“Get away!” Ace hissed at the bird, making it squawk, hitting Sabo in the face with its wing. Ace was about to grab the bird, when a gunshot tore through the air.
Ace and Sabo dropped, pressing themselves to the slope. The bird flew up higher and out of reach. They listened in, the quiet in the air unnaturally loud after the shot. A familiar voice cried out in pain, making Ace’s stomach drop.
Luffy.
A second shot cracked through the air, and Luffy screamed.
Ace and Sabo had never heard Luffy scream this way, raw, feral, with rage.
The thud of a boot landing onto flesh was drowned out by a second scream from Luffy.
Sabo and Ace raced up the hill, fury and terror pumping through their bodies. They crested the hill, and the scene in front of them made them pale.
A marine stood above Luffy, a rifle aimed at his abdomen. Blood covered a radius of grass around Luffy, who was curled inwards away from the man, shaking. The man had his foot pressed against Luffy, making him gasp. Luffy sobbed, trying to free himself, writhing in pain.
Ace lunged, his vision narrowing into the man above his little brother-
The bird that had led them there shrieked, diving in, clawing and pecking and ripping into the man, making him grunt in pain.
Ace followed, his pipe connecting with the bastard's head, making him collapse like a marionette loose from its strings. The bird flew away, beak covered in the bastard's vile blood. Sabo bashed him away from Luffy before he could crush him. Ace swung his pipe behind his head, arching back before swinging with all his force down onto the bitchs’ skull, making a wet thunk and splattering blood onto their clothes. Sabo grabbed the man by his shirt, who was still trying to crawl away. Sabo yanked him back up, smashing his pipe to his chest, making him sputter up flecks of spit and blood. He heaved, his eyes darting around unseeingly. He grasped at his head, blood pouring and coating the three of them. Sabo snarled, grabbing the man by the chin, making him focus his eyes to Sabo’s own.
“Fuck.” Sabo spat in the bastard's face. “You.”
Ace’s face was twisted in absolute fury, yanking the man back to him, grabbing the man by his throat and squeezing. The wheeze that escaped the man was wet, blood trickling from his mouth.
Sabo tore his eyes away from the deadman, stumbling to Luffy’s side.
Luffy was shivering, as if cold, and his tightly coiled body was pressed to the ground, blood still warm on the ground around him. Footprints decorated his shirt, stained red.
Sabo gingerly touched Luffy’s face, half hidden into his torso. Luffy drew in a shuddering breath, shaking like a death rattle in his chest. The unsteady breathing made the hair on the back of Sabo’s neck stand on end, his hands sweaty as he readjusted Luffy to his side.
Sabo was engrossed in checking Luffy over, fear clawing at his throat, making him stay on his knees beside his brother. Trying desperately to find that his eyes deceived him and that Luffy was just asleep. The sticky, warm blood that clung to his palm away from Luffy’s body told otherwise.
A thud broke Sabo from his trance, and he looked up to see the bastard fall to the ground in front of him and Luffy.
Sabo stared at the man's face, and the marine seemed as if to stare at Luffy, and Sabo clutched Luffy’s shirt in his fist, horrified at the hate leveled gaze looking at his little brother.
A small sniffle sounded from below him, and Sabo whipped his face down to look at Luffy, who was staring in terror at the dead body.
A tear rolled down the side of his face.
Then four more dollops followed, streaking a path on his bloodied, dirtied face.
Luffy’s eyes fluttered shut, his coiled body going limp.
“Shit!” Ace was on his knees in a second, making Sabo jump. Ace fell beside Luffy and heaved him up into his arms, stumbling into a run to the jungle, away from the cliff.
Sabo shook his head aggressively, trying to clear a path in his head through the fear, following his brothers into the jungle and to safety.
I—--------------------------------------------------------I
Somewhere near Foosha village, unknowing of the tragedies unfurling, a boat was docking in a remote spot away from the marine infested waters, loading off its cargo of a violence prone old man.
“Bwahahahah! Nice to be back home! I hope I’ll see some of you new recruits in my training regime!"
I—--------------------------------------------------------I